This module is all about the different products and services that Fasthosts offer and what they each do and mean.
Domain Names
Fasthosts have over a million domains registered, We sell domain names ranging from the typical .co.uk, .com, .org and .net to the more unique ones such as .bar, .fish, .cloud and many others. There are hundreds of different extensions, the end bit of the domain name, and there are constantly more being added and approved.
What is a Domain Name?
A domain name is a string of letters and numbers that are used to name organisations, computers and addresses into Human readable language. It’s the unique name that appears after the @ sign in email addresses, and after www. in web addresses
The Domain Hierarchy
Web Hosting
Fasthosts sell three different shared hosting packages that all run on the same servers. These packages are, Ignite, momentum and Ultimate. The ignite package allows you to just host one website whereas Momentum allows you to have 3 different sites and Ultimate allows you to have space for 100 sites. Fasthosts also sells specific space for WordPress which will have performance more suited for hosting WordPress Websites. There are also feature add-ons like boost and performance hosting that increase the performance of shared hosting.
Website Builder
The Website Builder is a simple tool that is used to create websites for those who don’t have much technical knowledge or hasn’t ever built a site before and wants to keep it simple. On the Website builder you can choose the a theme that will show how your site will look like and can easily drop and drag the different content you want in the site very easily, no coding is required to build this site. Fasthosts offers two versions of the Website builder and they are the essentials and complete. The Essentials version allows the customer to get a Free domain registration for the site they want to make, 5 mail extra 2GB mailboxes, A free SSL certificate, Maximum of 10 pages to create on the site. Whereas on the Complete Version you get as well a free domain registration, Free SSL certificate but you get unlimited pages, SEO tools, a 50GB Exchange 2019 mailbox and ecommerce function including PayPal integration for payments.
eCommerce Builder
The eCommerce builder is a separate platform that offers a more in depth way to create an online shop. Whilst the Web Builder complete allows you to build a website with a shop included, the eCommerce builder is just the shop section. It replaces the store on the complete Website builder and is added as a widget. The eCommerce builder has a lot more functions than the Web Builder and the end product is more in line with what a online reseller would be.
Emails
Fasthosts offers a range of different email packages but they do have the basic starter mailboxes ideal for the customer that possibly isn’t planning on using the email for much but still needs one for a contact on their site they have just set up. The standard email package is an entry level package that is at a low cost. The mailboxes you can get are either 2 mailboxes that are 2GB in size and 5 that are 100mb in size. So the customer can add multiple emails on one Standard email package. These mailboxes are all basic IMAP/POP mailboxes with mailbox access and the ability to set up on other devices and clients . IMAP and POP connectivity means the mailboxes can be set up on clients such as outlook or mobile phones/tablets.
Microsoft Exchange
The next type of mailbox that Fasthosts offer is the Exchange 2019 mailboxes, this are more ideal for the business class emails. the different sizes of mailboxes that Fasthosts offer are 50GB and 100GB, these mailboxes are a lot bigger in size compared to the standard email packages. These mailboxes come with Exchange active sync, this is more for business users or those on the go , the exchange mailboxes make it easier to sync between different devices. They are built on the Microsoft Exchange Platform and running the exchange server, the mailboxes are one of the most reliable email solutions around.
Microsoft 365
Along side an Exchange like mailbox, Microsoft 365 provides access to the full Office suite of applications, Like Word, Excel, Teams, OneDrive, Outlook and PowerPoint to name a few. With the Office 365 business premium, customers have access to the full downloadable and web versions of the Office Suite. Customers have the ability to create “pure forwarders”- an email address that’s sole purpose is to forward to another email address, it does not have an inbox.
Servers
Fasthosts sells different types of servers for customers to host their sites and emails on. Customers can purchase multiple of the servers and the support 2 different OS, Windows and Linux..
Dedicated Servers
Dedicated servers are powerful, single tenant machines that customer effectively rent from Fasthosts. Fasthosts build the machine, install the Operating system the customer selects and then puts it on the racks. These then can be accessed remotely with using KVM or RDP. These servers are self managed so would require the customer to have a decent amount of technical knowledge if they are wanting to have a dedicated server.
Cloud and Virtual Private servers
Cloud and VPS machines act similarly but unlike dedicated servers they are not physical machines. Meaning if a component was to fail on a Cloud server anything hosted on the server would not go down as they would just move onto the next working component. Whereas on a dedicated server if something was to fail the entire server would go down in turn bringing anything that is hosted on them down with it. Cloud servers are Saleable- meaning you can add and take away resources when needed, without being tied into a contract. Cloud servers are charged based on usage not a set monthly fee.
Online Marketing Suite
The online marketing suite are 4 tools to help a business to be found online. These tools include:
Marketing Radar- get visibility about a business reputation online, how it is ranking on search engines, what key words are working and what are people saying about the business. Can also compare competitors.
Listing Manager – is a digital marketing tool aimed at small- to- medium businesses. It provides an all – in- one panel that helps businesses get their sites into the local and national search databases, such as google and facebook.
Ads Manager – Helps businesses to create and manage Google Ads campaigns- the paid ads that show at the top of google search results. Using search engine marketing (SEM). Ads manager will help to generate Ads so the customer making it hassle-free to create them.
SEO Manager – Analyses the customer’s website and offers suggestions and tools to improve Search engine Optimisation. SEO manager will recommend keywords based on site content and picks out the competitors also using those keywords.