Non Profit Web Hosting & Domain Name
I decided to write my first post for those of you who are about to start your online adventure as a non profit organization or an NGO. I thought I’ll share some experience about choosing the right non profit web hosting & domain name.
Non Profit Web Hosting
The most important thing to understand about hosting is that it should be in the country you target. If your audience live in Germany dont get your hosting in the US. Google gives priority in search results for sites that are hosted in the same contry that the person searching is located in.
another critical thing to understand about web hosting is that it should have strong servers and a good online support. A site that isnt available 99.9% of the time can loss some points in the eyes of Google and Google would probably be your main source of traffic.
If you have a good technichal team you can take any hosting you want but if you you aren’t that tech savvy its better to take a hosting with Fantastico which is an application that builds websites for you in less than 1 minute.
If people ask me I usually recommend Hostagator.com – they have a great support and Fantastico. If you it doesnt work for you or you dont know how to handle the Hostgator interface – just send me an email and I’ll be glad to help or contact their online support.
Choosing a domain name
If you are a big organization and you have a strong brand name or plan to build a strong brand name soon then it would be wise to get a domain with your brand name. You should get the .com as well as the .org. Most organizations assume that Com is only for companies and they get the org or the net but com is and always been the strongest extension.
If you dont have a strong brand and you dont have the money to build one soon – you should get your brand name domain but build your current site on a Com extension domain name that includes the main keywords that the people who donate you money or your voluntaries are searching for.
If you dont know how to determine what keywords would be best for you – see my post on keyword research.
There are many good domain companies, just stay away from GoDaddy since their support is very bad.
Dont linger too long – take an action and get your organization online and the sooner the better.