That's according to research by - surprise, surprise - a web hosting company.

A report by Fasthosts Internet reckons customers often avoid businesses that use free web hosts because they appear disreputable.

That's because they don't have their own domain name and appear at the end of the host's - which also makes the website address difficult to remember.

Fasthosts' Andrew Michael said:

"With so many online scams being reported, it's no wonder Internet users are are getting increasingly wary about buying from companies through websites. Yet it amazes me that so many businesses don't have their own domain name or web space - they are inadvertently helping their competitors!"

Small bandwidths, pop-up adverts and a complex or even insecure e-commerce systems were other problems identified by the report.