Knowledge Base

Knowledge Base2019-07-18T23:25:55+00:00

Knowledge Base | Use your know-how

A smart knowledge base for better self-service and empowered clients.

Explore some of the tips and pointers that we’ve provided to ensure each and every one of our clients attain their goals and have project success.  We encourage persistent engagement and communications with all of our clientele to fully understand your business needs.

This section aims to cover some of the basics of hosting, web page design, layout, seo, social media and security.

WordPress: Would you training us in our company website?2020-04-01T16:42:58+00:00

Yes! This way, we can get right into the unique challenges, theme, and plugins for your website. Some companies require that we work from a copy of the website on a subdomain. Working from a “staging version” of the website is more common with larger organizations and institutions. If you are one of these organizations, then you know who you are! And, we will get these details planned in advance of training.

WordPress: How do I pay for training?2020-04-01T16:36:22+00:00

Once you schedule your training, your instructor will email you a payment link where you can directly and securely enter your payment information.

WordPress: How do I schedule training?2020-04-01T16:33:23+00:00

Your instructor will work with you to determine your best days and times for training. This will also be a good time to discuss your goals and get answers to any remaining questions you might have.

WordPress: How Soon Can I Train?2020-04-01T16:31:06+00:00

Typically, we can get your training on our calendar about 2 weeks out–sometimes sooner. It is also normal to have to wait up to a month for training during our busy times.

How to get website on Google?2020-03-30T18:00:07+00:00

We submit your website pages to Google with sitemaps and webmaster tools and get you listed on Google local maps. Our website services continue after we complete and launch your website. The importance of SEO and website promotion is so your website can get seen.

SEO: Can People Find My Site On Google Right Now?2020-02-17T19:02:57+00:00

The easiest way to test this is to go to Google and type in “site:[mydomain.com]” and see if your website pops up. For example, to check if Junto was indexed, I would type “site:junto.digital” into search engines.

If your website doesn’t pop up after doing this search, then your site isn’t on Google right now. To fix this, add your website to Search Console and submit your sitemap after verifying your site.

Struggling to find your sitemap? Try typing “[mydomain.com]/sitemap.xml” into your browser. In most scenarios, this will pull up your sitemap, or at least redirect you to your sitemap page. If this doesn’t work, then we have a lot of work to do.

SEO: How Do I Improve My Website’s Relevancy?2020-02-17T18:58:27+00:00

Start by identifying the words and phrases that your customers are searching for online, and update your website copy to better reflect those words and phrases. If you sell cars, make it easy for Google to understand that your website is about selling cars.

Add these words and phrases to your header tags, title tags, alternate text, inlinks, etc.

SEO: Will blogging help SEO?2020-02-17T18:50:53+00:00

Yes! Each piece of new content you create is another opportunity to rank for a target keyword related to your business. The more high-quality blogs you create, the wider the net you cast across your industry’s organic search results.

I keep my WordPress website up to date but still got hacked!2020-02-03T22:10:02+00:00

Firstly, well done, this is something the other 95% of the world do not do on a regular basis! However, it is sometimes not good enough.

  • Backdoors – these bypass normal methods of accessing your site, e.g. via scripts or hidden files. An example was the Tim Thumb vulnerability in 2013.
  • Pharma hacks – an exploit used to insert rogue code into out of date versions of WordPress.
  • Brute-force login attempts – when hackers use automation to exploit weak passwords and gain access to your site.
  • Malicious redirects – when backdoors are used to add malicious redirects to your site.
  • Cross-site scripting (XSS) – the most common vulnerability found in WordPress plugins, these inject scripts that then allow a hacker to send malicious code to the user’s browser.
  • Denial of Service (DoS)- when errors or bugs in a website’s code are used to overwhelm a website so it no longer functions.
Why would someone hack my WordPress website?2020-02-03T22:07:17+00:00

The “hacker” often doesn’t care how big or how important your website is, or even what it is, the “hacker” can gain a wide range of benefits from hacking your website. They can divert your traffic to traffic sharing websites to generate them money, they can use your website to send spam, they can steal customer data or they can take your website down completely.

Some hacks can be manual where someone is hired and you are the target specifically, maybe it is from a competitor who gains advantage by your website not being online!? But the majority of hacks are automated and launched on a large scale, automated programs called “bots” search the internet for WordPress websites and the automatically test for weaknesses, and when one if found, they can exploit it. A general rule of thumb is that if you can be found on Google, you will be found by bots also, so just because you are “small time” doesn’t mean you won’t be hacked.

What details do you need to fix website issues?2019-05-23T18:56:52+00:00

Generally, I need your website’s admin access and cPanel (or hosting) access.

Are you able to fix crash websites after hack?2019-05-23T18:52:50+00:00

Yes I can fix please message me your website url and if possible send me 1 screen shot how it was looking before hack (if available).

What are the important things that can turn browsers into buyers?2019-03-28T19:34:49+00:00

Create your site so that it is much more oriented towards sales rather than marketing. Let your visitors see your products immediately instead of hiding them behind lots of marketing copy. Make a page that reads the terms and conditions as it will offer a professional look. Provide your contact details and explain your return policies, security, encryption methods and payment options.

Is there a limit on the product amount and types I sell on my Woocommerce website?2019-03-20T17:05:52+00:00

Sell everything through WooCommerce. There are so many extensions to choose from and when it comes to product type and amount – sky is the limit.

Unlimited possibilities for your store! The plugin can handle one product to a thousand with the same efficacy depending on the hosting package you choose.

Easier addition and management of products: Add all your products to your website, select image sizes for your product catalog and more. You can also enable a lightbox for your product images.

Product types and variables: Whether it is a simple or grouped product, downloadable product, external service and more, it can be sold. You can have variations of a particular product with full control over the price, image and stock (i.e., for website hosting service, you can offer Shared, Dedicated Server, etc.)

Inventory management: Manage your inventory, track incoming and outgoing stock, hide ‘out-of-stock’ product on your website and more.

What features can I expect in the checkout area?2019-03-20T17:04:47+00:00

One of the most important section of your e-commerce store is the checkout process. The below features will make customers complete their shopping experience smoothly.

Pre-installed payment gateways: There are pre-installed gateways – Direct Bank Transfer, Cheque Payment, Cash on Delivery, and more. Businesses can additionally install another gateway. Drag and drop them for front-end display.

Management of checkout process: You can either enable or disable guest users for product checkout. Sell to a specific locality or anywhere in the world and create specific page URLs for managing specific actions while checking out.

Set default currency: Businesses targeting specific countries can choose from a range of currencies as your default currency.

Geolocation support: Easily auto detect your customer’s location with the built-in geolocation support that also has page caching option. This allows for simpler transportation and tax calculations.

Tax calculations: Geolocating your customer and showing relevant taxes based on their location will enable display of relevant prices.

Carting selection: Customers can choose to redirect to cart page after addition of product or browse for more.

Page loading speed: Optionally using AJAX on ‘add to cart’ buttons, your website won’t require being reloaded each time a product is added or edit in the cart.

Does WooCommerce support unlimited products?2019-03-20T17:02:36+00:00

Yes. Woocommerce supports adding unlimited products and scales with you as your business grows. It will scale with you from selling one product then increasing to thousands and reaching your millionth order.

Why choose us for WooCommerce Development?2019-03-20T17:01:18+00:00

Build your efficient WooCommerce store with us. A one stop solution for easy management of your e-commerce store. We help build your platform and e-commerce interface between your customers and you. Contact us for your next project and gain a complete advantage of having a competitive edge with attractive designs and features. Our skilled developers make your store with unique functionalities for your business to reap more conversions and receive better traffic. We are professionals in building fully-featured online stores completed by a smooth user experience and product carting ease.

Why choose WooCommerce?2019-03-20T16:59:54+00:00

User-friendly and modern interface: This plugin is designed to blend in with the latest WordPress theme trends to keep your store updated with modern designs and in-line with the latest trends.

Enhance user and store owner experience: Users can benefit from smooth site navigation and shopping ease. Store owners can have their admin settings across several stores controlled from a single user panel on your mobile. This offers ease for updating your store on the go.

Easily integrates with WordPress content: Millions of brands have published their content on WooCommerce that is built on WordPress. This allows you to integrate your eCommerce website seamlessly with the world’s most popular blogging platform.

Are there any hidden costs?2019-02-14T17:16:07+00:00

No. We agree a fixed price with you, which means you know exactly what you will pay. Quotes are always given before we start any work, and costs are clearly documented. The only time we would charge additional fees would be in the instances where a client requests a new page or some additional material or images for the website after work has commenced. Charges for additional work such as this are always given before the work starts.

Can I update my own website, or will you do it?2019-02-14T17:10:44+00:00

We encourage our clients to maintain their own websites once they’re launched. All of our websites are built using WordPress, so that you can update it yourself. We’ll make sure you know how to use WordPress before we turn over the website to you.

Generally, we expect there to be minor updates within the first 30 days after launch, so those are free. Updates after that are $90/hour, minimum an hour.

How long does it take to finish a website?2019-02-14T17:03:59+00:00

Once you provide us with enough content for your website, we typically have the first beta to you within ten business days. We’ve been able to complete projects in as little as fourteen days, but typically websites are finished within thirty days.

Do I need to have all my content prepared prior to contacting you?2019-02-14T17:03:32+00:00

No. We can get started by using placeholder content while you work towards completing your content. We’ll even provide you with a content outline to follow to make things easier. This gives you guidance on the type of text and images that would perform best on your website.

How should I supply the content for my website?2019-02-14T17:00:22+00:00

It is helpful to us if you are able to provide text and photographs in electronic form – for example, the files output by a digital camera and the copy in MS word or similar format. If this is not possible, we can help get your information ready for use on the website. We will also provide you instructions on how to upload the material via FTP or email.

Can I See My Website While It’s In Progress?2019-02-14T16:57:50+00:00

Absolutely! In fact, we encourage it. We build your website on our development server, and provide you with a username and password so that you can log in and monitor the progress of your site. During this phase, we encourage your feedback if something isn’t quite the way you envisioned it or if you’ve changed your mind. Once your site is ready and you have provided your approval, we release it live on your server and submit your URL to the major search engines.

I’m not local to your area. Can you still make my business’ website?2019-02-14T17:04:52+00:00

Absolutely, although I enjoy meeting new clients and working personally with them, I will work with clients far beyond Toronto and the GTA by e-mail and phone. I’ve worked with people right across Canada, in the United States, Europe, and Australia too. I have many clients I have never met face-to-face.

Web Design Steps | Design Process2019-02-04T17:39:49+00:00

These 7 steps are pretty much the web design process we follow.

STEP 1: Contact Me

Make contact by email form or phone at 647-403-2052 regarding ‘what you need’. Important to do this ‘before’ ordering, so we’re both on the same page about your project.

STEP 2: Provide Site Examples

Please provide a few example sites you might like your site to resemble for colors and possible layout (either from my portfolio or web addresses).

STEP 3: Place Your Order

Jobs are done on a ‘first come, first served’ basis, so it’s important to ‘get your order in’ soon after we’ve gone over your site so we can get your project scheduled. Choose a package you like or one we’ve already discussed, with or without options, and place your order to get things started. (For larger jobs ‘outside’ the package prices, we need to talk a bit more) Your design will be scheduled and an approximate ‘completion date’ given. This depends largely on current workload at the time of your order. It’s not an exact science, as things come up, but I do my best to stick to the time frame.

IMPORTANT: Much of getting your design completed on time depends on information that YOU will provide. I generally don’t even begin your project until I have all information and content from you, so please send all info needed as quickly as possible.

STEP 4: Provide Domain / Hosting Info

Upon ordering, an email is sent for things YOU need to do to for your web design, including:

Register a domain with GoDaddy (Best deals on domains. DON’T buy ‘any’ extras). NO HOSTING!

If you are using ‘our’ Hostgator Web Hosting, you will need to provide the login info where your domain is registered in order to set up your hosting account.

If you’re using your own hosting account, we may need your login info to to verify compatibility and set up your site. (If there’s a ‘control panel’ with your hosting, you should be fine.)

STEP 5: Email Your Content

Provide the page names you’d like (ie, ‘Home’, ‘About Us’, ‘Services’, ‘Gallery’, ‘Testimonials’, ‘Directions’, ‘Contact’, etc) Please provide content for each page (including pics and graphics if you have any).

STEP 6: Preview Your Design

I like to complete your design before showing it to you, as opposed to showing you a piece at a time. Once I begin your site, you generally won’t hear from me until I email the preview.

Once I have completed your design, I’ll send you the site address location so you can spend a few days on the site and make any minor changes that need to be made. (I say, ‘Minor changes’ because we ‘should’ be pretty well ‘in sync’ with how the design will turn out based on our communication ‘before’ ordering. However, if there are major design changes needed due to, ‘my boss doesn’t like it’, or, ‘I want to try something different’, there may be additional charges to complete your design.)

Once I’ve made any necessary updates, and you have approved the design, the site will be published LIVE to your domain.

STEP 7: It’s YOURS!

Congratulations! You now have your web site, meaning you can do pretty much anything you want with it. Update it. Change it. Move it. Copy it. Sell it. There are ‘some’ limitations, but, basically, it’s YOURS. No more ‘licenses’ to keep paying each year just to ‘rent’ your website. You will receive your site login information and a quick outline of ‘update basics’ so you can have the ability to make basic changes to your site. (If you’re hosting with us, you’ll receive your hosting login information for your control panel and ftp as well.)

Do you rebuild websites in the correct way?2018-11-20T16:52:08+00:00

Yes.  One of the more common things that we do here is rebuild websites in the “correct way”.  Frequently self proclaimed “CMS experts” will try to extend your website by building custom plugins for features that already exist inside your CMS, by using raw PHP code to “shell your CMS” for a custom theme, by using a super powerful PHP framework for a basic website instead of a using a CMS, or by sandwiching your CMS into another part of a custom site they have built for you.  Most of these methods are completely unnecessary and amount to an insecure website that feels like a “house of cards” even for the people using your site that know nothing about coding.

Website Security Terms Glossary2018-11-20T16:42:26+00:00

Hacking/Penetration Glossary

Adware

Adware is software designed to force pre-chosen ads to display on your system. Some adware is designed to be malicious and will pop up ads with such speed and frequency that they seem to be taking over everything, slowing down your system and tying up all of your system resources. When adware is coupled with spyware, it can be a frustrating ride, to say the least.

Attribution

Attribution is the process of establishing who is behind a hack. Often, attribution is the most difficult part of responding to a major breach since experienced hackers may hide behind layers of online services that mask their true location and identity. Many incidents, such as the Sony hack, may never produce any satisfactory attribution.

Back Door

A back door is a point of entry that circumvents normal security and can be used by a cracker to access a network or computer system. Usually back doors are created by system developers as shortcuts to speed access through security during the development stage and then are overlooked and never properly removed during final implementation. Sometimes crackers will create their own back door to a system by using a virus or a Trojan to set it up, thereby allowing them future access at their leisure.

Black Hat

Just like in the old westerns, these are the bad guys. A black hat is a cracker. To add insult to injury, black hats may also share information about the “break in” with other black hat crackers so they can exploit the same vulnerabilities before the victim becomes aware and takes appropriate measures… like calling Global Digital Forensics!

Bot

A bot is a software “robot” that performs an extensive set of automated tasks on its own. Search engines like Google use bots, also known as spiders, to crawl through websites in order to scan through all of your pages. In these cases bots are not meant to interfere with a user, but are employed in an effort to index sites for the purpose of ranking them accordingly for appropriate returns on search queries. But when black hats use a bot, they can perform an extensive set of destructive tasks, as well as introduce many forms of malware to your system or network. They can also be used by black hats to coordinate attacks by controlling botnets.

Botnet

A botnet is a network of zombie drones under the control of a black hat. When black hats are launching a Distributed Denial of Service attack for instance, they will use a botnet under their control to accomplish it. Most often, the users of the systems will not even know they are involved or that their system resources are being used to carry out DDOS attacks or for spamming. It not only helps cover the black hat’s tracks, but increases the ferocity of the attack by using the resources of many computer systems in a coordinated effort.

Brute force

A brute force attack is arguably the least sophisticated way of breaking into a password protected system, short of simply obtaining the password itself. A brute force attack will usually consist of an automated process of trial and error to guess the correct passphrase. Most modern encryption systems use different methods for slowing down brute force attacks, making it hard or impossible to try all combinations in a reasonable amount of time.

Bug

You’ve probably heard of this one. A bug is a flaw or error in a software program. Some are harmless or merely annoying, but some can be exploited by hackers. That’s why many companies have started using bug bounty programs to pay anyone who spots a bug before the bad guys do.

Crypto

Short for cryptography, the science of secret communication or the procedures and processes for hiding data and messages with encryption (see below).

Chipoff

A chipoff attack requires the hacker to physically remove memory storage chips in a device so that information can be scraped from them using specialized software. This attack has been used by law enforcement to break into PGP protected Blackberry phones.

Cookies

A cookie is a small packet of information from a visited webserver stored on your system by your computer’s browser. It is designed to store personalized information in order to customize your next visit. For instance, if you visit a site with forms to fill out on each visit, that information can be stored on your system as a cookie so you don’t have to go through the process of filling out the forms each time you visit.

Cracker

When you hear the word hacker today, in reality it is normally referring to a cracker, but the two have become synonymous. With its origin derived from “safecracker” as a way to differentiate from the various uses of “hacker” in the cyber world, a cracker is someone who breaks into a computer system or network without authorization and with the intention of doing damage. A cracker may destroy files, steal personal information like credit card numbers or client data, infect the system with a virus, or undertake many others things that cause harm. This glossary will give you an idea of what they can do and some of the means they use to achieve their malicious objectives. These are the black hats.

Denial of Service Attack (DOS)

A Denial of Service attack is an attack designed to overwhelm a targeted website to the point of crashing it or making it inaccessible. Along with sheer numbers and frequency, sometimes the data packets that are sent are malformed to further stress the system trying to process the server requests. A successful Denial of Service attack can cripple any entity that relies on its online presence by rendering their website virtually useless.

Distributed Denial of Service Attack (DDOS)

A Distributed Denial of Service attack is done with the help of zombie drones (also known as a botnet) under the control of black hats using a master program to command them to send information and data packets to the targeted webserver from the multiple systems under their control. This obviously makes the Distributed Denial of Service attack even more devastating than a Denial of Service attack launched from a single system, flooding the target server with a speed and volume that is exponentially magnified. As is normally the case with zombie drones and botnets, this is often done without the user of the controlled system even knowing they were involved.

Dumpster Diving

The act of rummaging through the trash of an individual or business to gather information that could be useful for a cyber criminal to gain access to a system or attain personal information to aid them in identity theft or system intrusion. One person’s garbage can indeed be a cyber criminal’s treasure.

Deep web

This term and “dark web” or “dark net” are sometimes used interchangeably, though they shouldn’t be. The deep web is the part of the internet that is not indexed by search engines. That includes password protected pages, paywalled sites, encrypted networks, and databases—lots of boring stuff.

DEF CON

One of the most famous hacking conferences in the US and the world, which started in 1992 and takes place every summer in Las Vegas.

Digital Certificate

A digital passport or stamp of approval that proves the identity of a person, website or service on the internet. In more technical terms, a digital certificate proves that someone is in possession of a certain cryptographic key that, traditionally, can’t be forged. Some of the most common digital certificates are those of websites, which ensure your connection to them is properly encrypted. These get displayed on your browser as a green padlock.

Easter Egg

A non-malicious surprise contained in a program or on a circuit board installed by the developer. It could be as simple as a text greeting, a signature, or an image embedded on a circuit board, or comprise a more complex routine, like a video or a small program. The criteria that must be met to be considered an Easter Egg are that it be undocumented, non-malicious, reproducible to anyone with the same device or software, not be obvious, and above all – it should be entertaining!

Encryption

The process of scrambling data or messages making it unreadable and secret. The opposite is decryption, the decoding of the message. Both encryption and decryption are functions of cryptography. Encryption is used by individuals as well as corporations and in digital security for consumer products.

End to end encryption

A particular type of encryption where a message or data gets scrambled or encrypted on one end, for example your computer or phone, and get decrypted on the other end, such as someone else’s computer. The data is scrambled in a way that, at least in theory, only the sender and receiver—and no one else—can read it.

Evil maid attack

As the name probably suggests, an evil maid attack is a hack that requires physical access to a computer—the kind of access an evil maid might have while tidying his or her employer’s office, for example. By having physical access, a hacker can install software to track your use and gain a doorway even to encrypted information.

Exploit

An exploit is a way or process to take advantage of a bug or vulnerability in a computer or application. Not all bugs lead to exploits. Think of it this way: If your door was faulty, it could be simply that it makes a weird sound when you open it, or that its lock can be picked. Both are flaws but only one can help a burglar get in. The way the criminal picks the lock would be the exploit.

Firewall

A firewall is a security barrier designed to keep unwanted intruders “outside” a computer system or network while allowing safe communication between systems and users on the “inside” of the firewall. Firewalls can be physical devices or software based, or a combination of the two. A well designed and implemented firewall is a must to ensure safe communications and network access and should be regularly checked and updated to ensure continued function. Black hats learn new tricks and exploit new techniques all the time, and what worked to keep them out yesterday may need to be adjusted or replaced over time.

Forensics

On CSI, forensic investigations involve a series of methodical steps in order to establish what happened during a crime. When it comes to a hack, however, investigators are looking for digital fingerprints instead of physical ones. This process usually involves trying to retrieve messages or other information from a device—perhaps a phone, a desktop computer or a server—used, or abused, by a suspected criminal.

Gray Hat

A gray hat, as you would imagine, is a bit of a white hat/black hat hybrid. Thankfully, like white hats, their mission is not to do damage to a system or network, but to expose flaws in system security. The black hat part of the mix is that they may very well use illegal means to gain access to the targeted system or network, but not for the purpose of damaging or destroying data: they want to expose the security weaknesses of a particular system and then notify the “victim” of their success. Often this is done with the intent of then selling their services to help correct the security failure so black hats can not gain entry and/or access for more devious and harmful purposes.

Hacker

This is the trickiest definition of the group and controversy has followed its use for decades. Originally, the term hacker had a positive connotation and it actually had nothing to do with computer systems. In 1946, the Tech Model Railroad Club of MIT coined the term to mean someone who applies ingenuity to achieve a clever result. Then, when computers came along, “hacker” took on the meaning of someone who would “hack” away on a program through the night to make it better. But in the 80’s everything changed, and Hollywood was the catalyst. When the personal computers onslaught started invading our daily lives, it didn’t take long for clever screenwriters to bring the black hat villains of the cyber world to the forefront of our collective consciousness, and they haven’t looked back since. They associated our deepest fears with the word hacker, making them the ones that unraveled our privacy, put our safety in jeopardy, and had the power to take everything from us, from our material possessions to our very identities. And they could do it all anonymously, by hacking away in a dark room by the dim light of a computer monitor’s glow. Needless to say, right or wrong, it stuck! Even many professionals in the computing field today have finally, albeit grudgingly, given in to the mainstream meaning of the word. “Hacker” has thus become the catchall term used when in fact it should be “cracker.”

Keylogger

A keylogger is a nondestructive program that is designed to log every keystroke made on a computer. The information that is collected can then be saved as a file and/or sent to another machine on the network or over the Internet, making it possible for someone else to see every keystroke that was made on a particular system. By breaking down this information, it can be easy for a black hat cracker to recreate your user names and passwords, putting all kinds of information at risk and susceptible to misuse. Just imagine your online banking login information falling into the wrong hands! Finding out you have a keylogger installed, however, does not necessarily mean you were the victim of a black hat, as some companies install them on employee computers to track usage and ensure that systems are not being used for unintended purposes. Keyloggers are, for obvious reasons, often considered to be spyware.

Hacktivist

A “hacktivist” is someone who uses their hacking skills for political ends. A hacktivist’s actions may be small, such as defacing the public website of a security agency or other government department, or large, such as stealing sensitive government information and distributing it to citizens. One often cited example of a hacktivist group is Anonymous.

Hashing

Say you have a piece of text that should remain secret, like a password. You could store the text in a secret folder on your machine, but if anyone gained access to it you’d be in trouble. To keep the password a secret, you could also “hash” it with a program that executes a function resulting in garbled text representing the original information. This abstract representation is called a hash. Companies may store passwords or facial recognition data with hashes to improve their security.

HTTPS/SSL/TLS

Stands for Hypertext Transfer Protocol, with the “S” for “Secure.” The Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) is the basic framework that controls how data is transferred across the web, while HTTPS adds a layer of encryption that protects your connection to the most important sites in your daily browsing—your bank, your email provider, and social network. HTTPS uses the protocols SSL and TLS to not only protect your connection, but also to prove the identity of the site, so that when you type https://gmail.com you can be confident you’re really connecting to Google and not an impostor site.

Infosec

An abbreviation of “Information Security.” It’s the inside baseball term for what’s more commonly known as cyber security, a term that irks most people who prefer infosec.

Jailbreak

Circumventing the security of a device, like an iPhone or a PlayStation, to remove a manufacturer’s restrictions, generally with the goal to make it run software from nonofficial sources.

Keys

Modern cryptography uses digital “keys”. In the case of PGP encryption, a public key is used to encrypt, or “lock”, messages and a secret key is used to decrypt, or “unlock”, them. In other systems, there may only be one secret key that is shared by all parties. In either case, if an attacker gains control of the key that does the unlocking, they may have a good chance at gaining access to.

Lulz

An internet speak variation on “lol” (short for “laughing out loud”) employed regularly among the black hat hacker set, typically to justify a hack or leak done at the expense of another person or entity.

Logic Bomb

A logic bomb is a malicious program designed to execute when a certain criterion is met. A time bomb could be considered a logic bomb because when the target time or date is reached, it executes. But logic bombs can be much more complex. They can be designed to execute when a certain file is accessed, or when a certain key combination is pressed, or through the passing of any other event or task that is possible to be tracked on a computer. Until the trigger event the logic bomb was designed for passes, it will simply remain dormant.

Malware

Simply put, malware is a malicious program that causes damage. It includes viruses, Trojans, worms, time bombs, logic bombs, or anything else intended to cause damage upon the execution of the payload.

Master Program

A master program is the program a black hat cracker uses to remotely transmit commands to infected zombie drones, normally to carry out Denial of Service attacks or spam attacks.

Man in the middle

A Man in the Middle or MitM is a common attack where someone surreptitiously puts themselves between two parties, impersonating them. This allows the malicious attacker to intercept and potentially alter their communication. With this type of attack, one can just passively listen in, relaying messages and data between the two parties, or even alter and manipulate the data flow.

Metadata

Metadata is simply data about data. If you were to send an email, for example, the text you type to your friend will be the content of the message, but the address you used to send it, the address you sent it to, and the time you sent it would all be metadata. This may sound innocuous, but with enough sources of metadata—for example, geolocation information from a photo posted to social media—it can be trivial to piece together someone’s identity or location.

Payload

The payload is the part of the malware program that actually executes its designed task.

Phishing

Phishing is a form of social engineering carried out by black hats in electronic form, usually by email, with the purpose of gathering sensitive information. Often these communications will look legitimate and sometimes they will even look like they come from a legitimate source like a social networking site, a wellknown entity like Paypal or Ebay, or even your bank. They will have a link directing you to a site that looks very convincing and ask you to verify your account information. When you log in to verify your information on the bogus site, you have just given the black hat exactly what they need to make you the next victim of cyber crime. Phishing is done in many forms – sometimes it’s easy to spot, sometimes not.

Phreaker

Considered the original computer hackers, phreakers, or phone phreakers, hit the scene in the 60s and made their mark by circumventing telecommunications security systems to place calls, including long distance, for free. By using electronic recording devices, or even simply creating tones with a whistle, phreakers tricked the systems into thinking it was a valid call. One of the first to find prominence was “Captain Crunch,” a phreaker who realized the toy whistle that came as a prize in a box of Captain Crunch cereal could be used to mimic the tone frequencies used by telecommunications companies to validate and route calls.

Polymorphic Virus

A polymorphic virus is a virus that will change its digital footprint every time it replicates. Antivirus software relies on a constantly updated and evolving database of virus signatures to detect any virus that may have infected a system. By changing its signature upon replication, a polymorphic virus may elude antivirus software, making it very hard to eradicate.

Nonce

A portmanteau of number and once, nonce literally means “a number only used once.” It’s a string of numbers generated by a system to identify a user for a one time use session or specific task. After that session, or a set period of time, the number isn’t used again.

OpSec

OpSec is short for operational security, and it’s all about keeping information secret, online and off. Originally a military term, OpSec is a practice and in some ways a philosophy that begins with identifying what information needs to be kept secret, and whom you’re trying to keep it a secret from. “Good” OpSec will flow from there, and may include everything from passing messages on PostIts instead of emails to using digital encryption. In other words: Loose tweets destroy fleets.

OTR

What do you do if you want to have an encrypted conversation, but it needs to happen fast? OTR, or Off the Record, is a protocol for encrypting instant messages end to end. Unlike PGP, which is generally used for email and so each conversant has one public and one private key in their possession, OTR uses a single temporary key for every conversation, which makes it more secure if an attacker hacks into your computer and gets a hold of the keys. OTR is also generally easier to use than PGP.

Password managers

Using the same, crummy password for all of your logins—from your bank account, to Seamless, to your Tinder profile—is a bad idea. All a hacker needs to do is get access to one account to break into them all. But memorizing a unique string of characters for every platform is daunting. Enter the password manager: software that keeps track of your various passwords for you, and can even auto generate super complicated and long passwords for you. All you need to remember is your master password to log into the manager and access all your many different logins.

Penetration testing or pentesting

If you set up a security system for your home, or your office, or your factory, you’d want to be sure it was safe from attackers, right? One way to test a system’s security is to employ people—pentesters—to purposely hack it in order to identify weak points. Pentesting is related to red teaming, although it may be done in a more structured, less aggressive way.

PGP

“Pretty Good Privacy” is a method of encrypting data, generally emails, so that anyone intercepting them will only see garbled text. PGP uses asymmetric cryptography, which means that the person sending a message uses a “public” encryption key to scramble it, and the recipient uses a secret “private” key to decode it. Despite being more than two decades old, PGP is still a formidable method of encryption, although it can be notoriously difficult to use in practice, even for experienced users.

Phishing

Phishing is really more of a form of social engineering than hacking or cracking. In a phishing scheme, an attacker typically reaches out to a victim in order to extract specific information that can be used in a later attack. That may mean posing as customer support from Google, Facebook, or the victim’s cell phone carrier, for example, and asking the victim to click on a malicious link—or simply asking the victim to send back information, such as a password, in an email. Attackers usually blast out phishing attempts by the thousands, but sometimes employ more targeted attacks, known as spearphishing (see below).

Plaintext

Exactly what it sounds like—text that has not been garbled with encryption. This definition would be considered plaintext. You may also hear plaintext being referred to as “cleartext,” since it refers to text that is being kept out in the open, or “in the clear.” Companies with very poor security may store user passwords in plaintext, even if the folder they’re in is encrypted, just waiting for a hacker to steal.

Pwned

Pwned is computer nerd jargon (or “leetspeak”) for the verb “own.” In the video game world, a player that beat another player can say that he pwned him. Among hackers, the term has a similar meaning, only instead of beating someone in a game, a hacker that has gained access to another user’s computer can say that he pwned him. For example, the website “Have I Been Pwned?” will tell you if your online accounts have been compromised in the past.

Rootkit

Without a doubt, the biggest fear in IT security is an undetected intrusion. A rootkit is a tool that can give a black hat the means for just such a perfect heist. A rootkit is a malware program that is installed on a system through various means, including the same methods that allow viruses to be injected into a system, like email, websites designed to introduce malware, or downloading and/or copying to the system with an unsafe program. Once a rootkit is introduced, this will create a back door for a black hat that will allow remote, unauthorized entry whenever he or she chooses. What makes a rootkit particularly lethal: it is installed and functions at such low system levels that it can be designed to erase its own tracks and activity from the now vulnerable system, allowing the black hat to navigate through entire networks without being exposed. Often, black hats will use social engineering to gain physical access to particularly well protected system so the rootkit can be directly installed from CD or a tiny USB drive (it only takes a minute) in order either to circumvent a particularly troublesome firewall or gain access to a system that is not normally accessible from the outside. Once the rootkit is introduced, the black hat has free reign and even skilled IT security departments will have a lot of trouble even seeing the activity as it’s happening. Rootkits are a definite 10 on the scary scale of cyber intrusions.

RAT

RAT stands for Remote Access Tool or Remote Access Trojan. RATs are really scary when used as malware. An attacker who successfully installs a RAT on your computer can gain full control of your machine. There is also a legitimate business in RATs for people who want to access their office computer from home, and so on. The worst part about RATs? Many malicious ones are available in the internet’s underground for sale or even for free, so attackers can be pretty unskilled and still use this sophisticated tool.

Ransomware

Ransomware is a type of malware that locks your computer and won’t let you access your files. You’ll see a message that tells you how much the ransom is and where to send payment, usually requested in bitcoin, in order to get your files back. This is a good racket for hackers, which is why many consider it now an “epidemic,” as people typically are willing to pay a few hundred bucks in order to recover their machine. It’s not just individuals, either. In early 2016, the Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center in Los Angeles paid around $17,000 after being hit by a ransomware attack.

Rainbow table

A rainbow table is a complex technique that allows hackers to simplify the process of guessing what passwords hide behind a “hash” (see above).

Red team

To ensure the security of their computer systems and to suss out any unknown vulnerabilities, companies may hire hackers who organize into a “red team” in order to run oppositional attacks against the system and attempt to completely take it over. In these cases, being hacked is a good thing because organizations may fix vulnerabilities before someone who’s not on their payroll does. Red teaming is a general concept that is employed across many sectors, including military strategy.

Root

In most computers, “root” is the common name given to the most fundamental (and thus most powerful) level of access in the system, or is the name for the account that has those privileges. That means the “root” can install applications, delete and create files. If a hacker “gains root,” they can do whatever they want on the computer or system they compromised. This is the holy grail of hacking.

Script Kiddie

An individual who does not possess, or just doesn’t use, their own skills and knowhow to hack or crack a computer system or network, but uses a prewritten program or piece of code, a script, to do the dirty work. While they may not possess the computing talent, they can be just as dangerous!

Social Engineering

In the realm of the black hats, social engineering means to deceive someone for the purpose of acquiring sensitive and personal information, like credit card details or user names and passwords. For instance, when fictitious Mr. Smith calls from IT services to inform you of new user name and password guidelines being implemented by the company and asks you to reveal yours so he can make sure they meet the new guidelines, you have been a target of social engineering. They can be very clever and resourceful, and very, very convincing. The only way to make sure you are not a victim of social engineering is never to give your personal and sensitive information to anyone you are not absolutely sure about. There are very few occasions that anyone legitimate would ever ask you for a password, and you should always be the one contacting them, not the other way around.

Spam

Spam is simply unsolicited email, also known as junk email. Spammers gather lists of email addresses, which they use to bombard users with this unsolicited mail. Often, the emails sent are simply advertising for a product or a service, but sometimes they can be used for phishing and/or directing you to websites or products that will introduce malware to your system. When you receive spam, the best practice is to delete it immediately. Sometimes you will see a note in a spam email that gives you instructions on how to be removed from the list – never do it! This will only confirm to the spammer that they have a valid email address and the spam will just keep coming. They could also then sell your email address to another spammer as a confirmed email address and more spam will show up in your inbox. Most mail services have spam filters and these should be employed whenever possible.

Spoofing

Spoofing is the art of misdirection. Black hat crackers will often cover their tracks by spoofing (faking) an IP address or masking/changing the sender information on an email so as to deceive the recipient as to its origin. For example, they could send you an email containing a link to a page that will infect your system with malware and make it look like it came from a safe source, such as a trusted friend or wellknown organization. Most of the true sources have security measures in place to avoid tampering with sender information on their own mail servers, but as many black hat spammers will launch attacks from their own SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol), they will be able to tamper with that information. When in doubt, check with the source yourself.

Spyware

Spyware is software designed to gather information about a user’s computer use without their knowledge. Sometimes spyware is simply used to track a user’s Internet surfing habits for advertising purposes in an effort to match your interests with relevant ads. On the other side of the coin, spyware can also scan computer files and keystrokes, create popup ads, change your homepage and/or direct you to pre chosen websites. One common use is to generate a popup ad informing you that your system has been infected with a virus or some other form of malware and then force you to a preselected page that has the solution to fix the problem. Most often, spyware is bundled with free software like screen savers, emoticons and social networking programs.

Salting

When protecting passwords or text, “hashing” (see above) is a fundamental process that turns the plaintext into garbled text. To make hashing even more effective, companies or individuals can add an extra series of random bytes, known as a “salt,” to the password before the hashing process. This adds an extra layer of protection.

Script kiddies

This is a derisive term for someone who has a little bit of computer savvy and who’s only able to use offtheshelf software to do things like knock websites offline or sniff passwords over an unprotected WiFi access point. This is basically a term to discredit someone who claims to be a skilled hacker.

Shodan

It’s been called “hacker’s Google,” and a “terrifying” search engine. Think of it as a Google, but for connected devices rather than websites. Using Shodan you can find unprotected webcams, baby monitors, printers, medical devices, gas pumps, and even wind turbines. While that’s sounds terrifying, Shodan’s value is precisely that it helps researchers find these devices and alert their owners so they can secure them.

Signature

Another function of PGP, besides encrypting messages, is the ability to “sign” messages with your secret encryption key. Since this key is only known to one person and is stored on their own computer and nowhere else, cryptographic signatures are supposed to verify that the person who you think you’re talking to actually is that person. This is a good way to prove that you really are who you claim to be on the internet.

Side channel attack

Your computer’s hardware is always emitting a steady stream of barelyperceptible electrical signals. A side-channel attack seeks to identify patterns in these signals in order to find out what kind of computations the machine is doing. For example, a hacker “listening in” to your hard drive whirring away while generating a secret encryption key may be able to reconstruct that key, effectively stealing it, without your knowledge.

Spearphishing

Phishing and spearphishing are often used interchangeably, but the latter is a more tailored, targeted form of phishing (see above), where hackers try to trick victims into clicking on malicious links or attachments pretending to be a close acquaintance, rather than a more generic sender, such as a social network or corporation. When done well, spearphishing can be extremely effective and powerful. As a noted security expert says, “give a man a 0day and he’ll have access for a day, teach a man to phish and he’ll have access for life.”

Spyware

A specific type of malware of malicious software designed to spy, monitor, and potentially steal data from the target.

State actor

State actors are hackers or groups of hackers who are backed by a government, which may be the US, Russia, or China. These hackers are often the most formidable, since they have the virtually unlimited legal and financial resources of a nationstate to back them up. Think, for example, of the NSA. Sometimes, however, state actors can also be a group of hackers who receive tacit (or at least hidden from the public) support from their governments, such as the Syrian Electronic Army.

Time Bomb

A time bomb is a malicious program designed to execute at a predetermined time and/or date. Time bombs are often set to trigger on special days like holidays, or sometimes they mark things like Hitler’s birthday or 9/11 to make some sort of political statement. What a time bomb does on execution could be something benign like showing a certain picture, or it could be much more damaging, like stealing, deleting, or corrupting system information. Until the trigger time is achieved, a time bomb will simply remain dormant.

Trojan

A Trojan, or Trojan Horse, is a malicious program disguised to look like a valid program, making it difficult to distinguish from programs that are supposed to be there. Once introduced, a Trojan can destroy files, alter information, steal passwords or other information, or fulfill any other sinister purpose it was designed to accomplish. Or it may stay dormant, waiting for a cracker to access it remotely and take control of the system. A Trojan is a lot like a virus, but without the ability to replicate.

Threat model

Imagine a game of chess. It’s your turn and you’re thinking about all the possible moves your opponent could make, as many turns ahead as you can. Have you left your queen unprotected? Is your king being worked into a corner checkmate? That kind of thinking is what security researchers do when designing a threat model. It’s a catchall term used to describe the capabilities of the enemy you want to guard against, and your own vulnerabilities. Are you an activist attempting to guard against a state sponsored hacking team? Your threat model better be pretty robust. Just shoring up the network at your log cabin in the middle of nowhere? Maybe not as much cause to worry.

Token

A small physical device that allows its owner to log in or authenticate into a service. Tokens serve as an extra layer of security on top of a password, for example. The idea is that even if the password or key gets stolen, the hacker would need the actual physical token to abuse it.

Tor

Tor is short for The Onion Router. Originally developed by the United States Naval Research Laboratory, it’s now used by bad guys (hackers, pedophiles) and good guys (activists, journalists) to anonymize their activities online. The basic idea is that there is a network of computers around the world—some operated by universities, some by individuals, some by the government—that will route your traffic in byzantine ways in order to disguise your true location. The Tor network is this collection of volunteer run computers. The Tor Project is the nonprofit that maintains the Tor software. The Tor browser is the free piece of software that lets you use Tor. Tor hidden services are websites that can only be accessed through Tor.

Tails

Tails stands for The Amnesic Incognito Live System. If you’re really, really serious about digital security, this is the operating system endorsed by Edward Snowden. Tails is an amnesic system, which means your computer remembers nothing; it’s like a fresh machine every time you boot up. The software is free and open source. While it’s well regarded, security flaws have been found.

Verification (dump)

The process by which reporters and security researchers go through hacked data and make sure it’s legitimate. This process is important to make sure the data is authentic, and the claims of anonymous hackers are true, and not just an attempt to get some notoriety or make some money scamming people on the dark web.

VPN

VPN stands for Virtual Private Network. VPNs use encryption to create a private and secure channel to connect to the internet when you’re on a network you don’t trust (say a Starbucks, or an Airbnb WiFi). Think of a VPN as a tunnel from you to your destination, dug under the regular internet. VPNs allow employees to connect to their employer’s network remotely, and also help regular people protect their connection. VPNs also allow users to bounce off servers in other parts of the world, allowing them to look like they’re connecting from there. This gives them the chance to circumvent censorship, such as China’s Great Firewall, or view Netflix’s US offerings while in Canada. There are endless VPNs, making it almost impossible to decide which ones are the best.

Virus

A computer virus is a type of malware that typically is embedded and hidden in a program or file. Unlike a worm (see below), it needs human action to spread (such as a human forwarding a virus infected attachment, or downloading a malicious program.) Viruses can infect computers and steal data, delete data, encrypt it or mess with it in just about any other way.

Vuln

Abbreviation for “vulnerability”. Another way to refer to bugs or software flaws that can be exploited by hackers.

Virus

A virus is a malicious program or code that attaches itself to another program file and can replicate itself and thereby infect other systems. Just like the flu virus, it can spread from one system to another when the infected program is used by another system. The more interconnected the host is, the better its chances to spread. The spread of a virus can easily occur on networked systems, or it could even be passed along on other media like a CD or memory stick when a user unwittingly copies an infected file and introduces it to a new system. A virus could even be emailed with an attachment. “Virus” is often incorrectly used as a catchall phrase for other malicious programs that don’t have the ability to self replicate, like spyware and adware.

Wardriving

Wardriving is the act of driving around in a vehicle with the purpose of finding an open, unsecured WiFi wireless network. Many times, the range of a wireless network will exceed the perimeter of a building and create zones in public places that can be exploited to gain entry to the network. Black hats, and even gray hats, will often use a GPS system to make maps of exploitable zones so they can be used at a later time or passed on to others. Wardriving is not the only way this task is performed – there are Warbikers and Warwalkers too. As you can see, it is imperative that your WiFi network is secure because there are entities out there looking for any opening to ply their trade.

White Hat

While black hats use their skill for malicious purposes, white hats are ethical hackers. They use their knowledge and skill to thwart the black hats and secure the integrity of computer systems or networks. If a black hat decides to target you, it’s a great thing to have a white hat around. But if you don’t, you can always call on one of ours at Global Digital Forensics.

Worm

A worm is very similar to a virus in that it is a destructive self contained program that can replicate itself. But unlike a virus, a worm does not need to be a part of another program or document. A worm can copy and transfer itself to other systems on a network, even without user intervention. A worm can become devastating if not isolated and removed. Even if it does not cause outright damage, a worm replicating out of control can exponentially consume system resources like memory and bandwidth until a system becomes unstable and unusable.

Warez

Pronounced like the contraction for “where is” (where’s), warez refers to pirated software that’s typically distributed via technologies like BitTorrent and Usenet. Warez is sometimes laden with malware, taking advantage of people’s desire for free software.

White hat

A white hat hacker is someone who hacks with the goal of fixing and protecting systems. As opposed to black hat hackers (see above), instead of taking advantage of their hacks or the bugs they find to make money illegally, they alert the companies and even help them fix the problem.

Worm

A specific type of malware that propagates and replicates itself automatically, spreading from computer to computer. The internet’s history is littered with worms, from the Morris worm, the first of its kind, and the famous Samy worm, which infected more than a million people on MySpace.

Zero Day Threat/Exploit

Every threat to your computer security has to start somewhere. Unfortunately, the way most of us protect ourselves from cyber threats and intrusions, is to use detection programs that are based on analyzing, comparing and matching the digital footprint of a possible threat to an internal database of threats that have been previously detected, reported and documented. That’s why we all have to go through those seemingly never ending updates to our antivirus programs, that’s how the database is updated and the newest threats are added to the list of what the scanners look for. That inherent flaw in our scanners is what makes a Zero Day threat so dangerous. A Zero D`ay threat is pristine and undocumented. From the very first day a particular threat is ever deployed (zero day) until that threat is noticed, reported, documented and added to the index, it is an unknown. As far as standard protection goes, unknown means invisible – and when it comes to cyber threats, invisible can definitely mean trouble.

Zombie / Zombie Drone

A zombie is a malware program that can be used by a black hat cracker to remotely take control of a system so it can be used as a zombie drone for further attacks, like spam emails or Denial of Service attacks, without a user’s knowledge. This helps cover the black hat’s tracks and increases the magnitude of their activities by using your resources for their own devious purposes. Rarely will the user infected with a zombie even know it’s there, as zombies are normally benign and nondestructive in and of themselves. Zombies can be introduced to a system by simply opening an infected email attachment, but most often they are received through nonmainstream sites like file sharing sites, chat groups, adult websites and online casinos that force you to download their media player to have access to the content on their site, using the installed player itself as the delivery mechanism.

List of command Attacks

Spear Phishing

The success of a spear phishing attack is dependent on an end user clicking on a link embedded in a crafty email. Unfortunately, the unlimited nature of human creativity together with Social Engineering have strengthened the odds that at least one target in a phishing attack will click on that security compromising link.

Privileged Account Management

A common precursor to many security attacks is the theft of credentials or an escalation of permissions. Gaining access to privileged accounts is the key to accessing valuable data contained in file shares or data bases.

Web Applications: CSS

Many Web applications contain vulnerabilities that allow attackers to use Cross Site Scripting to misrepresent a website. As a result attackers are often able to get victims who interact with these illegitimate Web pages to unwittingly click on a malicious script or capture login credentials.

SQL Injections

For over a decade, SQL Injection has been one of the most common application layer attack techniques. It takes advantage of public facing applications that respond to usersupplied data. By inserting customized queries attackers can bypass security measures and cause the applications to take malicious actions.

Botnets

Most people are never aware of their participation in a botnet Army, since the impact to an individual system is minimal. However, when hundreds of these unobtrusive Bots are instructed to forward transmissions to a single Web application, they can represent a serious security threat.

DDoS

DDoS attacks are able to incapacitate an online service or website by overwhelming it with activity from hundreds or thousands of computers participating in a botnet.

How to diagnose your desktop and mobile site2018-11-18T20:25:29+00:00

Knowing that slow websites kill conversions is just the beginning. Acknowledging that your site might have some underlying issues that you can’t see on the surface is the first step.

Most sites will be running slowly due to large images that are taking up too much space. But that’s not always the case for every website.

You need to know exactly what’s causing your slow site speeds before you can make the necessary changes to score 100% on the PageSpeed Insights tool. https://gtmetrix.com/.

Click “Analyze” to have Google run a quick test on your site.

The finished report will tell you everything you need to know about your site and what might be hindering its performance. If it is lower than 50/100 then we need to improve it.

My goal here is to get you to 90% and higher.

(Pre-Made Sites) Will my site be mobile optimized?2018-10-14T17:33:51+00:00

Absolutely! All of my styles have been mobile tested and approved. All websites I create are mobile responsive. I test each and every new website on the most commonly used browsers; Firefox, Google Chrome, Internet Explorer and also on a range of devices (wide screen, laptop, iPad, iPhone etc) to ensure each element displays as intended.

(Pre-Made Sites) Additional Costs to Running Any Website2018-10-14T17:34:44+00:00
  • You need a domain name like www.mywebsite.com. (Talk to us about it)
  • You need a hosting account.   (Talk to us about it)
  • Stock photography.
We are starting your website: What will you need from me?2018-10-09T15:15:00+00:00

It really depends on what type of website you want. We’ll be able to discuss this on our discovery call before we start working together. Depending on which package we agree on we could need…

  • Images of you and your team
  • Images of your workplace
  • Content for the website e.g. text, PDFs etc
  • Staff Profiles
  • Any Videos you would like adding to the website
  • Login details to your existing website

Some of this might already be on the existing website, in which case it can be transferred over to the new site.

Can you take care of our company’s website hosting?2018-10-09T15:09:31+00:00

Absolutely. We currently manage the website (and email) hosting for the majority of our clients. Simply put, we take care of everything for you.

What is web hosting?2018-10-09T15:08:57+00:00

Web hosting refers to the server which responds to requests to view your website. It’s simply another computer connected to the Internet for the sole purpose of transmitting your website to users. Any time you visit a website, there is another computer somewhere in the world you connect to in order to view it.

What do I need before I start a B2B website project redesign?2018-10-03T13:11:05+00:00

Before starting a B2B web design project, it’s essential to have your messaging, main value proposition, core service/product offerings, and buy-in from your team for the project. If you don’t have any of these items, let your web design partner know so they can guide you through the process. Other things that are great to have are any copy input, custom images (if available), logos, and other assets.

Who needs to be involved in our B2B web design build?2018-10-03T13:07:33+00:00

We recommend having the fewest number of people involved in the project as possible since it streamlines the process and ensures cohesiveness. You’ll need a point person to work closely with the B2B design agency, a person who can review and provide feedback (for most companies this can be a few stakeholders), and a person who is authorized to provide approvals.

Is WordPress a good CMS for B2B website?2018-10-03T13:06:04+00:00

Yes. WordPress is one of the most popular content management systems and is the most widely used CMS. For this reason, WordPress has an extensive community for support, plugins, and is often the easiest to update for non-developers. We only build B2B websites that have a WordPress CMS.

What happens during the B2B website project?2018-10-03T13:04:41+00:00

We get this question a lot and it’s a great question, but it doesn’t have a simple answer. The truth is that a lot happens behind the scenes on a B2B web design project. What you can ask to see is a website project schedule sample. The schedule will show all the steps involved in the project and when you can expect to see activity/designs to review/development to review.

How much does a B2B web design cost?2018-10-03T13:02:30+00:00

Again, this depends on the scope of the project. A one-page website with limited design and content will be less expensive than a 50-page website with integrated forms, an SEO strategy, and custom design and development. Our typical B2B web design starts at $25,000 and averages about $45,000.

How long does a B2B website design project take?2018-10-03T13:01:17+00:00

The length of time needed to design and launch a new B2B website depends on the scope of the project. The scope is defined by the number of pages, design elements, functionality, etc. For an average B2B web design with 20 standard pages, it takes about 16 – 20 weeks to design and launch the website from start to finish.

Can you guys do a security audit for my company site?2018-08-30T14:44:14+00:00

Yes. We can run security audits for your website, your server, your web application, or any combination of those. For help with a security audit, email us or call us at 647-403-2052.

Is there a way to prevent a hack to happen again?2018-08-30T14:40:05+00:00

Yes. Once we have identified the cause of the hack, we can block it. As technology changes, though, other security holes may pop up, so it’s important to stay on top of the security on your site all the time. If you like, we can handle that ongoing maintenance for you as well so you can focus on what matters most to you – running your website rather than fixing it.

What are the common causes of a hacked websites?2018-08-30T14:38:59+00:00

The most common causes of website hacks is running old versions of your CMS (WordPress, Drupal, Joomla, etc), old or unsupported plugins/themes, or shoddy customizations done by another freelance programmer. That said, most CMS systems have core vulnerabilities intentionally in place because plugging those security vulnerabilities is either a different process for different hosting platforms or will likely cause side effects with a common collection of plugins and themes. If you’re afraid to run updates because it can break things as well or don’t know what to do, we can also maintain that for you with our ongoing security and maintenance plans.

How would it take to fix my hacked website?2018-08-30T14:33:18+00:00

That depends on the hack. In most cases it can be fixed within a day or two – often within a matter of hours. But when you’ve been hacked by a savvy hacker, it can take more time to determine how they’re breaking in and to block them.

How much will it cost to fix my site after a Hack Attack?2018-08-30T14:28:41+00:00

It depends on the hack. If the hackers simply added some code or files to your site, it’s usually pretty quick to remove that. If they have done damage to the content or appearance of your site or if they have infected your server/hosting with malware also, it’s a much more complicated fix. In many cases, the hack can be removed, your site can be upgraded to more modern security practices, and Google can be notified about the hack repair for only $1000. Once you submit your site information to us, we can investigate provide you with a more exact estimate based on your unique situation.

Does getting hacked affect my SEO Ranking?2018-08-29T17:09:59+00:00

It can. Google and other search engines do understand that getting hacked is not necessarily your fault, but they also have to protect the people they would otherwise send to your site. Once they find out that you have been hacked, they warn people about that before letting them visit your site. If you don’t address the problem quickly, they may also dock your search rank.

Now, If your site has been hacked and you have successfully cleaned your site and closed the security hole the attacker used to gain access, you’ll need to recover any damage done to your SEO ranking and reputation.

Now that you’ve submitted your site for a review by Google, you simply have to wait. Getting a site hacked can happen to anyone, so don’t feel too bad. Several famous websites have been defaced by hackers including The Sun and The Sunday Times newspapers in the UK.

The important thing to do if your site is compromised is to recover quickly, understand how the hack occurred and ensure that it doesn’t happen again.

How do I know my website was hacked?2018-08-29T16:04:31+00:00

In most cases, it looks like your site is either broken or has clearly been hijacked by someone else. In many cases, it will also be advertising or doing something you didn’t ask it to like advertising offshore pharmaceuticals, sending spam, or downloading viruses onto visitors’ computers.

Who owns my website, me or you?2018-08-23T15:53:12+00:00

Well, you should own your website! If you work with a web developer or company make sure that you own all the content afterwards. I’ve heard of many cases where the client paid for a website but had no idea what name the domain was under, the theme they bought, or what website hosting service they used. After a few months or even years later, they lose touch with their web developer and don’t know what to do to update their website. Actually, the worst case scenario is that their website domain name expires or their web developer disappears and their website is gone for good. You don’t want that happening to you.

One of the jobs I have taken over the years, is to collect, organize all the clients web properties, and list them for them, I make sure that they have all their logins, and have access and own their own servers, domain names, etc.

Make sure to get all Accounts Under Your Name.

It’s best to purchase and maintain your own web hosting service as opposed to letting a company or individual do it themselves, so that you can ultimately have control over everything. It’s perfectly fine to let someone else take control over this, but just keep in mind that if something is not in your name, you may not have authority over it.

If I don’t live in Toronto, can you design a website for me?2018-08-23T15:45:33+00:00

Absolutely, although I enjoy meeting new clients and working personally with them, I will work with clients far beyond Toronto and the GTA by e-mail and phone. I’ve worked with people right across Canada, in the United States, Europe, and Australia too. I have many clients I have never met face-to-face.

Do you contract work offshore?2018-08-07T14:04:22+00:00

Do you contract work offshore? Most Canadian Web Design Agencies Outsource. Period.

In tough times, companies look to shift tech work to outsiders, whether offshore or down the street. Be careful: This “cure” could be deadly.

We never send work offshore. We’ve heard of too many horror stories from clients who went with designers who contracted offshore. Our clients admitted that the inexpensive price looked extremely attractive but the quality of work was poor, communications were slow and their websites were often delivered late.

We think of each client as a partner and it is our goal to make each relationship long-lasting by delivering outstanding value, prompt communications and quick service to our clients.

Outsourcing to foreign countries can be a cost-saving opportunity that turns catastrophic if mishandled. We can help you to fix your mistake, contact us, and we can undo the harm you put yourself on, TODAY!

Are there any recurring costs involved with owning a website?2018-08-01T16:02:05+00:00

Yes. We outline all recurring costs in our quotes and proposals. Here are the most typical recurring costs:

  • Web hosting (usually an annual charge)
  • Domain registration (annual or longer)
  • Secure certificate renewals (every one or two years)
  • Website maintenance package
  • Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
  • Digital marketing services
How long will it take to build my website?2018-08-01T15:45:52+00:00

Designing a great website takes time – anywhere from a few weeks to several months. The answer to all of the questions above is, unfortunately, the same: it depends. While cost and timeline are often very closely related, there are dozens of factors that will affect the total length of the project, including (but not limited to) design needs, defined functionality, client feedback, agency resources, and more.

Typically, the amount of time required to build your site depends on the following factors:

  • The complexity of design
  • The amount of content in your site
  • Custom or any advanced features that may be required
  • When your content is ready
  • Your timely feedback on any questions

The single, most common delay that we experience is waiting for clients to provide content.

At Creative Web Design 123, we have a lot of faith in our website project system, but we also know that your marketing doesn’t stop when a site launches, and neither do we. As important as it is to build a great site, it’s even more important to keep refreshing it to keep it looking shiny and new. We do that by writing and refreshing search-optimized copy, swapping out images frequently (at least seasonally), re-skinning designs, making adjustments based upon user experience data, and implementing targeted campaigns to reach new users and drive old ones back to your site, all with the goal of helping your brand to build stronger client/customer relationships and growing your audience.

How will people know my website is safe? (SSL certificate)2018-07-08T18:43:19+00:00

How you build your website is entirely up to you. In fact, most basic secure websites can be hand-coded using HTML.

When a visitor enters an SSL-protected page on your website, their browser bar displays a padlock icon and the https:// prefix in the URL address. While most Internet users know to look for those SSL indicators, you can also add a site seal to your website to show visitors your site is verified and secured. Visitors can click the seal to view your certificate’s status and details, seeing for themselves that it’s safe to send sensitive information to your website. Websites protected by GoDaddy’s Premium EV SSL display a green browser bar as well, giving users the green light.

What is an SSL Certificate? (SSL certificate)2018-07-08T18:43:08+00:00

SSL stands for Secure Socket Layer. It might sound complex, but it’s really not. SSL Certificates validate your website’s identity, and encrypt the information visitors send to, or receive from, your site. This keeps thieves from spying on any exchange between you and your shoppers.

When you have an SSL Certificate protecting your website, your customers can rest assured that the information they enter on any secured page is private and can’t be viewed by cyber crooks. GoDaddy makes it easy to install your certificate and secure your server

What if an update breaks my site? Does it cost extra to fix?2018-06-19T13:41:10+00:00

Most update issues can be resolved free of cost, however more complex issues that are related to customised plugins or problems caused by site managers may be billable.

In any case, we immediately roll the site back to the state it was in prior to performing the update. Once the site has been restored, you will be notified of the issue/issues and provided the best options for resolution.

(Pre-Made Sites) Can you help me out with the marketing once the site is up and running?2018-06-18T16:30:16+00:00

Yes, we can. Internet marketing is the backbone of our business, and we can definitely help you out.

Drop us an e-mail and we’ll schedule a consultation.

(Pre-Made Sites) Will you teach me how to use my website?2018-06-18T16:26:31+00:00

Yes, of course. We will guide you step-by-step through the whole process.

(Pre-Made Sites) How long will it take for you to deliver me a completed project?2018-06-18T16:22:35+00:00

It depends on our workload and your package. Usually around 30 days.

(Pre-Made Sites) What happens after I purchase the pre-made site?2018-06-18T16:21:13+00:00

After you complete the purchase and we verify all the details, we will contact you via e-mail and get to work right away.

After that e’ll create a WordPress user with admin privileges and share the login details with you.

You will have a complete control over the site within 24 hours of your purchase.

(Pre-Made Sites) This service is NOT for:2018-06-18T16:17:59+00:00

It’s definitely not for people who think making money online is easy — even though we’re giving you a way to shorten your learning curve, you still have to learn and have a passion to succeed.

People who think that you can make millions of dollars overnight, or that affiliate marketing is the best way to get rich quick — while you can get rich, anything worth having takes time to build, and time helps you appreciate your success even more.

And people who are going to get in their own way, constantly chasing every new bright shiny object that gets put in front of them, and those who purchase products and services only to let them sit on their hard drive and collect dust.

(Pre-Made Sites) Will you teach me how to use my new website?2018-06-18T16:16:09+00:00

Yes, of course. We will guide you step-by-step through the whole process.

(Pre-Made Sites) Do you just sell the sites over and over again?2018-06-18T16:13:07+00:00

Big NO! We’re all professionals here. This is what we do for a living.

Every site we create is built around your product. Everything you get will be 100% unique and catered to your needs.

Why Website Security Should Be A Priority2018-04-25T17:03:37+00:00

Why Website Security Should Be A PriorityFailing to update WordPress, your themes, and plugins can lead to security vulnerabilities and impact your site speed.

Website security was, for a long time, a problem to solve for the webmasters of big corporate sites, ecommerce sites or other mission critical sites. Today it affects every website from the smallest blog to the biggest retailer. In the last few years the Internet has seen an exponential rise in malicious activity against ALL websites.

Updating WordPress is an important task though, because of new features that might impact user experience, but also security updates that help against major vulnerabilities. These is a short list of the biggest issues to WordPress security based on impact.

  • Sites not updating core.
  • Sites not updating plugins.
  • Sites not updating themes.
  • Weak passwords, without brute-force protection or two-factor authentication.
  • Hosts (professional or ad-hoc) not scanning and fixing sites.
  • Hypothetical issues not seen in practice, which distract from the above existing priorities.

Security is the most essential component of any website and you should always be focused on it. Always make sure to research and get a dependable security plug-in installed in order to make sure the configuration is right to help you with the website’s functionality. There are many people who are new to usage of WordPress and may not understand the creation and setup of security for your business website and save it from being accessed by hackers and spammers.

Usage of simple and easy passwords that can be hacked easily can cause a lot of issues to your website’s data and content. Making sure to have security layers installed and having a firewall up & working is really necessary for your business website. Make sure that your website is fully protected and the hackers are totally blocked from accessing your site. Install plugins that periodically scan for malware viruses in your plugins, theme and core of your WordPress site which should help keep it safe.

WordPress Backups and Recovery | Disaster and Recovery Planning2018-04-25T16:44:59+00:00

Backups and RecoveryBacking up your website regularly is good business practice, just like backing up your computer.  Unfortunately, many business owners neglect these important tasks or assume they are being done by someone else.  There’s nothing worse than losing your website or your important files only to find out that the backup you were relying on doesn’t exist or is so out of date it’s useless to you.

There are two main things that need to be backed up on your WordPress website – your database, which contains all of your posts, comments, links etc and your files which contain images, themes, plugins, scripts and codes.  Both of these need to be backed up regularly. Most, but not all,  hosting companies backup their servers which contain your WordPress site (along with all the other websites on the server) but accessing a copy of the backup of your site can take time and it’s good practice not to rely solely on your hosting company.

If you are the only person who handles your business website, backup after each month is advisable. The websites that are for business must be updated every week and bigger websites that are regularly updated can be backed up on a daily basis. There are many plugins available, on which you can schedule the backups for better efficiency & ease.

I would recommend a regular maintenance schedule for your WordPress website.  How regular will depend on how important your website is to your business, how often you make changes to your website and how risk averse you are.

You should always backup your website before you do an update – to WordPress, a Theme or a Plugin. Things can and do go wrong so you want to make sure that you can at least restore to the latest working version of your website.

Updates that address a security threat should be done immediately but updates that just provide additional functionality are less important.

Crucial WordPress Maintenance Tasks to Perform Regularly2018-04-25T16:38:16+00:00

Crucial WordPress Maintenance Tasks to Perform RegularlyWhen talking about the benefits of WordPress, the focus is usually on how easy it makes the process of creating websites. Whether you want to build an online portfolio, online shop, or use WordPress to create client sites, the platform has got your back.

However, creating and maintaining a website are two very different things. As it turns out, the real work only begins once your site is online. I’m not talking about content creation and site promotion here but the, deceivingly, simple task of keeping your Internet presence up and running, and in good condition.

Neglecting basic website maintenance can have many unpleasant consequences:

  • Increased page loading time
  • Lowered security
  • Decreased user experience
  • Declining search engine rankings
  • Errors on the Website

Aside from that, a site that is not taken care of simply becomes more chaotic and harder to use. Therefore, regular maintenance is mandatory.

Most people are likely to think that once they get their WordPress business website built, the only requirement after that is to update the content of the website and nothing else. But this is not the case as there is a long checklist that needs to be taken care of as the real tasks begin after your website becomes live.

For maintaining your business website perfectly for its high performance, properly functional & making the hosting of website a success, you need to create a list which contains all the aspects that need to be covered for perfect maintenance of your WordPress website. While some people might already be aware of some of these points but still you need to understand perfectly what all needs to be done for becoming the perfect website handler.

The question that will arise in your mind now will be that why maintenance is necessary for your WordPress business website. Basically WordPress is known to be a really complicated & technological platform for your business website to run on. This is the reason that most people don’t actually understand the requirement of having a maintenance program for your website. Being so advanced platform there are a lot issues that need to be addressed and for this purpose the maintenance program is required. Regular maintenance can easily result in keeping your website up & working with enhanced security, themes and plugins.

Need a New Website? Show your boss: …. the competition’s websites2018-04-24T20:52:46+00:00

Need a New Website? Show your boss: …. the competition’s websites

Nobody wants to have the worst anything; and that includes websites.

Find the websites of your top competition and show your boss what you’re up against, such as:

  • A library of helpful videos
  • Case study success stories
  • An easy-to-use navigation menu
  • Strong Call to action buttons
  • Emotionally based, customer-centric content

Digital marketing moves fast. What works one day can be passé (or even detrimental to your business) the next.

If your website looks old, then it probably is.

And if your competitor’s website looks cool, modern, and relevant, then it definitely is.

Need a New Website? Show your boss: …. it’s not on Google2018-04-24T18:38:24+00:00

Need a New Website? Show your boss: …. it’s not on GoogleWhen was the last time you did any significant search engine optimization to your website? We’re talking things like:

  • Keyword research
  • Fresh content
  • Fix duplicate H1 tags
  • Upload fresh videos and pictures
  • Incorporate a linking strategy

Well, if your website is woefully out-of-date (as mentioned earlier in this blog), you probably haven’t.

Do a bit of keyword research and find the terms people would associate with your company and its products and services.

Then, enter those terms into Google. When your company doesn’t appear, take a screenshot.

Show that screenshot to your boss and explain that these are the terms our customers are using when looking for us – but they can’t find us.

You can also tell him/her that:

  • 65% of prospective customers use Google as their primary search engine
  • 91% of people look for something else if you aren’t on page one of Google

In short:

Almost everyone uses Google (which we’re not on) and almost everyone bails on page 1 (which we’re also not on).

Need a New Website? Show your boss: …. how bad it looks on mobile2018-04-24T18:31:05+00:00

Need a New Website? Show your boss: …. how bad it looks on mobileAs a savvy marketing expert, you already know more people surf the web on mobile devices vs. desktop or traditional computers.

And you also know that Google penalizes websites which aren’t mobile-friendly.

Now, your boss needs to know that.

Have him or her call up your website on their mobile device and have them perform a simple task, such as:

  • Visit your product catalogue
  • Click on a particular item
  • Submit a contact form for additional information

While they’re doing that, secretly time them.

When they’re done, ask them about their experience. How the site looked on their device? How long it took pages to load? Could they complete the task?

Chances are, it was frustrating to them.

Now explain that, for customers, they would have given up less than 3 seconds in and gone somewhere else if they felt annoyed by your mobile website.

Then, explain that Google also finds it frustrating and punishes your website by making it harder to find.

Need a New Website? Show your boss: ….out-of-date information2018-04-24T18:30:54+00:00

What is Ecommerce?Scour your website and jot down things like:

  • Is there a coupon on your website….from 2012?
  • On your team page, are there pics of employees…who no longer work there?
  • Does your events page mention you’ll be attending…a 2008 trade show?
  • Are there products on your catalogue…your company no longer offers?

Once you have your collection of expired info; go to your boss and casually ask things like:

  • “Are we still offering that discount from 2012?”
  • “Does so-and-so still work here?”
  • “Will we be attending the 2008 trade show?”
  • “Do we still sell such-and-such a product?”

After your boss looks at you like you have three heads, they’ll probably give you the most annoyed “no” answer you can imagine.

That’s when you turn on the charm and calmly explain this out-of-date information is still prominently displayed on your website and that it:

  • Gives a bad impression
  • Annoys people
Do you design Adult Content sites?2019-03-11T20:05:54+00:00

NO! If I would be embarrassed if my mom would see it, I won’t do it.

What are the Benefits of a Website Redesign?2018-02-20T00:50:30+00:00

What are the Benefits of a Website Redesign?A website redesign comes with loads of benefits that more than make it worth the price tag. If you are wondering how to plan a redesign of your website, you’re in the right place. Your website sits at the intersection of your business environment and technology – and both of these are in constant flux, therefore website redesigns are inevitable.

When we redesign your website, our primary goal is to improve your bottom line. Your new site will get you more traffic, drive more leads, and ultimately increase your revenue.

Your clients and customers interact with sophisticated, modern and intuitive websites every day, be it social media, e-commerce or news, and their standards have evolved with those platforms. If your site isn’t current, it may signal to the user that your company is outdated. You don’t want your business to be successful in spite of your website, you want your website to be propelling your business upward.

A website redesign comes with loads of benefits that more than make it worth the price tag.

Though you may not be thrilled about the cost and energy that goes into a redesign, the good news is that this is a valuable opportunity to transition your site into a more powerful online business tool that drives your organization into the future.

Here are some of the benefits of a site redesign:

Revamp your brand

Sometimes we’d all like a chance to start over. Let’s face it. That old website is bringing down your business. You can refresh your logo and brand. Revamp your brand by finding better ways to integrate your brand colors, logo and messaging into your website pages.

You can refresh your website design. Design trends change, this is an opportunity to catch up. Get rid of that generic, outdated stock art and replace it with better graphics. Each page of the website (including the home page) has a unique title and description. The titles are between 60-65 characters and the descriptions are aprx 150 characters. Titles and descriptions describe accurately what the page is about without being keyword stuffed.

The most important advantage of having a SEO friendly website is that you will get more targeted organic traffic from search engines.

Brand Consistency

There’s a good chance the face of your brand has changed since the last time you redesigned your site. When your brand advertising and your website don’t match, your potential customers often get confused and run the other way. A website redesign can align your web presence with your overall brand image.

Website usability

Usability can be improved. Perhaps your website has become less user-friendly over the years. This often happens over time as businesses continually add content to their website without properly organizing it.  This is a great opportunity to streamline your content and features. Usabilityand the utility, not the visual design, determine the success or failure of a web-site.

Increased Conversion Rates

You can focus the redesigned website around new products and services.

New technology can be integrated to make your website more useful to visitors. The addition of interactive maps, product finders, service widgets, mobile features, etc., can make your website more “sticky” and effective.

Can’t Run Updates

One thing that drives you crazy is that your site is impossible to update. The backend is literally under lock and key, and you have to pay the previous design firm a fortune just to make simple edits.

It could be that you do have access to the backend of the site but you need to o through a quick boot camp just to make simple text edits.

Non Mobile Friendly

You hate how your site looks on mobile. It’s difficult to read and impossible to navigate. The text is hard to read and the flash animation doesn’t show up at all, which makes the site look broken.

Non SEO friendly

You’re pulling her hair out in frustration because the site is nowhere to be found on Google. All of your competitors are showing up at the top of Google’s search results, and your site is completely missing.

A SEO friendly website has those configurations and features so it’s easy for search engines to crawl (read) and understand what the particular website is all about.

Security Dangers

Older websites that are not well maintained have a greater risk of being hacked or infected with malware which causes costly, time-consuming repairs.

Ugly Website

Your website just doesn’t look good. The colors are off, the fonts don’t look good, and overall the site just has an amateurish and unprofessional look to it. Your competitor’s sites look so much more clean and professional looking.

Final Thoughts!

On the marketing side, there is great opportunity to better market your products and services to new audiences. SEO can be updated to include new search terms. Improved marketing plugins, such as  social media features, CRM integration, and user tracking can be added during the redevelopment of your website.

As one of the top website redesign companies in the industry, we’re sure we can give you a stunning website that will impress your site’s visitors and help encourage conversions. We take a different approach to every client that chooses to work with us, ensuring you get a website redesign that is specific to your brand, not one that comes from a template or copy. With our award-winning design team, we can transform the current look of your website to strengthen your brand.

Any or all of these are good reasons for a redesign, and I think we can all agree that the intended outcome of any redesign is:

More clients, more sales, more visibility!

Benefits of Website Design & reDesign with Creative Web Design 1232018-02-19T22:00:22+00:00

Benefits of Website Design & reDesign with Creative Web Design 123Many think of a website Design & reDesign is a daunting, time-consuming, and expensive task. However, it doesn’t have to be any of those things. Updating your business’s website can have many benefits: it can improve the experience of your users and better serve their needs, make your site more up-to-date or visually appealing, improve the display or surfacing of content, include a new product or business strategy, display a new company brand or message.

Every website design is unique

No cookie cutter designs. Each website is custom made to the business’ needs.

Right tools for the right job

From simple single pages to large e-commerce sites, we match your needs with the right tools for an ideal fit every time.

Sell online (e-commerce)

From PayPal to your own fully integrated shopping cart, we can help you navigate setting up you online store including assistance with shipping and merchant accounts.

Website management

We build it, you manage it! Quickly update your website with easy-to-use web-based content management systems; WordPress.

Add more pizzazz

We offer many options which can spice up any site with music, animation, dynamic menus, movies, and more. Take your site to a whole new level with multimedia.

Help you market your website

Drive more traffic to your site with search engine optimization, banner ads, link exchanges, etc. We want you to get the most out of your site!

Website Design and Development – Load Speed2018-01-30T18:10:08+00:00

Website Design and Development – Load Speed

Load speed optimization is an important part of website design and development. Unfortunately it often falls through the cracks as few clients remember to ask for it and even fewer website developers actually take the time to do it! Website design and development & load speed optimization need to go hand in hand. Several of our clients come to us having never heard of load speed optimization. So we wanted to shed some light on the subject matter to make sure everyone out there knows how important this factor really is for a new website. Load speed optimization simply means that your web design company has taken the extra steps to ensure your web pages don’t take forever to load. It’s really quite simple – a slow loading speed is the kiss of death for any new website. This is especially true for eCommerce websites. Customers will not wait – even a few extra seconds will turn them away leave your website. Nobody likes to wait 5 or even 10 seconds for an image or product detail page to load. Your customers are busy professionals and they’ll sooner browse away from your website completely and take their business elsewhere before waiting those extra seconds. It’s a fast paced and finicky world out there but when it comes to slow load speeds you really can’t blame customers for moving on. Slow websites are frustrating and give visitors a poor impression of your website and overall business.

There are various things that can be done in order to optimize your website load speed starting by selecting the correct server and hosting company for your site.  Simplifying and optimizing your website’s code is equally important. It’s not every developer or web design company that has the expertise to code in a clean, organized and optimal manner either. For example, you can reduce the amount of data that needs to be transferred from the server to the browser by using a number of techniques. Below are just a few of the things that should be completed by development to get your new website humming along at record speeds!  The adjustments are associated with the server, website images, JS, CSS, and your website content.

  • Compress and scale all images
  • Enable gzip compression
  • Optimize website images
  • Leverage browser caching
  • Combine images into CSS Sprites
  • Defer the parsing of JavaScript
  • Minify HTML, CSS & JavaScript

Sound a bit complicated and confusing? Not to worry, at Creative Web Design 123 we handle all of this for you so your website is optimized and turbo charged within the 1st day of going live. Have you checked your website load speed lately? Does your homepage take longer than 2 seconds to load? Do you notice a high rate of customer drop off occurring during the cart checkout process? Get these things looked at by a professional web design company and you’ll see your website load speed improve dramatically.

Website Maintenance Features – We Cover Everything2018-01-16T18:21:05+00:00

Website Maintenance Features - We Cover EverythingA dedicated Web Specialist is someone who handles ongoing website changes and updates for you.

Below are some terms that are associated with companies who offer dedicated webmaster services that you should familiarize yourself with so you understand what you’re actually getting.

“Updated for you”

Your Web Specialist will take care of all your website changes, updates and edits for you. Updates typically mean “changes” or “edits” done to your website. This can be something as simple as changing a phone number or adding a new picture. “Updates” can also refer to software or coding updates, where software associated with your website is in need of an update or coding used on your site needs to be modified or changed for ongoing modern requirements. On the other hand, DIY (Do-It-Yourself) web design services offer you tools that let you do just that – do it yourself. The difference is that a Web Specialist is a person who does it for you. Professional websites typically require more knowledge and have more features than what DIY website tools can offer. If you’re looking to have a professional website as opposed to an amateur website, it often makes sense to hire a professional website designer and or Web Specialist.

“Troubleshooting“

Unlike DIY services that provide support forums or talk you through issues, a dedicated Web Specialist will typically handle any troubleshooting issue for you. Troubleshooting refers to an error or malfunction taking place on the website. Some errors include broken hyperlink (e.g. link doesn’t work any more or take you anywhere), broken CSS (e.g. coding language responsible for design elements on your site not formatted properly), etc. Troubleshooting consists of identifying a particular technical issue and fixing the problem. A dedicate Web Specialist can be worth hiring simply for these times if anything. The internet, browsers, and devices are always changing and changing fast. This means that your website is bound to experience trouble at one point or another.

“No downtime during updates”

This one is simple. “Up-time” refers to your site being visible and accessible online – in other words, people can visit it or use it. Therefore, “downtime” refers to the amount of time that your website is “down” or “offline” – meaning, it’s not accessible, can’t be viewed, or can’t be used. When a website maintenance service company says it can perform updates “without any downtime,” they mean that your website will remain online, view-able, and use-able while they perform changes on it. This is typically the case with most Web Specialists these days unless you’re update involves a lot of small changes, a couple of big changes, or a complete design overhaul.

“Regular maintenance”

Your website will need maintenance to make sure it’s speedy, optimized and working properly. This term typically refers to security, updates, and file management. Be sure that your website has security measures in place to guard against ongoing threats. Beyond security software or hosting configurations, one of the best security measures you can take is to make sure that all the software associated with your website is up to date. Good website plugins, extensions, and other software items are regularly updated to guard against security holes, bugs, and other things that your website will face in an ever-changing internet. As previously mentioned, the the internet, browsers, and devices are always changing and changing fast. You’ll want to perform regular maintenance on your site or hire someone to do it in an effort to keep your website from becoming antiquated or a target for viruses and malware.

Ongoing compliance

A good Web Specialist will make sure that your website is compliant with Google and other major search engines. While search engine algorithms and best practices are always changing, they want to see a site that’s not trying to “game the system” with keyword stuffing, invisible text, etc. While a lot of this applies to marketing or SEO (which we’ll get into later), some of it is technical – they want to see that websites load quickly, have a mobile version, and function as intended.

Theme Avada Professional Customization Specialist2018-06-04T16:12:05+00:00

Theme Avada Professional Customization SpecialistAVADA: Responsive Web Design For The Best Selling WordPress Theme Ever

Avada themes let you create virtually anything, without ever have to enter a single line of code. Avada’s set of features, options and tools make it one of the most versatile theme on the market by allowing you to take control of virtually every aspect and section of the site.  The powerful customization options & features give you flexibility to create the site you want. Avada is WooCommerce compatible and offers a unique design.

With Avada you can:

  • Create a Retina Ready website with Ultra-High Resolution Graphics
  • Rely on the Automatic Theme Updater to take care of updates when you’re short on time
  • Create an online store with WooCommerce Compatibility

Many clients ask us “What WordPress Theme to purchase for their WordPress Website?”. 7 times out of 10 the answer is WordPress Theme Avada. I am a huge fan of this very powerful and professional WordPress theme. The theme is written by Theme Fusion and exclusively available from ThemeForest.

The sky is the limit when it comes to Color choices, layout options, Heading style, font selection and customization.

I have implemented WordPress Theme Avada so many times that I am aware of all the ins and outs. I can consult on the best layouts based on your needs, and have your website ready for prime time in a few days at a fraction of the cost that any company would charge for Theme Avada Professional Customization. The theme supports advanced page layouts, multiple type of sliders or banners including Revolution Slider, Layer Slider, Elastic Slider and Fusion Slider, Advanced Post types, Integrated Social Media, E Commerce Options with Woo Commerce, Custom CSS options, multiple header styles, easy video and portfolio sections, typography options and many more.

See my best working samples:

  • http://aaronsbeauty.com/
  • http://jewsforjudaism.ca/
  • http://compassplastics.com/
  • https://greatnorthernapparel.com/
  • http://polytarp.com/
  • http://medicalclub.ca/
  • http://www.awzventures.ca/

How much will it exactly cost: It depends. It will depend on the amount of content you have, number of pages that need to be setup, how should your Blog be integrated, do you have pictures that you want to include in your website, what kind of hosting do you have?

Contact me for a consultation and to help you out.

First Impressions Matter: The Importance of Great Visual Design2018-01-02T15:13:25+00:00

First Impressions Matter: The Importance of Great Visual DesignIt is often said in life that first impressions are everything. Whether we judge a person based on their appearance or by what they drive, or we judge a business based on their store or office location; when it comes to your website’s appearance – it goes without saying that a first impression really is everything.

When website users look at a badly designed website, they don’t just judge the website, they judge the company. There is ample evidence that design heavily influences first impressions, and that first impressions influence a consumer’s trust and respect for a company.

Bad design is no longer something business owners can joke about and place at the bottom of their priority list. It’s costing companies money in the form of lost clients, not to mention credibility and reputation.

Never forget that the very first thing your visitors see is your page loading. Images gradually appear, buttons randomly pop-up, links become clickable and in the meantime your visitors are left waiting. The longer it takes for your page to load, the worse the impression you’re making.

Here’s why first impressions on your website are killing your business and costing you clients.

People make snap judgements. It takes only 1/10th of a second to form a first impression about a person, and websites are no different. It takes about 50 milliseconds (that’s 0.05 seconds) for users to form an opinion about your website that determines whether they like your site or not, whether they’ll stay or leave.

This number comes from specific studies. In the first study, participants twice rated the visual appeal of web homepages presented for 500 ms each. In a follow-up study they reduced the exposure time to 50 ms. Throughout, visual appeal ratings were highly correlated from one phase to the next as were the correlations between the 50 ms and 500 ms conditions. Thus, visual appeal can be assessed within 50 ms, suggesting that web designers have about 50 ms to make a good first impression.

This first impression depends on many factors: structure, colors, spacing, symmetry, amount of text, fonts, and more. All the website screenshots below are for illustrative purposes only.

  • Make your web design simple and familiar (follow conventions – e.g. people have a fixed idea what an e-commerce site should be like). If you go for innovative, unconventional layouts – people are less likely to like them.
  • Great design gets people to trust you and to stick around. Poor design creates mistrust and makes people leave.
  • Invest in design – it’s what matters the most for pulling users in.
  • If their first impression is negative, it might cause the user to have prejudice against you for years.
WordPress Maintenance and Support | WordPress Website Checkup2018-01-01T18:40:46+00:00

WordPress Maintenance and Support  | WordPress Website CheckupSecurity is massively important for WordPress users to minimise the likelihood of hackers getting into your website. It needs to be said that nobody can ever 100% guarantee that their website will never be hacked, but keeping your all aspects of your website updated you can minimise the risk significantly. We offer a Security Package where we will take care of all core WordPress, theme and plugin updates, as well as taking fortnightly backups of your entire website – this is strongly advised for all clients.

We also offer a Maintenance Package for clients who don’t have the time to update their content, such as replacing images or adding new text, to their website. We will perform up to 2 hours of content updates per month with this package, so you don’t need to worry about learning the process of content management.

WordPress is an amazing content management system, and regular maintenance will keep your website running smoothly and securely. Maintenance and security updates however, can have a steep learning curve, especially if you don’t work with WordPress regularly. Even if you are familiar with WordPress and the steps required to maintain your website, it can be time consuming and after all, you have a business to run.

Failing to update your website can lead to major problems, including site crashes, security breaches, loss of data, and theft of customer information. Resolving these issues can be time consuming and expensive, as well as cost you current or new customers.

WordPress Updates

Update what?! Never worry about pesky site updates again. Relax and let Maintainn handle it for you.

Offsite Backups

We provide nightly offsite backups of your database and file system. No need to fret about losing your data.

Security

Our partnership with Sucuri guarantees that your WordPress site will be safe and secure with 24/7 monitoring.

Expert Support

The Maintainn team is here to provide you with WordPress guidance, advice, and the answers you need.

What Does A Modern, Professional Website Cost?2018-01-01T17:55:26+00:00

What Does A Modern, Professional Website Cost?These prices are correct at the time of writing (1/2018) however they are subject to change without notice and should only be used as a guide to help you understand what a website costs and how they are priced. Ultimately for us to give you an actual, accurate price, we would need to discuss your requirements in detail so we can propose the most suitable solution for your project.

Most of the website projects we take on range in price from $3,000 to $15,000 in price. However, on occasion, we have completed smaller projects for slightly less than this or more depending on the clients exact requirements.

No two websites are ever the same and this means each website takes a different amount of time to develop. We charge our time on the basis of $75 per developer hour or $600 per day but we usually give clients a fixed price before we start the project.

As a client your first questions about buying a website will always be “How much will it cost?” and “How long will it take?” but without a full scope of the work you need completed, it is impossible for us to answer these questions. Just like building a house, a builder cannot give you a price without seeing the architect’s design and list of materials that will be required.

Some things we take into consideration when pricing for a website:

  1. Number of meetings required
  2. Do you have the content prepared already (text, images, videos)
  3. Do you require a logo
  4. Do you require a completely new design or a re-design of your current site
  5. Examples of websites you like and what you like about them
  6. What functionality do you require on your website
  7. Do you need training on managing or using the website
  8. Do you have photos ready to use or do you need a photographer
  9. How many pages you will require on the website
  10. What online marketing do you require

These are just some of the things that will help us identify how long it will take to develop your website, but depending on your business and project we may have more questions.

On most website projects, it may take a few meetings to run through these questions with you to give us a good indication of your requirements. We can then provide you with a solution based on the information you’ve given us, as well as a fixed price.

We have developed our unique and innovative Discovery process over our many years in the industry. It helps us eliminate issues such as inaccurate cost proposals and missed deadlines.

What is e-commerce (electronic commerce)?2020-04-01T17:00:55+00:00

What is ecommerce (electronic commerce)? Shopping carts for Profit

Electronic commerce or ecommerce is a term for any type of business, or commercial transaction, that involves the transfer of information across the Internet. It covers a range of different types of businesses, from consumer based retail sites, through auction or music sites, to business exchanges trading goods and services between corporations. It is currently one of the most important aspects of the Internet to emerge.

Ecommerce allows consumers to electronically exchange goods and services with no barriers of time or distance. Electronic commerce has expanded rapidly over the past five years and is predicted to continue at this rate, or even accelerate. In the near future the boundaries between “conventional” and “electronic” commerce will become increasingly blurred as more and more businesses move sections of their operations onto the Internet.

Business to Business or B2B refers to electronic commerce between businesses rather than between a business and a consumer. B2B businesses often deal with hundreds or even thousands of other businesses, either as customers or suppliers. Carrying out these transactions electronically provides vast competitive advantages over traditional methods. When implemented properly, ecommerce is often faster, cheaper and more convenient than the traditional methods of bartering goods and services.

Electronic transactions have been around for quite some time in the form of Electronic Data Interchange or EDI. EDI requires each supplier and customer to set up a dedicated data link (between them), where ecommerce provides a cost-effective method for companies to set up multiple, ad-hoc links. Electronic commerce has also led to the development of electronic marketplaces where suppliers and potential customers are brought together to conduct mutually beneficial trade.

The road to creating a successful online store can be a difficult if unaware of ecommerce principles and what ecommerce is supposed to do for your online business. Researching and understanding the guidelines required to properly implement an e-business plan is a crucial part to becoming successful with online store building.

Ecommerce can be a very rewarding venture, but you cannot make money overnight. It is important to do a lot of research, ask questions, work hard and make on business decisions on facts learned from researching ecommerce. Don’t rely on “gut” feelings. We hope our online ecommerce tutorial has helped your business make a better decision in choosing an online shopping cart for your ecommerce store.

SEO: Understand your online customers2017-12-31T20:44:42+00:00

SEO: Understand your online customers

Much like traditional marketing, improving your search rankings starts with an understanding of your customer’s behaviour. For example, consider how a person’s search behaviour changes during the buying cycle:

  • Awareness: the customer is aware of a problem that needs fixing, and begins searching for potential solutions using broad search terms. For example, ‘leaking tap’.
  • Consideration: the customer understands their problem and is now searching for solutions that best meet their needs. They will typically start using search keywords that include a location, product feature or product type. For example, ‘plumber in Townsville’.
  • Purchase: the customer is ready to buy, and generally knows who they will buy from. They will often search directly for the service provider. For example, ‘ABC Plumbing’.

Matching your web content with customer search behaviours requires an understanding of the language used. Being aware of common misspellings, slang and abbreviations can help you match your content with these searches.

SEO: Use keywords on your website2017-12-31T20:38:43+00:00

SEO: Use keywords on your websiteKeywords are the words or phrases a customer uses when they perform a search. For example, ‘flowers online’ and ‘where do I buy flowers online’ are both considered to be keywords.

Matching the keywords used on your website with the words used by customers when they search for you is an important part of SEO. Add popular keywords or phrases to your website. These words can be used in places such as page titles, in content or even as the name of the image file you’re using.

Use keywords that are relevant to your business, services or location – anything that a customer would use in a search engine can be considered a keyword or phrase.

For example, if someone searches for ‘flowers online’ and your page is titled ‘florist website’, there’s a chance that your page won’t be found on the first page of their search results. This is because competing websites with pages titled ‘flowers online’ are considered more relevant to the searcher and will be ranked higher.

Understanding the search language used by your customer is an important step to being found. Inserting the right keywords in the browser title, meta description, URL, content and page headings can boost the relevance of your page and boost your visibility too.

SEO: Refresh your page content often2017-12-31T20:35:28+00:00

SEO: Refresh your page content oftenYour website is a living, breathing entity on the internet. Every update you make to your website once it is “live” on the internet plays a part in its interaction with visitors, customers, and the powerful search engines. However, a static website without updates of any kind may be viewed by search engines as a “dead” entity – with no life and nothing new to offer.

Add new content to your website weekly and update content on your pages at least once every 6 months. This could be information about a new product or service you’re selling, a customer story, new images or removing content that is no longer relevant.

Ensure your content is specific, clear and on point.

Keep Your Audience Informed and Updated

Refreshing your content encourages search engines to visit your website more often. The more frequently they visit, the faster they’re able to discover new content on your website. You may even see some rankings benefits!

Another good reason to update your website with valuable content is to keep current subscribers updated, as well as provide necessary information for new visitors to convert to customers.

Regularly updating your website with fresh content will not only garner appreciation and loyalty from your visitors, but will put you in good standings with the powerful Google.

Expert WordPress Emergency Help and Support2018-08-30T14:47:19+00:00

Urgent WordPress Repair Services

With so many moving parts comprising WordPress, issues can and do arise from time to time. If you are suffering from a broken or poorly functioning website, I can be reached to provide WordPress Emergency Support. Most often, there is a fix for the problem and your site can be back on line in no time.

Most Common issues Fixed include:

  • WordPress site is slow or doesn’t load completely
  • WordPress site displays blank white screen
  • PHP or mySQL Error Messages are seen
  • Problems Installing WordPress
  • Conflicts with WordPress Plugins
  • WordPress Theme Not Properly Rendering
  • Shoppingcart Issues
  • BuddyPress Problems
  • Contact Forms Troubleshooting
Monthly Maintenance Plans (MMP)2017-12-29T01:37:22+00:00

Monthly Maintenance Plans (MMP)

You can be sure that our Monthly Maintenance Plans (MMP) is the right solution for you under the following circumstances.

  • If you are having a web project to be maintained on monthly basis and regular basis.
  • If you are looking for the company that can be the back bone of your website; a company that responds promptly to your calls, e-mails and other forms of communication; a company that accepts responsibility for the maintenance your website or success of your project. If so, then you have landed in the right place!
  • If you are looking for a soft payment option where the outgo of money should be on monthly basis.
  • The development can also be done on phased manner on monthly schedules.
  • Even if just one of those mentioned above is your requirement, then our monthly maintenance plan (MMP) is undoubtedly the best solution for you.

Website Maintenance is a great way to keep your website fresh with content. We recommend that you update your site at least quarterly with small content updates. Tell people what new product or services you have.

A number of my clients have decided that the best form of site maintenance is self-maintenance. I can redesign your site into a content management system (CMS) so that you can make your own updates without needing to contact me for every little change. If you are changing your website on a daily or weekly basis then you need another type of website. That would be a functional website with a content management system. You do pay more up front for these systems. These systems are installed on the server and the new site is created to function with a template to facilitate content changes by you. An example of a comprehensive content management system is WordPress or Joomla.There are many templates to choose from and you have full access to change content, menu and images. WordPress and Joomla have extensive support material online however you do need to be fairly computer literate. (We prefer WordPress). Both systems have many, many plug in components available to facilitate different needs. The important thing to remember is that you will need to pay for periodic security upgrades.

And sometimes you just need a fresh set of eyes. Want me to go over your site, check for broken links or recommend changes to make your site more search engine friendly? No worries.

Finally – if you have a project that involves hundreds of products, multiple blogs, booking calendar and a live weather feed, we’ve got you covered.

Maintenance Packages include

  1. Backing up our entire hosting content files
  2. Ensuring the WordPress Content Management System (CMS) and all plugins are upgraded to the latest versions to assure security and functionality (Upgrades are normally done within days of new releases.)
  3. Backing up all WordPress program files
  4. Backing up the WordPress database daily
  5. Verifying our disk and bandwidth limits meet our needs
  6. Testing any forms
  7. Scanning the files with the exploit scanner

Editing (upon request)

  1. Making changes to the site upon request: adding, removing, and editing content including images (not including wholesale or design changes)
  2. Providing advice where needed on any Internet marketing or business technology topic

Examples How Customers Use Our Website Maintenance Services:

  • Backup Files, Databases and Disaster Recovery.
  • Malware or Hacked Site? Clean up and restore.
  • Website Security Auditing and Consultation.
  • Updating WordPress, Themes and Plugins.
  • Adding fresh content like news and articles.
  • Adding custom photos, graphics and clip art.
  • Content maintenance. Writing article, Content and research.
  • Social Media Management. Manage postings and social maintenance.
  • Traffic Auditing with Google Webmaster and Analytics.
  • Creating XML Site Maps,  Robots.txt and .htaccess files.
  • Adding new products and services into your shopping cart.
  • Maintaining calendar and events.
  • Creating forms, links and additional pages.
  • Cloud maintenance. Uploading documents, photos, files.
  • PHP Script Installation and Web Development.
  • Changing web hosting? Server Migration and Hosting Maintenance.
  • On-Call and After Hours. 24/7 Emergency Support.
SEO – Where Content is king!2017-12-29T01:27:44+00:00

SEO - Where Content is king!There is a requirement to market your business online, not only through search engine optimization, but through many internet outlets. This can include: email marketing, Facebook, Twitter, and many other tools. Regardless of your target market, we can assist you with increasing your online visibility, conversions, and repeat traffic.

  • Content is king, so be sure to have good, well-written, and unique content that will focus on your primary keywords or keyword phrase. Use keywords and keyword phrases appropriately in text links, image ALT attributes and even your domain name.
  • Keywords don’t guarantee you’ll rank highly. Search engine optimization is vested in marketing. If you market your business and use your website as a tool, you’ll be more successful then just listing keywords and submitting to a search engine.
  • Write a unique, descriptive meta description for every page. Within 160 characters you need to describe the topic of a page in a way that persuades people to click on your site instead of the other sites listed in the search results.
  • Fresh content can help improve your rankings. Add new, useful content to your pages on a regular basis. Content freshness adds relevancy to your site in the eyes of the search engines.
  • Know your market. If you don’t know whom you’re marketing to, how do you create a marketing strategy online to gain further sales and/or leads. Prioritizing people is important.
  • Business Consistency, affects your marketing, short term & long term outputs, popularity and, thus, your ranking.
Search engine optimization (SEO)2017-12-29T01:24:06+00:00

Search Engine OptimizationSearch engine optimization (SEO)  is the way to pull massive amounts of free traffic. Creative Design 123’s SEO services from our Search Engine Optimization Company will increase your companies website rankings and traffic. We has assisted companies to maximize the traffic they want to attract from major search engines, including: Google, Yahoo, and many others. We create more sales for your business by getting you more visitors through better and higher search engine rankings.

Our Search Engine Marketing and Optimization service offers your business the best chances of gaining top rankings on the most important search engines. We use effective techniques with a combination of web page optimization and strong linking campaigns to gain the edge over other sites. We are up front and honest, and will not take on projects that we feel that we cannot be effective in achieving top rankings.

Creativewebdesign123.com has worked in 16 languages, and improved their search engine placements on the search engines by leaps and bounds.

We specialize in improving search engine rankings and ensuring your site ranks highly by providing the following services:

  • keyword analysis and recommendations
  • search engine optimization (SEO)
  • search engine ranking reports
  • submission to all major search engines around the world
  • Google Maps integration, Sitemaps implementation
  • website promotion
  • webmarketing

Making your online presence a success!

What can a maintenance plan offer you?2017-12-28T23:48:35+00:00

What can a maintenance plan offer you? Why Every Site Should Have It

Our professional Website Maintenance Plans are designed to provide the benefit of having your own website team on staff at a fraction of the cost!

Our goal is to integrate content management system in a way that you can control your website without having to outsource it. Most of our clients choose to manage their website on their own and we fully encourage this.

What can business consulting services do for you?

Our consulting is all rolled in with our maintenance plans and offers a wide variety of support and services for your business. Here are just a few of its benefits:

  • A skilled partnership to help you achieve your online objectives
  • Technology research and development based ongoing business requirements and needs
  • On-demand support for all online initiatives relative to your website, social media and content marketing
  • Custom graphic design and web design services
  • Content management formatting and updates to ensure your online business remains consistent with its brand, as well as ‘look and feel’
  • Weekly backups of your website files and database
  • Broken link checking to make sure there’s no broken URLs between site content that affects your SEO
  • Content development tailored to your companies target audience
  • Content distribution and social media support for best practices
  • Weekly updates of your software and 3rd party tools to maintain security and ensure you’re running the latest versions
  • Up-time monitoring to make certain your website is up and running
  • Search engine best practices, for ex. images and metadata, page and post titles, meta-descriptions, anchor tags, long tail keywords, etc

Your website and online media is an asset to your business, your face to the world – and it’s important that you maintain it. The plans we offer are designed to give you peace of mind and assurance that you have a skilled partner who can help you achieve all your online objectives.

It’s Your Insurance Policy

By having a website maintenance contract you are buying the reassurance that your website will be taken care of and kept up to date. There for lessening the threat of it being hacked or having to deal with down time.

Website Cost: Time, Pricing & Rates2017-12-28T20:22:10+00:00

How Much Does It Cost to Build a WordPress Website?How Much Does It Cost to Build a WordPress Website?

When it comes to pricing, unfortunately there is no standard answer. All of our work is customized to each client’s unique needs, so we don’t have a set price. We really need to know some specifics about you and your project before we can give you an accurate price. One thing we can say though is that regardless of the size of your project, you will always get our BEST game, the best service and training time. All of our clients are important to us, and we’ll never forget that.

When people ask for a quote, I always follow the same process. I visit their current site (or one they like) and determine the following:

  • The current CMS platform (WordPress, MovableType, Drupal, etc.)
  • The scope of the site – how many unique styling elements will be required for specialty pages?
  • The perceived complexity of the re-design. Does this person want a graphical masterpiece with all kinds of bells and whistles?

Generally speaking, there’s not a whole lot of variance in these areas from blog to blog, so after checking out the site in question, I usually have a good idea of how much to charge. Now, to answer the question you all want to hear…How much would it be?

At this time, blog designs start at $1500. This price is for a blog that has minimal graphical complexity, no customized icons, and no logo production. What you do get at this price is rock-solid, hand-crafted, browser-tested CSS, XHTML, and simple (but striking) graphic design.

In most cases, bells and whistles like plugin support, unique page designs, and extra graphics push the price up into the $1800-$2000 range. From there, the price is largely dictated by page-specific CSS/XHTML production and custom graphic design. It’s totally conceivable that a pimped out blog could run as much as $3000 (We have worked on a WordPress Website priced close to $200,000 dollars). Rest assured, though, that it would be totally amazing, and the recipient of the design would receive mad props for having such a killer online abode.

So What’s free:

Included in all our hosting packages is support for email and web site issues involving server side errors. Free support includes configuration and troubleshooting of webmail, Control Panel, FTP, domains, DNS and web site access.

What’s not:

Free support does not include configuration and troubleshooting of third party programs including but not limited to Outlook, SmartFTP and any Mobile devices. Due to the vast array of custom network configuration and applications clients use, we can only provide information needed to connect with our servers. If necessary, support for these third party programs will be billed at $50 per hour. We consider any research into problems not caused by us as billable. Also, because most of our clients have full control of their web site, any problems caused by user edits or error are billable.

Time Frame

Because websites vary according to size and scope, each project has it’s own time frame. Most projects can be completed within a 30-day period – 20 business days!

For example, the approximate time frame for a WordPress site customization/installation for up to 25 pages can be completed in 15 – 20 business days, providing ALL pertinent site content (including text, images, Word docs/Pdfs, external links, including social media links, etc.) and account information (i.e., user names & passwords) is supplied and received from the client within the time frame/start date agreed upon.

Invoicing Policy

Once the project/proposal is agreed upon, the website package fee is split between two billings and is payable as follows:

  • 50% invoiced in advance of website creation
  • 50% invoiced upon publishing website to the net

We accept cash, or payment online via PayPal. Please note that online payments are subject to a 2.9% merchant fee.

Extending WordPress | Social, Forums, Chats, Forms2017-12-28T20:08:57+00:00

Extending WordPress Features with Plugins and WidgetsExtending WordPress Features with Plugins and Widgets

Social, Forums, Chats, Forms. WordPress has unlimited functionality with thousands of free ‘plugins’ that are available for your website. If you want something for your web site a plugin usually exists. Popular plugins include photo galleries, video, social media, podcasting, email marketing and more. With WordPress you can easily change the design and layout of your website without having to make any changes to the content management system. This is an amazing feature as it can save you thousands in design costs.

Plugins can extend WordPress to do almost anything you can imagine. Web galleries, testimonails, contact forms, job applications, social networking integration, email marketing, forums, chats online, and interactive maps are a few of the many thousands of options available. Plugins are what makes WordPress so unique, putting your website leagues above static websites. WordPress really is the ideal foundation from which you can develop your website as your business grows.

We will install, setup and, in some cases, integrate into your design, any plugin you wish to add to your blog or web site.

We will also upgrade your existing plugins. We do realize that it can sometimes be an intimidating process to upgrade plugins – – we not only will run the upgrade for you – – but we will trouble shoot any problems that may be caused by a particular plugin upgrade, and we won’t rest until it’s perfect! If we find that a particular plugin upgrade is not compatible with your, individual setup – we will not stop until we find you a suitable alternative.

With so many features and benefits WordPress costs a fraction of other websites to implement, and provides exceptional value. Once established your WordPress website is license Free!

Speed Optimizing WordPress Websites | Page Load Time2017-12-28T18:00:56+00:00

Speed Optimizing WordPress Websites | Page Load TimeWordPress Websites: Reducing Page Load Time

WordPress Websites: Reducing Page Load Time. You have very little time to show users your content and convince them to stay on your website. A slow website means users will potentially leave your website before it even loads.

There are many different factors that can slow a website load speed down. Creative Web Design 123 can provide a WordPress speed audit on your website with recommendations on fixes.

As your WordPress website grows, it will need optimized to handle the increase in traffic and page loads. Creative Web Design 123 can help! We specialize in the best WordPress optimization techniques for your website. Whether you have a large WordPress website, or a single WordPress corporate Website, we can help speed up your site, handle higher traffic loads, caching, database optimization, and more.

Speed Analysis Services

  • Web Optimized Images
  • Optimize and Combine JavaScript and CSS
  • Integrate Caching and CDN Network for Media
  • Server Level Caching and Config
  • Plugin Recommendations

Whether you run a popular blog, or a fortune-100 website, Creative Web Design 123 has the experience and knowledge to help speed up your WordPress website.

Shopping Cart Solutions2020-04-01T17:01:11+00:00

Shopping Cart Software Solutions for eCommerce SitesShopping Cart Software Solutions for eCommerce Sites

Why Online Store (Ecommerce)?

The Internet is now all pervading and people are spending more & more time in cyberspace. In this scenario, online presence has become inevitable for organizations. Your organization’s Ecommerce website not only unfolds a new dimension for selling your products but it also provides a channel of online marketing.

What is required to launch Ecommerce website?

There are a lot many steps require to be carried out to get any Ecommerce business going. Choosing a website name, selection of web service provider, working on layout of website, selecting website hosting company – are few to name.

All these can be a burdensome and time-consuming venture…but how is that all these tasks done for you with excellence!

Imagine an Ecommerce web design service provider that registers your chosen website domain name, provides you with easy website building tools, hosts your website, assists you apply for a merchant account, connects you to a shopping cart, a payment gateway and a credit card processing service, and helps you connect to such powerful marketing avenues as social media and search engine marketing, all working together in synchronous manner.

What we offer?

We provide solutions for a secure shopping cart experience using Woocomerce, paypal, shopify, and many other payment gateways. The shopping cart software allows you to accept credit cards and PayPal payments by integrating with over 100 payment gateways.

The scope of our Ecommerce web design service encompasses:

  • Custom Ecommerce development
  • Website hosting
  • Shopping cart
  • Search engine marketing
  • Web marketing

We would be happy to help you if you have any query related to your Ecommerce (Online shopping) website.

Paypal payment gateway integration2020-04-01T17:01:20+00:00

Paypal payment gateway integrationWe provide Paypal payment standard, Paypal express checkout

Paypal is simple and secure way to process payments through your website. Creating a Paypal account is easy and free and you won’t need to store any credit card data or worry about your client’s security.

Paypal Payment integration is actually a part of the complete e-commerce solution we provide. Paypal offers several ways to integrate payment with your shopping cart, subscription system or a one time service fee.

We provide Paypal payment standard, Paypal express checkout, Paypal buy now buttons, Paypal subscriptions and Paypal Instant payment notification solutions.

PayPal Pro integration will allow the users to keep payment steps of the checkout on their own site, and not transfer them to PayPal for processing.

  • Get paid for your events
  • Add a surcharge to the payment to cover transaction fees
  • Bypass the payment confirmation page (option)
  • Prompt for addresses to collect more information (option)
  • Change the PayPal button design
  • And more!

Get paid for your events by using PayPal, the most trusted online payment system. Registrants can transfer money to you or pay you with a credit card. We now offer PayPal Standard and Pro payment gateways.

PayPal Express Checkout is a more advanced version of the standard PayPal payment option that is included with WooCommerce. It has more features included with it and allows us to more tightly integrate PayPal into WooCommerce. It is the recommended method of enabling PayPal payments in WooCommerce.

WordPress Checklist2017-12-28T18:27:53+00:00

WordPress Checklist | Basic Steps to get you online!WordPress Checklist | Basic Steps to get you online!

Whether you’re a website designer/developer or a business owner creating your own WordPress website, having a good checklist to follow through every step of the way is essential to make sure you don’t miss any important steps before or after you launch.

Creating your own lists can be tedious, boring and time-consuming so we are thrilled to share with you below what we think is the ultimate WordPress website checklist for website designers or anyone creating a WordPress website to use, created by the great team at Creative Web Design 123.

Setting up and launching a website is a momentous affair for any business. A lot of time and effort goes into ensuring that our website is designed just right and fulfills our business needs.  Even so, there are a number of oversights that can play spoilsport on the launch day. You can minimize the chances of that happening by ticking off the boxes in this handy checklist for new WordPress websites.

Lets get started!

  1. WordPress pre-development
  2. WordPress development
  3. Check if Your Hosting Plan Supports WordPress
  4. Optimize Permalinks for SEO
  5. Decide if Your Email Address Will Be Tagged to the Website
  6. Delete Dummy Content
  7. Create an XML Sitemap
  8. Improve Your Website Loading Speed
  9. Setup Website Backups
  10. Uncheck the Box for Search Engine Visibility
  11. Run a Mobile-Friendly Test
  12. Setup Google Search Console
  13. WordPress launch
  14. WordPress SEO
  15. WordPress security
  16. WordPress maintenance

The checklist below will benefit all WordPress designers, developers and users. It will save you hours trying to create your own checklist or checking if you’ve done everything you need to before you launch or develop a new website.

Secure your wordpress website | Deleting UNUSED: Themes, Plugins2018-04-25T17:30:45+00:00

Secure your wordpress website | Deleting UNUSED: Themes, PluginsWordPress is currently powering nearly 30% of websites on the internet making it probably the most popular content management system in the world.

This is relatively technical, so if you have a WordPress site for your business and you don’t know how to do the steps below, get your developer to follow them and report back to you when completed. Don’t wait until your website get’s hacked, contact us today for your FREE security audit.

Delete any themes, plugins or extensions that you don’t need or that aren’t maintained

While this is great for users it makes it a worthwhile target for hackers to develop strategies and approaches to get into your site. It’s time well spent with so many opportunities available.

Deleting old extensions, plugins and themes will remove them as potential entry points for a hacker.

Let’s fix your website.

Our full-service web solutions help your business grow online leads, calls, and revenue.

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