Google Web Hosting for small business – In Hyderabad, India, our office gets regular inquiries about moving website to Google Web Hosting. Customers are facing issues with traditional hosts – especially the virus attacks on sites and subsequent virus and malaware warning by Google for visitors. Since such warning is issued by Google they tend to think that Google Web Hosting will be more safe and secure. They normally mistake Google Apps and Google Sites for Google Web Hosting and ask for Google Web Hosting Free and Google Web Hosting Plans to our sales staff.
Google Web Hosting – what is it?
Google Web Hosting is actually loosely used term for Google Sites. What was earlier Google Pages (pages.google.com) has now been moved to Google Sites (sites.google.com). Web hosting on Google Sites offers users create web pages using a simple easy to use interface which are hosted with Google. Google Sites is a standard component of Google Apps and you can call it as Google Apps Web Hosting.
Google web hosting page or Google Site allows you to create rich web pages and has features to easily collate all information in one place, control who can view and edit your site. Google Sites is easy to use and can be considered a good web hosting alternative if you want to host very simple web page and you do not mind Google copyright at the bottom.
Google Web Hosting – Drawbacks for hosting corporate sites at Google Sites Web Hosting
The main drawback is limited capability of Google Sites Web Hosting. Basically Google Web Hosting using Google Sites is not like a traditional web hosting where you can upload your website. You have to use the tools provided by Google Sites to create and manage the site. It does not supports PHP or ASP pages or you can not upload HTMPL pages. There is no Google Web Hosting FTP tool for your to upload your site pages. You can however write HTML code – but the capability is limited. So essentially you can use it for information sharing websites.
The other drawback is the copyright and other links at the bottom of the pages which appears on all the pages. This is one of the main reasons why companies do not use it for any corporate sites or public facing web pages.
Transferring website to Google Apps Web Hosting?
It is not possible to directly transfer your website to Google Web Hosting / Google Apps. You need to use Google Sites to re-create your website in Google Apps.
If you have an existing web site that you have setup independently (html, php, asp or CMS based) it will not be possible to transfer it directly to Google Apps. Google doesn’t allow you to upload files directly for web hosting. You will essentially have to recreate your web pages from your control panel using Google Sites.
If not Google Web Hosting – then what?
If you want to move your hosting to another provider due to service, security and reliability issues – you can consider our managed hosting plans. We take complete responsibility of your hosting and website. We offer both linux and windows hosting and have very cost effective plans. We recommend not to save few hundred bucks and opt for a cheap local host when you can go for a managed hosting.
Your websites’ search engine ranking also depends on the host that you have. If you are licated at a host where your neighbours are hosting malaware and virus – you will also be ranked lower.
If you want to know more about Google Web Hosting and alternative Web Hosting options for your website you can reach us at the details provided in contact us page of this website.
