Always stay updated

One of the easiest and most effective ways of keeping WordPress safe from attackers is to keep it updated as new versions are released. Every piece of software, especially those exposed to the internet, are always vulnerable to bugs and exploits if they are not routinely updated to patch up holes in their security. Web technologies are constantly evolving and hackers are always finding new ways to trick your software into trusting them when it shouldn’t, but WordPress is a very closely monitored system and any time a major security exploit is found the developers are very quick to release an update to fix it. The moral of the story is that being lazy and holding off on a WordPress update can cost you dearly, it’s a matter of clicking on button on your WP backend and it’s a real lifesaver.

However, your WordPress installation isn’t the only thing that needs to be kept up to date. You’re probably using a variety of different plugins and a theme as well, and outdated components can also present security risks. Always keep every part of your site up to date and beware of plugins and themes that seem unprofessional or were poorly made, they often make your site less secure by implementing faulty code.

Use secret keys in your WP-config file

The WP-config file contains all the information someone would need to access the database associated with your WordPress site, so you’ll want to do everything in your power to secure that file and make sure no one can access that sensitive information.

One of the best ways to do this is to use secret keys in the config file. Doing this is very easy, just head over to api.wordpress.org/secret-key/1.1/ and paste that information into WP-config, read through the file and find the area that says Authentication Unique Keys and replace the four lines you see there.

Use a security plugin

There are a lot of little things to worry about in terms of WP security like file permissions, htaccess settings, and a variety of other little factors that hackers can take advantage of. Instead of staying on top of it all yourself, you can try using a trusted plugin solution that gives you a simple GUI where you can keep everything secure without the headache of traversing an FTP.

One of the best complete solutions is Bulletproof Security which keeps track of almost every possible security hold that your installation might have and offers one-click solutions to all of them, it’s very user friendly and a great way to sleep well at night knowing your site is more secure than most.

Another great plugin to use is WP Plugin Security Check. Some of the most insecure parts of any WordPress site are the third party plugins installed for a variety of different purposes, and this plugin checks through all of them to make sure there aren’t any obvious holes or inadequate coding.

How does SSL work?

SSL stands for Secure Sockets Layer and it serves primarily as a mechanism to verify a web page’s identity using encrypted certificates and keys. It’s a basic transaction of information between your browser and a web server before sharing data that ensures that all information is encrypted until it reaches the server to be decrypted.

First, your browser or application will request that a web server identify itself before any information is transferred. The server will then send the browser a copy of its SSL certificate, which must be checked by the browser using a combination of private and public keys to verify that the owner of the page is who they say they are using the site’s domain and IP address. If the browser accepts all of this information and trusts the certificate, it will tell this to the server which will send back an acknowledgement and finally begin to transfer information under the protection of SSL encryption so that no third parties can interfere.

The process of verification works both ways – the server checks to see that the user on the other side of the secured channel is who they appear to be and vice-versa. When the SSL certificate is first sent to the browser, the public key is included. The browser will use this public key to encrypt information before sending it to the server, and the server will use it’s own private key to decrypt it. If the information is accessed by any third parties between the browser and server, they will receive encrypted information that is impossible to read without the server’s private key.

How do I get SSL for my site?

If you want to use SSL encryption on your own site to enable secure connections with your users, it’s not very complicated. Royalty Networks offers multiple types of SSL certificates. Just choose the appropriate package and follow the instructions. A basic SSL setup will cost less than $20.00 per year. You will need to provide information about you and your site, once things are setup a private key will be generated (be sure to make a copy of this and keep it safe).

In spite of the adage, “you get what you pay for”, the fact is that in this case, the Linux hosting accounts are the better choice even though they are less expensive. Linux hosting is far more popular than Windows hosting and the Linux hosting works better with the ways in which most websites are programmed and coded. Websites themselves require a server that has within its programming structure certain functions that the code of the website calls upon in order for the site to operate and deliver a particular user experience. Linux hosting provides this structure readily and website design code more often than not expects the server to support Linux included functions. In fact, Windows servers will oftentimes have to emulate a Linux server in order to allow many websites to operate properly.

The only times that a person should choose Windows hosting over Linux hosting is when they have a website that has been designed with specific Windows based code that calls upon the server to contain specific Windows hosting based applications. For example, you must use Windows hosting if your website is coded to use any of the following:

• Classic ASP or ASP.NET Programming
• MS Access
• Microsoft SQL Server
• C#, Silverlight, MVC

While this is not an all inclusive list, it does contain the most common website coded applications that require Windows hosting. Unless a website’s code specifically requires Windows hosting, it is advisable for everyone, to choose a Linux server.

As mentioned earlier, in many cases a Windows server is called upon to emulate a Linux server in order to host a site. Some may think that this is the best case scenario, mistakenly thinking that the Windows system would then be able to handle both Linux and Windows coded sites. This is a mistake because not all Linux functions can be effectively emulated with Windows hosting without reducing overall performance of the server and as a result affecting the user experience. There are also some specific Linux functions that are coded into many types of websites that Windows hosting cannot emulate.

Therefore it is not a matter of getting full functionality with Windows hosting being able to support both systems whereas Linux hosting cannot. When choosing a hosting plan, the best choice is Linux hosting unless the specific site requires Windows applications. This is the only way to maximize overall server performance, site performance, and end user experience.

The first reason is that when an SEO or web design company shows the client that they have in-house hosting it can give that client an impression that the company they are trusting with their online presence is well established and a full service firm. This can go a long way in establishing credibility as well as setting your company apart from the competition. Especially when it is explained to the client that there are SEO and site delivery/uptime advantages of high end hosting. The client should also understand that simply being 1 of 3000 others on a shared server at the other hosting company, where they never know if they are in a “bad neighborhood”, is not good business and in fact can harm their site delivery and SEO efforts.

The second reason is that using Royalty Networks reseller hosting you are not only able to provide the client with servers that are far from overloaded, you can also know personally that you’re giving that client the best possible web presence and not having them hindered by unresponsive and overburdened servers at other web hosts. Imagine working day and night for a client at your best SEO and design efforts only to have the web host IP neighborhood or response times harming the best possible search engine position. This is not good for the client or for you.

The final reason to consider becoming a reseller, as an SEO or web design company, is that the reseller hosting account allows you to add an additional income stream and payment that you can invoice to your client. Beyond the single affiliate link payment, using reseller hosting the extra income can become substantial when spread across multiple clients adding to your overall profitability as a firm.

Becoming a reseller as an SEO or web design firm is simply smart business. It increases your credibility, your brand, and your profits. At the same time, when partnering with Royalty Networks, it will give your client access to a high end host that will benefit their SEO efforts and overall customer experience. The proposition is win-win and should be considered by any company offering SEO or web design services. The process is simple and with Royalty Networks dual-platform H-sphere reseller hosting plans you can offer either a Linux hosting or Windows hosting under a private label platform that is simple and easy to manage.

RAID is one of these terms that you will see referred to in advertisements as well as in discussions about computer hardware. RAID itself, as you likely have guessed, is an acronym and it refers to a redundant array of independent disks. Some will call it a redundant array of inexpensive disks, which in fact was the original meaning, but in this day proper use would be “independent”. The origin of RAID technology was the utilization of storage spread across multiple disks and disk drives, the goal of which was to save money using several inexpensive drives or disks instead of having to use a single high capacity disk. But manufacturers of RAID systems changed the name to “independent” from “inexpensive” for marketing reasons.

RAID is actually used today as more of an umbrella term for many types of disk storage systems. The single common feature of which is that the data itself is spread across an “array” or multiple drives and yet the operating system and user only see and interact with the array as a single disk drive. In other words, the user sees disk drive “F” which is in fact a 5 disk RAID. There are countless types of RAID systems all of which have a different balance between data reliability and redundancy as well as overall speed and performance.

Oftentimes you may see the word RAID followed by a number. This number is not the number of disks that are used in the array, but they are a reference to particular predefined types and configurations of the array. The specific reason as to why an IT person configures a specific system with a given RAID is chosen for many many very technical reasons that are beyond what most readers will find interesting. But at least knowing that RAID is simply a data storage technology using multiple disks that act as one is something that makes you more informed and gives you enough understanding of the word in order to know why it is being used.

We incorporate RAID systems in all of our hosting plans. Each of which is configured to maximize performance, reliability, and safety of all of your data. Whether you are on reseller hosting, Linux hosting, or Windows hosting you can be assured that our systems are utilizing the most advanced and stable RAID configurations available.

The problem is that in a recent article by Conversation Marketing and highlighted by SEO Moz, Conversation Marketing found that only 69% of servers they tested were properly configured for some of the most basic of server functions. In fact I in a recent study of a hosting provider that advertises itself as a “boutique” hosting provider in order to justify their extra costs, it turned out that they too are far from perfect, even when testing the simplest of functions.

For example, when testing the homepage for any site the server should respond with a server response code of 200, which means everything is OK. But one site that was checked on the expensive hosting provider’s server delivered a 302 code. This is not acceptable because a 302 tells the browser that the page has been temporarily moved, but it will be back in the future, yet the page that was tested was actually present. The server should have responded with a 200 for everything is OK, or at worst a 301 which indicates a permanent redirect. A 302 is simply indicative of bad configuration.

When a non-existent page was requested at the same hosting company, it returned a 302 code. This does not make any logical sense and yet that is the code the server responded with. The server should have sent a 404 code indicating that the page does not and never did exist. This means that whenever a search engine tries to visit that site using a broken link, the search engine will think something is supposed to be there, but is not. That indicates to the search engine that there is a broken link or error on the site. On the other hand, if the server had returned a 404 error, at least the search engine would know that the error was in the originating link, not in the destination website.

All of this may sound trivial to the average SEO. But the fact is that when your competition has their sites coded properly and their servers configured properly, they have a distinct advantage over anyone that is delivering errors and incorrect codes to the search engines every time they visit the site. This is why our company has always employed experts in information technology, we know how important it is to the client to have their hosting provider always ensuring maximum up time and consistent correct server configuration.

Take the time to use our hosting service; we know how to properly configure a server. This is important for SEO and it is also important for overall server security. This concern over improper server configuration also reaches beyond the impact on SEO. Just think, if your current web host does not know how to configure the basics correctly, how are they going to maintain security on their servers should they come under attack from a hacker or other malicious software?

Our experts are exactly that, they are experts in maintaining the integrity of the server. What this means to you is that not only do you get proper configuration for SEO benefits, but you also get experts ensuring the integrity of you site, your information, and the information of your customers.

Space is as important for web hosting, as it is in real life. The space provided by your web host is the hard disk space where you store data on the web server. Each web host provides you hard disk space, dependent on your package and of course the size and capacity of their server. This usually ranges from 500 MB and upwards to 10 GB.

The amount of space you need is obviously determined by your website. Websites are usually composed of text (in the form of HTML files), images (jpegs or gifs), flash animations and even videos. While a text rich site may not consume much space, flash animations and videos take up a lot of hard disk space. Even images, if they are high-resolution, can eat up a lot of space. So, you may want to calculate the amount of space your website will use.

A quick tip here: do not create an unnecessarily bulky website. You might think that a good website is all about big bright images, but it is not so. A good website for all users (even those who do not have broadband internet) is one which loads quickly. Try to keep your website size under 50 kb so that it takes no more than 4-5 seconds to load. Even if you have a large amount of space for web hosting, it does not mean that you have to use it all up!

Whether you use Windows hosting or Linux hosting, the key is to have a high amount of bandwidth at your disposal. Bandwidth is the amount of data your web hosting company allows you to transfer every month. It includes all uploads and downloads, no matter what protocol you use.

The bandwidth charges you pay are usually calculated after taking into account the total number of visitors to your site. So, if you have a 50kb website visited by 20000 people a month, your bandwidth usage is calculated as 20000 x 50 Kb, which works out to 1000 MB or about 1 GB. Therefore, if you have a high traffic website, you need a lot of bandwidth to ensure your site stays online.

When you launch your website, you may not have too many visitors so you do not require an unnecessarily huge bandwidth plan at the start. You only end up paying more!

For starters, 10-20 GB bandwidth should be more than enough to start Go ahead and take care of these basic hosting needs for laying the foundation of a successful website. Good luck!

From everyone at Royalty Networks!

There are many web hosting companies which will offer you 99.9% uptime, but have you ever wondered why they cannot guarantee you 100%? This is because, servers can and will go down occasionally, and even the best web host cannot guarantee perpetual uptime. Hosts are well aware of this and so, they have devised clustered hosting as a possible alternative to single-server hosting.

The problem with traditional hosting is that all the elements of your website are managed by one server. So, it has to handle website control panels, email servers and also file transfer protocol. This is obviously quite taxing for the server, which has to handle not only your website but hundreds of others as well. Moreover, when there is traffic surge, or a huge increase in the number of people trying to access websites on a server, there is an even greater load on it. This is why you find that your website is unavailable sometimes.

Clustered hosting aims to put this issue to bed. The burden of running several websites is spread across several servers. It works in the same way as, the multiple engines on a commercial plane. If one fails the others do the job and complete the journey safely. So, even if your website runs a heavy database, it can work smoothly and not affect the working of other sites being managed by the same host. High end websites can often hamper the running of other websites, in conventional single server setups.

One more way in which clustered hosting helps is your website is by handling traffic spikes smoothly. When a large amount of available bandwidth is used up due to the number of simultaneous hits on your website, it can easily go down, but clustered hosting ensures that nothing like this happens. So, you can be sure that even when you are running a once in a lifetime sale, the website will be running smoothly!

Website maintenance also becomes less intrusive when a clustered hosting system is being used. This is because; it is no longer necessary to take the site offline for upgrades and rebooting. Your site remains online on a server, while the maintenance jobs are rolled out across other servers.

If you are looking for a new web host or perhaps are looking to switch web hosts, maybe you can go for a company which offers clustered hosting. This is a really smart hosting solution and surely worth a try!

Here are some cool tips to make web hosting a more profitable activity for you, by cutting costs and increasing returns on every dollar you spend.

1. Whether you use Windows hosting or Linux hosting, do you know that you can usually save a lot of money by choosing an annual payment plan? No surprise if you don’t, because that’s the case with most website owners. Usually if the annual payment is divided into monthly installments on a pro-rata basis, you will find out how much more you actually pay by going for monthly payment plans.

If you are renewing the contract with your existing web host or are perhaps switching over to a new host, you can easily opt for an annual plan. Additionally some annual plans:

• Come with zero set-up costs and
• Also offer you discounts for signing a 1-year contract.

2. You should also consider choosing clustered web hosting, if you are concerned with the capabilities of your current server in dealing with surges in traffic. Clustered web hosting is not confined to a single server and so, high traffic will not cause your website to run slowly. This makes sure that visitors keep coming back for more and are not turned off by considerable loading times, particularly if your website is high-end. You can easily upgrade to a clustered hosting plan on a pay-as-you-go basis, to give your website a competitive edge without having to break bank!

3. Get a support domain, if you wish to really expand the scope of your e-business. This domain can be used specifically to provide customer service and tech support. It also helps to take a lot of load away from your main site.

Hope you find these tips useful enough to implement and then reap some fantastic rewards, same time next year!