Forward Web – Page 3

The 3 Services You Need to Start a Website

Posted on April 3, 2016 by Forward_Web

So you want to start a website. Now what? What do you need? Where do you even begin? Forward Web would like to guide you through this process by providing you with information about the 3 basic services you need to start a website!

The three parts that make a website are: A domain name, web-hosting servers and site files. What on earth does that mean? Well, if you are a beginner and new to the world of web development that might sound a little intimidating but we will try our best to help you understand.

When someone visits your website they use your domain name to view your website. A domain name is unique name that identifies a website and there is a process that occurs from the time the site visitor types in your domain and presses enter; When a visitor enters your domain name into the browser, your domain is then translated into your server IP address and then the server send the user your site files (which their browser represents to them as a regular web page).

Basically, having a website is not possible unless you have each of these three basic elements. Let’s explore each of these areas for further clarification:

Domain Names:

Did you know that computers have their own language? That’s right, computers communicate by using numbers (called IP addresses) to contact each other, much the same way we use phone numbers to dial a specific person’s phone. Just like a phone book has entries and tells people looking for a business what the entries are, the internet has domain names which tells people (via their computers) that a domain is hosted on a server.

Not having a domain can actually hurt your business because you would have to explain to your clients that your site is located in a temporary url, which can make your website appear unprofessional and useless.

Web Hosting Servers:

The web hosting server is simply a space. Without the hosting service, you will not have a place for your files to reside therefore your domain would then become like a disconnected phone number in the phone directory, and your website files would have nowhere to stay. Think of the web hosting server as the space you would rent out to have your business in. A rental space does not come included with furnishings (such as shelves to display your products) and similarly, a web hosting account does not include a site for you to sell your products.

However, unlike a rental space for your business, in the web hosting world it is very easy to furnish the space provided by your host. This is possible through the installation of numerous framework applications which are available through the “QuickInstall” icon within your cPanel.

Site Files:

The site files are what your website visitors and potential customers actually see when going to your website (such as your products and services).

Website files are the same as any other file you normally use (like a .jpg is a photograph file and a .mp3 is a music file). Website files are .php files or .html files, which are PHP scripts or html pages just and the web hosting server knows how to read these files. They explain how the webpage looks or instructs the server to do a series of computations. Examples of these computations include determining what forum post it is supposed to send back or figuring out what blog article it is supposed to send back to the viewer.

Are you ready to start building your website? If you still have questions, are having a difficult time setting up your website, do not have the time or you would like help improving the website you or someone else developed, contact Forward Web and they will contact you to discuss your project!

Tips For Improving Your Websites Performance

Posted on March 27, 2016 by Forward_Web

The internet world has changed over the years. There was a time when your website’s performance was affected by the simple use of a dial-up connection making it impossible for a user to download large sites and heavy images. At that time the average page weighed no more than 100 kb!

The internet and the world of technology has evolved tremendously since then but with some unnoticed consequences; the internet has let itself go and websites are getting heavier and heavier. And not just that, faster connections made available to us today has made us lazy! Nowadays it is not uncommon to see websites that have pages weighs over 10 MB or even 20 MB, which is insane!

There is a huge misconception that bandwidth is unlimited and free, which it certainly isn’t unlimited and in most cases (mostly mobile and international) bandwidth is far from being free. Even when bandwidth is “free and unlimited” it doesn’t always mean that it’s fast. Your website’s performance is significant, in fact, Google consider’s your page speed so important that they even wrote a patent for it and will reward you for it. Forward Web would like to give you some tips for improving your websites performance:

Check Your Speed

One of the first things you could do to properly assess your website is to check your speed. This will help you determine the size of your page and potential areas that might be causing a lag with your website. You can check your speed with the use of a speed test which we recommend the following: http://tools.pingdom.com/fpt/

Caching and Compression

Enabling caching and compression is helpful because one of the largest issues we see on websites is the lack of proper caching and compression. To dramatically reduce your page load you can add GZIP and even set your cache dates to a more distant point in the future (especially on the second visit).

Check Your Hosting

Another factor is your server and hosting service. Oftentimes when a site has issues delivering content quickly it is because of overloaded servers that share a lot of sites, are operating in poor environments or aren’t up to speed.

Check your servers with your hosting provider to find out how fast it can retrieve the DNS and what your Time to First Byte. Your Time To First Byte is your first pixel downloaded which need to be under .80 ms. Becoming familiar with these metrics will help you discover unknown server issues you may be experiencing.

Forward Web offers one of the best hosting services in the world and are always happy to assist you with your hosting needs.

Remove Excess Ads

Over abundance of ads on a page is one of the biggest issues that sites encounter today. A page weight can go up by more than 100 percent when a site is overloaded with ads because they come with scripting, pixels and third-party calls. And let’s face it, not only do they cause unnecessary issues for the websites but we all simply hate those excessive ads!

Ads are not always a bad thing though, when done properly. A good ad campaign consists of relevant, friction-less and a seamless page experience where users will feel invited to click on your ad rather than being turned off not only from the ad itself but worse, your website. Removing excessive advertising is key, oftentimes reducing your bounce rates with Google ad improving your position. Even though it may seem like you could be losing out on money, it is a wise move in the long run.

Image Optimization

Knowing how to properly create, compress and save images is essential because image re-sizing will not suffice as this only changes the physical size, it does not compress the image. Most people are not aware that this is probably the biggest of all offenders!

Here are the steps to properly create, compress and save an image:

Re-size: The image must be physically re-sized to the correct (largest) size.

Format: The image must be saved in the proper format (i.e. line art is saved as PNG’s and photos are saved as JPG’s).

Compression: Images need to be compressed on save. For example, if the image is a JPG, then 60 percent is a good compression rate.

SVG: SVG stands for scalable vector graphics and we recommend using SVG whenever possible because these are code-based images which are lightweight and download quickly. On the other hand, make sure you are not replacing a small image with SVG because this could be more resource intensive.

Increase Your Scripting Speed

Another major issue we encounter often is websites that are overloaded with scripting (scripting for this, scripting for that, it’s a scripting epidemic!). This becomes a problem because the more you add, the slower the page becomes because it is using up precious resource calls and therefore creates more obstacles for fast page loading. When adding scripts to your pages, perhaps you could consider the following: Are you using only the libraries you need? Do you need this script? Can the script be combined?

These questions seem basic enough but they play a significant role when it comes to adding just a cool feature v.s. functionality. Before adding a bunch of scripts, ask yourself if it will make the user’s experience better and if so, does it add to the experience without slowing it down?

By combining your scripts into one file, you can load them at one time and minimize resource calls and this should always be the goal. The use of libraries are great because they are used by scripts to make the programming process easier but keep in mind that they also load on a lot of unnecessary code. Again, only load what you actually need.

There are many things to take into account when it comes to your websites performance but careful consideration of these suggestions is worth the effort. Forward Web is a leader in the web development and web hosting industry, backed by 15 years of experience. They are always available to answer any questions you may have regarding your website or web hosting needs, contact Forward Web today!

Recommended Security Plugins for Your WordPress Website

Posted on March 20, 2016 by Forward_Web

Most of the time we do not worry about the security of our WordPress website until it is too late but it is important to remember that your website is your piece of valuable property in the Internet and therefore, you want to ensure that it is safe from intruders, thieves or hackers.

Although some believe that the WordPress software is not secure, it is actually quite the opposite. WordPress is built with a solid and secure framework, but that does not mean that it is impossible for hackers to sneak their way into your website. Breaches to WordPress may occur due to weak user passwords, not keeping the software up to date and vulnerabilities in plugins or themes.

Forward Web encourages you to be proactive when it comes to your security and we highly believe that investing a small amount of time planning and preparing ahead can reduce the risk of your website being hacked. With that being said, we recommended the following security plugins for your WordPress website:

All in One WPSecurity & Firewall

All in One WP Security & Firewall is great and one of the features we really like about it is the meter on your dashboard that gives your site a score of how secure it is. You can increase your score by adding additional security options.

BruteProtect

A common way that hackers try to gain access to your site is through something called a Brute Force Attack. It is possible for a hacker to gain access to your site the passwords are weak because in a brute force attack, bots are sent to your site to try different combinations of usernames and passwords (over and over again) and because it is a computer running the attack, it can try countless combinations in a short period of time.

Brute force attacks can cause issues on your site even if you have created a solid password. Due to the numerous attempts the bots try to log in, the server can overload and can cause your website to go offline. To protect your site and prevent this from happening, BruteForce works by identifying these bots and blocks them from your site. If somebody tries to log in to your website and fails too many times, their IP address is restricted from your site.

Additionally, once BruteForce has identified the IP Addresses of the bots, it keeps track of them in a network. This is a great feature because if a bot tries a brute force attack on one website on the BruteProtected network, all websites on the network will block that IP address!

iThemes Security

Overall, iThemes Security is the best security plugin you can find! That’s because it’s powerful but yet super user friendly. This plugin not only hardens the security but it will also fix many issues that leave WordPress sites vulnerable which includes: scanning your site for any vulnerabilities, hide the login and admin pages, make regular backups of your database and remove information hackers use to gain access to your site.

Another great feature of this plugin is the checklist of action items presented on the dashboard. These action items are listed from most important to least and you can click each item which will take you to a page where you can enable that security option. If you are a more experienced WordPress user, there are also a number of advance options available.

Google Authenticator

Even if you create the strongest password possible, hackers have several methods they can use to find your password and gain access to your website. Using the 2-factor authentication to log into your site is a great tool. This can be set up very easily using the Google Authenticator plugin.

With Google Authenticator you still have your username and password to log into your site but your login form will also ask you for your Google Authenticator code. If you have a smartphone, there is a Google Authenticator app available which is very simple to use. It cycles through a sequence of numbers and when you need to log into your site, you open the app and enter the numbers shown.

This additional security measure is terrific and makes it nearly impossible for a hacker to get your Google Authenticator code even if they do happen to gain access to your username and password.

Sucuri Security

Sucuri Inc. is well known as one of the top experts in website security. Not only do they offer premium services but they also offer this free security plugin that comes with some really great security features! One of the features scans your core WordPress files for any abnormalities and if it finds anything, you can quickly restore a copy of the file back to how it is supposed to be.

The Securi plugin also tracks all activity on your site including changes made to your site or when users log in. If there is a breach in security you will be able to review the activity logs and find out what happened. Sucuri even scans blacklist monitoring sites to see if they flag your website for security issues. Security issues is an indication of possible malware on your website.

Another great feature this plugin offers is a section of suggested actions that you can take to harden your site’s security. These actions are simple yet effective and can be completed with just a click of a button.

Well, there you have it, there is no reason why your website should be unprotected. You literally have amazing security options at your fingertips! It really is just a matter of investing a little time to prepare ahead and avoid the risk of your website being hacked. Please feel free to contact Forward Web if you have any questions or for any of your website needs!

Five Ways to Help Increase Your Website’s Search Rank

Posted on March 13, 2016 by Forward_Web

Do you have a current website but are not sure how to improve your search engine rankings? This article provides you with five ways to help you increase your website search rank. Now, you may ask yourself, what’s the big deal about about website search ranks? Well, there are many reasons to consider but one thing is certain; how your website ranks in the online world can be the difference between your business being a success or a failure.

ForwardWeb.net believes that your website’s search rank can raise your website’s profile, delivering more traffic and more customers which means larger revenues.

Watch your website rise the ranks to the top of search-engine results with these five basic fundamentals:

Have a link-worthy site:

Direct your attention on creating relevant links within the text rather than having “click here” links which have no search engine value beyond the attached URL. Instead, try writing out the name of the destination (such as Forward Web Development) because complete and significant keywords will improve your search engine rankings as well as the ranking of the page you are linking to.

Publish relevant content:

There is no substitute for great content therefore quality content is the single most important driver of your search engine rankings. Your site’s authority and relevance improves when quality content is created specifically for your intended user and it also increases site traffic. Identifying a keyword phrase for each page and then repeat that phrase several times throughout the page is also very effective (for instance once or twice in the opening and closing paragraphs and two to four more times throughout the rest of the content). Remember to use heading tags, bold, italics and other emphasis tags to highlight keyword phrases.

Update Your Content Regularly:

It is imperative to keep your content recent because updated content is viewed as one of the best indicators of a site’s relevancy.

Alt Tags:

Alt tags allow search engines to locate your page, which is essential (especially for text-only browsers) and for that reason you want to make sure to always describe your video and visual media using alt tags or different text descriptions.

Metadata:

Metadata is a set of data that describes and gives information about other data. During the creation of your website, each page is designed to contain a space between the <head> tags to insert metadata (or information about the contents of your page). Metadata breaks down to the following sections: Title Metadata, Description Metadata, and Keyword Metadata.

Title Metadata is the most significant metadata on your page because it is responsible for the page titles displayed at the top of the browser window.

Description Metadata consists of the textual description that a browser will use in you page search return. This is a description of what is contained within (that is appealing, short and to the point) with the intention of encouraging people to enter.

Keyword Metadata is substantial because this is the search phrase that people type when they want to find your page. Ideally, you want to incorporate various phrases and keep them at about six to eight phrases with each phrase consisting of one to four words (you don’t want to exceed this limit because if your list becomes redundant, it’s possible that the browser may completely ignore the data).

Keep in mind that these are not the only ways to increase your website’s search rank, but they are definitely a solid foundation. By following these five steps, you will without a doubt not only increase your website’s search rank but also your chances for success. If you have any questions regarding the information discussed in this article, don’t hesitate to contact Forward Web, they are willing to assist any time!

7 Ways to Increase Your Local Search Rank

Posted on March 6, 2016 by Forward_Web

With infinite online marketing options available today to improve website leads, traffic and sales, it is no surprise that many small business owners are feeling confused.

Online marketing has certainly become more complex. In fact, local search engine optimization will constantly produce results and nowadays, with more and more consumers engaging in the regular use of smartphones, it has become immensely important for local businesses to have strong local search presence.

Forward Web hopes you find the following 7 ways to help your business increase your local search rank helpful:

Confirm that Your Website is Optimized

When it comes to materializing in local search, your on-page optimization is of the utmost importance. It is essential to take the time to properly optimize all of your on-page factors before you even begin to think about link building or citation building (just having a solid on page optimization is not enough in today’s competitive market).

Build Your Local Listing Pages

This step is very simple and straightforward; make sure to claim your local listings on Google+, Bing Local, Yahoo Local and any other popular business listing directories. Once you have completed your profile, you will have to verify that you are indeed the business listing owner. Each site has a different verification method, some may just verify your email while others may send you a pin code through USPS mail then you will have to manually enter the code in order to complete the verification.

In addition to the big sites, there are also local listings that you can make sure to include such as YP.com, Yelp, foursquare and other industry specific business directories. Make sure you complete each profile thoroughly using accurate and consistent information across all of your local listings.

Maintain NAP Information Constant

When it comes to NAP (business name, address and phone number), it is important to maintain consistency as you create business listings. Pay attention to make sure that all directory listings appear exactly as it is on your website.

Maintaining consistency will improve your local SEO greatly. For instance, abbreviating the word Ave on your website but spelling it out in your listings will affect your SEO, therefore, you want to keep a close eye to make sure everything stays the same across the board. It might be a good idea to audit your business listings to catch and correct any discrepancies.

Make Certain That Your Website is Mobile and Table Friendly

What do you think will happen when someone visits your website on their table or mobile device and encounter difficulties as they try to navigate through an unresponsive website? Most likely they will leave and find a site that is optimized for their device.

Local searches on mobile and table devices are becoming more and more common nowadays, consequently, it is vital for your website to offer a pleasant and smooth experience on any device. Investing in a mobile/tablet friendly site is well worth it and will go a long way.

Start Blogging

A great way to increase your local search visibility is by creating a blog on your website and updating it regularly. Your blog should consist of content that targets local keywords and search terms that are related to your business. Blogging not only provides great SEO benefits but also gives visitors to your website new information to read each time. The goal is to ultimately convert a visitor into a sale (or at least a lead) and the longer they stay on your website, the higher your probabilities for that outcome will be. Also, to further expand your reach, you can share your blogs on your social media accounts.

Reviews

So many people depend on reviews for just about everything nowadays (I think we are all guilty of this), and for good reasons. Positive online reviews build trust and credibility, which is what we are all actively looking for. With that in mind, we encourage you to encourage your customers to leave reviews. You want to make sure that you are gathering local business reviews immediately and not force or offer incentives to do so. Perhaps you could present them with a list of review websites and let them know that you would love to hear their feedback.

You will find yourself pleasantly surprised that most customers will be happy to provide their feedback when simply asked.

Choosing the Right Social Media Platforms

Social media is an essential part of your local search marketing efforts therefore, you want to choose the right platforms for your business. Trying to be active on every social media platform is highly counter productive so, identifying the outlets that your target audience is active on always the priority. Once you determined the appropriate social media platform your business will be active on, create a publication schedule (remember, your objective is to engage with your audience constantly).

ForwardWeb.net wants your business to thrive and we hope that you find these tips to increase your local search rank useful and informative. In the meantime, if you have any questions regarding local search ranking or anything else related to web development and web marketing, contact ForwardWeb.net!

3 important reasons why you should never use Wix, Weebly or Squarespace to build your business website.

Posted on January 14, 2016 by Forward_Web

3 important reasons why you should never use Wix, Weebly or Squarespace to build your business website.

This article is geared towards those who are looking to build their website themselves vs hiring a professional to build the website for them (a professional web developer should never use Wix, Weebly or Squarespace to build your website). With that being said, here are the three primary reasons why you should think twice before investing any time or money into the Wix, Weebly or Squarespace platforms (even when advertised as free).

Reason #1 (you will not own your website): When using Wix, Weebly or Sqaurespace, you are essentially leasing your website. In other-words, your business will never own your website. This is due to Wix, Weebly and Sqaurespace being proprietary website builders (closed source). This means your website will only exist as long as your service remains active with Wix, Weebly or Sqarespace (not good for your business). Owning your website and content (where you always have control) should always be of the utmost importance, do not lease your website.

Reason #2 (you cant move your website): When using Wix, Weebly or Sqaurespace, you have zero control over your web hosting platform. Although this might seem irrelevant to most beginners. Having control over your web hosting platform is crucial as your web hosting platform is how the rest of the world is able to access your web pages. If your web host is slow, encounters significant amounts of downtime or becomes unreliable (or best case scenario, you will need to scale into a more dedicated platform due to high traffic), you will want to change web hosts (or upgrade). With that being said, if you build your website with Wix, Weebly or Squarespace, you are stuck using their web hosting service (which only services the lower tier shared web hosting platform). If anything ever goes wrong (or you need to upgrade to a more dedicate platform), there will be nothing you can do about it (unless you want to lose your website and start over). The main point behind reason#2, plan ahead and do not restrict your web hosting options by building your website with Wix, Weebly or Squarespace. Learning this lesson the hard way can be very detrimental to your business.

Reason #3 (Your website is not fully customizable): Although initially this might not pose much of a problem (for most beginners). Once you get farther into the development and marketing of your website, being able to hire a professional web developer/programmer to add features or functions (or even being able to build/add some of these features yourself) is going to be essential. In otherwords, when using a proprietary website builder (closed source) like Wix, Weebly or Sqaurespace. You will be stuck using the tools provided by Wix, Weebly and Squarespace (which is not always ideal for your business). Once again, its always important to think ahead as using a closed source platform like Wix, Weebly or Sqaurespace will limit your ability to expand your website later on down the road (at least not without having to start over with a new platform).

In closing, at Forward Web we realize services like Wix, Weebly and Sqarespace can come off as attractive because they are easy to use (especially for the do it yourself-er). However if you are looking to dive into website development or do not want to spend money on hiring a professional, there are simply better (open source) options. Example: We recommend WordPress, the software is free (you own, not lease your website). There are thousands of attractive, mobile ready (responsive) free themes/templates for you to choose from (browse some of them here). You can host your website anywhere (Forward Web for example) and WordPress is fully customizable so you can expand on your websites functionality down the road (everything you need in a website builder).

Start building your website today with Forward Web using WordPress for only $79.95 per year! (includes your domain name, enterprise grade web hosting, courtesy email @yourdomain.com and courtesy WordPress support). Once you have installed WordPress (after setting up your web hosting account), your next step is finding a theme/template for your new website (a good starting point is browsing through the 2,000+ free templates WordPress currently has available for you to use). Remember, if you need help installing wordpress or your WordPress theme, simply let Forward Web know and we will help at no additional cost.

Websites are not easy or free to build

Posted on November 19, 2015 by Forward_Web

As the title reads, websites are not easy or free to build. However this article is not intended to discourage you from attempting to build your own website (but rather to give you a more realistic approach to what it takes to develop a website) with or without the help of a professional.

With that being said, now that we are in the full blown digital age, there are many misconceptions about website development. Many of which are promoted by domain registrars and “free” website builder services (which can be very misleading to the consumer). Often times these misconceptions lead to wasted time and frustrations, leaving the consumer back where they started (without a proper web presence). Surely you have seen the ads, the slogans often times come in the form of “build your own website for free” or “build your website in minutes”. All great ideas that sound enticing to the consumer, however none of which are actually true or realistic.

To further elaborate, regardless of whether or not you decide to build your website on your own (or with the help of a professional). If you want to have a proper and effective web presence, you will need to take many items into consideration, such as:

What is the purpose of the website? Are you going to sell items online, is the website going to be strictly informative?
Who will your primary audience be? Business Professionals, Women, Men, Age Groups..ect
Once complete, wow do you plan on promoting your website? Organic Search Results, Paid Advertisments, all of the above?

The above are just a few items (on a very long list of items) that should be taken into consideration (before) you start building your website. As you can see, if done right, you are already going to spend a few hours on your project (not minutes).

Yet, if you are willing to put the time and effort into properly building your website (or at least to the best of your abilities). Developing your own website can be a very rewarding experience. Or at worst, you will walk away with a higher level of appreciation towards web development. Truth be told, if you are looking to build your own website, think hours/days vs minutes, along with preparing to spend a little money to get your website off the ground (as nothing is truly for free).

With the above mind, here is a short list of services you will need to establish your initial web presence.

Domain Name: There is no way around this, if you want to have a successful website, you will need to have a domain name). Average cost for a domain name on a year to year basis can range between $15-$20.00 per year. Forward Web does not recommend spending more than $20.00 per year on your domain name. You can register your domain name with Forward Web anytime for only $15.00 per year by clicking here.

Web Hosting: Probably the most overlooked service (yet arguably the most important) is web hosting. Without a proper web host, your website will either load slow or will be inaccessible all together. To learn more about web hosting, click here. Pricing for ideal shared web hosting (Forward Web)recommends cPanel Shared web hosting) can range between $50.00-$150.00 per year (however many service providers usually and should include your domain name in the yearly service fee). You can set-up your cPanel web hosting account with Forward Web (domain name included) for only $100.00 per year by clicking here.

Website Builder: At last, now you have your domain name and web hosting account set-up, you will need a website builder to build your website with. This is where you should choose very carefully because not all web site builders are created equal. Also, not all website builders allow you to transfer your website away from your web host (which is very important and unfortunately, where many of the free site builder services will hook you in).

Forward Web recommends using WordPress to build your website, however if not WordPress, please make sure your website builder is open source (where you are able to move your website freely) and not proprietary (where you are restricted to where you can move your website to). With Forward Web (assuming you have already ordered your cPanel web hosting service, you can easily install WordPress within a matter of minutes (using our One Click auto installer). If not, our friendly staff is always available and willing to assist where needed (at no extra cost).

Still have questions? Do not hesitate to contact Forward Web at your convenience, we are always here to assist you with all of your web development needs.

WordPress Tutorial For Beginners (How to make a Post)

Posted on August 23, 2015 by Forward_Web

For new WordPress users, a quick video tutorial on how to make a post to your WordPress website. Click on the video below to begin.

WordPress Tutorial For Beginners (How to Edit/Add Text to your website)

Posted on August 22, 2015 by Forward_Web

For new WordPress users, a quick video tutorial on how to add or edit text to your WordPress website. Click on the video below to begin.