Im looking to have a new website made, and really, just want a few good honest opinions of what makes a great webhosting company website.

I just want examples of what you all think is a great site, so I can get ideas ect.

I dont want quotes, and please move this if its in the wrong section.

Easy, simple and to the point... and don't forget: References..

NO sound, NO modes...

What do you mean references?

Moved to Web Design and Content.

A great Web hosting company Web site does a superior job of converting visitors into customers, gives visitors reasons to be repeat visitors and is utilized properly as a tool within the context of a comprehensive marketing strategy.

There are a million different ways you can create content and functionality that play to these objectives, and there are a million different ways you can make it look pretty, but the fundamentals are right there^^.

I would wager less than 1% of Web hosting sites are made with measurable goals in mind.

Thanks for the feedback

mike, first of all , when i look for host, apart from reading WHT opinions, i look at the website ( i design and program myself too so those are things that i find mandatory for a website success) . most important aspects for me are:

1. functionality : if the navigation is easy, is everything easy to find ( a very important thing ), i dont like cliking in 30 places just to see the pricing.

2. dont put those silly customer recommendations (testimonials), most hosts have that on their main page and i never even bother to read, a better way is to have forum with REAL customers posting on it. This is something that i personally read carefully and study.

3. When you list your plans features dont write " we have Mysql" etc., everyone has that, but i want to know WHICH version, the same for php (DONT write we have php5, write "we have php5.2" - its a big difference for a person like me) and postgresql. I want DETAILS, but serious ones, those that actually matter, for user or developer - im reading your site to find those. Not some 1000 features that everyone lists and no one uses them or its obvious to have them.

there is some strange trend to have "forum-centric" websites, i personally dislike it, but its only a matter of taste.

try to build a website ( if you have the opportunity ) to have 1 system with everything incorporated, forum , billing, support etc. i hate when i have to login to 5 places at once .

Also i think there should be some personal touch to the graphics , not 1 million more template with shiny server graphics on it , i dont remember whis site whas whos. Make your site unique and worth to remember . Try to make your site really unique, dont copy others ideas, its not so hard as it may seem.

Dont try to have "WEB2.0" (whatever that means anyway), website style, if you dont have a good idea how it should look like, most of those so called web2.0 designs are just poor ( typography fails, breaks in various browsers, looks empty and not finished ), it really takes time and skill to have something that makes you really go "WOW" and be "web2.0", anyways its about AJAX and not the look of the website so i find "web2.0" design advertising very funny ;-).

4. put your uptime stats in a very easy to find place, possibly index page if you can, first thing i visit your site i want to see these, then the plans, then your forums maybe, to see how much users you have, so i can estimate if you have any income and dont disappear with my sites after first month.

oh... and is there someone that actually watches thos big flash animations and intros in websites headers ? i think its a waste of money in case of webhost.

5. final TYPOGRAPHY - font size, justing, line height its IMPORTANT, if i het tired when i start to read website - its bad.

1 more thing.. any webhost that pust any advertising to their sites ( google etc.) , should get a kick in their balls for being dumb ;-)

Wow, ergo said it best. All hosting companies should follow this along with most business sites of any kind.

Tips especially important to hosting companies:

Keeps the flash and other media off the site - I am NOT visiting your site for entertainment purposes - I am shopping for a service. Every item in your design should serve a purpose - if it doesn't, get rid of it!!

Keep away from stock photos - I get so tired of seeing the same fricken people on everyone's websites. Do something original. Use graphics besides your logo to compliment it, not overpower the message. I visit so many sites which have nothing but graphics above the fold, and that's on 19" LCD's at 1280x1024. I am assuming most people looking for hosting are a bit tech savvy and are running resolutions of 1024+, but have you looked at your site in different resolutions?

Also, those large graphics are slowing down your sites response time as visitors are clicking from page to page. This can very well be misinterpreted as you have slow servers and/or connections in the datacenter.

As ergo stated, watch what fonts to use. Really, do you need anything other than verdana, arial, sans-serif? Again, this is a business site, which most importantly convey your message with text (which should be easy to read). I see a lot of sites that render completely different in say IE, FF, and Opera- let alone cross platform. Run your sites through http://validator.w3.org/ and http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/. If they pass on those, you have solved probably 99% of the browser's idiosyncrasies.

A nice clean tastefully done website with clear navigation, complete and well organized content, and has that "snappy" feel when browsing through it will take you much further than stock-photos, large graphics/media, and "sales-letter" type pitches.

Wow, ergo said it best. thanks mate , and if customers would actually listen to what i have to say ( they always know better :o ) i would be a happy man.


I see a lot of sites that render completely different in say IE, FF, and Opera- let alone cross platform. Run your sites through http://validator.w3.org/ and http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/. If they pass on those, you have solved probably 99% of the browser's idiosyncrasies. Well, what do you expect when everyone wants to pay 50$ for quality work, and they get scared when they hear something closer to 500 ( and its cheap IMO ) :). they go to 15 year old who does it for 50$ and theyre happy thet they got very cheap , usless work that has to be corrected anyways.

A nice clean tastefully done website with clear navigation, complete and well organized content, and has that "snappy" feel when browsing through it will take you much further than stock-photos, large graphics/media, and "sales-letter" type pitches. thats the point - but it take some deeper understanding how things work, what should go where, etc. ( how human brain perceives and prioritizes things it sees - how to take advantage of it), but i would argue if stock photos are the problem -, just dont use fingers, ppl and servers stock photos ;) and you will be ok. And i bet you are expecting everything for as low as 500$ ;-) its always /quality/price problem.

Yep, people don't want to pay. Good web developers and good hosting companies have a lot in common - their best customers have been raked over the coals a couple times. They have figured out that quality is going to cost and if they want it - they will have to pay for it. If people want to spend $500 for a design they may as well go to template monster and then pay $500 to someone to unravel the spaghetti coding of HTML/CSS…hehe

A good "original" design with clean HTML/CSS coding will cost you much more. I stated "original", because I have seen many "outsourced" jobs simply rip-off existing sites and deliver them. Don’t expect people that do not live in third-world countries to work for third-world wages. And, for the most part - don't even expect people that live in third world countries to work for those wages, they normally short-cut it by replication ;)

Thankfully I am out of the business of dealing with and educating clients for the most part. I have my own sites that pay well enough for me to make a decent living. I still do some development work, but 90% of it is for other developers.

good point ;-), i think we cleared everything on the subject ;-) sorry for poor english

Wow thanks to everyone for the help,ecspecially ergo, I will definatly follow his advice. Ill show you the results in the future.

good luck with your new website mike

Sure, you need to use valid markup. In fact, I don't even bother saying this anymore. If you're not writing valid markup, you're not writing HTML. Web pages are made up of HTML (or an XML variant), and that's what you should write. But that's a very minor point. Attention to WAI Web Content Accessibility Guidelines is of much more importance, because it forces you to write semantically valid markup, which is necessary for widest audience accessibility, search engine friendliness, and in some countries, must be taken into account just to be legal!

But we're looking at a whole lot of subjective things here. "Don't use Flash." Ok, for the most part, I agree (that's just my own taste)! But there are sites that use it very effectively, and they'll point out the reasons it works so well. Same thing with the nebulous "Web 2.0" look, or forum-based sites, or sources of stock photography (FWIW, even the largest corporations in the world use stock photography on sites and literature regularly - it's a matter of choosing your sources and actual images wisely!). Everyone has their opinions; in the end end, opinions are what they are. Definitely take them into account! People's opinions are very worthwhile! Don't make the mistake of thinking they are gospel.

In the end, focus on making decisions that support business goals. Ergo touched on ease of navigation. This doesn't simply mean putting links in places they'll be found easily. It might mean consciously guiding visitors through your site, encouraging them to click along a certain path using visual clues and appropriate content to get them from point 'A' (your home page) to point 'Z' (the final page of an order form, perhaps).

Define audience segments. It's ok to say "I'm trying to sell to everyone," but all audience members don't fit into the "everyone" category. Think about ways to appeal to different market segments, like corporate hosting clients, personal/start-up hosters, audience members with differing levels of technical knowledge, visitors with specific hosting needs, etc.

Look for ways to build functionality into your site that benefits the end user. Ergo touched on this as well with his example regarding tying in all support mechanisms to a single login point/scheme. Consider creating configurators to help people choose the right hosting package (or create a custom package). Look for ways to make it easy for visitors to reach you, and convenient for you give quick and accurate information (both sales and support). You could spend hours brainstorming ways to make the visitor experience more meaningful, but the fact that you're using this mindset means you're doing something right.

Do testing throughout the course of creating your site. Test it on others. Show people layout ideas and take suggestions. Test how your site functions for visitors as you're coding/programming it. The earlier you catch mistakes or see an opportunity to make an improvement, the easier it is to implement.

Finally, there is no perfect formula for creating a Web site. Don't fall into the trap of thinking you need to sort this out in order to create a site successfully. Do your homework - figure out what's going to work best for your visitors and ultimately for you!

ok.

Here is my inputs on considering the DESIGN specifications:

1) Colors : use lot of white.
2) Graphics: Use pictures of human people and servers.
3) Flash: No intro's. Use headers in a way that are not annoying i.e which communicates the message and its stylish.

Some examples I like for your references:

1)Colors: webhostingunleashed.com
2)Flash: hostway.com
3) Graphics: brontobytes.com

I think everyone hit on the basics really well. Here's just a couple of things in my experience which might be useful.

1. Don't shop on price alone. I know everyone wants a website for $50 but it can take a professional designer on average of close to a week to build a typical site. And I know very few people who could live on $50 a week. A budget of at least $500 - $1000 seems reasonable for most projects.

2. Shop around. Ask to see portfolios, ask how their development process works. As someone who subcontracts from advertising agencies, consulting firms and so on I can say that many places don't even do web design in house. They ship the projects out to people like me. The less expensive places might even outsource overseas.

3. Find out what their niche is. I focus on small business / brochure style sites, ecommerce and light programming. Other places might focus on custom programming solutions and won't even have a designer on staff. Bigger shops do it all.

Most everything else (Flash, AJAX, design style, etc.) is subjective.