Introduction
WordPress is a widely used content management system, powering 43% of all websites. With its popularity comes the attention of hackers who target WordPress sites. To ensure the security of your WordPress website, it is crucial to take proactive measures and keep your site updated. In this guide, we will provide you with non-technical steps and recommendations to manage your WordPress website security effectively.
Regularly updating your WordPress core, theme, and plugins is one of the most critical steps in minimizing security risks. Outdated software can contain vulnerabilities that hackers exploit. Follow these steps to keep your site updated:
PHP is the programming language on which WordPress runs. Like any software, PHP regularly releases new versions to improve security and functionality. Upgrading your PHP version reduces the risk of exposing your site to hacks and ensures compatibility with the latest features. Here's how you can upgrade your PHP version:
Taking backups and using security plugins are essential practices to safeguard your WordPress site. Follow these steps to manage backups and enhance site security:
4. WP Toolkit: Your Essential WordPress Management Solution
Manage and Secure Your WordPress Site with Ease
If you're a WordPress user, ensuring the security and smooth operation of your website is crucial. That's where the WP Toolkit comes in. This powerful resource, available within your cPanel, offers a range of features and tools designed to simplify WordPress site management and enhance its security. Let's explore the capabilities of the WP Toolkit, empowering you to safeguard your website effectively.
WordPress Toolkit
1. Discovering Your Site with the WP Toolkit
Locate, Scan, and Monitor Your WordPress Sites with Ease
When accessing the WP Toolkit in your cPanel, you might initially wonder how to find your WordPress site(s). Here's a simple process to help you locate and monitor your sites effortlessly:
2. Empowering Tools for Enhanced Control
Efficiently Manage and Optimize Your WordPress Site
The WP Toolkit offers a range of powerful tools to help you take control of your WordPress site and optimize its performance:
3. Effortless Backup and Restoration
Protect Your Data and Restore Your Site with Ease
Ensuring a reliable backup and restoration system is essential for any WordPress site. With the WP Toolkit, you can enjoy effortless backup and restoration processes:
4. Verifying Integrity and Maintenance Mode
Ensure Site Integrity and Customize User Experience
If you suspect a compromise or want to enhance user experience during maintenance, the WP Toolkit offers essential features:
5. Video Resource: Exploring the WP Toolkit
Visual Walkthrough of Essential Features and Functionality
To help you familiarize yourself with the WP Toolkit and its various features, we've prepared a short video walkthrough. Click the link below to access the video and get a visual demonstration of how the WP Toolkit can enhance your WordPress site management:
By investing time in understanding and utilizing the WP Toolkit, you gain the knowledge and tools necessary to effectively manage and secure your WordPress site on a daily basis. Proactively using the WP Toolkit significantly reduces the risk of your site falling victim to malicious attacks, ensuring a smooth and secure online presence.
Most people I think will say an email is just an email is just an email …. however the email system/servers are quite complex, and sending an email to a recipient through the various filters and firewalls trying to remove unwanted SPAM in itself is quite a feat.
We would like to focus on what email services are available and why we recommend the service we do.
A good place to start would be what do you need an email for? Is this for personal use or professional use? How many emails do you send and receive? Do you keep/store your emails on the server or on your own device or both? Do you archive your emails or just hope that the emails on your email account or own device cannot be deleted or damaged?
There are many more such questions, than we realise, this process of selecting and using email accounts needs a bit more thought then we generally give them.
I would like to categorise emails into 3 groups, and briefly discuss each.
Email Categories:
Free Email accounts.
Unfortunately what is free has its limitations, the main issue here is you cannot add your own domain, for some this is not a problem, for a business email account this is not a good idea. Free email account providers also add their own filters and you as the account holder cannot modify these, as a result some emails will not be sent or received. Free email accounts are not recommended, however its good to have one, especially a Gmail account as a backup or use it when you need to register an online account.
Emails combined with hosting, the all in one solution.
This is probably the most common way of creating email accounts with your own domain and quite cost effective, but while this does the job and we offer this product and is used extensively, we do not think its the best option, and in the long run not even the cheapest. Most, all-in-one solutions can be cost effective and can be a good product but can never compete with a specialist provider. Hence our third option will be what we recommend, please read on to see why.
Independent Email providers.
We believe that this option will check all the boxes when it comes to reliable value for money email service. Having emails hosted by an email specialist service is the best way to reduce email non delivery and outage risks. IDS Hosting has sourced such an independent email service after many months of research.
We have had a lot of good results and feedback from our corporate clients who use our independent professional email service.
The email facility works through a webmail interface and can set up groups and admins as required. The interface can also be branded if required when requested.
For a full professional structure we recommend an Independent DNS, with our Professional Email Accounts and a Custom Hosting Package for a website as required.
For more information contact IDS Hosting: support@idshosting.co.za, WhatsApp: +27 72 983 6692
Why is it better to use an independent DNS?
If you are reading this article you probably know what a DNS is.
Here is a brief reminder.
One of the functions of DNS - Domain Name System is an interface between us humans' way of doing things and the machine and its way of doing things.eg humans like using words instead of numbers, machines prefer numbers. So we use a word, we call a domain, eg idshosting.co.za to point to a number which is an IP address and vice versa.
Its the place where all the data traffic linked to a domain no matter what it is, can be emails, website traffic etc all come to the DNS, where it is sent to its correct destination. This destination can all be in the same place or in various locations. Eg a website in one place, emails in another, and the DNS can also be in a separate location.
Hence the reason for this brief article to give our views, based on many years of practical experience on why it is better to have a separate Domain Name System.
Here is a typical flow of information relating to the DNS server. The DNS server is pivotal in directing data traffic to the right place/s and can be used to improve performance and improve security thus reducing risk at a number of levels.
There are a number of independent DNS server providers and each has their range of features, but the basic functionality will all be the same.
Here are some features offered by IDS Hosting DNS.
Extracts from: https://idshosting.co.za/dns/
What is an Anycast server?
These are a collection of servers spread around the world, for this product, 34 are available, that share the same IP address. When you use the premium nameservers we supply, with a 'p' in front, the best location is selected for all round best performance and most secure.
This is also used if there is a DDOS attack where the load is spread and will thus have less affect on your website, keeping it online.
DNS Hosting can thus have a 100% uptime due to the large amount of servers worldwide to catch traffic from one server and pass it on to another. Here is where your risk is reduced and uptime from a DNS point of view will be 100%. This will keep your website online and emails working 100% of the time by having no DNS failures. So keeping DNS separate from your hosting for the business that must stay online is imperative.
You do not need to have a working knowledge of DNS although its a definite advantage but only need to understand the concept. IDS Hosting support can assist in setting your DNS, and very little will need to be done on the zone again, but to relax in the knowledge that your risks of downtime are reduced with the benefit of improved online speed and security.
Additional advantages is the facility to park a domain, have statistics available, redirect a website which standard DNS facility cannot do, and more as indicated in the bullet points above.
For more info: https://idshosting.co.za/dns/
Contact us: support@idshosting.co.za
WhatsApp text: +27 72 983 6692
What is Custom Hosting?
For those who already understand what hosting is, in the context of website and website development and email services, adding to the a concept of making it customisable is simple to grasp.
If you are not sure what Hosting is then you can read this article: https://idshosting.co.za/what-is-hosting/
Hosting is made up of a number of components or facilities, these facilities change from package to package and hosting companies.
One feature for example is the space allocated to a hosting package, this is a very important one if not the most important. Let's say we have 3 packages, a 1Gb, 3Gb and 5Gb. You can then decide what package you want, but each package is usually quite static, so the 1Gb package may offer 5 email accounts, 3Gb may offer 10 email accounts etc.
What if you want lots of space but only need 2 email accounts, you will buy the 5Gb package that offers say 30 email accounts, so you are really paying for features that you do not want and is costing you more.
Custom Hosting is a way around the static hosting package offering a single package that can be what you want it to be.
You decide what you want and how much of it you want.
For your convenience we have created 2 Custom Hosting packages based on space rangers:
These are the hosting features that can be ‘dialed in’ to whatever you want:
For Custom Hosting Regular:
For Custom Hosting Business:
Not only is Custom Hosting cost effective as the cost of the package is what is required, but the R/Gb cost is also much less than the standard shared hosting packages.
Once your package is operational it's just as simple to upgrade or downgrade its features by logging into the IDS client area, select the service and proceed to the upgrade/downgrade link, here you can make changes to the features listed above.
The question would be if you are reading this is do I Backup or Archive or both?
To answer the question we need to know what is an Email Backup and What is an Email Archive?
What is an Email Backup?
Email backup is designed to be a short to medium term fail safe to quickly recovery of email files that may not be available due to unexpected data loss. This loss can be as a result of: accidental deletion, ransomware attack, losing access to emails due to: theft or sabotage. With email backup, users can typically select a date in time and restore a copy of any email or a group of emails.
What is an Email Archive?
An email archive provides ongoing access to long term business information which includes: email files, attachments, calendars and tasks. For many regulated companies such as financial services, healthcare or legal services, email archiving is required by law as it provides tools for including ways to make email records tamper-proof, searchable and retrievable in the event of an audit, inquiries or litigation.
How to choose between Backup or Archive.
We have a good idea on what the difference is although still many questions need to be answered.
However even though each each method has many more features not discussed yet, there should be a good idea of what you need.
Do I need to backup to be able to easily recover emails or do I need to backup to store emails. What if you need both, then Archive. Archive includes a Backup, a Backup is not an Archive. So why even have a Backup facility if an Archive includes a Backup? A backup only is simpler and its cheaper.
What does IDS Hosting offer and why?
IDS Hosting offers 3 types of Backups and Archiving.
Personal Email Backup
So why have a Personal Email Backup and a Business Email Backup?
The Personal Backup is based on Space, you purchase a set number of Gigabytes of space and in this space you can add as mail email accounts as you wish. Is the simplest and most effective Back Facility for low volume space requirements.
Business Email Backup
The Business Email Backup is based on the user and space is unlimited. If you have 50 emails accounts for example you need 50 users or seats as its also referred to. The advantage is space is not limited but it has the added advantage that each user can be given access to there own backup on the cloud while the Personal Email Backup there is one administrator over all email accounts.
Business Email Archive
The Archive facility has all the Business Backup Features plus the advantage of the Archiving. Some of the amazing features are: eDiscovery, Saved Searches, Compliance Tags, Retention Policy, Delegated Access, Group Access and a lot more.
For more information:
Access the Websites page.
Study the Data Sheets
Contact Us
Email Archive, the new buzz word or is it?
With 3.5 million (2020) emails sent every second of every day, there must be some value in it. Emails is an extremely valuable source of information and as a result it should be stored safely, be searchable and not cost a lot of money.
At IDS Hosting we have been working with Emails for many years and researched the best possible ways to structure a cost effective email management and archiving system.
There are currently 5 ways to store your emails and we will run through them in the most concise way as possible. From this you can contact us with an informed approach to ask the right questions so we can set you up to what will work for your concerm.
Recommended Email storage Methods:
1.eMail Client
This method we usually do anyway, emails are downloaded from the server onto an eMail Client, like Outlook, Thunderbird, MacMail etc on our devices such as PC, Mac, Laptop, Tablet or Mobile. If the email account setup is POP3 the emails are physically downloaded on the device and from there can be copied to another location for archiving. This method is probably the most inexpensive, but very difficult to retrieve and depending on where the archived emails are kept could be the most at risk to get damaged or deleted.
2.Hosting Server
When emails are downloaded onto your own eMail client (like Outlook) on your device (PC, Laptop), the email client can be set up in a number of ways on what to do with the emails on the server. (a) eMails are left on the server, usually the default, (b) emails are deleted off the server after downloading, and (c) can be set to be left on the server for a number of days determined by yourself. Leaving emails on the server is fine as long as there is enough space on your hosting package, once this space is used up, then you could be incurring more costs, cost we call overage IDS Hosting. Overage is when you over run the space allocated in your subscribed hosting package. For example you have subscribed to a Business Package of 5Gb, you exceed 5Gb space used and overage charges are incurred, invoice month in arrears. These costs are usually quite small at R20/Gb, but can be quite substantial if left to accumulate. Archiving in the manner can be expensive with moderate risk of data loss or deletion.
3.Hosting Server Archive
Emails can be archived within your existing IDS Hosting Package, this is a cPanel function that has been activated for your convenience. Once configured emails are sent to your separate archive as per your requirements. You determine the Archived for period of time. These emails can be downloaded, viewed in your webmail and email client. Each email account can be set up individually and incoming and outgoing also separately. Space used is from the exiting hosting package although the archived file is compressed. There is a lot of documentation only to get more info on this functionality.
4.Archive Personal (space)
This email archiving method has been used by IDS Hosting clients for many years, although it does have its limitations its a good option to investigate.
The limitation here is space, you purchase archive space and the number email of accounts backed up are unlimited. There is only one administration panel and each email users does not have access to their own data. This method of arching works well when managed by at a central point.
Emails are downloaded from the hosting account daily. Emails set up on the mail client like MS Outlook, Thunderbird etc should be IMAP, this way all emails are synced back to the server for archiving. If POP is used to download emails to the email client only incoming is stored on the server for archiving.
There is a host of functionality which included:
To find out more and look at cost structures here is a link to follow:
https://idshosting.co.za/email-archiving/
5. Archive Business (user)
This is a welcome addition to our growing list of Email Archiving Solutions.
This is a user based email archiving plan. Its purchased by user but grouped under an account such as a company managed by the account holder or representation who give access to each user there their archive as required.
Email User Accounts can be managed by department with various permissions levels, from read only to full administration privileges.
Once an account is created the number of users or seats are acquired, this is flexible and can be increased or decreased.
Space occupied is unlimited and duration is also unlimited as long as the subscription remains covered.
The functionality is large which included:
For more info here is link to our webpage where you can see up to date info and costs: https://idshosting.co.za/email-archiving/
6.Archive Other
Archiving of emails does cost and thus how its archived depends on how important the data is to the end user. Legal requirements differ depending on the industry and how valuable a resource it is.
Archive other at this time is our Emails Archived via our SPAM EXPERTS which is viewed by many of our clients as significant and of extreme value.
The Archive emails in this way the emails will need to be scanned in or out or in and out. Emails are routed via SPAM EXPERTS and archived. Functionality is not as extensive as products numbers: 4 and 5 above but significant, an extremely cost effective archiving method.
For more information here is a link to our website:
https://idshosting.co.za/email-spam-solution/
It is software that is used to publish blog websites!
Its very good software, open sourced thus cost effective and extremely flexible to do more than just blogs (web logs).
WordPress although best suited for blog websites, can be easily configure to be used for more traditional websites with many pages and a full menu structure, including a full shopping cart and many more really good plugins.
WordPress Content Managed websites have been around for a long time, so why blog about it?
To answer my own question, as a hosting company and web developers that primarily develops content managed websites (websites that can be edited easily via an admin or back-end facility) we have noticed a trend towards WordPress websites for a few reasons:
IDS WebDesign is focussing more on WordPress as a Content Managed Website solution and have the in-house skills to develop the required templates.
Shared Hosting in today's world is a completely different 'animal' to what is was a few years back. Many in the industry who hear of this type of hosting today still believes it to be inferior. It might have been before, but with the advance made in server power, lowering machine cost, greatly improved software and security measure, shared hosting has become stable, reliable and amazingly cost effective.
Although Shared Hosting in our opinion can be used in most website applications, it's not suitable for every occasion and script. it is used mostly for entry level projects, but can and is used for some very large sites and applications.
If you look at a scenario of an entry level website and email facility from a new business, especially an online business not so much a brochure type website facility. At some point if the online business keeps growing the website, database and email server will require more power, more memory, space, custom server settings, dedicated IPs, higher levels of security, and dedicated server or larger VPS infrastructure will be needed. Quite often the hosting provider might approach the online business to say that the shared environment is not going to be so effective and a better solution can be found.
For the business that' just showcases its products online with a contact form etc, this scenario can remain comfortable on a shared hosting environment for its entire lifetime and operate at its most efficient without a dedicated solution.
Shared Hosting is also scalable which allows for growth. Need more space, its usually just a case of upgrading to a larger package or subscribing to more space on the same hosting package. IDS Hosting offers an overage facility which allows for growth in space usage, over and above the subscribed capacity.
For Business Entrepreneurs serious about managing risk and staying online no matter the odds, we recommend the Business Hosting Package. Based on a shared environment initially. it's a one stop get it all no matter what's needed. A bolt on approach with easy to set up and configure to what's required at the time, as the business conditions change so the facility is tweaked to s new level.
When you are ready to select a Hosting Package for a Website or embark on a Website Project, there are a number of key issues to look at. One can draw up a pretty complicated flow diagrams to direct you through the process. From our experience most people seem to jump in the deep end and deal with issues or obstacles during the process or find out afterwards that there are problems or better ways to get a better result. This of course is a huge generalisation but most will agree there is a bit of truth in this way of doing things.
We have been in the Website Hosting and Development Business long enough to give sound guidelines on Website Development and how that should be integrated with the relevant Business Model, Marketing and Digital Marketing Strategies. We would like to point out a few areas that will help make this process more focussed with better end results.
Itemised Considerations in Selecting the Correct Business Hosting Facility.
IDS Hosting has a great product for anyone who just wants an email facility and no web site hosting. You will have full Control Panel access to:
So how do I go about setting up an email account with IDS hosting?
How much does it cost?
View the latest prices on our website under Hosting >> Email Hosting.
Why do I need my own domain for an email account?
To have a custom email address is the purpose of the exercise, for your business etc.
name@mydomain.co.za is an example. You or us register the ‘mydomain’ with the relevant registrar, like co.za, org.za, za.net etc and you add in the name before the @ sign via your Control panel, here you can add anyname or word. The custom email creates a good impression all round for a business, club etc.
As your business grows and you employ more staff you can allocate each with a new corporate email address which you can set up to be accessed via your email client such as MS Outlook,MS Express, Mozilla Thunderbird etc. at no extra cost.
Here are some more options you might like: eMail Hosting
To start a new web site there are quite a few questions you need to ask yourself.
Here are a few:
Each one of these points is a complete study on its own, and volumes can be written about them.
We will touch on each to help give you some ideas:
Do I really need a Website?
If you can answer this question honestly you can save yourself a lot of money and hard work.
If you do not need a site and force your way to setting one up it may just end up being a pet project/hobby, nice to have, but does not serve a purpose.
Will it add value?
What are my goals for my website?
What do you want to achieve with the site, have you got a clear goal/s in mind?
Your goal might even be to learn to put a site together, it may not always be about marketing a product or service.
Whats the purpose of the website, am I selling or promoting?
The use of the site will determine how much you will need to spend, the look & feel of the site.
Do I know what are the components of setting & running a web site?
– Design & Development, whats it going to look like, not what I like, but what does my market like, do I know my market?
What am I offering that is unique, why would my market come to me and not to another, this is all captured in the design as well.
Who is going to do the development, what level of development do I need, can I go opensource and customize, do I go for a new look
and go via a developer setting it up from scratch, does your developer have a feel of your products.
– Hosting, now that’s an easy question to answer, IDS Hosting, perhaps a bit biased here, but finding the right host can be difficult, I have always gone
by word of mouth, a good reference. We of course would recommend IDS Hosting, but then we at IDS cannot offer every hosting requirement out there, looking for a Linux based OS, Joomla friendly, we can help.
– Upkeep, this is a tough one, how many times have you found a web site with stale content!!
Do I have fresh content?
Good clean, fresh, clear content. Google loves quality content, keep it fresh, even if its a catalogue site, keep updating adding news, how many sites have you gone to the news page and it says the news will be added soon, and you go back weeks later and its the same … not good! Rather dump the news page, good intentions don’t come through well on a web site … its content, content content in a good clean simple wrapper.
Who sets it up, me?
Who knows your product the best, you? then you are the best person to set it up, but do you know how, do you have the time, it takes a lot longer than what you think?
Learning to set up a website while there is a time constraint and a steep learning curve is not so good for the heart … not recommended!
What will it cost to set up and to run?
This wil take a bit of research, some believe that to pay a lot means you get a good product, this is not true, but many fall into this trap, some go for the big names who advertise on TV, the big budget boys, you just paying for their huge overheads. well here I am a biased again, IDS Hosting can set you up very cheaply, you have a stable, reliable & quick foundation at a very reasonable cost. How can we do this, simple: volumes & competition. In a very competitive market you need to know your stuff, do it fast and right, thats us! Bad news travels fast in this media, so we make sure we always have good news to spread about our costs.
How do I get traffic to my site?
This question should really be first for those who are selling a product or service.
To get traffic to your site is no easy and cheap exercise be warned, and if you are not going to use a SEO specialist this is a whole new field to learn and you might find out things like your entire sites design and setup is not liked very much by some very large search engines, and they will not change there rules for you, so you will need to change your set up which could mean a whole new design and approach … talk about chicken & egg.
How do I measure the success of my site?
No good setting up a site and hoping for the best, it needs to be measured, do you know how to measure, what to measure …
For starters Google Analytics is amazing and gives you so much info you need a degree to understand it all, a good place to start, and many stop there, this is not a bad thing either.
How do I keep my site relevant?
This is the million dollar question, how do I keep people coming back, is there a good reason for them to come back, do they speak, blog & twitter about your site, if you can get them to do that you will be loved by Google, but to get this right you need to have the right content in at the right time.
I hope we have touched on a few issue to give you food for thought in setting up and running your web site.
Should you need help with hosting, contact us, we are reasonable, dependable, stable and all those nice sounding words, you see ”We Love to Serve”!
What are my domain name extension options in South Africa?
There are a few options for South Africa with respect to Domain choices.The domain you select can have an impact on your web site. The Domain extension is supposed to give more information on the purpose of the website it is linked to. A co.za domain is for commercial purpose hence the co, an abreviation for commerce. An org extension is used mainly for non-profit organisations.
How important is the Domain name?
The domain name is a very important factor in getting traffic to your site if you are depending on organic search engine traffic, ie traffic from a search engine such as Google that has found your site by means on there bots and not using a sponsored advert approach.
The Domain name needs to tell the user what the function of the site is, eg IDS Hosting, we know its a hosting site, else you need to work very at branding your site like FaceBook. If you have never heard of FaceBook and you where told about it, you would ask for an explanation of wht is it, where MySpace tells a little more of what there function is.
So when when your main keyword for your site, like Hosting is for IDS Hosting is in the domain name it carries more weight than if it is a co.za or anorg.za for a search engine pioint of view. That’s why choosing a domain name & extension is very important. What you gain on a search engine by having a name for example of: freshfish.org.za which sees the fish which might be an importantkeyword, others may think its a non profit organisation.
How search engines see ZAR extensions?
If you wish to have an international web site but select a co.za extension you will not get very far as Google via there Web tools does not allow you to focus your site on any other country other than South Africa, so you are pretty much snookered there. but you could look at a second level domain such as za.com or za.net if you would like to keep the SA flavour for local market interest as well.
The South African Market is not as sensitive to .com or .net tld’s as the international community is to co.za tld’s so this is also a consideration, but the problem is that you will probably not find a domain with your keyword in it unless you go toa long three word domain name such as chipsfreshfish.com which is long and cumbersome.
Sponsored Ads.
Even though I mentioned above that domain names are not so important in sponsored links as in organic search engine links, having your main keyword in the domain name isa plus and this is seen by Google adwords (sponsored links), and thus a bonus and it does stand out more to catch the eye of your potential clients.
How do I go about obtaining a domain and what do I do with it?
To purchase a domain you need to find out what domain you want, so you need to search for it, you can start by searching for the domain in the IDS Domains Checker: client area
Once you have found your domain/s you need to decide what you are going to do with it:
What are my nameservers?
Nameservers are allocated to specific servers, to find what your hosting account nameservers are this information can be found in your Welcome email sent to you when the account was created. Contact support to have this information resent if required.
This question is asked many thousands of times on Google PER MONTH.
So it makes sense to answer it …….
This term can be used in a few disciplines, Internet have adopted it as well. Its in the IT world that we will discuss HOSTING briefly.
As a HOSTING company its very important to our clients that this term is well understood.
There are three aspects to HOSTING.
A good comparison would be of a house, with an address and a stand to build the house on:
So when you hear someone saying you need hosting for your website, its saying you need a piece of internet space to install and operate your website on.
There are so many types of hosting packages and types of servers (the computer used to host your website) and that will not be covered in this blog.
Should you require hosting for a website, or a blog (web log), or just to have your own email personalised email address our products are extremely reasonable.
We would like to answer a few HOSTING questions that we are asked frequently and that are asked very frequently on most search engines:
These questions are asked thousands of times a day on search engines, we will give short simple answers to help you on your road to a better internet experience:
The questions above might seem a bit cryptic and incorrect grammar, but this is how thousands of internet users are asking the questions:
I hope we have managed to answer a few of your questions.
Should you require HOSTING or WEBSITE DEVELOPMENT, please contact us
When faced with the challenge of setting up a new website what’s the first thing one generally thinks of?
The look of the website!
And so we set off to create a look and feel, then we start filling it with info, normally adding pages as we create until we feel enough has been said … does this sound familiar? You might not do the website yourself, but probably followed the same thought pattern to some degree.
What you have now is a website which looks OK or maybe even good, filled with information, now what do you need to do?
Now your work starts, you need to get your site seen on Search Engines, and this is probably the first time you or most of you have thought about Marketing your site or making it more visible to Search Engines from the time you started designing your website.
When engineers build a car, long before they reach for the sheet metal and welding machines, they know what the car will look like and all its specs, and even for what country it is designed for, because what sells in the UK will not sell in the USA.
So back to websites!
You need to put a lot of thought into building a site before you even think of doing it.
As developers and host, we have many times been approached by clients who have spent huge amounts of time and energy building a website, then published it on our servers, then as an after thought sent us an email asking what we as hosts going to do to get there website to number one position on Google.
If you want traffic to your website via Search Engine searches, then you need to start from the end and work backwards, this will prevent a lot of duplicate work and time wasted.
So what does this mean in practical terms!
Our advise is before you even think of what colour scheme the site will have or the menu structure etc …. make a list of your main keyword/s that will best describe your new website. This might sound silly, but its not that easy, then under each keyword list a few less important but applicable words to each main keyword.
A website with the least amount of main keywords, even down to one main keyword will probably perform better than a website that has a wide range of unrelated keywords. Search Engines such as Google will visit your newly published website and list all your websites words and the frequency and placement of them to find a theme that runs through your site, and this theme is where it will index your website. So if its very diverse it gets a bit confused, and gives it a poor rating and in some cases will not even index your site at all.
Once you are happy that your keyword structure resembles your business or hobby etc website, start working around these keywords always keeping them in mind right down to style, colour, site flow, menus, text, images.
Thus if you set up your website looking Back to Front, you stand a much better chance of organically setting up your website without knowing all the SEO information, and your site will beat a lot of others to the top of the pile in its relevant keyword/theme category.
Happy Web designing!!
