Without web hosting, your website can never reach the outside world. Hosting is the essential link between your website and the internet, but can often become a baffling and confusing annoyance.

If you’re like me, being forced to read a list of technical specifications and jargon is a better cure for insomnia than a mallet to the skull. But sometimes, choosing the right hosting package can involve making important business decisions based on information it seems you need a year at night school to fully understand.

Wouldn’t it be nice to understand what it was you were paying for? Wouldn’t you feel more confident knowing how each figure and each impenetrable word benefited your business?

This guide may not answer all your questions, but should at least provide a window into the world of web hosting.

Do you know how your website looks in Safari? What about on a small laptop screen? Do you hope to target customers surfing your website on their mobile phone?

With so many browser applications, platforms and monitor sizes now in use, the modern web designer is constantly challenged to design sites that appear correctly in all situations.

Everyone has their own preferences of browser, monitor and platform. But the choices are continuing to expand, meaning more considerations and more innovation.

With approximately one in four Australian businesses registered with NetRegistry, the networking potential is huge. NetRegistry’s new online forum gives you the chance to swap advice, network and learn from each other.

With 85% of NetRegistry customers coming from small businesses with less than five employees, most will not have professional online marketing staff on their payroll. As websites are being run by very busy business owners in need of quick answers and best practice advice, the NetRegistry forum puts you in touch with thousands of similar people from all industries.

There comes a time in the life of any website when you should step back and look objectively at whether it still achieves the goals you originally had for it.

Successful businesses can have many websites over the years and understand that the costs of rebuilding from scratch are often less than the incidental expenses and losses caused by an inefficient site.

People choose to overhaul their website for many reasons, but if any of the following five scenarios apply to you, your current website could be doing your business more harm than good.

Links work in exactly the same way. Apart from the obvious traffic flow from providing as many ‘roads’ leading to your website as possible, the search engines calculate these links in determining the reputation and ranking of your website in their search results.