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Personally i feel that people (not us) don't understand you don't need the www. part of the website URL.  So do to social engineering I would leave that part in.

The only pros and cons that i could think of is if you don't specify the specific version.  You should also do 301 redirect in addition simply because not everyone uses google to search for website.

This site has been this way for like a year and she pays for hosting.

I agree with you entirely.  Good answer.

She is paying for "website" hosting.  Apparently Funktion Designs also does SEO.  How could a company view this as acceptable.

A family friend asked me to take a look at her website.

www.designsbymaida.com

First thing i noticed is what seemed a 301 redirect or a forward to

http://funktionaldesignstudios.com/dbm-old/

So her site is hosted with what it looks like, in his site(funktonaldesigns).  What does this means in terms of how google sees her site and in terms of SEO.

My thought is that he is boosting his domain name.  He is getting the link juice.

Thanks for the insight and help.

If only their were performance graphs to show these results.  To have the fastes results their are many factors the come into play that you the consumer may not be able to find out.

1.  What tier data center is the server in?
2.  What type of infastructure has the data center invested in?
3.  Is the server oversold/bandwidth oversold?
4.   What type of hardware is being used in the server?
5.  What type of RAID system is being used?

As you can see lots of variables can account for slower or faster page load times.  For these exact reason I have launched a company Quality Hosting Inc.  to use top of the line equipment and internet providers.  I don't like dealing with so many unknown factors in hosting companies.  But in terms of major hosting companies I used hostgator before and it was ok.

Why not host on both platforms?

I agree that internal hosting can be more custom not direct traffic away from your site once the clip is over.

Is their a way for the you tube videos to point towards your site?

Wordpress operates on PHP.  If someone wants to hack or website, it is the hosting companies job to limit them but its your job to make sure all of your passwords are considered strong passwords

First thing i would recommend is to make sure all passwords to any admin area are changed.

Read the article Gyi suggested http://codex.wordpress.org/Hardening_WordPress

For these reasons I have recently launched my own web hosting company because I want to offer the most secure environment for my customers.

If you need any help or have any questions with your wordpress securing, PM me and I would be happy to assist you.