From McCord Web Services – Google Partner and Web Visibility Experts
We’ve just completed a new web design project www.TutorWithCarol.com and are glad to share it with you.
This site designed for Carol Macina a professional math and reading tutor for K-8 grades uses our Pixelarity themes and is a quick and inexpensive way to have a search engine optimized website at an affordable price point.
To learn more about our Quick Start web design projects visit our web design page on our website for more information and examples.
Many website owners are getting approached by their hosts to move from http to https. What is important to know is that there is an easy way to do this and a hard way.
Here are my tips to easily move from http to https
Typically I will recommend that you buy your SSL certificate through your web host. Although it may be slightly more expensive, when you use your host’s provider your host is eager to help you set up your SSL cert correctly.
I paid $199 for my SSL certificate which is renewable each year through my web host. Once you have purchase the certificate, your host take over the installation on your server. For most clients this is all that needs to be done. Everything should work yet be under the green padlock and your site should start with https.
I do recommend that if you do move to SSL that you have your webmaster review your website files to assure that there are no hard coded in page links within your website referencing http. If there are, you will want them to change them to https.
Also if you are running WordPress in a directory on your site, you will want to update your logins and locations so that your blog and the blog access control panel are now all https.
Last of all do not forget to update the links in Google Ads. Change your site links and ad URLs to https to complete the project.
One tip, I typically recommend moving to https before you do a website redesign. There is nothing worse than having to troubleshoot server issues for https while you are troubleshooting a new site launch. Don’t do these updates at the same time.
HTTPS – Google loves it, but for informational websites, moving to HTTPS adds to your costs. Expect to pay $129 to $229 for a SSL or secure socket layer certificate to be able to have your website use HTTPS in the browser bar.
For me at this time, I am not moving to HTTPS and it is mainly due to the additional cost. I do not have e-commerce on my website and I only use a contact form for prospects, so do not feel that I must have this extra security. But, Google loves the security and encryption that HTTPS affords for websites. At some point in time, the use of HTTPS on your website may be a ranking factor for organic results, but for now, it is not.
E-Commerce Sites MUST be HTTPS
If your website has e-commerce, you take payments or log users into a secure area, you really need to be using HTTPS at this point in time, no exception.
New Websites Should Embrace HTTPS
Any new websites we design are all in HTTPS. At this time I do not feel that existing informational websites should move to HTTPS, but that day may be coming soon.
To find out more about how we can help you, I invite you to visit our website to browse our service offerings and read more content on topics that will help your business grow.
If a plugin that is important to the look and feel of your WordPress website is abandoned, it is best to start looking for an alternative.
Recently in the news, several popular abandoned plugins were purchased and used to disseminate malware. It is not recommended to keep using a plugin that has been marked abandoned at WordPress.og. So what should you do?
One, search for alternatives using the plugin name. In many cases others just like you have had a similar problem and have created, found, or written about good alternative plugins. Do some research and see if you can find a good replacement option.
Two, be sure is has been abandoned by visiting WordPress.org. Look to see if there are comments that point you to alternatives.
Three, look actively for more than one alternative and test them before deciding on one. I am searching for a replacement for a client for the JP Widget Visibility and found this blog post with a nice review of over ten options.
Four, leave the abandoned plugin installed and take your chances that nothing will happen and your site will not be hacked. Just be aware that as WordPress updates, the plugin may stop working entirely.
This is a great article on other additional options to pursue at Nexcess Beyond Hosting.