With your website hosting account you have many tools using which you cam mange your website easily just using few clicks. Your hosting provider will offer you control panel using which you can play with your server/hosting account. Also if you have good knowledge of hosting then you also have a file called .htaccess using which you can easily set different setting for your website. Its very important file which should be used in extreme cases and should be used if required. Make sure not all web host offer direct access to this file hence you should check with your web host about its accessibility.

Inside your web hosting space, the .htaccess file usually sits inside your root directory, such as “/public_html/” and has more than a few good uses. You might already have a .htaccess file in your root directory. If so, all you need to do is edit that one. Just remember that if it is in your root directory, that it will affect all folders and documents inside that directory. If you want to over ride that, then you will have to make a new .htaccess file inside the directory in question.

For an example, if you want what is in the .htaccess file to affect everything but your “photos” folder then you would have to create a new .htaccess file inside your “photos” folder.

How can you create one? Well, depending on the FTP program you are using it should be as easy as creating a new document, then renaming it .htaccess. Note that it has nothing coming before the dot. If you have anything in front of the dot, then it will not be read by the web hosting server as a .htaccess file. The server will not know what to do with it.

If you want to create the file on your computer first, you should be able to right-click your desktop and select “New” then “Text Document”. Then right-click that document on your desktop and go to “Rename”. Type in the new name as “.htaccess”. Some programs might put the .txt extension on it automatically. All you have to do is go in to rename it again, and take that part off.

Another thing to remember is if you are creating the file on your own computer or uploading it from your own computer, make sure you are uploading it in ASCII mode, not binary. Most FTP programs do a pretty good job at auto-detecting how it should be uploaded, but if you run into a problem that is the first place I would check.

Also, .htaccess files can only be created on a Linux based server running Apache. If you are not sure if you fall into that category login to your control panel your Web host provided you and snoop around in there. If you are still not sure, feel free to ask your Web host. That is what they are there for! You may need to CHMOD the htaccess file to 644 so the sever can execute the commands inside it.

Now you know how to create an empty .htaccess file. Now it is time to start filling it up with some easy to learn and useful commands. Think of each line you put into the .htaccess file as a command for the web hosting server to do something. Here is an example of what I mean. Think of this as the content of your .htaccess file:

• Take out the trash
• Clean the sink
• Mow the yard
• Rake the leaves

Each are short commands you might do during your own day. A .htaccess file is much like giving the web hosting server a to do list. Most commands in the .htaccess file are suppose to be on one line only. This is just the way that the server reads the information.

Another warning you might take in consideration is the ability to use the .htaccess file at all. Some Web hosts have banned it or banned it for certain uses because it causes stress and strain on the web hosting server itself. Make sure you read through your Web host’s frequently asked questions and acceptable use policy before moving forward. If they have something against it, then it should be in one of those two places.

Posted under Webhosting

The real benefit of hosting a blog and maintaining it has been a quick way to spread your business across the internet audiences. It has been proved by the search engine marketing specialists and bloggers in the past few years that a blog can benefits your website or business in very effective ways.

When you decide to host a blog on your website, the first question that comes up is where to setup a blog on your own website or separately. Each one has its own advantages that will help your website.

Where to Host Your Blog on Own Website or Separately?

There are two ways you can host your blog, either by creating an account on the blog platforms like Blogger or WordPress or simply installing your own blog software on your own website. Hosting a blog as a sub-domain of your own website looks like a professional approach and often preferred by those who want to boost their website ranking on search engines using blog as a tool.

Search engine ranking benefits

Setting up the blog in as a sub-domain on your existing website also benefits to your websites search engine ranking. Any new content that is added to your blog will be treated as new content part of your main website. Every new blog posts that you create are easily and quickly indexed than regular web pages. It thus helps promote better indexing and visibility of your main website, if the blog is hosted on the same domain name.

Backlinks benefits

If you spend some time and efforts on writing quality contents on your blog, you can easily attract the quality backlinks using those articles. If you host your blog on your main domain then all back-links will benefit your main domain. If your blog is on an external domain then back-links will not be directly passed on to your main website. However, you will still get the benefits if you are able to pull the PR and links from your separately hosted blog to your main website by cross linking. But, in order to get benefits via cross linking from your externally hosted blog it will need to be successful.

Brand targeting for business owners

Some business company’s or website owners can choose to start a blog on a completely new domain name. This can help if you wish to differentiate between the branding of your website and that of your blog. If the blog you are setting up is not directly related to the content on your main website, then you may not wish to combine the two on the same domain name.

If you wish to target on enforcing a collective brand for your company rather than creating a new brand for your blog, installing a blog as a part of your main website will help. If a blog is installed in a sub folder of your existing website, the blog URL will include your primary domain name in the address bar and appear as a cohesive entity.

Technical resources

If you are setting up a blog on your main website or domain name, you will require a certain level of technical skills in order to install the blog and add the database. If you are starting a blog using one of the free blog platforms then no software installation is required and a blog can be set up in a few easy steps.

Cost benefits

Another common reason for setting up an external blog outside of your main company website is the possibility for using one of the many available free online blog hosting services such as Blogger or Word Press. Most leading social networking websites such as Facebook also allow users to set up their own blog using their website platform. These services are usually free whereas setting up a blog on your main website or private domain name will require web hosting space and technical infrastructure.

So, decide your own where to host your blog, if it’s similar to your website and hosting it to boost your search engine rankings then definitely host it as a sub-domain of your own website.

Posted under Blogging, Search Engine Marketing (SEM), Search Engine Optimization