Author: Gunther Kramer

Is updating website software a chore?

Do you feel the pain of updating website software? Does it make you nervous because you’re afraid that it may break something on your website? Are you concerned that you may not be going about it the right way? When was the last time you worked on updating your website software? Be honest, have you been doing it at all?

The internet is a very fast paced component of everyone’s life. It’s exciting to see new technologies emerge, but it’s also scary when we feel we’re being left behind. One of the reasons it changes so quickly is that there is a constant battle behind the scenes between the software developers and the hacking community. Hackers love to hack into websites for a number of reasons. To do so, they constantly pick away at the programming code that makes up various websites. Eventually they find a way to break in and wreak havoc. On the other side, the software developers are working just as furiously to modernize their code to patch up the vulnerabilities that the hackers have gained access to. It’s a never-ending battle.

This is the reason why every piece of software today has updates released by the developers on a constant basis. Updating website software is so important, that some companies used to release updates one a month, then once a week, but now almost all the software developers are releasing software updates in real time. That means that as soon as they have completed a fix for a known vulnerability, it’s released via the internet. We have seen some software developers releasing updates multiple times per week!

Do I need to install the updates right away, or can I wait?

Updating website software needs to be done immediately! The problem is that there is already a huge amount of time that passes between when the hackers break in, and when the corresponding fix is released by the software developers. This timeframe can easily be six months or more, depending on the circumstances involving the complexities of the hack. If you push off updating website software because you simply feel it’s inconvenient to take care of it on an ongoing basis, you’re prolonging the window of opportunity that your website may be broken into.

As a result, your website software should be checked for updates on a daily basis, and you should be updating website software right away. Of course, sometimes updating website software may break your website, so be sure to make a complete backup of all your files, the databases, and any other components relating to your website and your hosting account in general. This gives you an opportunity to restore the backup in case the software updating caused any problems.

This entire process can be quite time-consuming. However, it’s important to check for updates on a daily basis, and if there are any then you should proceed with putting your website in maintenance mode, backing up your entire hosting account, updating the software, testing the website, making the site live again, and finally retesting the entire website again. Pfew! That’s a crazy amount of work, isn’t it? Now consider that you need to do this every day, or even just once or twice per week!

Updating website software takes a lot of time, and must be done correctly.

If you think it’s all too much work, and that chances are pretty good that nothing bad will happen to you, you may be tempted to push off updating website software. You may even decide to just do it once a month, or even just once a year. Obviously this is going to save you a lot of time, but consider what happens if your website gets hacked. You may have invested thousands, or tens of thousands of dollars into it. If it gets compromised and you have to build it up from scratch, it’s an expensive process to go through. Now also consider that while your website is being rebuilt that it’s offline and you’re not generating any revenue from it. How will your clients perceive you when they hear that your site has been compromised? Will they still feel confident dealing with you? Finally, what if the hackers manage to obtain confidential information from your website such as client records, credit card information, trade secrets or more? Now do you still think it makes sense to take such a risky shortcut and not update your website software as soon as the updates are available?!

I need help updating website software!

By now you may have decided that this is all too much to take on yourself. After all, with all the work required, it can quickly feel like a part-time job! Therefore it’s very beneficial to work together with a website management company, such as ourselves. We use sophisticated website monitoring software to constantly keep track of our clients’ websites. As soon as an update is available, we are informed automatically so that we can begin the update process. We have a number of various software tools at our disposal to automate many of the tasks. This ensures that everything is done quickly, efficiently, and of course properly. Finally, we have the entire process monitored and checked by real people. Of course if something should go wrong with updating website software, we’re right on top of it so that it can be repaired immediately.

All this monitoring, backing up, updating and testing that we do, saves our clients’ hours and hours of work every month. They are very happy to pass on all this tedious work to us so that they don’t have to deal with it. It allows them to invest their time into growing their business and generating revenue. Finally they know that everything is professionally taken care of for them, and if any unforeseen problems should arise, they also know that we’re on top of it and fixing it right away.

If you’re not sure whether you should be updating website software and all the related work yourself, or if you should hire a website management company to do so for you, consider the pros and cons of both scenarios. Often it comes down to whether you would rather spend your time or your money. However you should also think about how a professional company has the proper tools, experience and knowledge. If you’re still not sure, it doesn’t hurt to get some consultation and ask a lot of questions. One averted disaster can be worth an unimaginable amount of saved time and money! Stay safe!

Are Mobile Websites Important?

Oh yes, mobile websites are extremely important! We all know that technology advances at a very quick pace. Things change so fast, it’s often hard to keep up. By now, most of us have a smart phone with a data plan. That allows us to browse the web, write email and do all kinds of things that weren’t possible just a few years ago. You probably noticed yourself that you use your phone to look up information online fairly often. Some websites look awful on a phone, as the text is too small to read and the buttons are also too small. You end up having to zoom in and out and it can be quite frustrating. Then there are the websites where everything shows up beautifully on a phone. All the text, pictures and buttons are sized appropriately and it’s very easy to navigate.

Have you viewed your own website on a phone? How about on a tablet? What about laptops and huge desktop monitors? Mobile websites will show up properly on any device, regardless of how large or small the screen is. The layout and size of the website may look a bit different from device to device, but that’s so that it displays nicely and is easy to read and navigate. How do mobile websites do this? Well, there’s a relatively new way of programming websites which is sometimes referred to as “responsive design”. What that means is that the website design responds to the size of the screen. It automatically resizes and repositions items on the pages.

Can I Change My Website To A Responsive Design?

Generally the answer is no, which means that you’ll have to get your entire website reprogrammed so that it works on all devices. The amount of work required to change older websites to mobile websites is almost always more than rebuilding it from scratch. The good news though is that you can use that opportunity to make changes to your website as well. Perhaps you wanted to use different graphics, get a new layout, update the text or add more content.

Do Mobile Websites Cost More?

Mobile websites should not be a separate website. Instead, your website should be responsive.

Just a couple of years ago it would have been necessary to build a separate website for the mobile crowd (if you wanted a great user experience). However, maintaining two separate sites, one regular and one mobile, was always a time-consuming effort. It was also difficult for us to convince clients of the need for a mobile version of their site. They had a hard time justifying the additional costs. In all fairness though, mobile wasn’t as widespread back then as it is now.

Due to advancements in our industry, we now create all our website projects so that they work in both desktop and mobile environments. As a huge added bonus, there’s just one website to maintain. The entire site is 100% responsive. Therefore it doesn’t matter if a user is viewing the site on their phone, tablet, laptop or 22 inch monitor. The site simply re-adjusts so that the site displays properly. For example, on a mobile device the menu bar is automatically converted to buttons, images are resized to a smaller size and the overall experience appears tailor-made for that particular device.

The part which really impresses our clients is that there isn’t even an added cost to do so! It’s a standard feature, not an extra. All we need to be mindful of is that we program the site from the get-go with mobile and responsiveness in mind.

How Do I Benefit From Having A Mobile Website?

If you were to check your website statistics, you would probably notice that around half of the visitors to your website are using a mobile device. If your website isn’t responsive, then those visitors are going to leave your site and go elsewhere. They will find competitors of yours who have easy to use mobile websites and you’ll lose out. I’m sure you don’t want to turn away half of the visitors to your website! Imagine all the potential sales that you’re sending away to your competitors. Instead, you should make sure that your website is responsive.

Can All Developers Create Mobile Websites?

To create mobile websites, also known as responsive websites, it requires the appropriate knowledge to do so. It’s a relatively new concept and as a result, many website developers are not yet able to do so. Sometimes it can be a bit tricky to get certain components to work properly across all the various devices. This can lead to mobile websites not really working the way they should. Since it can be a lot of extra work for someone who is not accustomed to building mobile websites, they may end up charging extra as well.

When discussing this topic with your website developer, make sure that your website will be just one website. You don’t want to have to manage multiple websites. Additionally, make sure that any special features of your website will work on smaller screens. Things to look out for are forms, shopping carts, photo galleries, videos and table-based content. Ask them if they have built responsive websites before, and if they charge extra to do so.

Experienced website developers who build professional sites will easily be able to build mobile websites and they won’t charge extra for them. Keep that in mind when shopping around. One of the main goals should be to create a positive user experience for visitors to your website. Make sure there aren’t any frustrating components that will make them click away from your site.

How Can I Find Out More?

If you have questions about how you can have a properly developed website which is responsive and works on all devices, visit our website at http://Gecko.Marketing. Go to our contact page and get in touch with us. We would be happy to evaluate your website and discuss your options. Each project we work on is fully customized to our clients’ needs. Additionally we also provide options to continuously monitor, update, secure and manage your website for you. Contact us to find out more!

Ever wonder “What if your WordPress gets hacked?”

If you haven’t yet taken your website security seriously, you may be wondering what if your WordPress gets hacked? There are a lot of things we should be doing to protect our data, but somehow we just never get around to it. That includes things such as backups, security, proper passwords and so on. Of course there are a lot of reasons to secure your website. Hopefully this article will serve as a reminder as to how costly and time-consuming it can be when things go wrong. Click on the image to the right to view it in a larger format. It was created by Mike Wallagher from www.StartBloggingOnline.com. Check out his blog for interesting tips regarding writing your own blog.

WordPress is the most used and popular content management system (CMS) in existence. It’s used on over 72 million different websites from all around the world. On an average day there are approximately 500 000 new posts displayed. As the number of WordPress websites increases over the years, so do the number of hacking incidents. In 2009 there were roughly 81 000 hacked WordPress websites. In 2010 there were 98 000. In 2011 the number jumped to 144 000, and in 2012 it rose again reaching 170 000 hacked sites. So, what if your WordPress gets hacked? If you search in Google for “hacked WordPress”, you’ll find quite a few people who are desperately looking for help to fix their websites. Don’t end up being one of them!

How Do WordPress Websites Get Hacked?

There are a lot of different ways a site can get hacked. Let’s break it down into four of the main reasons:

• 41% of the cases are due to poorly setup hosting accounts and PC malware.
• 29% are due to themes. They may be poorly created or simply out-of-date.
• 22% are because of plugins. They too may be written with poor computer code, but they may also simply be out-of-date as well.
• 8% of sites are broken into due to weak passwords.

Looking at these four points, there are steps you can take to prevent your site from being hacked. First off, use a reputable hosting company. That doesn’t necessarily mean they have to be a large brand name company. Often the smaller hosts are more on top of their server security. Ask the right questions before signing up with just any hosting company. Make sure your computer is updated with the latest software. It should also have a good anti-virus software installed and updated. Use programs to check for malware on a regular basis.

When using a WordPress theme and various plugins, get them from reliable sources. Updates should be available by the vendor to ensure that they remain updated and secure from any hacking attempts. What if your WordPress gets hacked anyway? You may need to re-evaluate the theme and plugins you’re using. They may have been okay at one point, but perhaps they’re no longer being updated and now have security issues.

By now, I would expect that everyone is very aware that it’s important to use strong passwords. That means that you shouldn’t use words which can be found in a dictionary. A password should also use a combination of capital letters, small letters, numbers and special characters. It should also be at least eight characters in length. What if your WordPress gets hacked due to using a weak password? Well, as tough as it sounds, I have to say that you should have known better!

Why Do WordPress Websites Get Hacked?

What do the hackers want? Why do they bother? Sometimes it’s just simply for fun. They want to test their computing skills. They can then brag to their friends and improve their status within the hacking community.

In more serious situations it’s your competition and they want to steal your data. They’re after your personal files. In extreme cases they may simply want to eliminate you. By destroying your website, they may end up destroying your business. What if your WordPress gets hacked by your competition? If you know who it is, you should get the authorities involved. It is illegal to gain entry to computer systems for which you don’t have permission. Deal with the situation properly and protect yourself from further abuse.

Other groups may want to hack your website to place links on your site which take visitors to their site. Such links may be tied in with online advertising, so they end up profiting monetarily by having people click on these links.

How Much Time And Money Is Needed To Recover Your Hacked Website?

Being too busy to worry about backup, is like being too busy driving a car to put on a seatbelt.

It’ll probably take at least one day before you even realize your site has been hacked. You’ll then need about another day or so just to figure out what happened and to realize that you’re going to have to get some outside help. Then you’re looking at around three days to simply remove all the malicious software and restore your website so that it’s functioning as it was originally. Next the site will have to be made secure to ensure that it doesn’t get hacked again, which can easily cost a lot. Often there’s only a 75% chance that you will fully recover and be able to restore your site. During all this down time, your business will suffer potential loss of credibility, clients and income. The costs can quickly get out of control. What if your WordPress gets hacked? Get professional help right away. You want your site to be up and running properly again as quickly as possible.

Check List

Don’t remain in a situation where you’re wondering what if your WordPress gets hacked. Be proactive and take concrete steps to ensure it doesn’t happen in the first place. Use this basic check list to get the first steps taken care of.

• Backup your website regularly.
• Keep your website updated.
• Avoid themes from untrusted sources.
• Use well-established hosting companies.
• Ensure your computer is free of viruses and malware.
• Use strong passwords.
• Install security software.

Hopefully this article will get you to stop wondering what if your WordPress gets hacked, and you’ll start with these first steps to protect one of your most valuable assets.

More WordPress Security Tips

Here are ten additional WordPress security points, with an eleventh added as a bonus for SSL websites.

11) Hidden Admin Area

All WordPress websites use the same folder structure. Be different and change things around so that automated hacking scripts can’t find ways to break into your website. If an automated script can’t find the admin area, then it’s been rendered useless before it even had a chance to do any harm!

12) Secure .htaccess File

The .htaccess file is one of the most important files your website has. If a hacker is able to edit it, they can do all sorts of damage, such as diverting all your traffic to a completely different website address. Simply changing the write permissions of this highly sensitive file can help keep it safe. It’s a simple change which helps your WordPress security a great deal. (.htaccess – Wikipedia)

13) Unique URLs

This WordPress security point is along the same lines as number eleven above. Change the login URL of your website, which will help keep brute force attacks down to a minimum. Change the content folder name as well. This can help keep sensitive files safe, such as your uploaded files, plugins and themes.

14) Changed Files Notifications

Even with all the best security in the world, a website can still get hacked. Trying to clean up the damage can be very time consuming. What helps a lot is to have a detailed record of what was changed. You can setup your WordPress security so that you receive an automated email notification whenever a file is changed. Better yet, you can receive a detailed list of exactly which files were changed. Additionally these changes can be saved to a log file, so that you can go back in time and have a clear picture of what has been happening.

15) Restrict Long URLs

By restricting long URLs to a maximum number of characters, you stop the injection of malicious code into your website. Such injections are quite common and can be tricky to stop. If the number of allowed characters has been reduced, then it’s almost impossible for a hacker to create damaging code that can still get in.

16) Stop Online File Editing

Another WordPress security point to consider is to turn off the capability to edit files directly from within the WordPress admin area. If a hacker should gain access to the admin area, they can do all sorts of damage. However it is possible to limit some of that damage by not allowing file edits from the admin area. This will mean that if you want to edit any of the files which make up the various plugins or themes, you’ll have to edit them externally. It’s a very small price to pay to have this added WordPress security though.

17) Isolate Write Permissions

The WordPress security package we install on our clients’ websites is setup so that if a sensitive file needs to be written to, it has to go through the security software. This helps ensure that these files cannot be altered by other means, such as via malicious software.

18) Lock Down Sensitive Files

Two of the most sensitive files are the configuration file and the .htaccess file. Lock them down by changing their write permissions. This will help keep hackers from making changes to them and increase your WordPress security.

19) Hidden Software Version Number

Many different software titles proudly display the version number. Hackers love to see this information, as it immediately lets them know which version they’re trying to hack into. They know all too well which version has which vulnerabilities. There is no reason to display this information, so remove it!

20) Content Folder

There is a folder within WordPress which contains all the content, such as all the plugins, themes, uploaded files and more. Rename this folder so that hackers can’t find it and cause damage. Increasing your WordPress security is often simply a matter of making it difficult for hackers to find the files and folders they want to hack into.

21) SSL Connections

This last WordPress security point is a bonus, and is only relevant if your site has an SSL certificate. If it does, you can setup WordPress so that the login area and the entire admin area can only be accessed via SSL. This means that all those URLs will begin with https, instead of just http. Therefore any information that is entered while on these select pages will be encrypted and secured by an additional layer of protection.

General Concepts

As you can see, the general concept is to understand that there are millions of WordPress websites out there. Each one is setup in more or less the same manner. The result is that hackers have an easier time. They simply need to find a vulnerability and write an automated bit of computer code which can exploit it. This code is then sent on its way to try and break into as many sites as possible.

WordPress Security – Be Different!

The solution to this problem is actually quite simple – be different! By changing your own website’s folder structure, locking down specific files, keeping detailed logs of any changes, and so on, you’re placing a lot of additional barriers in the hackers way, and increasing your WordPress security. With so many easier targets available, they’re not going to spend the time to figure out all of your changes and try to break in. Any automated hacking scripts will immediately fail and you’ll stay safe.

Of course, if you’re being specifically targeted for whatever reason, then perhaps your attacker will take the time to work through all these barriers. A targeted attack is more difficult to guard against, however even these tips will make it difficult for them. Additionally, you’ll also receive email notifications and log files to alert you to such hacking attempts. That should give you ample warning so that you can look into protecting yourself even further before things get out of control.

Take your WordPress security seriously and stay safe. After all, you put a lot of work into your website, so you should also put at least a bit of effort into keeping it secure!

How Good Is Your WordPress Security?

There are a lot of websites in existence which use WordPress. It’s a great choice for most situations. It simplifies the process of managing your website. However, there’s a lot more involved than just simply installing it out of the box and adding content. It’s too easy to just work on how your website looks, or how a certain feature functions. How about all the important components which work quietly in the background? One of the most important, but neglected aspects is WordPress security. Let’s go over a number of key WordPress security points which should be taken into account.

Remember there’s no such thing as an absolutely 100% perfectly secure website. If enough work is done, any website can eventually be broken into. Just look at all the government, military and corporate websites which are broken into around the world. One of the key components of good security is to put as many barriers in the hacker’s way as is reasonably possible. It then becomes too bothersome for them to continue. After all, why should they work extra hard to break into a secure website when there are so many unsecured ones available? Your WordPress security doesn’t have to be the best, just better than the majority of other sites.

1) Passwords

This first point is so obvious, I almost don’t even want to bother mentioning it. However, so many people still use easy to guess passwords. Don’t use words which can be found in the dictionary. Use a combination of capital letters, small letters, numbers and special characters. It may be a pain, but it’s more painful to deal with a compromised website. This is more of a general security point instead of a WordPress security point.

2) WordPress Header

By default, WordPress states in the header that the website is using WordPress. This makes it convenient for hackers to know what type of hacking software to use. Of course, with enough investigation, they’ll figure it out anyway, but let’s not make it any easier than it needs to be. Remove this meta tag from your site. This WordPress security point is often overlooked.

3) Hide Update Notifications

If visitors to your website can create an account which enables them to log into the WordPress backend, be sure they can’t see what updates are available. The more someone knows about the current status of your CMS (content management system) and the various third-party components, the better their chances of finding a vulnerability.

Keep your WordPress

security up-to-date.

4) Admin User

A lot of website administrators use the default user name “admin”. Someone who wants to break into your website only has to work on figuring out the password, not both the user name and password. There is a lot of effort made to convince people to use strong passwords. Using strong user names at the same time helps keep your site safe. If your user name is admin, change it. If you can’t change it, create a new user account with a new name and delete the old one. Your WordPress security counts on it!

5) User ID 1

When WordPress is first installed, the admin which is created is assigned an id number of 1. Knowing that the website administrator has this id number makes it just one bit easier to work out a way to compromise the database and gain access to the site. Check to make sure that none of the users have an id with the number 1.

6) Database Table Prefix

During the installation procedure you are given an opportunity to change the database table prefix. By default it’s set to “wp_”. Make sure it’s set to a random set of letters. This makes it harder for automatic hacking scripts to compromise your database. It’s a simple item which can be done during installation which will keep your WordPress security better than most.

7) Automated Scheduled Backups

No matter how well you secure your website, there’s always a possibility that it gets broken into anyway. Therefore you need to have a system setup which automates regular backups of your website. There are a number of different ways to do so. Be confident that even if your entire website is wiped out, that you can restore it with a recent backup.

8) Admin Area Lockout

You don’t need access to your website admin area 24/7, so why make it available all the time? Chances are you’ll never need to log into your website during your normal sleeping hours. Lock it up so that it’s inaccessible during that time. That means automated hacking programs which run 24/7 will have a smaller window of opportunity.

9) Block Known Bad Hosts

You may be familiar with the fact that there are black lists of known spammers. Well, there are also black lists of known bad hosts, which are used to break into websites. To stay safe, don’t even allow them access to your website at all. Block them using a black list and prevent them from even being able to view your site. This point alone will increase your WordPress security by quite a bit.

10) Brute Force Attacks

WordPress allows users to try to login over and over again. This may be useful for users who have difficulty remembering their login information, but it’s even more useful for hackers. Their automated scripts go through dictionaries and commonly-known user names and passwords to try and break in. This is known as a brute force attack. Your login area should only allow a set number of attempts before the IP address is blocked from further attempts. To make it a bit more user friendly, these blocked IP addresses can be unblocked automatically after a set period of time.

These are the first ten WordPress security points which you can look into. Hopefully you already have at least some of them covered. If not, it’s time to look into getting things locked down. Admittedly most of these items will have to be done by a professional. Many of them are not provided as available options within the WordPress user interface.

Make sure you read part two of this series to find out even more WordPress Security issues which you should be aware of.

Do You Understand Your WordPress Limitations?

WordPress is a fantastic program which has brought website management to the masses. However, just like almost all software, reality can hit pretty hard. There are big promises about how easy it is to use, and I have to admit that it’s probably the easiest website management tool for non-technical people to use. However there’s a lot more to building a website than throwing some text together and slapping a couple of pictures on your site. Make sure you fully understand your WordPress limitations so that you know when it’s time to hire a professional. Whether the content management software is WordPress or anything else, eventually the point may come very quickly where you’ll realize that you’re in over your head.

There are some basic rules when it comes to how you should write the text on your website pages. The most basic of rules don’t have anything to do with search engine optimization or marketing. As a matter of fact, they begin with how to format your text. I don’t mean using the bold or italics buttons in the toolbar, but rather letting the software know what format the various pieces of text should have. You need to differentiate between a title, sub-title, paragraph, quote and so on. Most of the time it doesn’t even matter if we’re talking about WordPress or Microsoft Word. The general population simply isn’t educated when it comes to properly formatting text. Understand your WordPress limitations! As an example of how bad it can be, I recently realized that a client of mine uses the space bar to center text on the page, instead of using the center button in the toolbar!

Even though WordPress uses a lot of point-and-click technology, it is necessary to get into some coding if you want to have any kind of real functionality. I have a few clients who are familiar with how to properly format text and also how to work with basic HTML. However, most people will not want to work with code. In my experience the end result is one of the following:

• The client plays around with the content formatting and HTML. In the end the page gets messed up and eventually they call me to fix it.
• The client is hesitant to make any major changes, so their content doesn’t get displayed the way they want. Eventually they call me with a “to do list” so that I can take care of the more advanced changes they want.
• The client doesn’t touch anything. The site stagnates. After a couple of years they call me and state they want a complete makeover.
• The client realizes that they have limited capabilities, so they have me manage their website for them. They accumulate a bunch of small changes which they give to me every now and then.

Do you understand your WordPress limitations? Which category do you fall into? In the end, the solution which I find works best is if the client takes care of simple changes and stays within the boundaries of using WordPress like a word processor. As soon as they need to do anything more complicated than that, they contact me so that it gets done properly and saves them time and frustration.

Do You Really Want To Be A Programmer?

I have looked into a number of different WordPress tutorials for my clients to use. Most of them only deal with the basic stuff. The reason is that once you start getting into learning code, you’re becoming a programmer. If that’s what you want to do, that’s okay. However if you truly understand your WordPress limitations, you will most likely realize that you want to run your business and not become a programmer. Otherwise you’ll end up crossing the line and stop running your business and start learning computer coding. I guess you have to ask yourself what you want to do, and what you don’t want to do. I compare it to my car mechanic. I don’t expect to crawl under the car with him and have him teach me how to maintain my vehicle. I pay him to do so. If I would want to learn anyway, I would take mechanic courses, read books, consult the internet and learn how to maintain my car.

Understand your
WordPress limitations.

If you still want to try to learn how to work with HTML code, you should realize that you’ll eventually end up having to learn how to use CSS code too, then MySQL, JavaScript and so on. Before you know it, you’re poking around and changing code that you don’t fully understand. The end result is that the site may break, some of the functionality may be lost and you’re embarrassed by how the site doesn’t work properly. If you really want to get under the hood, know what you’re capable of understand your WordPress limitations.

Customer Service

I find that customer service isn’t necessarily about giving the client everything they ask for. Rather it’s about giving them the end result they ask for. The path how to get there may not be what they expect. However, if the end result meets or exceeds their expectations, everyone comes out a winner.

Understand your WordPress limitations and you can work much more efficiently and effectively together with your website developer. Don’t try to do everything on your own. If you find yourself spending an entire afternoon trying to get something to work on your website, then it’s most likely time to pass the work on to someone else.

It’s equally important for your website developer to understand your WordPress limitations. Don’t be embarrassed to admit that you don’t feel comfortable making changes on your own. Most people don’t. If your website developer can understand your WordPress limitations, they can ensure that you have a solution which works specifically for you.

On the other hand, if you know your way around WordPress really well, let your website developer know that too. They can then help you out by providing you with additional tools which help you manage your website at your advanced level.

In general, ensure you work together with your website developer. This is true during the initial development process, but also for later on when the website needs to be managed. Understand your WordPress limitations and make sure your website developer knows them too!

How Good Is Your Website Marketing?

Most business owners I have been talking with have stated to me that their sales numbers have been down a lot during the last few years. The recession is hitting everyone pretty hard. I recently read a report that stated sales are down between 25 to 50% in the Waterloo Region for most industries. People seem to not have as much disposable income as they used to. Another statistic I came across recently stated that 17% of Canadians are dipping into their savings to make their monthly mortgage payments. As a result, more business owners are turning to website marketing to reach out within their communities.

Everyone’s trying different website marketing techniques. Some of the traditional advertising methods don’t seem to be enough now-a-days. The business owner of today needs to look into many different advertising options. Website marketing incorporates many smaller components. There are a lot of things to consider in this field, such as all the social media platforms, online business listings, and of course even the traditional print advertising as well.

In regards to what you can do with your website, there’s probably plenty of room to add more content. The search engines love to index website content. The more you have, the more chances there are of potential clients finding you. Here’s a list of things you can do for your website marketing, to grow your online presence and make your site more interesting:

• Have a professional copywriter create the content for your website pages. They can write the text for you in a more marketable way.
• Add more products and pictures. Your website can have separate pages for each type of product and/or service. Each section can have dozens of sub-pages. Each product/service can have multiple pictures and a detailed write-up.
• Add a blog to your website and write an article at least once per week. The article should be informative and not try to sell anything. You want to establish a trust relationship with readers by providing free information and advice regarding your industry.
• Add a newsletter to your site. Quarterly to monthly works well.
• Add social media to your website marketing endeavours and link those social media sites and your website together. There are a lot of them out there and they all have slightly different purposes to them. Some of them should be used every few hours (Twitter), while others can be used every few days (LinkedIn). Here’s a list of some of the most popular ones:
  • Facebook.com
  • LinkedIn.com
  • Twitter.com
  • Google.com (Google+)
  • YouTube.com
  • Pinterest.com
  • Instagram.com
  • Flickr.com
• Ensure that your website address is listed on all your marketing material, including:
  • business cards, letterheads, envelopes and other stationary
  • promotional items you give away, such as pens, keychains, hats, etc.
  • state your website address on your answering machine
  • vehicle lettering
  • email signatures
  • online signatures in forums
  • name tag to be worn while at business networking functions
  • any electronic products you may distribute or display, such as powerpoint presentations, ebooks or videos
  • clothing you may wear, sell or give away, such as hats, shirts, jackets
  • business Christmas cards, thank you cards, or other correspondence

Google Analytics

If you want to get more people to your site,
getting involved with social media and
blog writing will help your website marketing efforts.

In regards to your website traffic, have you checked out your statistics on Google Analytics? Do you know how? Is your website integrated with a Google Analytics account? There are two main points which you should concentrate on to improve your website marketing. The first is to increase the number of visitors to the site. The second one is to get them to become more involved. The more involved they are, the more their trust in your establishment grows. That will ultimately lead to more sales.

In order to get visitors to the site to interact with you more, there are a number of things you can do, such as adding forms to fill out. These could be for polls, collecting visitor information, entering a contest, etc. Provide a free gift or enter them into a draw for a prize in return for them completing a form. That will provide the incentive. Make sure to collect their full name and email address at the very least.

Once you have collected a number of people’s contact information, you can do all kinds of additional website marketing and traditional marketing, such as sending out newsletters (either in paper form or via email), sending promotions, coupons, mailers, industry news, etc.

You can also create online promotions. For example, you can provide a link in your Twitter account to a page on your website, where visitors can print out a coupon to bring into the store. The coupon would only be available via Twitter. You can do the same with all your communication avenues, including all the different social media sites, your website, your newsletter, your blog, and so on. This provides you with valuable feedback, as you can see which website marketing efforts bring the greatest returns.

Outsource Or Do It Yourself?

There are a ton of things which can be done to improve your website marketing. Realistically though it means spending a lot of time. It will also mean spending money too if you can’t do it all yourself. You can get setup with copywriters, social media advisors and online marketers if you want. You could have an entire marketing team assembled who all work towards promoting your website, and ultimately your business. Of course it will come down to how much time and money you want to spend on such an endeavour. Once you start looking around at what such marketing efforts can cost, you’ll realize that it’s not uncommon for even a small business to easily spend thousands of dollars. Even then, just like with all marketing efforts, results can never be guaranteed.

Just remember that you can have someone setup the systems for you, but you will have to use them. That means you will have to write the newsletters, blogs and social media entries. That’s where your time will need to be spent. Alternatively, there are services where you can pay someone to do so for you. They can get to be expensive quite quickly though, and they may not portray your company the way you would like them to.

The First Question Is … Why Do You Want A Website?

When a potential client states that they would like to have a website developed for them, one of the very first questions we ask them is “Why do you want a website?”. You may be surprised by the responses we get! Fact is, most people haven’t put any real thought into this simple question. Often the answer is that since everyone else has one, they felt it’s time they get one too. It may simply be that a close competitor has recently launched a new site, and now they feel that they need to catch up. For others, it’s simply something that is expected of them, just like getting a phone number and business cards.

These types of answers clearly show that the person hasn’t realized yet that a website is part of an overall marketing strategy. They haven’t yet heard of the question “Why do you want a website?” It’s not just about putting up an “open for business” sign in your window. Like any marketing endeavour, it should get all the attention and respect that it deserves. After all, a website is an advertising tool which is available 24/7 all year long for the entire global population to see. It can be updated at any time and expanded to include as much information as you want. If you think about it, you’ll quickly realize that it provides an advertising opportunity which is unparalleled by any other marketing concept.

Since your website is so important, it’s crucial to use it as effectively as possible. It shouldn’t be a place to quickly throw up some text and images as an afterthought to your marketing efforts. Instead it should be carefully thought out. Goals need to be put into place. A website is an important marketing tool which should be used accordingly. So, why do you want a website?

Here Are Some Simple Questions To Ask Yourself

• Who is your target audience? Are they your suppliers, employees, customers, tourists or hobbyists? Hint: Don’t say everyone!
• How are you going to get your audience’s attention? What will be displayed on the home page? What will the website have in place to get visitors to want to view additional pages?
• If the website is supposed to bring in more business, how should it do so? Do you need a full-blown e-commerce shopping cart system? Do you want to display prices on the website? Are potential customers supposed to contact you by email or phone to find out more, which gives your sales staff the opportunity to close the sale?
• What images do you want to use? Will you be displaying product images? Do you already have some? Will there be multiple images per product to display various colours and styles? Do you want to show pictures of your employees?
• How will your website be integrated into your other marketing efforts? This includes online activities such as social media, blogs, coupon sites, mapping software and more. How about offline marketing such as stationary, vehicle lettering, voice mail, signage, etc?

Finding The Answers

Take some time to sit down and go through all these questions, including the very first one: “Why do you want a website?” Write down your answers, even if you’re not confident about them. Ask others what they think. You can start out by approaching business partners, employees, family and friends. You may also want to ask your target audience … after all they will know best what they want! This can be done via an online poll, casually asking them a question or two during conversations, or sending out a questionnaire by mail. Since everyone is too busy, you may want to entice them to participate by entering their name into a draw for a prize. You can also provide a small gift or a discount on their next purchase simply for participating. Getting feedback from others is important and keeps you from doing too much “trial and error” marketing efforts.

Setting Goals

“Why do you want a website?” is a powerful question which gets you to think about your business.

Make sure you don’t forget to set some goals. Remember the original question: Why do you want a website? For most businesses the answer is to increase sales. Therefore you want to ensure that most of your efforts go into creating a website which is meant to reach those goals. Try not to get distracted by all the things your website can do. Instead focus on what it must do.

You should also put multiple strategies into place. Simply having a website isn’t going to increase sales. You may also have to get involved with social media. Perhaps you should start an online newsletter or blog. Your company may benefit from an online order form which visitors can fill out. Perhaps all your employees should have their own company email address. How about adding videos on your website to showcase the company and it’s products and services? The question “Why do you want a website?” should quickly be followed by “What does my website audience want?”

Try to have all of your strategies work together and overlap, so that they compliment each other. For example, you should have all of your social media accounts displayed on your website, so that visitors can find them. Obviously you should also do the reverse, and promote your website from your social media accounts. If you have a fillable form on your website, talk about it in your blog or newsletter so that readers see how modern your organization is and how easy it is to use your website.

Even if you already have a website and simply want to update it, we will still ask you “Why do you want a website?” It’s important to revisit this question to ensure that you stay on track.

It’s All About Perspective

Think about how your target audience views and experiences your website. While we may ask you “Why do you want a website?”, your audience will ask you “Why should I buy from you?”. You want to get their attention and maintain it. That gives you an opportunity for them to get to know your organization and develop familiarity with it. Ultimately that can lead to trust.

Your website needs to be engaging. There should be some interactivity for them to get involved with your organization. It can be something as simple as a form to signup to your newsletter. It could be a contest which they can enter. Perhaps you have a coupon code they can use on your online shopping cart system. Make the conversation go both ways!

If you could use some help with answering some of these questions for your website project, contact us to see what we can do for you. Get ready though, because you know we’re going to ask you “Why do you want a website?”!

Time To Start Facing Website Marketing Realities

We have been so busy with building websites for all our clients, that we never seem to have been able to find the time to work on our own. Of course potential clients are going to take a close look at our own website to get an idea of what we can do. So it was high time to get going on our own new website. A website is a marketing tool. Let’s start looking at some website marketing realities.

We pride ourselves on our attention to detail and on creating really great websites. This year we want to put even more emphasis on quality. That means going into the small details which make a website work for you, instead of you working on your website. A website is simply a marketing tool. You get to tell the world who you are, what you do and how you do it. Whether your website is a personal one or even if it’s for a large corporation, you are marketing something. It’s time to put your website to work!

Search Engine Optimization

For starters we decided to pay even more attention to search engine optimization (SEO). It’s a very important part of any website. Even if you have the best website in the world, it doesn’t help you if no one knows it exists. SEO is a constant evolution which changes as time goes by. There’s so much to do, that it takes quite a while before even a basic SEO foundation has been laid. Even though our new website is now launched, it’ll still take some time before we get all the little details worked out. If we’re going to be facing website marketing realities, then we’re going to end up facing some SEO realities as well!

SEO is much more than simply having meta tags in your website code. The content of each page should be written with a particular keyword (or key phrase) in mind. This should be found in the URL, the first header tag, within the first paragraph and sprinkled lightly throughout the page. Don’t overdue it though. The keyword density should be somewhere between 1% and 4.5%. This accomplishes two things. First, the search engines will pick up on your page as being relevant for that keyword. The second point is that people who read your page will also realize very quickly what the topic is all about.

Blogging

Another great marketing tool is a blog. Now it does take some time to sit down and write. You also need to write often enough for people to stay interested. However, if you’re able to start facing website marketing realities, it can really help your website marketing goals. A blog gives your readers an opportunity to get to know you. They can see what your interests are, how you think, and it builds up trust. Developing trust with current and prospective clients is a must.

Blogging also shows your personality. This is true even for stiff corporations. After all, people do business with other people. I’m sure you noticed that a lot of companies have mascots or spokesmen. You see the same character over and over again. After a while you get to know them as you see their personality unfold. Even if you have a small company and are a one man show. It’s your own personality which is going to show. Part of website marketing realities is understanding the fact that your customers want to get a better feel of who you really are. Don’t hide behind an artificial corporate screen. Let your company blog help show off your knowledge and friendliness.

How To Start

By facing website marketing realities
you’ll see that it’s not too complicated
if you break it down.

After examining website marketing realities for a bit, we realized that there’s a lot of work ahead of us. The big question is, how do we get started? The answer is to break up the workload into smaller pieces and tackle one at a time. Don’t wait until everything is perfect before launching your new website or blog. Just get started! You can always tweak things along the way. In the meantime you can begin profiting from your new marketing concepts. Figure out your goals, then start moving towards them. We settled on our first two goals, which are search engine optimization and blogging. Let’s get busy … New website. New blog. New focus!

While we’re realizing our website marketing realities over the next while, we’ll concentrate more on optimizing our website for the search engines. At the same time we’ll write some more blog entries to let you know how things are coming along. Some blogs will contain tips and tricks that you can do for your own website. Hopefully you’ll find our blog to be an interesting read with some handy hints thrown in. Not only would we like for you to get to know us better, but we would also like to get to know you better too. At the bottom of all our blogs is a comment field. Please feel free to share your thoughts and ideas on the various topics we’re writing about. Your comments will be displayed at the bottom of our blog post for everyone else to enjoy and benefit from.

Get Involved

Are you facing website marketing realities too? Have you been thinking about building up a new website or starting a blog? Perhaps you have recently done so. Have you been blogging at all, either personally or on your company website? If so, tell us about it in the comments section below. Let us know some of your own tips and tricks which have helped you get your message out. What guidelines do you use? What do you write about? What are some of the challenges you face when writing in your own blog?

If you would like to discuss this topic privately, you can always contact us directly.