BlogGalaxy
News and information from the heart of RedGalaxy UK - the web specialists
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There’s been plenty of blogging going on in the last week - has Google penalised GoCompare again? Haven’t they?
It would seem really unlucky for Google to dish out yet another ban - a colleague of mine pointed out a day or two ago they’ve recently redesigned their main site.
I conducted a little research - they still rank #1 for their brand name “GoCompare”, however that famous search term “car insurance” sees them on page 2. Considering the severity of the penalty over a year ago, it’s looking more and more likely that the site redesign (and restructure) is actually the cause of the drop. Looks like my colleague could be right?
There’s certainly nothing about a penalty on Search Engine Land…
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Buzz
If you’ve visited uk.ask.com this week you may have noticed the reintroduction of an old friend - yes that’s right, it’s Jeeves! Ask removed Jeeves from their brand in 2006, and after several rebrands since the UK version of the search engine has a face again!
Their question of the day is “Why am I back?” - apparently “back to help“!
When it comes to your website, however big or small, you need at least these two things:
- A reliable hosting company
- A good domain registrar or registry agency
EasySpace is both a hosting company and a registrar, among other things. However, my recent experience with them is short of pleasant, and their customer service “skills” leave me wondering how they ever got their registrar status with Nominet and ICANN.
Bad service
I currently manage two web servers, twelve websites and over 300 domains for a large UK company. Up until four months ago the domains were scattered among several domain registrars, and I was asked to consolidate them into one easy-to-manage account. Not a difficult task, albeit time consuming! When I reached the EasySpace accounts, it was a major stumbling block - it took four weeks to get an initial response from a customer representative! Once this had been established, they were keen to help me keep my account with them but seemed to place every obstacle in my path to stop me transferring away from them.
Fair enough, they don’t want to lose customers. Frankly though, email responses with “Transfer key: ######” (that was it, by the way), and unnecessarily obnoxious telephone manner is a sure way to drive anybody away! In a world where customer service means more than just taking renewal payments, I was actually offended by the service I received. Well, if you could call it service?
Knowledge is power, if you have it…
The other problem I have with them is their knowledge. There seems to be a worrying lack of substance when it comes to knowing what their customers are talking about. For example, I was told that I was “making the transfer process more complex than it actually is”. Really? Guys, you’re the only domain company I’ve ever dealt with thus far who make you call for a transfer licence key! Then there was the heart-stopper comment “I’m sorry, I don’t know what OpenSRS is.” Sure, those who don’t do much in the way of website domains may be excused for not knowing, but OpenSRS is a fairly major company in the domain industry. There was some other ridiculous spin about how I didn’t need two transfer keys and that I was the first customer they’ve ever had who has had a big problem transferring a domain. Let alone the fact I’ve transferred, registered and dealt with over 500 of the things in the last year…
Their hosting abilities are just as worrying - a distant memory of website accounts being cut off because the bill wasn’t paid - because EasySpace didn’t notify the account holders. See the pattern here?
There are alternatives!
We avoid EasySpace for all of the above reasons; our hosting is done through Fasthosts and eUKHost for dedicated and VPS containers, and put our own domain registrations through the system ourselves. When looking for somewhere to host your website, it really is important to find a decent hosting company - if your website is down, so is your business!
If you’re looking for reliable hosting or domain services and don’t fancy shelling out a large wodge of cash for a dedicated server to host your website on, why not get in touch? We offer competitively-priced website hosting and domain services, and can work to your requirements.
Cyber-criminals could turn out the lights in America
The Conficker virus “failed” to deliver a suspected payload on April Fools Day, Microsoft claims 97% of emails sent are spam and cyber-criminals could make the lights go out in America.
US government officials admitted that software had been “left behind” - presumably over upgrades and system changes. Should a hacker gain access to the software, they may be able to shut down the entire US power grid! The hilarious thing is that the US Homeland Security Secretary admits [they] have known about the vunerability for years! Makes me wonder what the IT guys over there have been getting up to?
While most of us don’t work for the US power grid, we still use computers in our daily lives and so it’s just as important to keep your computer safe against viruses! I recommend AVG Anti-virus - it’s a very good package and you can download a free copy of AVG here.
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