Control Panel Features
As you can see, the control panels is one of the most important features that comes along with quality web hosting. Administrative power and the results of your website can be enhanced or limited depending on the strength of the control panel. When looking into the capability of a control panel, here are a few of the important features a user should look out for:
Spam Regulation - Let us begin with an area that goes hand and hand with the security of your website - spam protection. We all want to operate in a peaceful environment but that just isn’t reality. This also holds true on the internet. Users must be aware that there are numerous intruders constantly roaming the web looking to advertise their products and others with more harmful intent. If your email address is posted somewhere on the web, please believe that one of these spiders will find it and commence to liter it with spam.
Knowing the inevitable trends of the web, several hosts now offer spam filtering software to regulate a user’s inbox. To be honest, many individuals that fall into the category of spammers have good will with their annoying messages. In many cases this may be a decent person that actually has a very marketable product they wish to promote. The bad part is that they are going at it all wrong. If this sounds similar to your plan then you need to be forewarned. Several web host providers have strict rules about sending out spam on their servers. Finding a host that does not monitor this sort of activity is nearly impossible. My advice is to design a quality website with captivating content and do your best to market it.
Web Statistic Programs
This next area we will cover is very attractive to the webmaster who wants access to every little detail. Though terribly underrated, the statistics of your website are a very vital to its lifeline. I am not referring to uptime so much as I am to keeping a steady flow of traffic and returning clients.
Here are just a few of the many benefits that come along with having a quality web statistic program built into your control panel:
- Users will be able to find out exactly who visited their website. This can be done by viewing the visitor’s IP address to get a good idea of where they are located
- Users will know what pages the visitor viewed on the website
- Users will know where the visitor came from and how they stumbled upon the website. You will know if they were referred from another site or if they found it through resources like a search engine
- Users will also know the estimated time of a visitor’s stay on the website
When studying your control panel, you will learn that there is an exclusive terminology that comes along with most web stat applications. If you do not know what these features mean, having them can seem pointless. Below we have compiled a mini-glossary to help become more familiar with the common terms of web statistics:
Visits - This shows a user the total number of visits that pertain to a certain time period. This could end up being one thousand visits per day from a single web surfer.
Unique Visits - Unique Visits differ from the typical surfer in this category. If a single visitor mentioned above came to your site one thousand times in a single day then it would only calculate to one in the Unique Visits area.
Page Views - This will display the number of times the pages of your website have been viewed. Uniqueness is ignored in this category.
Hits - Every request to the server qualifies as a hit. Here is a perfect example: If a web page contains 10 images on it, there will be 10 hits or more per view of that page.
Bookmarks - This area refers to visitors who were linked to your site through a bookmark stored in their “favorites”.
Direct Address - This area refers to visitors who were linked to your site by manually tying the URL into a browser bar.
Referrer and Referral URL - This category displays the URL of which a visitor trailed a link that brought them to your site. This is a great tool for checking up on affiliates and learning just who kept their word and created a link back to your site.
Common Web Stat Applications
Control panels on the market today come with many different programs. The cPanel actually comes with several of them. These web stat applications range from basic features to thorough functions strong enough to manage high powered corporations. Here are some the most popular programs that should be able to meet many of your needs on a basic and business scale:
Webalizer - You are sure to find this with many web hosting control panels. Webalizer is quite common yet very exceptional in the way of function. This program displays numerical data and attractive graphics. It details action on hourly, daily, weekly, and monthly time frames. Users may also stay up to date with high ranking referrers and learn the most popular keywords visitors used to find the site.
AWStats - This program goes beyond the functions of Webalizer with an interface that appeals to professional users. Some of the features include the statistics for unique visitors, enhanced search engine evaluation, accurate duration of visits and much more. AWStats happens be one of the best applications that can be used for web statistics.
Urchin - The last program we will cover has very attractive features but is a bit on the steep side. Try an average licensing fee of around one thousand dollars! This comes at the expensive of the web host who will certainly tack on a few extra bucks for the service. This very capable web stat program is more geared for successful companies who have their budget intact.
Other Notable Control Panel Features
A quality control panel will give a user complete authority over their website. Here a few more features that can help boost the rating of a web hosting service:
Account Information - Users have easy access to account information. In this area contact info can be updated such as passwords used to login into the control panel.
Domain Manager - This is a very handy function that eliminates the need of surfing the net for a domain name. Many web hosts come available with a domain manager that is found within the control panel. In this section you can actually purchase a domain name from the web host, renew a domain and also edit and register it on their DNS server.
Site Support - We stressed the importance of selecting a web host that offers solid support. Information on contacting the help team is located in the control panel of your server. This is where you will find an email address for a representative or a support ticket to address any questions or concerns you may have about the service.
Network Status - This area of the control panel will identify issues concerning your network. If you are enduring performance issues with your website, this is the place to go. There is a great chance that you will find the problems listed there.
FTP Control - Here you will be able to manage all of your FTP accounts to ensure that your files are transferred correctly. A quality control panel allows you to modify an FTP login screen and also eliminate sessions.
Site Tools - This is the section that needs to be the most extensive. Site tools for your control panels should include the following:
- Site protectors such as the .htaccess file
- The ability to install and remove FrontPage extensions
- The ability to change FrontPage passwords
- The ability to create custom error pages and handle redirects
- The ability to edit MIME Types
- The ability to support and modify Apache handlers
- A search engine submission tool to enhance the ranking of your website
Advanced Tools - These are the essentials that not only enhance the appearance of your website but keep it secure as well. The control panel of a good web host should come with access to an SSH server and permit users to manage PGP keys.
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