All posts by AltusHost

wordpress plugins
Tips & Tutorials

WordPress plugins in 2020 according to AltusHost

Leave a comment

When it comes to WordPress plugins it is crucial not to get carried away by adding too many because there are plenty of plugins. Too many plugins could easily damage your website speed, therefore we have listed just the top 8. 

We have covered the essential areas and grouped them as follows: SEO, Backup, Performance, Useful plugins & Trending.

SEO

Yoast SEO

Given that Google is the most visited website it is without question why search engine optimization continues to be a powerful channel to increase website traffic. Statistics from 2019 show that it has been visited over 62.19 billion times that year alone. So no matter what you do people are looking for your product or service. Nonetheless, despite the high search 

91% of content gets no traffic from Google, therefore you need to put an extra effort to be listed amongst this 9%.

Attracting customers from the world’s largest search engine is the key. 

Implementing strong, quality SEO on the website and digital assets are always going to be beneficial and it is considered a ‘new age’ marketing technique. 

Yoast SEO gives you full control to rank higher in search engines. The tool offers title and meta description templating, keywords implementation, snippets, and it automatically sets canonical URLs to avoid duplicate content which makes it quality ranking. 

Backup

UpdraftPlus WordPress Backup Plugin

UpdraftPlus plugin is a widely popular backup WordPress plugin on the market. It simplifies backups and restoration. It is the world’s highest-ranking plugin, with over two million currently-active installs.

It has both a free and a premium version to serve all types of users. Even with the free version of the plugin, you have backup scheduling and it supports various external cloud storage options (Dropbox, Google Drive, Amazon S3 (or compatible), UpdraftVault, Rackspace Cloud, FTP, DreamObjects, Openstack Swift, and email). 

Not only that it is good for its features but it is fairly easy to use and all could be done with a single click!

Performance

Smush

The Smush plugin is like many other freemium models that have both free and premium plans. It is excellent for optimizing your images into the pages. Even if pictures have not been previously optimized and reduced in size in photoshop this plugin will do that for you. It will compress them down, make them smaller, make them load faster which is crucial for a fast website.   

Useful plugins

Contact Form 7

Both useful and essential Contact Form 7 should be present everywhere whether it is for the site’s visitors to be able to get in touch with you as contact form or newsletter form. It is fairly easy to use, it has a drag and drop interface where you could arrange it in the order that you want and then drop it on the page or post that you want. Furthermore, it enables you to include a reCAPTCHA solution on your forms to combat spam.

Slider Revolution

Slider Revolution with over 395,284 sales is another very popular plugin that’s included in many premium WordPress themes but it can be bought separately. 

The plugin helps in the site’s design by enabling amazing features, animations, graphics. It provides lots of effects such as a paintbrush effect and for those of you who like video background this slider cover with a library of objects, images, and video backgrounds. For this reason, you do not need to look elsewhere because it already has too much to offer. Besides, it has more than 200 templates to start from.

Trending

Instagram feed 

If you have an online store embedding brand’s Instagram feed onto your website is almost mandatory. Social media platforms have become a crucial element in brand-building especially if we talk about selling physical products. By including Instagram content on the website, you can considerably increase your exposure. It allows an easy way for followers to communicate with you on both platforms, and it streamlines the process on your end.

Instagram Feed is the number one best-selling premium Instagram WordPress plugin.

It provides options for how your photos are being presented (carousel mode, multiple images in one post using a slider format, the pop-up gallery just like on the Instagram website). 

The distribution of content from Instagram displayed on your site can be adjusted with the help of 60 parameters. However, there are also 10 pre-built color schemes to work with. 

Seriously Simple Podcasting

Podcasting is rapidly growing as a popular content platform for consumers, better yet now when people are not in the position of attending seminars, etc. There are now 62 million Americans listening to podcasts each week and listeners are engaging with all types of topics, from news to pottery to TV shows. This type of content is easy for people to consume in various settings. Driving a car, listening while in the gym, and numerous others. 

Seriously Simple Podcasting makes it easy to submit an RSS feed from your WordPress site to several podcast directories. Episodes are fully compliant for Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Google Podcasts.

RSS feed is customizable by editing the podcast’s name, description, cover art, and category.

online grocery shopping corona
Marketing, News

Online Grocery Shopping: Temporary necessity or the future?

Leave a comment

The world has seen a significant increase in the online food industry in times of the Covid19 pandemic, but will it stay that way once it is over? To accurately examine this inclination we need to look back a bit in order to draw a meaningful conclusion. 

One of the pioneers in the online grocery consumption industry has perfectly analyzed the needs of the marker and rightfully earned no.1 position in the given market – Tesco.

Back in 2010, they analyzed in-depth the behavior of South Koreans. It turned out that Koreans are the no.2 hard-working people in the world. Having said so, grocery shopping once a week is a dreadful task for them. After analyzing all tired and busy people, Tesco or locally rebranded as Home Plus has figured out the solution to the problem. No additional stores plus a better comfort for those that shop. The idea that they came up with was – Let the store come to the people.

First marketing in that effect has been to visually mimic their store in the most visited place, the metro station. Although virtual, the displays were exactly like the actual store, yet one thing was different. They used their mobile phones to scan the provided QR codes bellow the products by which the wanted product would end up in their virtual carts. Home deliveries of goods were fast after the purchase order completion which provided people much-needed comfort after the work and on the weekends.

Following the end of the campaign, the number of new registered members rose by 76% and online sales increased 130% which made Tesco aka. Home Plus no. 1 in the online market. 

Consequently, they have anticipated the needs of the market of South Korea back in 2010-2011 but how far has the rest of the world stretched in the online consumption of grocery items? 

Six years later, according to the statistics from 2016 Asia leads the field of countries that shop groceries online – the US lags far behind. Specifically, South Korea holds 16,6% of the online grocery market share worldwide (Statista, 2017).

Nevertheless, the overall grocery market in 2018 was $632 billion and it doubled in value from 2016 to 2018. Online stores that have affordable and quick delivery are leading the way in customer conversion and add-to-cart effect. Nonetheless, customers remain hesitant about buying fresh & frozen foods and meat online up until now. 

Stay-at-home lockdowns of some kind have pushed many to turn to online shopping of groceries with two options, delivery or either pickup. 

From early March, UK supermarkets have been swamped with internet orders, mostly from buyers who would like to avoid busy and overcrowded stores. Omnichannel retailers that were already established as online retailers quite well some would say could have been prepared for a surge of new clients and increase in demand but they faced a problem because the demand skyrocketed. Websites and apps crashed multiple times and the delivery slots were constantly booked because no one expected this. 

Amongst many reasons, convenience, very low risk of spread from products or packaging that are shipped, and the overall panic that arose amongst people it all created a shift to online. 

Apart from sales being up, the behavior of purchasing online has altered and more advanced options have been offered. Downloads of apps that allow people to hire personal shoppers to prepare and in some cases deliver their grocery orders have increased. 

Nowadays customers are trying their best to adapt the situation in hand and therefore shifting their behavior as a result. Many businesses are going through quite an adventure as well and are bearing much of the same uncertainty while trying to support consumers’ needs. 

After this is all over, we could say that customers will be continuing to order online, particularly those who, before COVID used to have that as routine. Those who have found online shopping as a solution to their busy schedules or perhaps considered shopping to be physically challenging. Notwithstanding, post-COVID-19 will present some significant economic consequences and it is probable that people are not going to be as willing to pay for the convenience. 

Countries that have higher spending power will most certainly be permanently acquired customers, whereas in the developing countries the rise of online grocery shopping will be temporary for the majority, yet not so insignificant for future growth.

How To Find Unique Domain Name For Your Blogging Site
Tips & Tutorials

How To Find Unique Domain Name For Your Blogging Site

Leave a comment

There are already 600 million blogs in the world right now, and this is no surprise that most of the catchy blog names are already taken.  

Naming your blog is just like giving a name to your child since that will ultimately be a part of their identity. Whether you’re planning to write blogs as a hobby or you are a small business owner thinking your website needs a blog, you must have to go through the pain of choosing a unique blog name. And why not, your blog name is the first thing that your audience will know about your blog and definitely will create a first impression. 

But don’t get scared. We have compiled some of the most used strategies to help you find a perfect blog name.

Tips You Can Use To Pick A Perfect Blog Name 

1. Stick With Dot Com

There are numerous new domain name extensions available like .pizza, .ninja, .blog, .photography, but we will always advise you to choose a .com domain name. Well, it is tempting for most of us to use new extensions, but .com is still the most reliable and credible domain name extension. Most users who are not tech-savvy will automatically type .com at the end of a domain without a doubt. 

2. What is your blog going to be about?

Before you start a blog in 2020, choose a niche for your blog logically. The answer to this question is straightforward if you are certain. If you are undecided, just think if you spend a huge amount of time picking a blog name and then go to a blog about something entirely unrelated, then you will have wasted your time for sure. Well, you won’t be penalized if you don’t stick to a single niche. But, the fact is most of the time your audience isn’t going to be interested in things you like.  So, it’s essential to be clear on what niche would be covered by your blog.

 

3. Be Clear About Your Audience 

Understanding the audience also influences the decision of choosing the blog name.  Blogs with a female target audience often choose names that include ‘She’, ‘Pretty’, ‘Lady’, ‘Girl’ etc. On the other hand, SPORTbible is an online community for sports lovers. As the name suggests, it frequently publishes content, including sports news, videos, and pictures.  

In simple terms, knowing your readers will help you choose an appropriate blog name.

4. Keep It Short and Easy to Pronounce 

Ditch all the names that are hard to spell and say. It should be sweet and intuitive. At the beginning of the blogging career, most people initially didn’t take much time to select a blog name and end up using a very complicated infrequent phrase. I can’t name the countless number of situations in which a long and frustrating blog name handicap bloggers. The new visitors will forget your name, and it will be harder for people to type your name to recommend it to others.

5. Try Blog Naming Formulas

Luckily, we’ve got two simple formulas to create stunningly creative name suggestions or your new blog that your readers can’t resist. The first formula is to create a portmanteau, a word that combines the sounds and meaning of two other words. You can combine two names to create a new term that speaks about your blog concept and brand values. A good example is a brunch which is derived from breakfast and lunch. The podcast comes from iPod and broadcast. The blogosphere comes from blogs and the atmosphere. 

The second formula we brought for you is even simpler to implement. You just need to attach two terms to create your blog name. The first term should be representing your topic or audience group, and the second term should be serving your end goal. For instance, if your audience is digital marketers, and the end goal is high-speed results, then you can name your blog ‘Digital Velocity’.

6. Listening to your friends and family

Asking around your trusted friends and family members if you are stuck somewhere. Tell them that you are in the process of choosing a name for your blog, and I am sure you will get thousands of ideas within the house. If you don’t feel comfortable about opening up about your blog with your friends and family, then you always have a choice to ask people in the blogging community popular on Facebook.  

7. Take Help From Blog Name Generator 

There is no harm taking help from blog name generating websites. They are plenty in numbers, and most of them are free. They’ll help you come up with unique blog names. You just need to enter a few keywords and let the site work do all the magic. You can try the following most commonly used blog name generator websites.

     a) Wordoid

This platform can be fairly used for blog and domain name ideas. You just have to enter the keyword, set the language preference and quality rating, and pick where you would like the keyword to appear, and how long it should be. 

     b) Panabee

Panabee is the coolest blog name generator in town that knows how to stand out in the crowd. You can search for plenty of domain names, app names, and company names. If you have a young audience, you must try Panabee because it gives you fresh and fun blog names based on the provided keyword.  

8. Use Thesaurus

Before looking for help, don’t forget to do your research. One of my favorite things to do is to use a thesaurus. Now definitely, you cannot rely on thesaurus compete, but you should consider it as a substitute. As a blogger, this is my most-used tool. I use it almost every day, and the reason is to make sure that my content looks different and attractive from the rest. You can also use the thesaurus for it as a source to get ideas for your blog name. You can get a long list of synonyms by entering your desired keywords.

9. Unrelated words

Under this strategy, you can choose a completely random name. Instead of using a thesaurus to find synonyms, you have to find out completely different names. Don’t get confused. We are doing this because unrelated works work great when it comes to being catchy. For instance, who would have thought of blending a smartphone with a fruit? But, this is exactly what high-tech consumer technology company Apple Inc. did. 

10. Just be yourself: Use Your Name

If you are willing to make yourself the centerpiece of your blog and write about your story, services, and what interests you, then you have a choice to use your name as your blog name. I’ve seen this trend lately in the personal branding industry, and it works successfully for plenty of lifestyle bloggers. But if you are writing a business blog, it won’t work if you are selling a product. 

11. Try Alliteration or Assonance

You can play around with words and give a natural rhythm to your blog using alliteration. It is basically the repetition of the same sound or letter at the beginning of closely connected words. In this strategy, you can use a combination of words starting with the same letter to create a catchy sound. Some great examples of alliteration are Cute Cats, Financial Freedom, Foolproof Formula, Spooky Spoon, Blazing Blogs, etc. The most satisfying thing about this fun strategy is that it is lovelier to say and can have a powerful impact on the reader. 

12. Use A Different Language

If you find a unique name in another language, don’t hesitate to use it as your blog name. We all come across words in other dialects that have very soothing to ears. Their meaning could be related to your selected niche or can be completely random, but they always set you apart. A foreign language blog will catch more eyes and evoke diverse brand perceptions. For example, The Small Café vs Le Petit Café has the same meaning, but they sound so different.

The foreign language name makes me think of baked croissants, fresh honey pancakes, and a strong cup of coffee.

13. Make a Common Saying Your Own

Many bloggers are coming up with a modified idiom or turn of phrase in a quest to give their blog a unique name. A very well-established beauty blog, ‘She’s in the Glow’  has used the phrase ‘in the know.’

Conclusion 

Now we’ve shared so many tips and tricks with you, but the thing that matters the most when deciding on a blog name is that you should love it. Changing blog name in the future is a risky task, so put in the work now and pick a fantastic blog name that you will enjoy more with every passing day.

_______________________________

Claudia Jeffrey is currently working as a Digital Marketer at Crowd Writer, an excellent “write my essay” platform in the UK. She is more than happy to help online bloggers and entrepreneurs start, market, and monetize their business ideas. Besides this, she is a geek for blog writing, all things social media.
work from home
Tips & Tutorials

Working From Home? We’ve got you 👌

Leave a comment

Happy Friday, everyone! We hope that everyone is working from home where possible. In times of change, we are grateful to be able to continue working. All our team is set to work remotely from their home offices so we wanted to share some tips and ideas from the AltusHost team and how we are managing to keep everything at float while WFH.

Remote work is the emerging face of work in the 21st century and it’s driving a steady increase in its acceptance throughout the world. However, this situation is out of ordinary and has pushed it quite rapidly for a whole lot of industries to implement sooner than anticipated. 

For this reason, we would like to share some of our know-how to help you get the best of your work from home either if you have already done some remote work in the past or you’re a newbie. 

Please note we’re not experts and these tips come from our team or their friends who are all now WFH:

Meghan: “What I do to motivate me is to get dressed up at very least like I am going to work instead of lounging at home and set a schedule of what I need to complete. That increases productivity for me.”

Daim: Other people are focusing their attention at work-from-home office design and what they claim is of an essential is: “A flat surface to work on, a comfortable desk chair, an organizer for needed supplies, a spot for a printer copier and good task lighting.”

Pierre: “Adding plants and flowers is a simple way to add a little life to your desk and home office.”

Catherine: “My days consist of drinking excessive amounts of coffee, dressing in my comfies and having quite jazz music playing in the background.” 

Caroline: “Rolling straight out of bed and having a 30min workout before turning on my computer. I work much better and focus after the morning workout.”

Amanda: “Pre-determining each day’s “must-do” items in the To-Do list.”

Joseph: “Switching back and forth between the couch and kitchen desk to mix up the environment and stay motivated.”

Maya: “I plan my lunch ahead of time and take an actual lunch break.”

Anastasia: “Putting the phone in another room.”

Willem: “The Pomodoro Technique. Set a timer for 30min and it splits work into manageable clusters.”

Jennifer: “Always get dressed and put on makeup. Have a coffee maker ready.” 

Ashlee:  “Clean workspace. A messy one is an automatic fail. Likewise, keep the pile of home papers separate from the working desk.” 

What are your tips to work from home? Share your best advice with us on our social media channels to help each other make working from home a little easier.

Sent emails are ‘returning’? What now?
Tips & Tutorials

Sent emails are ‘returning’? What now?

Leave a comment

Even though a blacklisted IP address can be troubling for your business, it seems that there is not enough buzz around that talks about ways to prevent it.

But what exactly does this mean for your website?

Besides the obvious damage in your server’s reputation, a blacklisted IP address can also cause blacklisting of the main IP address in the entire Shared Hosting server. 

And to put this mildly, it’s simply not good. 

You are not alone in the Shared Hosting server, remember? This server is “shared” with a couple of hundred other users, whose emails may be directly compromised by your blacklisted IP address. 

How to prevent a blacklisted IP 

Let’s go into a mini-analysis first…

In many cases, if your email address is blacklisted, the first thing you will notice is that the emails you send are coming back.

What’s the backend of this? In the case of a low reputation of the outgoing server, all outgoing mail is rejected by the receiving server, and in the case of blacklisting – because the server is on one of the “blacklists” of one or more RBL services.

RBL stands for Real-Time Black List and is a set of global IP addresses of ‘those who refused to stop spamming’.

RBL lists are most commonly used in the SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) connection phase when your email server starts the login process to send emails to recipients.

The receiving SMTP server then checks if the transmitting server’s IP address in on one of the selected RBL lists.

If the transmitting server is blacklisted, communication is shut down even before the transmission of the e-mail starts.

But don’t panic, anyone with an SMTP server happens to be on one of the RBL lists.

In that case, it is necessary to find the cause of blacklisting, debug and retest the system. 

Resolving these issues can be fairly tricky, primarily because RBL services typically respond to IP addresses remove requests on an average of 24-48 hours after the submitted request. 

So, even after the technical support team fixes the reason the server was blacklisted in the first place, it takes a couple of days for the RBL service to respond and remove the IP address from the list.

The bad news is that while the server is blacklisted, your emails will go to the recipient’s SPAM folder. In some cases, the mail does not even reach the final recipient.

Also, depending on the hosting provider, an outgoing check is also done, i.e. proactive check of the recipient.

In that case, the IP addresses of your recipients are also checked for blacklisting, and if they are on the blacklist, you guessed it – the mail will not be delivered.

For this reason, we advise our users to keep an eye on the status of their IP address, so that similar situations exist only in theory.

transmitting server

How to check the status of your public IP address?

Copy your IP address and check the status at: https://mxtoolbox.com/blacklists.aspx

My address is blacklisted! Now what?

In case your public IP address is blacklisted, do not panic.

Contact your provider as soon as possible and ask technical support to assign you a new IP address or try to remove your existing IP address from the blacklist.

The safest method is to lease a dedicated IP address.

Also, check the contact forms on your site and secure them.

I am not a robot

It would be good to put some kind of security check on pages that require user interaction, in order to prevent massive inbox spamming.

CAPTCHA has proven to be the most effective method of spam prevention. This system of “I am not a robot” was created at Carnegie Mellon University in 2000. The acronym CAPTCHA is based on the word capture and is derived from the term Complete Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart.

The idea behind the system is to create an automatically generated challenge, that it is easy for humans, and unmanageable for computers and software. The most common CAPTCHA consists of an image with distorted letters, with different colors, colorful backgrounds, or other elements that make it impossible for the software to solve the test.

captcha

This technology seems geeky and boring, but believe it or not, every time you type in letters and numbers as required by the reCAPTCHA system you help in digitization of books and other publications. Specifically, reCAPTCHA does not display random words, numbers, and punctuation, but rather content from The New York Times archive and numerous books from the Google Books project.

Sites using the reCAPTCHA system show images of scanned words that optical character recognition software could not read during the process of digitizing books and magazines. The idea is very simple but effective, and very cleverly implemented, as it relies on the global “workforce” of all Internet users.

But CAPTCHA systems, of course, are not perfect. Apart from them annoying users, they are constantly under attack.

Because of this, CAPTCHA is just one small aspect of protecting your site from spam attacks.

Why smaller companies will be in the crosshairs of cybercriminals in 2020
Security

Why Smaller Companies Will Be in The Crosshairs of Cybercriminals in 2020

Leave a comment

How often do you read news about major data breaches that have happened at multinational companies? The answer is probably a lot. This is unsurprising because data breaches (or any cyber attack) of that scale will affect countless people’s lives. As far as newsworthy goes, these attacks more than qualify.

This can lead many to assume that big companies are the only targets of malicious attacks, but this is far from the case. In truth, small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) are frequently under threat of cyber attack, and they are almost always less capable of defending themselves.

This has led to a state of affairs where, with advancing complexity like cyberattacks, SMBs are having to adapt to a new decade where they will find themselves the targets of cybercriminals. After all, while the potential spoils of hacking a company like Amazon are enormous, it is far easier to attack a poorly guarded SMB. 

Increasing Rate of Cyber Attacks on SMBs

Cyberattacks on SMBs aren’t just dangerous, due to limited cybersecurity budgets, they’re also increasing. In a study by the Ponemon Institute -who specializes in security research- it was shown that SMBs are facing a new challenge they need to tackle head-on. The study, labeled “The 2019 Global State of Cybersecurity in SMBs”, stated that over the last three years SMBs have seen an increase after the increase of cybersecurity attacks. 

This conclusion was drawn from a survey of over 2000 IT security practitioners across the world. It found that cybersecurity attacks against UK, US, and European businesses were growing not just in frequency, but in the sophistication of the attacks. Malicious strategies such as ransomware, malware, and DDoS have all been on the rise, and in many instances are harder to prevent than ever.

Almost half of all survey respondents stated that their business security was substandard and that they had no incident response plan in place. Cybercriminal attacks are evolving with more rapidity than ever, and more and more companies of all sizes are finding themselves in their crosshairs. Far from being limited to loss of money, the costs of many attacks extend to a significant loss of credibility, to catastrophic damage to business systems. The report also noted that rather than being isolated to a single nation, cyber-attacks are a worldwide phenomenon.

The increase in attacks is more dramatic than most would realize. Over three-quarters of all US companies surveyed were attacked in the last year; an increase of 55% from 2016’s survey. Across the world, 66% of all businesses reported being victims of an attack in the past year as well. 

Attacks that are built around deception are more popular than ever. The study noted that sophisticated phishing techniques accounted for half of all attacks, and stolen devices and credential theft accounted for a third. These were by far the most common attacks faced by SMBs across the world. The cost to businesses from such attacks was invariably data loss. 

Globally, over 60% of all businesses suffered a loss of customer or employee information in the last year. Which, given how many companies process sensitive information, when accepting online payments and other transactional details, can leave businesses at risk of hurting their customers as well as themselves.

smaller companies and cybercriminals

The Cost of Emerging Technologies

More and more, SMBs are adopting new emerging technologies to stay competitive in the marketplace. The internet of things, mobile apps and devices, and biometrics are all becoming more and more commonly used, but the security competence that is required to go with them is less so.

Across the Ponemon survey, it was shown that 50% of businesses were using mobile devices to access enormous quantities of their business-critical applications. Yet at the same time, an almost identical portion of the same businesses reported that mobile device usage left them vulnerable to a cyber attack.

Additionally, 80% of businesses report that they believe a security breach across unsecured IoT devices could destroy their business. But despite this, only 20% of them monitored their IoT devices for security risks.

More reassuring is the fact that biometrics may be becoming a mainstream technology for businesses of all sizes. If SMBs can implement biometrics to add multiple-factor authentication to their business-critical apps, this will go a long way towards securing them against attackers.

How SMBs Can Protect Themselves Against Cyberattacks

There are several steps that SMBs can take to protect themselves against cyber attacks. By far the most important among them is to educate employees at every level of the organization about the cyber attack risks they are facing, and the correct measures to ensure they are protected from small to high-level malware threats. A business that isn’t ignorant of threats around them is far less likely to fall prey than one that is.

As countless cyber-attacks begin with an unsuspecting employee opening a seemingly harmless phishing email, they must understand how to identify these threats. There are countless free training options available that can help employees to spot threats in real-time. Likewise, instructing your employees on correct procedures when working on an unsecured network can help to prevent bad agents from spying on their activity. Investing in both training and a top-line encrypted virtual private network (VPN) can help to prevent this issue.

The second most obvious solution is to recognize the need for increased cybersecurity spending. Although this may hurt total profits, it will hurt a lot less than a potential data breach or an advanced ransomware attack. Many third-party cybersecurity companies can be hired to assess your level of security and help to identify any vulnerabilities. They can then provide you with tools and real-time monitoring to protect your business before, during, and after any threats.

VPN and cybercriminals

Likewise, many companies provide software and tools that help to protect smaller businesses from cybersecurity threats. These can help to secure your entire working environment, whether it’s on macOS, Windows, iOS or others. Many of these solutions can be installed in a few minutes, and will greatly improve a business’s level of security.

Wrapping it Up

Small businesses have never been at greater risk of a cyber attack than they are now. But while this may seem like terrible news, it doesn’t mean they are powerless. By recognizing the level of threat and appreciating the need for action, small businesses can make sure their level of security is adequate for the changing decade.

_________________________________

About the author: Sam Bocetta is a freelance journalist specializing in U.S. diplomacy and national security, with emphasis on technology trends in cyberwarfare, cyberdefense, and cryptography.

8 Essentials For Creating A Successful WordPress eCommerce Site Starting From Day One
Tips & Tutorials

8 Essentials For Creating A Successful WordPress eCommerce Site

1 Comment

WordPress has become one of the most popular platforms for individuals and businesses to develop their eCommerce website. Its popularity has stemmed from the fact that it is very versatile. While a person with only a minimal understanding of web technologies can create a functional website on WordPress it also offers more robust and complex features for those more tech-savvy individuals.

With this being said, anyone can create a website. Creating high traffic, a money-making, web page is much more difficult. Here we will look at eight items that, if implemented from day one, will dramatically improve a website’s chances of success.

1. Choose The Right Host

Not all web hosts are created equal. Some are not designed to host word press sites and others are not all tailored towards eCommerce. Choosing a host that fits one’s needs is a fairly easy process. Sites like HostAdvice offer quality information on just this topic.

2. Conduct Product/Market Research

Some people already have a product they wish to sell before they create their eCommerce platforms, but many do not. It is important to pick a product for which there is a current demand. Picking a product in a saturated or highly competitive market is likely to lead to failure in most cases. The key is to find a product for which there are high demand and a low amount of options for the consumer.

3. Define Target Audience

This is usually one of the more difficult parts of the eCommerce process. One has to define exactly who is most likely to buy their product. It is important to remember that not all market research is of equal value. Almost anyone will give their opinion or thoughts on a product, that does not mean that they will purchase it.

4. Analyze Competition

People are likely to review a product that they have purchased. This is especially true if they have some type of complaint about the product. This information can help an individual deliver a product that is superior to that of its competitors.

“The same is true about the things that a competitor does well. There may be certain features a competitor’s product has that its customers greatly enjoy. There may also be certain types of business practices, or customer service initiatives, that have garnered them a good reputation and customer trust,” says Gabriella Kirk, an eCommerce expert at 1Day2Write and Writemyx. These aspects can also be learned.

5. Don’t Forget SEO

Search Engine Optimization has become a must for all eCommerce platforms. There is so much competition for visibility that if one does not engage in SEO they are very unlikely to have any web presence at all. No one will buy a business’s products or services if they are not aware they exist.

6. Use Social Media

Social Media has become so important for businesses. Fifteen years ago not many companies were on social media, these days not being on social media means being irrelevant. Social media also allows businesses to interact with their customer base in a much more intimate way than traditional means of communication.

“Social Media also provides a means of cheap and effective marketing. Producing content regularly ensures that one’s business page appears in the feed of those who have liked or followed them,” explains Hillary Adams, a tech blogger at Nextcoursework and Australia2write.

7. Provide Different Payment Options

People like options when it comes to payment. Offering customers to provide payment with any of the major credit cards, along with PayPal or another payment service is likely to help attract customers.

8. Create an Email List

The email list is one of the oldest methods of internet marketing and it is still relevant today. Email lists allow businesses to connect directly with customers in regards to sales or new items. The fact that it has been a may-stay of internet marketing for so long is proof that it works.

These eight steps are essential for creating high traffic, income-generating, eCommerce site. Without just one of these, the odds of success fall greatly. It is important to understand that one does not have to do it all themselves. Many businesses offer SEO, digital marketing, social media managing, and web design at affordable rates.

_________________________________

Blog Author: Michael Dehoyos

Michael Dehoyos is a web developer at PhD Kingdom and Academic brits. He has years of experience in developing digital marketing strategies and has also contributed to numerous online publications. He also serves as a writer at Assignment Help academic service.

How to respond to a negative customer feedback
Marketing, Tips & Tutorials

How to Respond to a Negative Customer Feedback

1 Comment

Getting customer feedback is vitally important for any company. Not only does it provide the invaluable insight you wouldn’t otherwise obtain but also allow you to express your stance on any issue and assure your customers that you have everything under control in a timely fashion.

Modern technologies have made communicating with one’s customers easier than ever before. Instead of relying on snail mail that can be lost or dismissed, clients now can post their feedback on a company’s social media page. While it’s great, if their feedback is negative or critical of the company, it means that the whole world will see it.

Sometimes, the prospect of it sends the company into panic mode. To avoid blunders in dealing with negative feedback, read about the following common mistakes and ways to eschew them!

Deleting any negative feedback

Given how many dangers and threats social media pose, it can be easy to dismiss an overly-negative customer post as an attempt to discredit your business paid for by some shady competitor. After all, what does a client even know about running a company, much less your company?

However, such a line of thinking can lead you to some dark places. When you’re worried that an unfair negative post on your social media may damage your brand, sometimes, the “block user” button becomes incredibly tempting.

But this temptation should be resisted. As they say, the internet remembers everything, and deleting negative comments and blocking critical users will be noticed. And no matter how undeserved those comments are, deleting them will send a bad message to your other customers and potential customers.

And of course, deleting a Facebook comment, for example, won’t stop the person complaining from telling all their friends and acquaintances to stay away from your service. In fact, it will likely do the opposite.

Not to mention that negative user reviews help to make positive ones look more real. According to a Trustpilot survey, 57% of customers trust a company less if it has no negative reviews.

So the bottom line is clear: do not ever delete negative customer comments! The only exception is reviews that threaten you or use hate speech. But even when dealing with such unpleasantries, it’s better to inform a website moderator about it than to take justice into your own hands. Besides, the notion of what constitutes trolling or hate speech may vary for different people so leave vigilantism to Dirty Harry and no one will be able to blame you for mishandling a situation.

Taking too long to address the issue

Few things are as frustrating as long and painful wait for a response. Responses to user feedback are not exempted from this rule.

Our lives today are extremely fast-paced, not in the least, thanks to modern technologies. Your customers expect their issues to be dealt with as swiftly as possible – or at least, to be assured that they will be dealt with shortly.

With social media and the internet, you don’t have any excuses for not looking into the issue ASAP, and your clientele knows that.

Even if the problem itself takes more time to fix, you should get back to the customer and let them know the solution is coming. It’s never a bad idea to apologize for the inconvenience, either, if there is a delay.

Using copy and pasted responses

This mistake is particularly common. It’s likely because of the feeling it gives you: the feeling that you’ve done away with a problem. After all, you didn’t ignore the negative post, right? You replied, “Thank you for your feedback, we’re looking forward to providing our services to you in the future”. It took you all of five seconds. Well done?

Not really. Especially you give the same response to ten other comments on the same page.

It’s also necessary to understand that even if you fixed the problem the customer was complaining about, you should do better than to resort to a standard faceless response.  If you can rectify the issue that a customer has with your company, you shouldn’t keep it quiet!

Indeed, eliminating any issue can be a great boost to your company image. Nobody really expects you not to have any hiccups ever, that’s just not realistic. However, when people see that you are quick to improve and do your best to provide great customer service, they tend to think higher of you and your business.

So the takeaway is this: give personal responses to criticism. A very simple but effective tactic here is to reiterate the customer’s problem in your reply. Let’s take a look at this example from Tripadvisor.com:

The hotel manager doesn’t only refer to the complaining customer by their name but also sprinkles some information unique to this particular case in the second sentence of the reply.

Of course, this strategy works great whether you run a hotel or design websites for one simple reason: it shows the customer that you care about the issues they’re having.

Another thing to show your human side is to express empathy. Just a short mention of how you got in a similar situation will go a long way to give you and the customer some common grounds.

_____________________________

Blog Author: Dean Chester

Dean Chester is a practicing cybersecurity expert and author of numerous articles on Cooltechzone and other tech websites such as Sensorstechforum, Bdtechtalks, AT&T, OpenVPN, etc. Dean is a fan of all topics related to data privacy and cybersecurity. He usually takes part in various tech tutorials, forums, conferences, etc. He can be reached at twitter@DeanChe36640282

How to Easily Import Tumblr into WordPress
Tips & Tutorials

How to Easily Import Tumblr into WordPress

Leave a comment

Seeking import Tumblr into WordPress? Due to a builtin tool from WordPress, it really is unbelievably simple to migrate your own content out of Tumblr for your very own personal WordPress website. The truth is that upon getting yourself tiny housekeeping from this way in which, the majority of the procedure is completely automatic.

Within this piece, we will start discussing the consequences of migrating out of Tumblr into WordPress.

Afterward, we will explain just how exactly to export Tumblr into WordPress in 5 straightforward actions.

What you want to consider when you migrate from Tumblr to WordPress

Tumblr websites are relatively easy when it comes to their composition. At their core, you’ve articles, that can comprise both media and text elements:

Considering that Tumblr is mostly micro-posts’, importing its content to WordPress is simple normally.

Your articles should look mainly the same within WordPress, with two caveats — WordPress can’t import’re-blogs or enjoys, as they are indigenous to Tumblr.

In addition, you won’t be able to bring along your exact Tumblr design. But there are thousands of paid and free WordPress themes, so you are probably able to find something about the same (and maybe better).

Steps to migrate from Tumblr to WordPress

Before you may import Tumblr into WordPress then you need to purchase web hosting and then install the WordPress software Otherwise we can take help from WordPress development company for the installation

If you’re not certain about the way to do that, you should check out our guide on what steps to take to best to generate a website using WordPress. Entire steps 1 3 and then come back here in order to import your Tumblr content into WordPress.

Or, even if you already have a fresh WordPress install prepared to go, then you can jump into importing your own content. Here is how:

1. Register a Tumblr application

WordPress comprises an integrated application to manually successfully automatically export Tumblr into WordPress. In order to get this particular specific tool, you will have to offer it consent.

To successfully Do So, you Have to Produce a’ Tumblr Program’ which Gives You the Opportunity to join either program:

⦁ Sign into to Tumblr
⦁ Open up your own accounts configurations
⦁ Seem to your Programs tab onto the menu for the Ideal

Around the next display, Tumblr can request that you enroll to utilize its API should you’ve not done. Click the Sign-up button and Choose the Sign-up program alternative over another display:

You need to fill some sort out. Here Is What to input each area that is Essential:

Application name: That can be really for your own reference only, therefore proceed with all those names you’ll want.

Application website: Enter the URL of the own WordPress Site.

Application description: That can be added for the own eyes so write everything you’d like.

Administrative contact email: don’t hesitate to make utilize of precisely exactly the exact identical electronic mail you enrolled Tumblr with.

Default callback URL: Enter the URL of the own WordPress site formerly again.

Once you are finished, scroll on the base of the monitor and affirm the enrollment. Your program details are going to show up on the display:

You will discover there is some information about your program underneath its name. You’re going to need that the OAuth Consumer Secret at a minute, as well as your key. You can reveal the latter by simply clicking the Display secret key choice.

Obviously, we’re not revealing you either of ours as, effectively, they’re secret! But, keep this tab available for now, open a new one and head to your WordPress dashboard.

2. Add your application keys to WordPress

As we’ve mentioned, you’re likely to use an integrated importer tool to accomplish the heavy lifting of transferring your Tumblr articles to WordPress. To get this done, go to the Programs > Import tab within WordPress. Right here, You Will Locate an alternative that says Tumblr — select the Set up Now option below:

It will only have a couple of minutes to your own importer to install. When it is ready, the Install Currently button will be replaced with an option reading through Run Importer. After clicking this, then the importer will automatically help you through the process of producing a Tumblr app. Obviously, you’ve done this already, therefore skip right on down to where it asks you to the OAuth Purchaser Critical along with Key

You may then need to go back once again to the open tab from earlier and copy both keys over to WordPress. When you have added both keys to their individual disciplines, just click the Connect to Tumblr button in WordPress.

If that is so, the plugin will likely Request That You authorize the relationship between the two programs — proceed Beforehand and do so:

Tumblr will then Request That You verify the authorization:

Once it has finished, you are all set to start the export procedure in earnest.

3. Run the WordPress Tumblr importer

After approving the link amongst both programs, you are going to observe a break down of one’s Tumblr site and its particular articles. From that display, You Can Choose that the WordPress writer That You Want to attach your Tumblr articles to

The moment you decided, hit on the Publish this site button and then permit WordPress to function its own magic. This region of the procedure could have a little while based on just how much material you are employing and also your WordPress website host.

Even though the plugin is currently performing everything, You Are Going to Observe an”In progress” message

The moment it is finished, a victory message will be, so that your articles will be already ready. First, to look at your chosen Tumblr articles, go to this Articles tab and then start every one of those items.

You are going to see that there are lots more choices to personalize and format your articles.

Moreover, your WordPress site may appear much different from which you used to on Tumblr. But this is sometimes adjusted.

4. Try to match your Tumblr design

Right out of the box, WordPress utilizes themes with incredibly tidy, modern layouts. They do not look bad, but they are not as fun (or familiar) as your Tumblr site’s style could have been. An easy and simple way to correct this is by putting in new themes — WordPress lets you use free or premium selections.

Once you locate a motif that you like, you are able to put in the new theme and customize it using the WordPress Customizer.

In the event you prefer to simply take this a stage further, web page builder plugins such as Elementor enable you to develop into a programmer and provide full management over your site’s design and also look. This element of WordPress can be overwhelming in the beginning time. WordPress development services provide a very attractive site design.

5. Redirect your Tumblr domain to WordPress

There is yet another depth to treat until you are finished — in the event that you’re utilizing a personalized domain name with your Tumblr site, you’re going to wish to divert it in direction of WordPress. To successfully do so, you are going to want to gain access to your domain and upgrade your own name servers to tip in Tumblr into WordPress. In case you are not certain about the way to complete so you will request your internet host service for assistance.

But in the event that you utilized a Tumblr sub-domain (such as username.tumblr.com), the method becomes somewhat more straightforward since you can not divert a Tumblr subdomain inside this manner. A workaround may be to generate a single very last Tumblr site article, pointing persons on your brand new site. But you might like to fix this together with code.

To begin with, get into the Tumblr dash and then click the Zoom look possibility. After that, click on Edit:

Then Start Looking for That Edit HTML alternative from the menu:

A whole lot of all HTML may be, however, avoid being intimidated. Search to the tags and glue the next code involving these. Be Certain to substitute:

The previous snippet will not require some editing, which means that you’re secure to conserve the alterations to your own HTML. Nowadays, whenever someone attempts to get only one of one’s Tumblr articles, they will certainly be redirected into WordPress alternatively!

_____________________________

Blog Author: Rohit Jangid

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is RohitJangid.png
Rohit Jangid as a Digital Marketing Executive in the leading WordPress Development Company named Techno Softwares and there he handles all works related to SEO, SMO, PPC, SME, Content Writing and E-mail Marketing Works.
5 things you can learn by using Google Search Console
Marketing, Tips & Tutorials

5 things you can learn by using Google Search Console

Leave a comment

My website is the best and there’s nothing that should be improved. Said no one, never. Everyone who has a website would like to see it progress and develop, don’t you agree?

Nowadays, when you literally need to pay for everything, it’s very neat to find free tools that actually work and have a purpose. Google itself has several free tools that you need to start using today because it will save your life 👍

Today, we’re going to be tackling this amazing Google tool called Google Search Console that helps you measure your site’s search traffic and performance, fix issues, and make your site shine in Google Search results. Not bad? Let’s get  started 🔎

How to set up Google Search Console?

To be able to utilize all Google Search Console benefits, you firstly need to set it up. To start, click on this page, and sign in to your Google account. Please note that this has to be the same account that other Google tools are set up with. If you’re just getting started and this is the first tool you’re using, no worries, simply sign in with your most-used Google account. 

After signing in, a window will pop up and all you need to do is enter your website’s URL. After you’ve done that, click “CONTINUE”.

Verification time ✔️ Now it’s time to verify your website and  Google Search Console allows you to do this in multiple ways. For example, if you already have your Google Analytics set up, the easiest way to do this is to select Google Analytics Tracking code, as long as your Google Analytics tracking code is located in the <head> section.

You can also verify it by adding an HTML file to your website, meta tags to the homepage or complete the process on the Google Tag Manager or change DNS settings. 

What can you do with Google Search Console?

1. Sitemaps  

Sitemaps represent the list of all website pages that help web spiders (web crawlers, ant, automatic indexers) to more efficiently collect information on pages and its links. Having sitemaps with Google Search Console is very important, as you’re helping the search engine to better understand the relationship between pages, identify which pages are more important, but also to discover other important data such as when the page was last changed, how many times and so on.

How to add sitemaps?

Step 1: Choose which sitemap format you would like to use, as Google supports many formats. You can also create the sitemap itself on your own or use some other third-party tools to do so.

Step 2: Add the sitemap in Google Search Console – Index > Sitemaps 

2. Reporting

Anyone who comes to your website through a web search had to use a specific term that led him to that website/page. This tool shows the most frequently used phrases or keywords that people searched and opened your website. But, that’s not all.

Under the “Performance” tab in the reporting section, Google Search Console provides an insight into how your website is ranking on search engines when it comes to keywords and most visited pages. You can also better understand where your visitors come from, as well as which devices they used to look through your website.

What you can also do is select a specific time frame and get information on total clicks, average position on search engines, total impressions or the number how many times your website showed in search results and an average CTR (click-through-rate), which is the ratio between the total number of clicks and number of impressions. 


3. Mobile-friendly website

We all know that most website visits are nowadays made over smartphones, so it’s a must to ensure the website is mobile-friendly. But, how do you check this? The easiest way to do it is to check it yourself. There’s also an option that Google Search Console itself checks if the website satisfies mobile device standards.

How? Under “Enhancements”, choose Mobile Usability. If Google doesn’t show any errors in the report, you’re good to go.

If you get some error, this report will help you identify which specific parts of the website are not working properly on mobile phones, such as flash or small fonts.

4. Backlinks

Anyone who remotely cares about SEO will be interested in backlinking. Links that lead to your website but are present on someone else’s website are called backlinks and represent one of the most important criteria for ranking, as any time someone clicks on the links and comes to your website, your Google ranking improves and you get a higher approval rate.

This information can be found under the “Links” section on the left-hand side. If you click there, you get to the report which shows the total number of external and internal links. External links represent all pages in which links are on someone else’s website, whereas internal links are links that are located within your website. 

If you want to see which website has most links towards your website, all you have to do is select the “Top linking sites” tab, and “Top linking text” if you want to find out which name or keywords set your website is linked. 

By clicking on any word, site or page within this report you can further analyze each result.

5. Error, error on the wall

Bad links, unindexed pages, and 404 errors are known to harm the customer experience. Not only your customers and visitors will see you badly, but the Google algorithm will, too.

Under Index > Coverage, you will find a report that summarizes link status in the eyes of Google search engine, such as the number of indexed pages, as well as pages that have index problems. 

This valuable information can be used to enhance customer experience and prevent terrible and frustrating errors to occur.

So?

Google Search Console is a tool that is completely free and can be used to better understand, analyze and improve your website’s ranking. This webmaster tool is a place you should refer to in the first place and use it regularly. 

Until next time 😉