When you are still new to web hosting, you’ll find out that your cPanel is something that may consume a lot of your time. With sever settings, FTP accounts, and domain names, it can be daunting.
You need to figure your way out and knowwhen to update user settings, manage your domains, set up email accounts, and backups.
You must immerse yourself in the dirty side of things and set up everything correctly before your turn to the friendlier front-end side of your website. As you gain experience, you startfamiliarizing yourself with various cPanel patterns and behaviors.
After some time, you become an expert website owner armed with knowledge of best cPanel practices, and you can make better decisions.
However, many people learn this the hard way. So, are you still new to cPanel?Here are some of the common mistakes that you need to avoid.
Mistake #1: Setting Everything Up Under a Single FTP Account or Database
When you start setting up your site in cPanel, you will have the option to set up FTP accounts and databases. Whenever you perform either of these tasks, you may want to set up something small and more specific.
It is never a good idea to use one database for all of your websites. If you have multiple domains that you manage under the same Canadian free web hosting account, it is always a good idea to set up separate databases for each site.
When you have several databases to work with, it becomes easier to adjust things when needed. More important,it serves as mitigation against risk.
If you hire an external developer to work on your website, it is safer to give him/her FTP access to a single directory (or site) other than your entire cPanel account.
In case things don’t work out for both of you, you lower the risk of the developer doing something stupid that may have far-reaching implications.
Mistake #2: Forwarding Your Emails
Many people out there use their websites for business purposes. When you start a company, you may try to save on costs by using the default Gmail or Yahoo email provider instead of setting up a branded personalized address tied to your domain name.
For instance, you may be forced to create something like contactcompanyname@gmail.com as opposed to contact@companydomain.com.
Generally, this is not a good practice from a business branding perspective. When you use a Gmail or any other personal email for your business, it makes you look less legitimate to your customers.
For branding purposes, it is always good to use an email account that ends with your domain name.
Things become even worse when you create such an email in Gmail and then set up forwarding through your cPanel. Modern spammers are no longer interested in your credit card information.
Instead, they use insecure email forwarders to steal the identities of your customers which could be costly to your business.
Mistake #3: Going Overboard with Subdomains
Today, most web hosting plans support an unlimited number of domains, and many people tend to take advantage of that to create multiple websites under the same hosting plan.
Typically, cPanel supports three types of domains, namely; your primary domain, add-on domains, and sub-domains.
If you want to make your life easier, avoid using sub-domains unless it is necessary. Sub-domains can do a lot of terrible things for your search engine optimization and tend to affect your long-term flexibility.
If you must set up a sub-domain in your cPanel, consider setting it up as an add-on domain and treat it as a completely different site.
