Everything you need to know about SEO and website design

Everything you need to know about SEO and Web Design

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Your website is the center of your digital marketing world — the place that all digital rivers run toward. The largest of its traffic sources is generally organic search. SEO is necessary to ensure you are ranked well on a search engine.

Yet all too often, businesses don’t think about SEO until after having a website designed (or redesigned), and these sites are often sadly lacking on the SEO and digital marketing front. They may look shiny, but if the marketing smarts are not cooked in at design time, then you will be running the marketing race with a wooden leg. Or at the very least, faced with going back to the drawing board and wasting a whole load of time and money.

In this post, we look at how SEO should be an integral part of your website design (or redesign) process. We are going to look at what you need to consider to have a site that is built for search marketing and lead generation — and how focusing on happy users keeps the Google gods on your side.

We will also take a look at some of the common pitfalls that can befall businesses looking to build a new website that is central to your digital marketing efforts.

In brief, I am going to help you ensure your next site is a lean, mean SEO and digital marketing machine.

Developing an SEO-friendly website

At a fundamental level, an SEO-friendly site is one that allows a search engine to explore and read pages across the site. Ensuring a search engine can easily crawl and understand your content is the first step to ensuring your visibility in the search engine result pages.

A search engine utilizes a web crawler for this task, and we are trying to work with the search engines rather than against them. Unfortunately, there are many ways to make a website, and not all technologies are built with search engine optimization in mind.

Building an SEO-friendly site requires careful planning and a structured approach to representing your business and the services you provide. For many businesses, this can be complicated — it’s not always easy to document exactly what you do.

As a marketing tool, your website should be built upon a solid digital marketing plan with a clear business model and value proposition. If that’s unclear, then you need to revisit that first.

Assuming you have all that good stuff in place, let’s dive in.

Fundamentals

There are a few core elements that set the stage for a well-optimized website design process.

Domains

Your business may use example.com as the primary domain. You may have others. Ensuring your domain makes sense and relates to what you do is super-important. Ensuring that all variations and subdomains correctly point at the main site and redirect to a single canonical version of the site is important.

Our business is called TurkReno. We operate in the United States. We are a web-based business. It naturally follows that our domain is turkreno.com. All subdomains 301 redirect back to the main URL turkreno.com. We have few domain variations that 301 redirect back to the main URL. This all makes sense.

Don’t be fooled into thinking that having-my-keywords-in-my-domain.com helps. It just looks daft. It can help a little for local businesses, but ensure you are mapping to the real world. Be sensible.

Hosting

Your hosting is also important. A slow site makes for unhappy users. Your hosting should follow common-sense rules. Be situated where your audience is situated. Fast. Platform-specific, if necessary. We have a great hosting platform.

CMS

The CMS (content management system) you choose for your business can hugely influence how successful you are. WordPress is a great option in many situations, but it’s not the only one. It certainly is wired up at a basic level in a way that Google can understand. This is not to say it is the best choice for all situations, but certainly, it’s a good starting point for most businesses. Just be sure that the CMS you choose is the right one for your situation, rather than the one your chosen web company prefers to work with.

Crawling & accessibility

The first step is ensuring a search engine can crawl your site and understand what it is that you do (and where you do it).

Indexation

To understand your site, they have to be able to read the content of the page. This means that the main content of your site should be text-based behind the scenes. Not images. Not flash or video. Even in this ever-advancing world, your main content should still be text-based. There are some great tools, like web fonts, that mean you can still look the part, and your images have a place, but be sure to talk in clear language about what it is you do so the search engine can read and understand your offering.

Images, videos, PDFs and content are also important and can be a source of search engine traffic. Again, these need to be discoverable and indexable.

Link structure

To index your content beyond the home page, you need internal links that the search engine can crawl. Your primary navigation, search engine directives and tools like XML sitemaps all help the search engine crawl your site and discover new pages. Tools like Screaming Frog can help you ensure that your site can be easily crawled by a search engine.

Information architecture and structuring your site

I have always like the filing cabinet analogy for website structure. Your site is the filing cabinet. The major categories are the drawers. The subcategories are the folders in the drawers. The pages are documents in the folders.

  • Cabinet: your website
  • Drawer: high-level category
  • Folder: subcategory
  • File: individual document/page

Context is indicated not only by the site it exists on but also by the position within that site. Our own site has a drawer for services, and each service has sub-services in folders. Your site will be largely the same.

If we consider the following structure of the Bowler Hat site as an example:

Home

– Services

– – Service Area

– – – Individual Service

Home

– Services

– – SEO

– – – SEO Audits

So, there is a page in this information architecture that is simply /audits/.

The /audits/ page exists in the SEO folder in the services drawer. Nice and organized. This can follow through with other SEO elements to clearly indicate context far beyond that which can be indicated by the document alone.

This is relevant to blog posts, articles, FAQ content, services, locations and just about anything else that is an entity within your business. You are looking to structure the information about your business in a way that makes it understandable.

Some sites may take a deep approach to structuring content. Others may take a wide approach. The important takeaway here is that things should be organized in a way that makes sense and simplifies navigation and discovery.

A three- to four-level approach like this ensures that most content can be easily navigated to within four clicks and tends to work better than a deeper approach to site navigation (for users and search engines).

URLs

Context is further indicated by the URL. A sensible naming convention helps provide yet more context for humans and search engines.

Following are two hypothetical sets of URLs that could map to the Services > SEO > SEO Audit path laid out above — yet one makes sense, and the other does nothing to help.

www.example.com
www.example.com/services/
www.example.com/services/seo/
www.example.com/services/seo/audits/

www.example.com
www.example.com/s123/
www.example.com/s123/s1/
www.example.com/s123/s1/75/

Of course, the second set of URLs is a purposely daft example, but it serves a point — the first URL naming convention helps both search engines and users, and the second one hinders.

Navigation

Your navigation is equally important. When a site is well-structured, the navigation works with the structure, the URLs and other components, like XML sitemaps, to help solidify what each page or piece of content is about.

Navigation is more than just the menu at the top of your website. It is how you signpost users to the most relevant part of your site. Navigation can be a tool to raise awareness of additional services and includes not just text links but content on all pages and in the templated design elements of your site.

I have always liked the signpost analogy. I walk into a supermarket and look for the signs to find what I need. Your website is no different. If a user is referred and searches for your brand name, then they will land on your home page. They then need a signpost to get them to the relevant service. And it had better be easy to find!

It is very easy to get this wrong, and careful thought must be applied — before you build the site — regarding the needs and wants of your users. A website is a digital component that should execute the strategy from your marketing plan. Understanding users here is crucial so you can ensure you are meeting their needs.

Navigation should not need any real cognition — it should not make the user have to think. The following image is a sign from my local home improvement store. Which direction takes you to the car park and which direction takes you to the deliveries entrance?

My brain follows the “customer parking” line from left to right, so I of course turn right. However, the customer parking is to the left. There is nothing there to clearly illustrate which is right or wrong.

I have to think. Or in practice, I go in the wrong direction a few times before I learn. However, if users don’t find what they are looking for on a website, they will return to the great ocean of competition that Google search results represent.

Ensure your navigation is crystal-clear — if one user can make a mistake, many others can, too.

Common problems

There are many potential issues with content that can’t be found or can’t be understood by the search engine that can work against you. For example:

  • Orphaned content that can’t be found
  • Content only available via site search
  • Flash files, Java programs, audio files, video files
  • AJAX* and flashy site effects**
  • Frames — Content embedded from another site can be problematic.
  • Subdomains — content split into subdomains rather than sub-folders

* Google has gotten a lot better at reading AJAX pages, but it is still possible to obscure content with pointless effects.

** Flash is going to be retired by December 2020.

Be sure that important content is easily discoverable, understandable and sits in the overall structure of the site in a way that makes sense.

Summary

If everything is done well, a human and a search engine should have a pretty good idea what a page is about before they even look at it. Your typical SEO then just builds on this solid foundation that is laid out by your information architecture and site structure.

Mobile-friendly design

We live in a mobile-first age. Sites optimized for search engines should give equal consideration to the mobile layouts of their websites (rather than just bolting on simple responsive website design).

Yet, in 2017, responsive design is not enough. Five years later, with massive technological progress and greatly improved mobile data networks, your future customers are using mobile as the first, and often only, device to interact with your business.

To create a truly mobile-friendly design and maximize results from mobile search, you must think of the needs and wants of mobile users. What a user will do on a phone is often far different from what they will do on a computer. And even if your conversions tend to be on a desktop, that crucial first touch may well be on mobile.

From an SEO perspective, it is worth noting that mobile-friendliness is a confirmed ranking factor for mobile search. However, far more important, mobile is how your prospective customers are searching for and browsing your site.

Work hard on optimizing the user experience for mobile users and you will reap the rewards for your efforts in terms of traffic and user engagement.

Page speed

Another key consideration in the mobile era is page speed. Users may be impatient, or they may not always have a great mobile data connection. Ensuring your pages are lean and mean is a key consideration in modern SEO-friendly website design.

A great starting point is Google’s mobile-friendly test. This tool will give you feedback on mobile-friendliness, mobile speed and desktop speed. It also wraps everything up into a handy little report detailing what exactly you can do to speed things up.

Suffice it to say, page speed is yet another important consideration that spans how your site is built and the quality and suitability of the hosting you use.

Usability

Web usability is a combination of other factors: device-specific design, page speed, design conventions and an intuitive approach to putting the site together with the end user in mind.

Key factors to consider include:

  • Page layout. Important elements should have more prominence.
  • Visual hierarchy. Make more important elements bigger!
  • Home page and site navigation. Clearly signpost directions for users.
  • Site search. Large sites need a sensibly positioned search option.
  • Form entry. Make forms as lightweight and easy to fill as possible.
  • Design. Great design makes everything easier.

This is just scratching the surface here, and usability really has to be customized to the individual site.

The content marketing funnel

Your website has a hell of a job to do: it must help your business get in front of prospective customers on search engines, and then it has to engage and convert those customers.

Your site needs content to help with all of these stages of the customer journey. Content and SEO is an important combination here, as you may get in front of a customer as they look for similar services from another company they are already considering.

A structured way to consider the content you need here is a typical marketing funnel:

Awareness — top of the funnel

Awareness content will typically be your blog and informational articles. We are helping your prospective customer understand the problems they face and illustrating your experience and credibility in solving them.

  • Blog posts
  • Informational articles
  • Webinars
  • Comprehensive guides
  • FAQs

Consideration — middle of the funnel

The content at the consideration stage helps your prospect compare you against the other offerings out there. This tends to be practical content that helps the customer make a decision.

  • Case studies
  • Product or service information
  • Product demonstration videos
  • User guides

Conversion — bottom of the funnel

Bottom-of-the-funnel content drives conversions and should gently encourage a sale or lead.

  • Reviews
  • Testimonials
  • Free trial
  • Free consultation

Remember that customers will search across this entire spectrum of content types. Therefore, ensuring all of these areas are covered aids discovery via search engines, consideration and conversion.

SEO nuts & bolts

As you can see, there is a lot to consider before we even look at the more familiar elements of optimizing your site and pages. We should only really start to think about keywords and basic on-page optimization once we have this solid foundation in place. And hopefully, if we have structured everything correctly, then the actual optimization of the pages becomes far easier.

Keyword targeting

Nailing your keyword strategy is so much easier once you have a solid structure without internal duplication. If we look at our previous examples for site hierarchy and structure, then adding keywords is relatively straightforward (and is something we would often do in a spreadsheet pre-design).

– Services
– – SEO
– – – SEO Audits

www.example.com/services/
www.example.com/services/seo/
www.example.com/services/seo/audits/

If I use these pages as an example, we have a natural progression from broad keywords to more refined search terms. We can even consider basic modifiers such as location if we are a local business.

Home

– digital marketing agency

– digital marketing company

+ Mobile

+ AL

Services

– marketing services

– digital marketing services

+ Mobile

+ AL

SEO

– SEO

– Search Engine Optimization

+ Company

+ Agency

+ Mobile

+ AL

SEO Audits

– SEO Audits

– Technical SEO Audits

+ Agency

+ Company

+ Mobile

The point here is that a well-structured site gets you a good way toward determining your keyword strategy. You still have to do the research and copywriting, but you can be sure you have a solid strategy to target broad and more detailed terms.

HTML title tags

The <title> tag is the primary behind-the-scenes tag that can influence your search engine results. In fact, it is the only meta tag that actually influences position directly.

Best practice for title tags are as follows:

  • Place keywords at the beginning of the tag.
  • Keep length around 50 to 60 characters.
  • Use keywords and key phrases in a natural manner.
  • Use dividers to separate elements like category and brand.
  • Focus on click-through and the end user.
  • Have a consistent approach across the site.

Even in 2017, we still see a lot of overoptimized page titles. We want our keywords in the title tag, but not at the expense of click-through and human readability. A search engine may rank your content, but a human clicks on it, so keep that in mind.

Meta description tags

Meta descriptions don’t directly influence rankings. We all know that, right? But of course, that is completely missing the point here. Your meta description is the content of your advertisement for that page in a set of search engine results. Your meta description is what wins you the click. And winning those clicks can help improve visibility and is absolutely vital in driving more users to your pages.

Meta descriptions must:

  • truthfully describe the page content.
  • advertise the page and improve click-through rates.
  • consider the user’s thought process and why they will click on this page.
  • include keywords where relevant and natural to do so.

The search engine will highlight search terms in your page title and meta description which help a user scan the page. Don’t use this as an excuse to spam the meta description, though, or else Google likely will ignore it, and it won’t lead to that all-important click!

There are also situations where it can make sense not to create a meta description and let the search engine pull content from the page to form a description that more accurately maps to a user’s search. Your brief meta description can’t always cover all the options for a longer-form piece of content, so keep this in mind.

Heading tags

Heading tags help structure the page and indicate hierarchy in a document: H1, H2, H3 and so on. Text in heading tags correlates with improved rankings (albeit slightly), but what really matters is that alignment between the structure of the site, behind the scenes optimization like page titles and meta descriptions and the content itself. Line everything up, and things make more sense for users, and we help search engines categorize our content while eking out every last bit of simple, on-page optimization we can.

Remember to align header tags with the visual hierarchy. Meaning the most important header on the page (typically the <h1>) should also be the biggest text element on the page. You are making the document visually easy to understand here and further ensuring that design and content are working together for the best end result.

Page content

The content should generally be the most important part of the page. However, we still see archaic SEO practices like overt keyword density and search terms with a lack of connective words used in the copy. This does not work. It certainly does not help with your SEO. And it makes for a poor user experience.

We want to make sure the context of our page is clear. Our navigation, URLs, page titles, headers and so on should all help here. Yet we want to write naturally, using synonyms and natural language.

Focus on creating great content that engages the user. Be mindful of keywords, but certainly don’t overdo it.

Considerations for page content:

  • Keywords in content (but don’t overdo it)
  • Structure of the page
  • Position of keywords in the content — earlier can be better
  • Synonyms and alternatives
  • Co-occurrence of keywords — what else would other high-quality documents include?

Rich snippets

Rich snippets are a powerful tool to increase click-through rates. We are naturally attracted to listings that stand out in the search engine results. Anything you can do to improve the click-through rate drives more users and makes your search engine listings work harder. Factor in possible ranking improvements from increased engagement, and you can have a low-input, high-output SEO tactic.

The snippets that are most relevant to your business will depend on what you do, but schema.org is a great place to start.

Image optimization

Image SEO can drive a substantial amount of traffic in the right circumstances. And again, our thoughts regarding context are important here. Google does not (yet) use the content of images, so context within the site and the page and basic optimization are crucial here.

As an example, I am looking for a hobbit hole playhouse for my five-year-old, and the search brings up image results:

kids hobbit hole playhouse Google Images

I can dive right into those image results and find a multitude of options, then use the image to drive me to the site that sells the playhouse. Optimizing your images increases the chance of improving prominence in the image search results.

Image optimization is technically straightforward:

  • Image name — provide a name that clearly describes what the image is.
  • Alt text — use descriptive alt text to help those who can’t see the images to reinforce the image content.
  • Add OpenGraph and Twitter Cards so the image is used in social shares.
  • Use the image at the right physical size to ensure fast downloads.
  • Optimize the image’s file size to improve loading times.
  • Consider adding images to your XML sitemap.

Image optimization is relatively simple. Keep the images relevant. Don’t spam the filenames and alt text with keywords. Be descriptive.

Common problems

SEO projects at Bowler Hat often include an SEO audit as the first port of call. We can’t cover every eventuality here, but the following are the usual suspects that crop up and that web designers should be mindful of.

Duplicate content

There tend to be two kinds of duplicate content: true duplicates and near-duplicates. True duplicates are where the content exists in multiple places (different pages, sites, subdomains and so on). Near-duplicates can be thin content or substantially similar content — think of a business with multiple locations or shoes listed on a unique page in different sizes.

Keyword cannibalization

Keyword cannibalization refers to the situation where multiple pages target the same keywords. This can impact the ability of your site to have one page that strongly targets a given term.

Where the site architecture and hierarchy has been carefully planned, you should eliminate this during the planning and design stages.

Domains, subdomains and protocols

Another potential issue where duplication crops up is where the site is available on multiple domains, subdomains and protocols.

Consider a business with two domains:

  • Example.com
  • Example.co.uk

With www and non-www versions:

  • Example.com
  • Example.co.uk
  • www.example.com
  • www.example.co.uk

And the site runs on HTTP and HTTPS:

  • http://example.com
  • http://example.co.uk
  • http://www.example.com
  • http://www.example.co.uk
  • https://example.com
  • https://example.co.uk
  • https://www.example.com
  • https://www.example.co.uk

Before too long, we can get to a situation where the site has eight potential variations. Factor in the site resolving on any subdomain and a few duff internal links and we can often add things like “ww.example.com” to the list above.

These kinds of issues are simply resolved with URL redirections via Apache, but again, they deserve consideration by any web design agency that takes care of hosting and is serious about the SEO of their customers’ websites.

Botched canonical URLs

Another common issue we see is an incorrect implementation of canonical URLs. What typically happens here is that the person building the site looks at canonical URLs as an SEO checklist kind of job. They are implemented by dynamically inserting the URL in the address bar into the canonical URL.

This is fundamentally flawed in that we can end up with the site running on multiple URLs, each with a canonical URL claiming that they are the authoritative version. So the canonical implementation exacerbates rather than resolves the issue.

Canonical URLs are a powerful tool when wielded wisely, yet they must be used properly or they can make matters worse.

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How to become a website designer

How To Become Professional Website Designer

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Although every young web designer starts their journey from the same place, taking suggestions from the veterans in the industry goes a long way in treading the first few steps. From there, you have to write your own story. There are a lot of new creative minds trying to set their feet in the web design business. However, in a market that is already saturated, it is not easy to leave a solid mark. The right skills, expertise, intelligent decisions, and of course a spark of luck, is really what is required to reach your goal.

What really is a professional website designer?

A professional website designer is a computer professional who produces a website using web programming languages. Their job is to assemble websites, content and graphics creatively using technology, tools and computer software. These websites visually communicate ideas and information to the consumers/clients.

The projects undertaken by website designers usually include developing company websites, managing networks and servers, learning how the ICANN system works and how DNS is used in domains, creating company internal sites, managing social media sites, writing personal and professional blogs, and much more depending on the specific application. They are very engaged in creating content for search engines and social media like Facebook, Google+, Twitter, web pages, and usually have a say in the graphic design portion of the creative.

What makes a successful website designer?

Here are a few tips that will help you in establishing your career as a professional website designer:

Get professionally qualified

Though creativity is a natural flair, technical education is a must in almost any field. There are some steps one should go through before starting as a website designer.

  • Get a formal education – Undergo a formal training in the field of graphic design, web design, or visual communication.
  • A college degree or an associate degree would be helpful in knowing the fundamentals in this area. Design software like Adobe Photoshop and Dreamweaver are requisites for any website designer to learn and master. Other IDE softwares work. This can be accompanied by new tools and application knowledge as a supplement.
  • If a college or a diploma course does not seem feasible due to financial reasons, do your own self-study using textbooks and the vast sea of knowledge on the internet. Some great options for self-learning are Treehouse, Lynda.com, SkillShare, Kelby One, Creative Live, Codecademy, W3Schools and more.

Run your own network

We can’t stress how critical it is that a website designer have their own tools. That means their own network. This network needs to be a dedicated resource from a reliable hosting company like TurkReno Incorporated where there are no clouds and no shared environments. You can’t do this at somewhere like GoDaddy as they don’t sell anything but crap. It is absolutely essential that you begin learning how to harden a website as soon as possible to prevent intrusions and security flaws.

Learn the top web platforms

The more diverse you can get with different web platforms, the more successful you will be. These web platforms include:

  • Basic HTML5 – HTML runs the web. You should know this well enough to eventually write it on a blank sheet of paper.
  • WordPress – WordPress controls over 50% of the public Internet and is one of the most popular platforms available. There are millions of plugins that result in millions of different types of sites you can make, too.
  • Joomla – Joomla is a solid CMS that rivals WordPress. It has similar functionality, but is more focused towards the skills of the developer.
  • Drupal – Drupal is the most difficult of the three CMS’s as it relies entirely on your knowledge of programming. This also makes this CMS the most customizable.
  • Magento – This is one of the most popular eCommerce CMS platforms and is a good start for those who want a solid eCommerce web design platform.

Specialize in a niche

The arena and scope of website design are vast, and therefore, it is better to specialize into a particular stream. Secondly, with the market being flooded with designers of this niche, specialization could give you the edge in the competition. For example, some young professionals could opt for an addition in multimedia, print, animation, and advertising. Weigh all the pros and cons before taking the plunge into your field of specialization.

Keep reading and learning

Every successful person we know doesn’t stop learning. Even after the completion of any formal training, keep reading about the new design tools and applications that launch. It gives an insight into the industry changes, makes you more confident and gives clients a better impression if you are updated with the latest innovations in the web design field. Keep practicing to improve your expertise.

Stay updated with tools and technology

The recommended tools for application by website designers’ are:

  • Adobe creative cloud programs – These include Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, Muse, and Dreamweaver
  • A reliable operating system – Use a good platform where designs can be made, applications can be downloaded and design programs can be run efficiently. We prefer MacOS.
  • A notepad and pen – This should be accompanying the web designer everywhere he goes. Rough sketches and points can be noted to use for ideation later.
  • Tablet or notebook – Though optional, this device comes handy when on the move or when quick changes have to be made.

Start small

As a newbie, it is best advised to start will lower means, keeping a low profile. One can easily start from home to save costs and look into the various avenues of freelancing sites. Investments should be made step by step once the revenues start flowing. In this process of starting small will help you discover your talent and then you can specialize in working in that stream. Grab any job, however small that comes your way, as it is your next step to the level ahead!

Market yourself well

Make an attractive portfolio of your work, highlighting your strengths and achievements. Since it is the designing world, it should be strong enough to grab attention. Also, try expertise in one field. It could be web development or blogging on technical issues or any other field you enjoy working in. Try and create a niche, so that when a company is looking for someone to design a website, it is only you that come to the mind. So basically: Leave an impact. At this stage, one has to put the best foot forward and try and deliver better than the client’s expectations and much before the deadline. This will leave the customer impressed and happy and would recommend your work to other organizations in future.

Dare to dream

It is not the most qualified that are the most successful in the field. Knowledge is necessary but how to employ it, and how creatively you can design is what makes the best stand out. Do not be afraid to take risks, challenging projects and nail gritting deadlines. Deliver good work and charge for it. Be confident in yourself and let it radiate in your personality and work. Who knows, after a few years, your story might shape the future of other young designers.

Stay updated

This is a highly vital point in this competitive and constantly challenging scenario where technology is being developed and dumped every minute. You have to be aware of the advances and developments in the web design arena. Listen to people, be alert, sign up on the social networks, meet the peers in the industry, read design journals, and make a note of any interesting web design you spot at any public place. You can use this for inspiration later.

In conclusion, the website design market is a hard niche to crack. It requires significant dedication, skill and business/marketing intelligence to make a name for yourself, and build enough credibility to earn a comfortable income. The results are worth it, though, working from home in your pajamas is only part of the dream!

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Types of Website Hosting by TurkReno Incorporated in Mobile, Alabama

Why do you need a web hosting service?

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Why do you need a web hosting service, or why do companies need web hosting?

A website hosting service is a way to allow companies a means to introduce their website to the Internet. A web hosting provider serves their clients with technologies that they would require to access of the website online. A web hosting company gathers the website requirements from the client and then allocates the required space on the appropriate server. To get the optimal advantage of this service, it is critical that clients do research. Clients should find out what web hosting needs they have and what services a web hosting companies offer that match.

Types of Web Hosting

Generally speaking, there are four kinds of web hosting that are available.

Website Hosting by TurkReno Incorporated in Mobile, Alabama

Website Hosting by TurkReno Incorporated in Mobile, Alabama

The first type is free web hosting. As the name suggests, this free service provides the clients to create a web page or small websites that they can communicate as an introductory site completely free. Since it is free, most of the services will be restricted. But it is a very good first step into the world of web hosting.

The second type is shared web hosting. Here again, clients access a shared space with other users. It is very cost effective and easy to maintain but everything you get comes with a fair share of pros and cons. If the server suffers any problem or errors, your website can run slow and maybe even shut down without notice.

The third type of web hosting is VPS hosting. This type of hosting uses a dedicated server but divides resources in a way that multiple tenants can be on the machine. This kind of web hosting also suffers from the same problems that shared web hosting has since resources are shared.

The fourth type of web hosting is dedicated hosting. With this type of hosting, you should expect to have full control over the server your site is on. You need this kind of service when your business is big and needs to demonstrate many more of its services on the World Wide Web. Here clients need to use help from a web hosting company to maintain this kind of technology.

Why choose TurkReno Incorporated for Website Hosting?

The advantages of taking the advice of a professional web hosting company like TurkReno Incorporated is that clients can rely on us to be right. We strive to use the most up-to-date technologies and services that suits businesses the best. The next point is that is customer service. Small web hosting companies are not that experienced in handling big clients but that’s never the case with TurkReno. Research, experience, and set rules and strategies keep a company like TurkReno at the top. The client has full access to the data or content of the website. Nothing is hidden. Clients have their say in the web design and development stage and every suggestion is more than welcome and taken into consideration.

We’ve also written a handy article on different terminology that you may find when researching web hosting. Read that article here.

We offer website hosting starting as low as $159.99 a year.

Contact us today to get a free analysis on your hosting needs.

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Local SEO

Step By Step Guide to Local SEO

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SEO Infographic

Click here for one of the best Local SEO Infographics available.

If you run a local business then you don’t need us to tell you how competitive it is out there these days.

You’ve been running a local business for years. You work really hard and your customers love you. You love what you do and you’re a proud member of your local business community.

But there’s one thing that’s really bugging you. You’ve noticed that some newer competitors have sprung up and they seem to be getting the top rankings in the search engines.

How are they doing that? You’ve been around for years – surely you should be getting the top ranking.

But you’re really busy and the online marketing side of things isn’t really your thing.

But what if I told you that there is a predictable formula for getting top ranking that you can use.

Now I know you might be skeptical about this. You might be thinking that this is either going to be too complicated, too time consuming or too expensive.

But bear with us. I’ve prepared a step by step process that anyone can do. You can do it in your own time and at your own pace and it will give you amazing results.

So, are you ready to claim the top ranking in your area? Well read on because it’s all here in our Definitive Guide to Local SEO – print it off, stick it on the wall where you’ll see it and just tick off each step as you do it.

 

Set up And Optimize Local Listings

Here we’re talking Google My Business, Bing Places for Business and Yahoo Local.

But don’t just create your listing and think it’s done. You need to optimize it fully. That means adding all the information possible. As well as the obvious like name, address, hours of business and a map you need to add all the extras like keywords, photos and videos.

Get Reviews

Do a search on your industry and town in Google. Notice something that the top ranked sites have in common? You got it – reviews. The websites with the top listings generally have more reviews.

Just get into the habit of asking for reviews. Start with your best clients. You know who they are and the chances are they’d jump at the chance to give you five stars.

Don’t go crazy in the first week and get fifty reviews though or Google might think you’re trying to game the system. Just commit to picking up reviews steadily over time.

Get NAP Citations

NAP stands for Name, Address and Phone. Citations are just mentions of your business in local business listings that Google trusts.

Most of these are free but some will charge a fee. You need to make sure that your listings are correct and up to date so if you change your address or phone, be sure to update these.

There are dozens, even hundreds of NAP sites to choose from. Again, no need to go crazy, just choose the ones you want to go for each month and get listed there. Easy!

Industry/Niche Directories

Is there a specific industry directory that you can get listed in? Run a search in Google for them. Also check where your competitors are getting listed.

Getting listed in these directories sends strong signals to Google that you are in that industry or sector.

Maybe you have a professional or industry accreditation. Again, check these because they will usually offer you a free listing as part of your accreditation.

Or are you a member of a trade association. Again, double check these as they are quick easy wins for getting a valuable trusted link back to your site.

Create Separate Service Specific Pages

Check that you have a separate page for EVERY service that you offer. Don’t bunch them together on one generic ‘Services’ page.

The reason is that you mustn’t spread your content to thinly. If you have a particular page for each service then that sends a strong signal to Google to present that page when someone is searching for that service.

For example, if you are an printer and you offer lithographic printing, digital printing, poster printing, business card printing, t-shirt printing, etc., create individual pages for each rather than one page listing them all.

Add Content To Your Pages

Now that you have individual pages you need to add more content to them. A minimum of 500 words, but ideally 1000 words. Yes, you read that correctly.

Why? Google loves long pages with loads of relevant content.

Where do you get all that content? It’s probably on your hard drive, in your outbox, or up in your head.

Look at presentations you’ve done or think of frequently asked questions. Or just have an imaginary conversation with a prospective new client and write out the answers to the questions. This type of content is perfect for your service pages.

Optimize All Pages

Don’t let the jargon worry you. Optimization is just the process of presenting your website’s pages so that Google understands them.

Use the following list to guide you:

  • Identify a keyword for each page (printer in TOWN)
  • Create Metatags for each page (these just tell Google what that page is about)
  • Add the keyword to the URL of each page (e.g. www.yourdomain.com/digital-printing-TOWN)
  • Create an H1 Heading with the keyword for that page (Headings are like the ones you use in Microsoft Word or Google Docs to give structure to the page)
  • Add your keywords to the text in a natural way and around 2 to 3% of the total text
  • Link to the other pages from the text

Get Some Backlinks

Backlinks are when other websites link to your website. Google notices this and good links are a major factor in your ranking. Start with easy backlink wins. Things like:

  • Your social media profiles allow you to link to your website
  • Give testimonials to local suppliers and say they can link back to you to demonstrate it’s a genuine testimonial
  • Consider high authority paid directories like Business.com

Get Fast, Secure Hosting

These days Google prefers faster, more secure websites. In fact both speed and security are Google ranking factors.

For faster hosting look no further than SSD Hosting. SSD stands for Solid State Drive and these are the future of data storage and are hundreds of times faster than traditional hard drives.

For security consider switching to HTTPS by setting up an SSL Certificate.

Go Mobile

The web is going mobile. Mobile is clearly the direction of travel and your customers and prospective customers are no longer just sitting at a desk browsing. They are out and about with their mobiles, tablets and other mobile devices.

Again, Google favors mobile friendly website design, so the sooner you get this sorted out the better.

You can either switch to Responsive Design or if budget is an issue then get a side by side mobile version of your website.

Get Blogging

Google prefers websites with more content. A blog is the best way to achieve this.

WordPress is free and is usually available as a one click install with most hosting companies.

Think of your service pages as being the sales pages of your website but your blog is an ongoing conversation with your customers and prospective customers.

Use your blog to post content of interest such as answering ‘How to’ type questions and use proven types of popular content such as:

  • List based content
  • Expert RoundUps
  • Buyers Guides
  • Product Reviews
  • Local Guides / What’s On Guides
  • Seasonal Content
  • Product / Service comparisons
  • ‘Best Of’ Content
  • Best Practice
  • Case Studies

The important thing is to create content consistently and regularly.

When you create content, make sure you optimize it in the same way you optimize your service pages using the checklist above.

Use Video

Video is very underused by local businesses. But there is a huge opportunity for those local businesses who take the time to create videos.

The reason is that there is much less competition. These days most mobile phones have excellent quality digital cameras so it could be as easy as videoing a quick repair or showing how to do a particular task or a short video where you explain a tip.

Keep them short – one to two minutes is fine. Once you’ve got them upload them to YouTube and then get the embed code from YouTube and add them to a blog post and transcribe the audio into text so that you have more written content.

Conclusion

Getting a high ranking in Google is achievable for any local business. You just need to approach it methodically and patiently.

Start with the local listings and make sure you optimize them. Start to pick up reviews and get them consistently. You’ll need NAP Citations and links from other websites. Start with industry websites and local suppliers.

Make sure you’re not spreading yourself too thinly – create service specific pages and make them long – minimum 500 words. Optimize all of your pages too so that Google can understand the content of each page.

Google like fast, secure websites. Switching to SSD hosting and get HTTPS hosting with TurkReno will give you a tick in each of these boxes.

Google rewards websites that create useful and engaging content on a regular basis. Adding a WordPress Blog section to your site will allow you to do this. Finally, start using video on your blog and include in your blog for extra content.

These are all realistic targets for any small business and over time you will definitely start to see positive results.

If you’d like for us to help you out, take a look at our Local SEO page on our site and grab a free site analysis.

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web design mobile alabama

Ten things to know when choosing a web design company

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Websites can be one of the greatest tools for a business online. But, if you go down a path that is not a good match for your goals and budget, it can be an expensive and time-consuming headache. Purchasing a website design service can be tricky, simply because sometimes you don’t know what you don’t know and that can make it harder to ask the right questions. To help you out and get you oriented, we have written this awesome article about what you need to know before choosing a website design company.

1. Is the website design company established and experienced?

It’s important to find a website design company that has experience. You can measure this in years running their business, number of clients served and also through the quality of their web design portfolio.

Years in business indicates that the web design company is stable, is successful in running a business, and that they will be able to competently work with your business for long term results as they have done for their own. The number of clients served indicates that the company should be very familiar with the full spectrum of website projects and business verticals and won’t take on a project that they don’t have the experience in completing. It also indicates that they have had the opportunity to iron out their work processes and are familiar with, and are able to execute, deadlines and timeframes.

Three questions to ask are:

  • How long has the company been designing and developing websites?
  • How many clients do they have?
  • How many employees do they have?

In order to try and save a tiny bit of money there is often a temptation to get your website designed and developed by a new company, a freelancer or a friend of a friends nephew that’s just graduated from college. Often freelancers and small-time developers just don’t have the experience they thought they did and what seemed like a money-saver can become an expensive repair job as you will more often than not need to start from scratch again. We have heard these unfortunate tales time and time again and we have found that going with inexperienced or cheaper companies and freelancers is often a short-term approach for ultimately what is a long-term project. Realistically, a website is an ongoing project and it is important to partner with an experienced and established company that will be there for the long haul, that has the experience to offer you ongoing support and advise and that is focused on creating a quality product for you.

2. What should I expect to pay?

A question we often hear is – “how much should I really pay for a website?”

Website prices can range a lot. You can get a website designed for as little as almost nothing and just pay for hosting, or the price can go all the way through to $35,000 and beyond. One of the interesting things about the web design industry is that you can get quoted a considerably different amount for the same job depending on the company that is quoting you.

As is the case when looking to purchase anything, there is a temptation to go with the cheapest option. You can buy website design services from between $300-$1100, however it is important that you understand what you are purchasing as these cheaper services always have limitations. Another important thing to consider with these cheaper products is that they are often out-of-the-box solutions and you won’t get the consultation and customization that can be critical so that the website is best serving your business interests. These cheap options can still work for some people, but not for all.

To a large degree the saying “you get what you pay for” holds true in the web design industry. However, there is a point where the price just keeps going up and the quality of the work or expertise doesn’t justify the cost.

Obviously price is dependent on the specific functionality that you require, but if you have a budget of between $3000 – $10,000, and if you follow the points in this article when selecting a web design company for you, you should be able to get a professionally designed and developed website for your business or project.

The best way to look a website is as an investment in your business. In retrospect, many web designers feel the same as they are investing their time into creating, managing and finishing a project they would like to see be a success. If you are prepared to pay a little extra, do a little research and choose the right design company, your website can be an asset and money making tool for years to come.

3. Do you have access to update the website content yourself?

Business doesn’t wait. So ask and make sure you will have access to update and edit the content of your website 24/7 on the fly or on your own time. This is most commonly achieved by web-based software called a content management system or CMS. Regardless of whether you intend to edit and upload the content of your website yourself or hire someone internally to do it for you, it’s important that your website is built on a content management system so it’s easy to make changes.

A CMS is considered as best business practice in website development for businesses small and large and has become fairly common these days. It is important to consider as if your website isn’t on a CMS, it can create a lot of expense later on when you’re wanting to change or add content. You also want to make sure that the CMS is an industry standard platform, that it’s easy to use, and that good training and support materials are available to you. WordPress and Joomla are both great examples of CMS platforms that meet these expectations.

4. Will you get support when you need it?

Does the web design company you’re purchasing the website from offer on-going support? If they don’t, this is a huge red flag. When you purchase a website, it is very important that you choose a web design company that offers reliable, generous and cost effective support on an ongoing basis. This is incredibly important as a website has a lot of different functions and aspects to it, and it helps to have professional assistance available when you need it.

Things you might need help with:

  • Your emails
  • Your domain name
  • Your hosting
  • How to use the CMS of your website
  • eCommerce setup and maintenance
  • Other general technical issues

Without quality support, you can find yourself in a predicament where you need to then find a different web developer to fix the problem that you have encountered. This can lead to an extraordinary amount of frustration, wasted time and additional expense on your part.

A story we hear often and our clients have experienced repeatedly is with freelance developers or small web design companies who start working on a project and are fantastic in the beginning, but within 6 to 12 months their enthusiasm and commitment wanes. Often they’ve started a steady job or taken on new projects and then old projects are not as fun to work on, or they don’t have time to work on them anymore. So make sure that the support is in place with a company that has support as a part of their business practice.

5. Keep all of your services in one place

It’s very helpful to be able to simply have one company handle everything that relates to your website and online presence. This is doubly helpful to the web development firm doing the work when troubleshooting any issues. Secondary services are anything that will support your business and your online presence. That could be graphic design services, copywriting, domain names, hosting, support, and, most importantly, online marketing and social media. You want to know that the web company you’re dealing with can offer a full range of services that relate to your website and that they have good, solid marketing skills.

Your website is an investment into the future of your business and it’s going to have a life-cycle of it’s own alongside your business. A website is a long-term project for you and as you develop your business. You will want to make the most out of your online presence using different services to promote your business, as you grow professionally.

6. Are there any additional or hidden charges

When you are purchasing a website and receiving quotes, in addition to getting a fixed project price, it’s important to be aware of any limitations, ongoing charges and costs that may be related to the website.

For Example: web hosting and support fees. It’s very common to pay for hosting on a recurring basis. But, you will also want to know about additional web development costs or future design costs. It’s good to know how much the ballpark design studio rates are per hour to cover your needs. And it’s also important to establish the project scope and prices straight up.

Sometimes without proper management, a design company can allow a project to go out of scope and budget or get delayed due to unexpected challenges. Suddenly you’re in a situation where you’ve invested money in to the project and now it’s more expensive than what was originally quoted. This can also happen because you have decided mid-way that you want more functionality too, but that’s something you should discuss with the design team first as additional charges would likely be expected in that case.

Another thing to consider are the particular limitations of the overall service, for example, limited hosting storage or design revisions. If the company is placing limits on these you can guess there’s a chance that you will be charged extra or experience some technical issues if you exceed these limits.

7. See samples of the work performed in the past

It is important to review and ask for samples of the work and craftsmanship that the web design company has produced in the past. This will give you a good reference point as to what they can provide for you. It’s important in these cases to not only look at the quality of the design, but also the functionality of the websites. Any good web design company should be able to show you a large amount of work that they have done. This will be a very good indication of the service and quality that you’ll receive from their company and it’s a great place to start in terms of evaluating the company.

Along with this, it is also good to review any testimonials or case studies that the company may have from their clients. It is good peace of mind to know that their clients are actually happy with the service that they’ve provided.

8. Keep it American

It’s always great to support and buy American goods and services, however in the web design industry there are a couple of other things to consider above and beyond simply supporting American businesses.

Within the web design industry there is a temptation to outsource development and support to overseas countries to save money, however this is often at the expense of the customer’s experience as there will be time delays and communication issues. And most importantly they just won’t understand you as an American small business.

Having American support and service means that the company you are dealing with will understand you as another American business and should be working in the same business hours as you are. Any problems are more likely to be resolved quickly and easily.

In addition to this, your website will load faster if it is on a server in the United States. Often times, even United States web design businesses use overseas servers which means that your web page needs to travel further when loading which can create a time lag. And out of sheer lack of knowing how to host a website, a web design company may just have bought in to a brand that they feel is a good choice. Feelings and business don’t mix — knowledge of how a business actually functions down to the core is a primary reason a business is successful. This is no different with hosting a website.

9. Are you working with the developer directly or is the company merely providing a turn-key website design service?

Maybe it’s due to the fact that technology is so readily available in this day and age and crafty businesspeople think they can get away with it, or maybe it’s the fact that some companies believe that they can truly be everything to everyone. In any case, there are companies that are out there masquerading as website design companies that don’t even actually do a single line of programming or actual design in-house at all. They outsource. As a matter of fact, they’re merely self-glorified order-takers with catchy buzzwords trying to make a quick dollar. Companies that are primarily print media are notorious for doing this since everyone believes that since they can put out a big production newspaper that they also can put out a big production website. You might as well find a way to set your money on fire, and be prepared to set a lot of it on fire, when dealing with one of these types of false-front companies. And there’s a good chance that the high price tag may just be a high price tag so that the real web design company or the person they’re outsourcing to in another country actually doing the work is paid a reasonable amount for their secrecy and the company selling the work makes an insane margin for generating a sale.

While that may sound fine to some people on paper, in reality what actually happens is your site will need to be updated and will end up breaking at some point due to a change in technology, an update to a CMS (which is notorious with both WordPress and Joomla) or you decide you want additional services and begin tinkering with the settings yourself and get lost. When that happens and you need help from who you bought your services from, you’re going to be at the mercy of whoever they contracted to do the job to still be around as the company who offered the service isn’t going to be able to service the request themselves. Hope, in this case, doesn’t float and you’ll just end up drowning in debt, wasting your time time and losing productivity and sales.

Getting around this is simple: Ask to speak to a developer and throw some technical questions at them. See how they respond. If you can’t do that, or they do speak to you and you feel like they’re just telling you what you want to hear just to take your money when you’re ready and willing to spend thousands of dollars, take your money elsewhere very quickly. Chances are you weren’t speaking to a real web developer. It should be absolutely no problem for you to take 5 minutes of a developer’s time from any size web design company to see if they can understand your needs and verbally conceptualize what it is that you need in technical terms. It’s what a website design company does by nature, so speak to the creators of your new site before you spend any money. They don’t have to be personable people (and often times they’re not), just knowledgable.

10. Is the web design company providing a mobile responsive website design?

This is critical in this day and age. Not only does having a mobile-friendly website affect your ranking positively with Google, but more than half of the people shopping for services or doing research are doing so from their smartphone or tablet. No one wants to pinch and zoom on a website to read or fill in information on a form.

Typically, a mobile responsive website should be included in the cost of having a website created, especially when having a website created on a CMS such as WordPress or Joomla as a mobile website is native to the most recent versions of both of these platforms.

At TurkReno Incorporated in Mobile, Alabama, we’re passionate about website design. We’d love to speak to you about your next project. We’ve got several ways to get in touch: fill out our free online estimate form, call us at (251) 279-0278, or visit our contact page and send us a message. We look forward to helping you with your next website design project.

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What To Expect From Apple’s Annual Spring Event On March 21st

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It’s no surprise that Apple has a spring and fall event to showcase the future of Apple each year. This year is no different and the spring event is on March 21st, here is a rundown of things you should expect.

  1. The iPhone SE
    • This device has been rumored since late last year. Now we get to see the fabled device in action and what it is really all about. At the moment, it is rumored this device will have a 4-inch screen with the hardware specs of an iPhone 6/6s. Are these rumors true? We will find out come the 21st.
  2. A new revision of the iPad Pro
    • it is no surprise that Apple always has some sort of revision to their devices. The iPad Pro is no exception to this. It is rumored that a new model of the iPad Pro will debut at this event as well. As a person who uses the iPad Pro right now in day to day life, I am excited to see if there is any truth to this. I personally feel the iPad Pro is fantastic, but we will see what the rumor holds come March 21st.
  3. More Apple Watch Bands
    • Currently, there is a decent amount of Apple Watch bands out in the market. Most are 3rd party compared to the limited official Apple branded bands. It is expected that Apple will announce several new bands that will be coming out in the near future.
  4. New Software updates
    • If history has taught us anything, it is that certain events are destined to repeat. During the past Apple spring events, they would reveal the newest software update for their devices. This one seems to have no exception to this rule. It is rumored we will see the newest WatchOS, OS X (10.10.4) and iOS (iPhone and iPad version 9.3) updates at the event. We can also possibly get some sort of release window on the updates.
  5. New revision on the MacBook, iPad Air & iPad Mini
    • I would file this one under wishful thinking, but there seems to be a rumor that we may see a new MacBook, iPad Mini and new iPad Air at the event. I would be skeptical considering for the iPad Mini 5 rumor because the Mini 4 just came out last September. The iPad Air 3 rumor seems possible considering the Air 2 came out October 2014. The MacBook is possible since it’s right at a year old.

All and all, it seems to be a packed event. It will all go down March 21st. We’ll will be here to post the main points of the event. So stay tuned for it.

Via: HackInformer

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Server 2008

Using SFC (System File Checker) To Repair Server 2008 Issues

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Both Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 include the System File Checker (SFC) tool. Previous operating systems included this tool also. This discussion is specific to Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008. If you would like more information on previous operating systems see the following KB article: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310747.

SFC scans and checks all Windows Resource Protected (WRP) resources. Windows Vista adds the following new functionality to the SFC tool:

  • Ability to scan a single file
  • Ability to scan a Windows installation offline

Common SFC Command Line Options

Here are some of the common commands you would use with SFC. Note you need to run SFC from a elevated command prompt

Scan entire system
SFC.EXE /scannow

Scan a specific file
SFC.EXE /scanfile=c:\windows\system32\kernel32.dll

Verify. This scans all protected files but does not repair them
SFC.EXE /verifyonly

Help for Sfc.exe
SFC.EXE /?

One of the new features of SFC in Windows Vista/2008 is the ability to run SFC against a offline windows directory. This is most useful when you are unable to start Windows and suspect file corruption. Generally you should always try safe mode first before doing this to see if Windows can start. To use SFC in offline mode you do the following

  1. Boot from your Windows Vista or Windows Server 2008 DVD
  2. On the first screen of Setup choose Next
  3. In the lower left of the screen choose “repair your computer”
  4. On the System Recovery Options screen choose your installation of Windows and then click next
  5. Click “Command prompt”
  6. Type in the following command: SFC.EXE /scannow /offbootdir=c:\ /offwindir=c:\windows
  7. When complete type in exit to see if Windows starts up now.

Advanced users may want to see what SFC is repairing on a system. When SFC runs it logs it’s actions to C:\WINDOWS\LOGS\CBS\CBS.LOG. You can find SFC specific entries by searching on [SR]. See http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/928228 for more information.

Example of How SFC Can Fix Issues

The following is a example of how the system file checker was able to resolve a issue on my own computer. The issue I encountered was that When I would go into disk management my disks would show up but none of the information such as the type of disk, size, active/boot/system, healthy, etc… would show up. I checked the system event log and found the following

Capture

FMIFS.DLL is obviously a file used by disk management to display this information. If I look up the error code C1 it resolves to ERROR_BAD_EXE_FORMAT. So at this point I suspect that this file is corrupt. From within Windows I run the following command:

SFC.EXE /scannow

It runs and says that it has repaired files. To verify I look in the C:\WINDOWS\LOGS\CBS\CBS.LOG and see the following entries

Capture2

From this you can tell that SFC compared the hash for fmifs.dll and found it wasn’t correct. It restored the backup from c:\windows\WinSxS\x86_microsoft-windows-fmifs_31bf3856ad364e35_6.0.6000.16386_none_54d7af8934ac24f1. After running SFC I was now able to open disk management and see my disk information.

Hopefully this helps explain how SFC can help you resolve problems on your computer and shows how Microsoft is committed to making Windows easier to fix when issues do occur.

Author:
Scott McArthur
Support Escalation Engineer
Enterprise Platforms Support

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Website Hosting Server

Website Hosting – What Does It All Mean?

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We understand the terms and products relating to running your own website may be new to many of you. In this section, we will attempt to explain what all of this means in order to assist you in determining which products you need. If, after reading the information contained here you still aren’t sure, you may email us and we will offer recommendations.

Domains
A domain represents the unique name assigned to an organization or individual on the Internet. For instance, we are all familiar with names such as google.com, microsoft.com, and so on. A particular name (domain) may only be owned by one person or company. To use an analogy, a domain represents your “street address” where you live on the Internet.  A domain is the “home” address where a particular website resides.

The domain name is comprised of several parts. The last part of the domain (.com for instance), is referred to as the top-level domain (TLD). In theory, the TLD represents a type of entity: for instance, .com stands for “commercial”. It was originally meant to be for commercial enterprises (business), but has become something of a misnomer as even people with personal websites use the .com TLD.

Other popular TLDs include:

  • .net – originally meant to signify Network orgainzations such as Internet Service Providers (ISP)
  • .edu – Education establishments (colleges/universities)
  • .mil – Military
  • .org – Non-profit organizations
  • .gov – Government organizations
  • .biz – a business
  • .name – individual/person
  • .info – information service There are others as well such as .aero, .pro, .coop, and so on. In addition, there are TLDs assigned to countries (e.g., .ca for Canada).

If you plan to have a website on the Internet, you will need a domain name for that site. If the name you want is already taken, you will have to find a different one. For example, if you wanted the domain CandlesForSale.com, that is already taken. However, the name CandlesForSale.biz is (currently) available. You could select the .biz name, or try to find an alternate such as Candles4sale.com (which is also currently taken).

There are literally millions of domains already taken so you may have to be creative in finding the name you want. But if you plan to put your own site on the web, you will need to identify an available domain. Once you do so, you should register that name immediately as it may not be available the next day.

When you go to our Domain Name purchase page, you will find a feature that lets you look up a name to determine whether or not it is available. It can be frustrating so be patient.

Hosting Plans
In order to make your website available it must be located on a “hosting server”. The type of hosting service you need depends on a number of factors:

  • the number of pages you plan to have
  • if you will have large files such as databases or numerous graphics or pictures
  • the number of visitors you expect each month
  • whether you plan to use your site to sell products
  • whether you plan to design the site yourself, or have someone do it for you
  • whether you plan to use scripting languages such as PHP or ASP
  • what type of database support you require (if any)
  • whether you have a preference for a Windows or Linux server

All of the plans offered by TurkReno include a significant amount of Hard Drive space, more than most people will ever need. This is the space on the hosting server reserved for your content (HTML, graphics, pictures, databases, etc.). Even the lowest priced plan provides for significant storage space. In most cases, this is more than enough for a personal website, even if you plan to include a large number of pictures. For instance, if you plan to post photographs with an average size of 100k, 5GB of space would allow you to store nearly 500,000 photos!

Database files (MS-Access, MySQL, etc) are typically very large. However, even if you plan to offer several applications using MS-Access or MySql databases, 5GB would ordinarily provide more than enough space. Also keep in mind, if you find that you require more space than you anticipated, you can also upgrade your hosting plan at a later date.

The amount of “bandwidth” you may require on a monthly basis is also a factor in deciding which hosting plan you need. You can think of bandwidth (or information sent out from the server) as a water pipe. The more water you need to put through that pipe during a given timeframe, the larger the pipe you need.

For instance, let’s say the total size of your site content (text and graphics) is 1 Megabyte (1 Mb). If you expect 1,000 visitors to your site each month, and assumming each visitor viewed every single page on your site (a BIG if), your bandwidth requirement would be 1 Gb per month. On the other hand, if the total size of your site was 10Mb, you would require 10Gb bandwidth for those same 1,000 visitors. In short, your bandwidth requirements will be determined by the total size of your site, along with the total number of monthly visitors.

If you plan to develop applications that run on your site (e.g., database access, games, etc.) you will need a hosting plan that supports the particular programming language those applications are written in. These would include PHP, ASP, and others. It doesn’t matter if you code these applications yourself, have someone else code them for you, or purchase/download the application from another site (and there are quite a few free applications available for download), the hosting service will need to support the language the application was written in for it to work on your site.

All of the hosting plans offered by TurkReno Incorporated already provide free forums, blogs, and other common applications so you may not need to add any additional ones. If you do, we offer plans that include PHP, Perl, ASP, ASP.Net, and Java. We can also provide other prepackaged applications such as shopping carts.

If you plan to run one or more applications on your site that require database access, you will need to make sure the hosting service you use supports that database. Depending on the hosting plan, we offer support for MS Access, MySQL and SQL Server 2012.

If you plan to sell products from your website, or if you will be taking personal information, you need a SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) Certificate. The SSL has two major functions. First, it let’s the people who visit your site know that you are in fact who you say you are (by verifying your certificate). Second, it encrypts (or scrambles) any personal or sensitive information (such as credit card numbers) before that information is transmitted over the Internet. If you have ever shopped at eBay, Amazon or other such sites, you have probably noticed the “key” or “lock” that shows up in your taskbar. This tells you that you are on a secure connection. That secure connection is a result of your SSL Certificate.

Another consideration when trying to decide what hosting plan you need is the number of email accounts you require. For a personal site, you may require very few email accounts, if any. The 500 accounts that come with the smaller plan should be more than enough for your family and friends.

If you plan to use your website to run a business, you may require more email accounts. If that is the case you can either purchase one of the other plans, or you can simply purchase additional email accounts for a small annual fee. In any case, your email accounts will allow you to have an email address with your domain name (e.g., turkreno@mydomain.com). The email accounts we provide are web-based so you can access them anywhere you have Internet access. As with the other items, you need to think through how you plan to use your site.

We also offer both Virtual Dedicated Servers and Dedicated Servers. Both of these give you full control of the server (as if it were located in your home or business site). Dedicated Servers are usually required by larger business or those wanting to provide hosting to other people. If you need additional information on our Dedicated Server plans, you can check out the plans in our “product store”, or email us at the link below.

Shopping Cart and Merchant Account
For those of you who plan to use your site to sell products, you will need both a shopping cart and a merchant account (if you don’t have one already).

The shopping cart allows you to build an online “store front” and product catalog similar to what you see at Amazon.com and other sites. We offer an inexpensive application called QuickCart that should fit your needs.

The Merchant Account gives you the ability to accept credit card payments online (through a shopping cart or other means). If you are already running your own “bricks and mortar” business you probably already have a merchant account. If that is the case, you will need to check with them regarding the ability to take online payments. If you don’t currently have an account, or you are just starting your business, you may want to check the Merchant Account we offer.

Search Engine Optimization
There are literally millions of businesses online. In order to compete with these, you will most likely want to ensure that you are placed in “Search Engine” results with the highest ranking possible. One of our products, Search Engine Visibility, will do that for you. It will evaluate your site and make suggestions to give you the best search engine rankings possible. You can also use Search Engine Visibility to submit your site to Google, Yahoo and dozens of other search engines, as well as web directories. One of the really great features in Traffic Blazer is an Search Engine Visibility tool that will tell you if there is a problem with your site that would prevent it from being listed in the search engines. For instance, many of the search engines will not list sites that have internal “broken links”. Search Engine Visibility will notify you regarding issues such as that.

Google AdWords
AdWords is a Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising feature that will allow your site to be listed in the Google “Sponsored Sites” area of their search engine results pages. If you aren’t sure what this is, just go to google and search for “candles” or some other item. You will see the sponsored ads on the right. These can be highly effective depending on your type of business.

Placement of AdWords links are based on how much you “bid” for each click. That is, if you bid 35 cents for each click you will get a higher placement than if you bid 25 cents. The amount for each bid is deducted from your total credits only when someone clicks on the link to go to your site.

Closing
If you still aren’t sure what you need for your particular site, please feel free to contact our support staff.

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Final Fantasy XV: Episode Duscae – Our Thoughts

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It’s finally out… the demo of Final Fantasy XV, aptly called Episode Duscae. Many have been waiting for the release of this demo, bundled exclusively with Final Fantasy Type-0. While we’ve played EVERY Final Fantasy demo (and game) that’s ever been on the market, we can’t help but notice that the demo of the fifteenth iteration of Square-Enix’s headliner …lacks. We’d really like to focus on what we didn’t like about this game.

1) The music. The music, to us, is disappointing. We’ve attended Distant Worlds and we’ve met Uematsu… Disappointing. Yes, we know that Uematsu is not doing the music officially anymore. But, the branded music that we’ve all come to know, such as the opening theme, the level up/XP screen and the game over screen are now represented with pillowy piano music and zero semblance of their very well known ancestors. We’re reminding ourselves again, this is the demo so maybe it will be different at actual launch (whenever that may be…). As is, no bueno if they’re not going to play the right music — let alone the right THEMED music — for the right scenes to their core fanbase. We don’t care if you make an improv version of the Opening Sequence/Prelude. Just make it the actual Prelude and not fluff.

2) The environment. SquareEnix has had PLENTY of time to get zone creation right. If you’re avid fans of the series like we are, you know about Final Fantasy XIV and 1.0’s copy/paste failure. Lots of us were disappointed to find that we couldn’t go pet the huge thing in the lake because there was an apparent zone line restricting us from going farther. Or the fact that some of these boulders became absurdly similar as we started running around. No real place to hide or climb. Perhaps they will put a jump accessory in the game. And perhaps SquareEnix will actually use the knowledge they’ve learned from FFXII and FFXIV to make a truly open-world, Non-MMO, offline game again. There were some things that we really liked, but this article is about what we didn’t like.

3) The narrative. We felt disconnected with the story they were trying to tell. We’re not all Japanese-esq twinks who have a kingdom to inherit (see the game for reference of Noctis being a prince). At least in the Final Fantasy VIII Demo, there was an apparent story to connect to with a sense of urgency and understanding. We did not feel compelled to go fix a car, instead that very purpose of playing gave me more of a reason to want to go explore.

4) These supposed hints at “something coming soon.” The ending of the demo says so. Please: kill me now. Also, this. Are we supposed to be happy they’re going to put the summons they should put in any Final Fantasy into the game? Are we supposed to be happy they’re going to respect their beginnings of the series? Are we supposed to be happy that it’s apparently a big deal for SquareEnix to do right by the series and provide an experience that satisfies new AND old gamers? No. No, We’re not supposed to be happy because we EXPECT this already — otherwise, it’s not really a Final Fantasy game and only another X-plus-Z:A5C weird numbering story of Final Fantasy that we never wanted to really play.

5) The (seemingly) pointless item collection. We’re sure that picking the items up had something as a reward — and it would be unsurprising if there was not any reward — but the only thing we truly HAD to pick up was the Behemoth Horn. Anything beyond that was, we guess, for Potions and Antidotes to be restocked with.

What we’ve seen with all of the fanfare and social media hype, and based off of our own experience, the demo is truly not that promising. Right now, this is a rental title and not a midnight launch title. But, let’s be fair. It’s just a demo and the main title is only 60% completed. We’ll see…

Noctis_Broods

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Heartbleed Bug

Heartbleed and the Information Security Nightmare

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Here’s a scenario… you get a notice, you see it on social media or on the news, something else about changing your password. You put it off because it’s not a matter of national security in your life. A few weeks later, something worse happens — a major breach of a financial institution happens, maybe your bank or credit card, or a social network gets breached. Yet again, you don’t get a phone call or you know it doesn’t affect you so you just leave your password the same. You don’t have time to go change and memorize another password. It’s just too much. Then you hear of the worst vulnerability affecting the known Internet. It’s called Heartbleed, aka CVE-2014-0160. That’s a snappy name, you think to yourself. Not a big deal. Now it’s the “most dangerous security flaw on the web,” according to The Verge.

This scenario happens all…The…TIME. Major breach, no one cares. No one really cares until someone in Information Security makes you care. When all of the yelling and screaming at Tier 1 support is over because there’s really no one to blame except some “magic man in a cloud” that pushed a button (or forgot to), no layman really knows what happens next. This time, we have an even greater nightmare. Absolute panic should be occurring online right now, but no one cares. It’s not important because it’s just digital life that depends on it.

Panic, you say? Yes, PANIC for any decent Internet Service provider. The panic is based on the fact that just because you change your password, or get notice to change your password, that it doesn’t mean that the breach is fixed. In this particular incident with Heartbleed, it was only yesterday that SOPHOS updated UTM and SAV for vShield. COMODO, an SSL provider, is just now sending out word. It was two days ago that the media really took wind of it. Looking at this like a virus spreading, we’re still just over 72 hours from Zero Hour on April 7th (considering when it was announced and announcing it being the moment that people both use the vulnerability for good and to respond to the call-to-action). But that news media article or spot only made it worse. Panic. That’s not all even still. Heartbleed was affecting the Internet since December 2011. Even more panic. This makes my head hurt, you think to yourself.

The exact problem here is that while the vulnerability was exposed, only a handful of services and sites had time to respond to the threat. In the time that it takes to respond to a threat such as Heartbleed, a lot of things need to happen. SSL certificates, private keys, internal passwords and security procedures, not to mention the OpenSSL module and Apache, all of which have to be updated. But you got the news yesterday. The amazing power of the Internet told you that there was a problem and you went and updated your password because you were sick and tired of that next Target security breach they were talking about last Christmas. And now, NOW you need to go change your password all over again even after you spent two hours yesterday making sure that everything was “safe,” or so you thought. You give up — and you likely should — because a typed password that a human can use is no longer truly safe.

Passwords hurt my brain, you think. Well, that’s fine. Because this breach is bigger than just your password. It’s your phone, your tablet, your printer, your laptop, your wireless router, your Smart TV, and that Starbucks hotspot. It’s also the fact that when you use OAUTH to sign into Pinterest from your Twitter ID or save your favorite Epicurious recipe by logging into your Facebook account that the session can be hijacked. But you like to stay logged in to your favorite sites for hours on end even though you only stay online for about 20 minutes — tops. It’s just so darn handy to not have to log out. Well, that’s what it’s going to take. You need to log out and wait. BUT I CAN’T BE BOTHERED TO DO THAT… and the cycle continues.

Perhaps it wasn’t clear enough. Nearly everything that you use a password on is affected. Unless it doesn’t connect to the Internet, like your garage door opener from 1981, chances are it’s affected. But we can’t have our customer base freak out! Yep, I’ve heard that one too. So fix OpenSSL and reset their passwords for them. But wait, that’s not a good idea because all of those GMail addresses have the same password or XYZ provider is about 8 days behind Zero Hour and they’re just going to login to a unsecured secure server. Well, we can’t all rely on the media to tell us when to do things. Or maybe that other site I like… NO, because they’re affected too.

So how do you handle Heartbleed if you’re not some Information Security guru? You log out and you wait until EVERY SITE you use has something up about actually changing your password. Your password has been vulnerable for over two years now. That’s not some wise indication to not care and login anyway and people in Information Security would seriously frown on you doing that. Use a sticky note to remind you to go check the support section of your favorite websites to see what they’re saying. Log out. Give the Internet a break for a day or two. Heartbleed and all of the other nasty things that bother the Internet will still be here when you get back. Until then, here’s a list Mashable has put together of sites that are affected.

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