Related Podcast Link: Listen to Episode 116!
Google loves webmasters, and I proved that last weeks with out guide to Google Analytics. Have you tried Google’s specific tools for webmasters though? If you have not you might be missing out on a lot of good information on and about your web site.
Why Do I Need the Webmaster Tools?
By using this series and set of tools you can see all kinds of information about what keywords are bringing people in from Google, the Google crawl rate, the last time your page was indexed plus around two dozen more cool tools and interesting resources. If your a webmaster who hasn’t done this your missing out on a free set of very helpful tools right from the folks at Google.
Create and Submit Your Site Map
To see what I am talking about visit the Google Webmaster Tools web site. Here you can submit your site map to Google so that have a better and easier way of crawling your information. It never hurts to give Google everything it needs, so best to play nice with them if you want to see yourself in the search results for your favorite keywords.
There are a number of tools out there to help you learn about how to create this special sitemap for Google to index. Here are just a few suggestions to help you get started:
Also if you are using a content management program (like Joomla, WordPress and others) you might be able to find a plugin that does all the hard work for you and spits out the sitemap.xml file for you.
Once the sitemap has been generated, go in and submit your domain too the Google Webmaster Tools page and then go to the Sitemap tab and then click “Add a Sitemap”.
Verify You Own Your Web Site
After you get your domain and your site map in the system then you must verify that you are the owner of the web site. You can do this either by adding some code to your index’s header information or by uploading a file with a funny name. I would say go with the second one as it is the easiest one to do.
Create your file with the funny name on your desktop, upload it to your “public_html” folder and then check to make sure it is there. Then you can go back to the Google Webmaster Tools web site and tell Google to check for verification. Once they do you are all set!
Finding out who you share your web hosting space with, if you are on a shared hosting plan can sometimes be a good thing.
You know what a search engine is. They can either be your best friend or your most hated enemy. I’ll teach you how to play nice with them and get them to work for you instead of the other way around on this week’s episode of the Web Hosting Show.
What is one of the best free solutions for tracking statistical information on your web site? Personally I like Google Analytics. It has just as many tracking and stats options as any of the expensive big boys out there but it is totally free for anybody to use. Free plus good equals a winner in my book.
“Where’s a good web site our source where I can get more information about my SEO rankings and get advice on how to make it higher? 
There is no doubt out there that everybody and their grandmother hates popup ads. They are annoying little problems that come up on some of the web sites you visit every day. Most modern day browsers have popup blocking enabled.
You can use the service without feeling the need to register, but if you do sign up you can keep track of your uploads, view statistics of each file, add and edit captions to your uploaded data, create folders, and more. With the 
Push Your Host to PHP 5
Related Podcast Link: Listen to Episode 115!
It is time for the masses to look ahead in PHP support and development and move towards using PHP 5. Now I am not alone in my opinion – it seems that is the growing opinion of the masses out there. So what is the hold up all about then? Well, there is some PHP 4 support dropped with PHP 5.
Since it might break some PHP 4 web applications out there, not everybody is in a hurry to upgrade from PHP 4 to PHP 5. That much is understandable. I think if we really want to see a change we are going to have to push the web application developers to think ahead – and not the web hosts.
One good place to check out to read more about “fighting the good fight” for PHP 5 is GoPHP5.org.
Here is a ‘bit of information from their mission statement on the front page.
If you want to learn more about the debate, I would suggest checking out GoPHP5.org for yourself. While your there, if you are looking for a web host that supports PHP 5.2 or greater – check out their ever growing list of choices you have out there.