Yahoo! Web Hosting Review

Posted on February 19, 2008
Filed Under large web hosting companies, Yahoo! Web Hosting, business web hosting, webhosting reviews, web hosting deals, web hosting review, web hosting company |

Yahoo! has recently changed their web hosting program, and in my opinion, the change has not been for the better. In fact, it actually caused me to consider not including them as one of my reviews. I actually removed them from my list of top hosts, and the reason is that they now violate one of my prime rules, offering “unlimited” disk space, data transfer and email storage, plus “virtually unlimited” databases. The main reason I still included them, is that in the fine print, they admit that “unlimited” really doesn’t mean unlimited. Basically, like every other unlimited web hosting account I’ve come across, you can only use space and bandwidth up to a certain pre-set limit that their matrix computes, you just don’t know what those limits are. Here it is in their own words;

” What do “unlimited disk space, data transfer, and email storage” mean?

It’s pretty straightforward: Customers who use Yahoo! Web Hosting appropriately have access to unlimited disk space, data transfer, and email storage.
What is appropriate usage?
Yahoo! Web Hosting is designed to serve the web hosting needs of small, independently owned and operated businesses in the United States. It is not intended to support the greater web hosting needs of large enterprises or internationally based businesses.

Yahoo! Web Hosting is also a shared web hosting service, which means a number of customers’ web sites are hosted from the same server. To ensure that Yahoo! Web Hosting is reliable and available for the greatest number of users, a customer’s web site usage cannot adversely affect the performance of other customers’ sites.

Additionally, the purpose of Yahoo! Web Hosting is to host web sites, not store data. Using an account primarily as an online storage space for archiving electronic files is prohibited.
So what does “unlimited” mean, really?
Disk space:You can now create as large a site as you like (you won’t face an upper limit, or “ceiling”), but we will place some constraints on how fast you can grow. In other words, you can add as much content as you want, but maybe not all at once. The vast majority of our customers’ sites grow at rates well within our rules, however, and will not be impacted by this constraint.

Data transfer:In most cases, if you use our service appropriately, visitors to your web site will be able to download and view as much content from your site as they like. However, in certain circumstances, our server processing power, server memory, or anti-abuse controls could limit downloads from your site.

You can also upload as much as content as you like each month, subject only to the rules that control how fast your site can grow (see above).

Email storage:Unlimited email storage gives normal email account users like yourself an opportunity to not have to worry about hitting a storage limit. You can save your correspondence and never worry about having to delete older messages to make room for more.

However, the purpose of unlimited storage isn’t to provide an online storage warehouse. Usage that suggests this approach gets flagged by Yahoo! Business Email’s anti-abuse controls.”

They do offer other business plans for a much higher rate that include both online shopping carts, credit card payment processing, and other features not included in this unlimited account. Here are the important basics for the current Yahoo! web hosting offering.

• Host one domain name
• Free domain name, with hosting
• 24/7 email and toll free phone support
• Getting Started guide, Help Center & Video Tutorials
• Unix based servers
• “unlimited” web space
• “unlimited” data transfer
• “unlimited” email storage
• 1,000 email accounts
• “Virtually unlimited” databases
• Online site builder
• One click blogs, forums, guestbooks, Yahoo! maps and PayPal payment processing
• Automatic submission to Yahoo! Search and Google
• $150 in PPC advertising credits
• Cost - $11.95 a month, billed $35.85 every three months

The base price for their more advanced web hosting programs, with an online shopping cart and payment processing start at $39.95 a month, and up.

There are only one or two reasons I would recommend this web hosting package to anyone. First, their reliability is very good, with 99.9% up-time. The major reason to consider it at all, however, is the free submission to Yahoo! search and Google. But, the fact is, you can accomplish getting listed in both simply by using another web hosts free submission software to submit to a group of search engines and directories that take free submissions. Next, write and submit an article or two to several article directories, and a press release announcing your new website to a free press release site. Wait a week or 10 days to establish some backlinks, and then sign up for Google Adwords & Yahoo! Sponsored Search, and spend a couple of bucks at each. You’ll be indexed in both Yahoo! and Google (and probably MSN) within a short time, usually less than a week.

All in all, the lack of certain important tools, the ability to only host one domain, the uncertainty of how much space and bandwidth “unlimited” really is, combined with the slightly high price (and the big jump in price to move to a better account), would make this deal the last on my list. But if you’d like to check it out further, you can go here to find out more, The Web Hosting Package from Yahoo!

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