SSL Certificates Explained – Everything You Need to Know for Your Website
What Is an SSL Certificate?
An SSL (Secure Socket Layer) certificate provides a method of encrypting data as it travels across the Internet to ensure the information cannot be intercepted for malicious purposes.
You can tell if a website has an SSL certificate by looking at the address bar of your browser. If the website has an SSL certificate, the URL in your address bar will begin with HTTPS, not HTTP. That extra “s” stands for “secure.” Most browsers will also show a “Lock” icon indicating that the connection is encrypted.
Do I Need an SSL Certificate?
You definitely need an SSL certificate if you have an e-commerce website or transmit any kind of sensitive information. More specifically, you should get an SSL certificate installed and connection encrypted if your website:
- Has user authentication (passwords and logins) to allow access to restricted information.
- Processes financial information (online orders, credit card numbers, bank accounts, etc.).
- Transfers or stores sensitive data: social security numbers, IDs, birth dates, license numbers, etc.
- Works with any kind of medical or legal information.
- Contains any kind of restricted proprietary or confidential information, legal documents, contracts, client lists, etc.
Where Can I Get an SSL Certificate?
Your hosting provider should be able to assist you in obtaining an SSL certificate. First, you need to purchase the certificate from a trusted vendor. Your web developer or hosting provider can order it for you, or they can refer you to a source. Typically, there is an annual fee to obtain a certificate, and the SSL-issuing authority may have to verify your identity (or the identity of your business) before issuing the certificate.
The new Google reCAPTCHA
Do you hate CAPTCHAs? Me too! As someone who uses technology on a daily basis, I can’t tell you how irritating it can be to not only not be able to enter the CAPTCHA correctly. The truth is that using CAPTCHAs has been studied, and it does have an adverse affect on your conversion rate. People will try a couple times and then leave your site if they can’t get through the CAPTCHA. But how do you control the influx of spam on your site if you don’t use one? The struggle is real.
I use Gravity Forms that integrate with Akismet, and I haven’t had a problem with spam on my forms for a long time. However, if you are looking for alternatives, Google has introduced an invisible reCAPTCHA.
How does it work?
If you aren’t using the Google reCAPTCHA yet, you’ll need to sign up. It’s really simple, and you can do it using your existing Google account. Then, you can add the Invisible reCaptcha for WordPress plugin to your site. You’ll have to configure it with your Google keys you get when you register with Google. The plugin gives you options about where you want to incorporate the invisible reCAPTCHA.
The power of hashtags
2017 is here and as expected, #hashtags continue to be incredibly popular, we couldn’t be more excited! Today you don’t have to be a dedicated social media user to be exposed to hashtags. More often than not, hashtags can now be found in restaurants on menus, on TV and radio talk shows and even regional and national news now promote the use of hashtags – They’re literally everywhere!
With a #throwback to the early days of Twitter in 2006, hashtags have quickly dominated advertising and contemporary culture – but what does this mean for your business?
CONNECTIVITY, AWARENESS & PLAIN OLD QUIRKINESS
Hashtags act like a “doorway”, allowing businesses to communicate with target audiences in an exciting and fresh manner. With hashtags you can tap into lifestyles, cultures, and the latest consumer trends. You can also become a member of virtual communities, taking part in conversations to further understand your audience, something which also undoubtedly helps your business to stay relevant! When combined with an inbound link, hashtags can even increase your referral traffic – In fact, hashtags are a fantastic tool for getting your content seen!
The benefits don’t just end there either. The simple yet quirky symbol provides you with the potential to address new demographics and cultural groups. What’s more, over time, you can even create your own unique hashtags to really establish your online presence!
Being Hashtag Savvy
Clearly hashtags are a nifty little tool but knowing how to use them effectively is crucial. So, to help you get the most out of your campaigns, we’ve put together three top tips!
- Relevancy: Choose hashtags relevant to your business and audience. Whilst broad hashtags bring in engagements, keyword specific hashtags will gain you meaningful interactions.
- Understand the Platform: Whilst it’s commonplace to use 20+ hashtags on Instagram, on Twitter less is more. In fact, excessive hashtags can be damaging, attracting accounts which focus purely on #FollowBacks. Twitter recommends no more than 2 hashtags per Tweet as best practice.
- Short & Sweet: Finally, no-one wants to type out long phrases, we’re all busy bees y’know? So keep your hashtags short and specific! After all, they’re supposed to make engagement easier!
Your Website Security
Websites and networks connected to servers are prone to security threats. Without considering the risks created by misuse of network resources or employee use, the most serious security risk is presented by your web server and website. Web servers are designed to act like a window between this world and your network. The care taken with webs application updates, server maintenance, and code of this website determine the size of aforementioned window. It controls the information that can be passed through this window and establishes the degree of web security your website possesses. The design of the site is in the code which might not be completely safe and availing services Web design NYC offers through the best web design companies.
IS YOUR NETWORK OR WEBSITE AT RISK?
Web security is measured relatively and made up of two components, internal and public. Your relative security can be considered high if your website and company are not controversial regarding any matter or operations; few resources that are available for network have financial value, and your website’s network is set up using tight permissions. Additionally, your web servers need to be patched up to date where all settings are done appropriately, your website has been done to meet high standards.
Your web security can be considered relatively low in case your business has financial assets like identity or credit card information. In case your website’s content can be considered controversial, servers, site code and applications are composite or old. Also, they are maintained by an outsourced or underfunded IT department. Most IT departments have a lower budget that their requirements, which results in tight staffing and creates delayed maintenance issues which is taken advantage of by any individual who is interested in challenging your network and site security.
WEB SECURITY RISK
If you have gained popularity owing to your assets or online activity and have been in the spotlight several times, your website and network’s security is challenged and tested. It is a common fact that when code is not written properly security issues are created. The number of bugs required to create issues for your website are directly proportional to complexity and size of your server and applications. Fundamentally, all or at least a majority of composite functions have bugs or any other sort of weakness, which makes the network penetrable. Web servers are programs that have been created specifically for inherently complex program. The chances for security holes have been growing and websites are also complex.
Technically, a set of code can be used for multiple purposes; some of its purposes are increasing website’s value, which leads to interaction with visitors. It allows SQL commands or scripts to be executed using your database or web servers as a response to visitors’ requests. Scripts or webs based forms if installed at your website, make it weak or contain bugs, thus increasing the chances of web security risk. As most individuals believe the balance between keeping unwanted visitors away from your business’s network and allowing visitors of your site a website to acquire knowledge about corporate resources to some extent is not sturdy at all. This level of stable security cannot be gained by flipping a switch; it requires adjustments and customization to meet our needs.
Keeping up with SEO
Having a successful business website can make or break a company. Whether it is a new startup or an established business turning to the internet to expand their markets, your website will be the first thing that many of your future customers will see. It stands to reason that your website needs to be modern, clean and informative to make it convenient to use. If a potential customer can’t find the information he or she needs quickly, they will move on.
Once you have your website, however, getting those potential customers to visit is the first big challenge your company will face. As many equipped SEO Sydney experts would know, search engines, such as Google and Bing, use a constantly evolving algorithm to determine how valuable a page is within the parameters of an online search. These algorithms judge websites based on variables as diverse as content, links and traffic – among others – to determine the ranking of websites for different search criteria.
Additionally, the algorithms are different depending on what kind of device the search is being conducted from. Searches done from mobile devices, like phones and tablets, use a modified version of the standard algorithm to give better local results. This can be a factor for businesses that are trying to appeal in a more general fashion than companies that are targeting mobile users.
The mobile conundrum
The weight that the current algorithms give mobile websites is having an effect on business websites. If your current website is not mobile-friendly, you are losing customers. Mobile websites, on the other hand, do not usually have the depth and options that can be found on traditional websites. Mobile users like there information in digestible, screen-size chunks which are not ideal for computer users.
Finding the correct balance is challenging, especially since there is little hard information available on how much mobile websites are weighted in the algorithms. This lack of information can be frustrating for business owners, but there is a very good reason the parameters of the algorithm are kept hidden.
Keeping the ‘Black Hats’ at bay
If everyone knows the parameters of the specific algorithm they could create websites that are perfect examples of what the search engine is looking for. Although this sounds like a good idea, the truth of the matter is that it would make it very easy for immoral users to tweak their websites to get hits on search queries that have nothing to do with their websites.
Back in the good old days – about a decade ago – this was common practice among spam websites to get disproportionate page hits. At the time, search engines were cruder and searches revolved around keywords. The more keywords a page had – valuable or not – the more likely it was to appear in search results. To cut down on these websites, search engines became more sophisticated.
Working the system
As the search engines became more sophisticated and secretive, an entire industry has sprung up to support businesses that need to have a strong internet presence to sell their products. Search engine optimization has come a long way since the days of keyword stuffing, but in many ways practitioners are making more guesses – albeit educated ones – than they ever have.
Google, for example, updated there algorithm over 500 times in 2016. The vast majority of these updates were minor, but there were over a dozen major updates. Each update changed the algorithm. Even minor changes can have a large impact on how search engines “see” your website. SEO experts test and tweak websites and determine how and why the search engine was changed and make the adjustments on their websites to keep or improve their ranking.
That leaves business owners in the unenviable position of being forced to either outsource their websites, create an internal department to maintain their internet ranking or just give up. The first two options have advantages and disadvantages, but giving up on SEO efforts will result in your business losing customers and money to other, more tech-savvy companies.
What is a tag?
Since you landed on this post, you probably have heard the term – “tag.” But, you don’t have a complete grasp of its use case and importance. The tag is simply a type of Metadata assigned periodically to a piece of information that makes it easy for the users to scan through a particular content by searching through it. The concept of tagging can also be grabbed from the lights of social media giant – Facebook where you can simply tag people according to the photos and events. Simply take; it’s a process of classifying or levying ownership on any form of information like images, words, and digital products.
Historical Background of Tag:
The early deployment of tags was made through internet databases where it was used by users to find content. However, the word tag came to popularity with the amendment of web 2.0 on the internet and is still a vital part of many web 2.0 services. In 2003, the social bookmarking site Delicious used the tag functions on their bookmarks to help users find their bookmarks later. At this point of time, SEO was a mysterious and big thing. So, this system got skyrocketed by this easy function. Similarly, Flickr – A photography community also used this feature that let users add their own text tags which made the photos highly searchable. Tags may not be the real classic way of organisation but it does offer number of ways to classify an item. This is what made it widely popular in no time.
Types of Tags
- Triple Tags: A tag that uses a special syntax for meaningful interpretation. Used mainly on social bookmarking sites & photography sites.
- Hash Tags: Mostly popular on social media like Facebook and Twitter. It makes the news viral and easily accessible.
- Knowledge tags: It captures knowledge from the digital resource in the form of tags.
Why are tags the fundamental approach for classifying your items?
Flexibility:
When it comes to organisation, maintaining a hierarchical structure based upon the location is the opted idea. However, having a single location system hinders the classification methodology. This is where tags play an important role. It offers great flexibility in terms of classification without having to worry about the structure. You can create as many tags as possible without any limitation making it one of the vital options for item organisation.
Makes content highly accessible:
Tags along with categories make the search program relatively easy for users if they are working on a huge system. Although category and tags are different in many ways but it both functions on making content highly searchable. If you have given 4-5 tags for a particular content that describes it well. You can easily search through it by tags making it easily accessible. Readers can simply browse through their favourite topic of interest with the help of tags.
Builds authority on social bookmarking sites:
If you look beside classification, the other thing that tags help to do is build authority on social bookmarking sites. Although these type of sites have a reduced value these days, but it does have the power to get a small business website rank. If you have a powerful social bookmarking account, the juice passed through it does help in SEO. And, adding tags is one way to build authority to social bookmarking sites. There are a ton of users using these sites. So, you can also steal decent traffic to your website through these websites.
When and how to use tags:
Tags are mostly used on digital products like digital photographs, address books, web pages, taxonomies, and social media. The easiest way to use tags is by opting for software that supports the website configuration. If you are using CMS like WordPress, writing tags become a breeze.
Google Tools: Analytics, AdWords, AdSense
So you have a website. What does it do for you? Does it bring in money? Does anyone even see it? The Powers That Be (ie. Google Inc.) throw a few tools our way to help these things along. Here are three:
1. Google Analytics
What is it? It’s a set of interactive reports about how people find and use your website. This one of the lasts steps of developing a proper website, and necessary for good SEO (if you don’t know what that means, check out our SEO services page. Good SEO is invaluable for a lucrative website).
What’s the point? Google is aggressively dynamic, which means that it constantly improves its search techniques and keeps them close to the vest. So attempting to manipulate it can be like praying to the Internet rain gods. But using Google Analytics is one trick that’s more reliable than chanting and human sacrifices. If you know the exact terms people search for, and the searches that ultimately draw them to your website, you can hone your content to attract to those terms to bump up your search rankings. If you’re interested in tracking your website, let us give you some quick Analytics instruction.
2. Google AdWords
What is it? It’s an ad campaign system. You write an ad according to AdWords specs, (3 lines of text, 35 character limit, etc) and Google puts your ad on results pages on searches for the keywords (search terms) you select. You pay when someone clicks to your site.
What’s the point? A naturally search engine optimized website is a great thing, and Web Developers Studio is very good at making them. Search engine users know the difference between ads and organic search results, and they trust the organic results – as they should. But often, a paid ad campaign is just the visibility boost a business or organization needs to get going. Web Developers Studio offer AdWords management as one of our social media and marketing options. We hold an MCC (agency level) Google AdWords account.
3. Google AdSense
What is it? It’s a program you can use to put Google ads on your webpage and be paid each time someone clicks on them. Frequently updated sites are great for this, because Google automatically evaluates your website and generates ads that are appropriate to your content.
What’s the point? You get paid per click – enough said.
Reasons behind Websites’ Poor Performance
Business owners hire the best web designers, developers and optimisers; however, only a few websites rank high and achieve success in their paradigm. The reason could be anything right from an outdated design to wrong selection of keywords.
Here are a few reasons why websites fail to perform:
Outdated web design: This is one of the important reasons. So, design your website according to your industry.
A few guidelines to create an effective web design:
- Create simple but beautiful designs.
- Keep navigation simple.
- Use contrasting colours.
- Make your website responsive.
- Always develop a multi-browser website.
- Keep your website error-free.
- Keep your design consistent throughout the site.
Incomprehensible content: Web design is not only about colours, patterns and graphics; it is also about font size, background colour, etc. In other words, content should be readable and scanable.
A few guidelines to create effective content format:
- Choose the right font size.
- Stick to contrasting colour combinations.
- Use “sans serif” fonts for the best results.
Outdated plugins: Old, heavy plugins and add-ons make a website slow. So, remove such plugins and add-ons, if any, to make your website fast. (Plugins are tools used to extend the functionality of a platform.)
Nothing frustrates user more than a slow load speed.
- 47% of consumers expect a web page to load in two seconds or less.
- 40% abandon a website that takes more than three seconds to load.
A few guidelines to make your site fast:
- Use HTML5 for all of your videos and animations.
- Install new plugins.
Unclear navigation structure: Poor navigation structure forces users to leave a website. Therefore, keep your site’s navigation structure simple, logical and readable.
Tips:
- Organise information.
- Uncover potential spots and remove dead pages.
- Update your sitemap and navigation structure.
Your site lacks personality : As a brand, your website should reflect its image, personality and look like a leader. Your website should improve the overall learning experience as well as knowledge of your users.
Tips:
- Remember, your site should support your business objectives.
- It must have business logos, icons, slogans, etc, so that it can support your business.
No Call-to-action: According to a study, 80% of small B2B business websites lack a call-to-action. This not only confuses a user, but also lowers the overall conversion rate of a website. So, always guide users to take action through proper call-to-actions.
Tips:
- Use CTAs appropriately across the website.
- Be direct and conversational.
Bonus tips:
- Use intuitive web designs.
- Highlight your company’s uniqueness and strengths.
- Use compelling templates.
By addressing these important issues, you can easily enhance website’s performance.
2017 SEO TRENDS
It’s a New Year (happy New Year, by the way!) and that probably means it’s a new you. Whether or not you are actually getting in the best shape of your life (at least for a few weeks), saving money for your dream vacation, or giving up any bad habits, you can be sure that the world of SEO is going to change (and change is usually for the better!).
This guide will spell out how to succeed at SEO in 2017 by showing major trends, pooling advice from all corners of the web, and analyzing data to make predictions about the future.
Understanding search engine trends:
We’ve all seen fashion trends come and go over the years — search engines aren’t much different. While there are certainly pillars of SEO that aren’t going anywhere anytime soon (great content, solid keyword research, and readability just to name a few), there are trends that are slowly shaping the future of SEO taking hold today. Identifying, preparing for, and eventually joining in on these trends is what will help you get to the top. Here are some of the biggest search engine trends of 2017. Get with them and you are well on the path to SEO success!
Understanding keywords AND identifying intent:
Keywords are still incredibly important, but the days of producing content matched up to a single keyword are like the days when people used pay phones: gone. Updates such as Hummingbird and other developments such as Rankbrain show that Google wants to figure out not just which words people are searching for but what they mean when they are searching.
Our take: more and more users are searching impulsively with intent in mind. Google estimates that 70% of customers are missed out on when you rely on demographic data alone. Understanding their needs and meeting them in the moment is the key to success. This requires more research and a better understanding of how your customers are finding you! Producing content that solves a need is the key to getting to the top.
Putting user experience above everything else:
Google really cares about its users and their experience. Any time they make an update, it is almost always with the intent of bettering the user experience. Recent updates to penalize annoying overlays and pop-ups show that Google cares more about UX than just about anything else. Site speed, readability, user interaction, and uninterrupted browsing are going to be more important than ever.
TIP: According to some very bright minds, the average attention span of users looking through the web can get as low as 2.8 seconds. Most experts agree that you have 4 seconds or less to grab user’s attention before they bounce. Getting your site’s message across immediately is more important than anything else, and that includes fast enough function for your site to load quickly.
Cultivating your brand will become more important:
Ever wonder why brands rank #1 most of the time in their fields? It’s because Google trusts them, and Google trusts them because people trust them. Brands are an easy way for people’s brains to compartmentalize a group of things, and to associate them with a mark of quality. In a web full of pretenders, Google likes to have a bit of certainty. Being a brand isn’t all you need, but cultivating your brand via multiple channels is more important than ever.
Why 99% of Website Traffic to Your Home Page Are Dead Upon Arrival
A common mistake many website owners make is to send traffic to their home page. I’m talking about where you funnel traffic to from your advertisement and promotional activities.
You see, the sole purpose of getting website traffic is NOT to try to sell them something.
It’s NOT to have them learn about your company or products or services.
And it definitely is NOT to have them buy at first sight.
The sole purpose is to get them to OPT-IN.
That’s right. To get them to opt in.
You may pay dearly to build website traffic. So it would be sad if they came and visited your site without leaving their email address through opt-in. Because without an email address, how will you ever expect to sell them your products and services.
I realize you may have an opt-in form on your home page. But it’s probably not the thing your visitor’s eyes are focused on when they first visit your site. They are probably looking at your design and the various sections of copy. Why would they complete your opt-in form on your home page anyway? (It’s rare that home page provides enough information on why to opt-in)
Chances are, just about everyone leaves your site without opt-in… except perhaps less than 1%. So you have no email address to follow up to sell your products and services.
By now you may be thinking if your home page is not the place for website traffic, then where is?
A Squeeze Page or Landing Page Can Boost Response
The answer is a squeeze page. A squeeze page is a type of landing page designed with one message and a sole focus to get visitors to opt in. It’s called a squeeze page because you squeeze the visitor to opt-in and give their email address. So now you can create a relationship with the visitor, gain their trust and sell them your products and services.
An ideal squeeze page promotes a giveaway – something of value to the visitor in exchange for their email address.
The thing to know about the squeeze page is that it should contain just one message and nothing else. No menu or links to other pages. Just a strong message that persuades the visitor to opt-in, give their email address and receive a FREE report or other type or giveaway item.
Once you get their email address – and perhaps their first and last name – nothing more, you now have a way to start the selling process. That’s because you can reach your prospect and not have to wait for them to return to your website on their own. You now control the selling process.
Now you know why 99% of website traffic to your home page are dead upon arrival. But when you send website traffic to a squeeze page (landing page with opt-in form), you create the opportunity to land qualified leads whom you can convert into customers and sales dollars.
Where to Start
A squeeze page is the start of your online sales process – whether you conduct ecommerce or not. A squeeze page gets the lead into your contact database. From there, the best way to convert the lead into a customer is with a marketing automation system. The good news is that a marketing automation system is affordable for many small businesses.
