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Apr 12, 2022

How To Keep Your Website Secure from Hackers

Website design used to be a members-only club where if you wanted a website, you would have to hire someone with a graphic design background as well as an HTML programming background. To create a personal solo or small business website. Now, with the rise of web-based, user-friendly web design tools like WordPress, Wix, Joomla, Duda, Shopify, and Squarespace, all you need is access to the web and a working knowledge of computers and you can design an eye-popping website. However, using these types of tools to design your website can make you or your business an easy target to criminals who know that individuals and smaller businesses don't have systems in place to keep them safe. Want to keep your website safe? Read on to find out what you need to do to secure your site. Why do hackers attack websites in the first place? In truth, it doesn't matter how your website was designed. You could have paid an individual or company to do it or you may have designed a website set up for personal reasons, a side hustle, or a small business. Whatever the case, you need to know you're a huge target. Criminals like to pick on you because in many instances you're not going to secure those accounts as you should. This also goes for those social media business pages as well. If you're like most people you're probably thinking criminals won't bother those accounts because you're too small. But there are things crooks can do to make money from your site. They can hijack your site to get access to a mailing list. They can take over the site and places ads on your page to scam unsuspecting people. They can install malicious code on your website that will infect your potential and current customers with ransomware. Finally, they can take over the site completely and ask for a ransom for you to get access to your website. How do you stop website hackers? If your website or social media business page were to get hacked, you know it would be a lot of work to reload your website or create a new one from scratch which is why it is important to make sure your social media and website are safe and secure. The best defense is a great offense, right? Here's what you need to do: -- Passwords, or should I say passphrases . Yes, passwords are a pain in the ass, but they are one of the most important things to keep your online accounts safe. If you're using a web-based website design tool for your website Anyone can get access to the login screen. All it takes is a bot or a clever hacker to figure out that easy to guess the password and they are in and can do whatever they want. Same thing if you have a business account set up on social media. Quit using passwords and switch to passphrases which are a sentence-like string of words used for security that is longer than your traditional password. They are easy to remember and difficult to crack. -- Do the Two-Step With Two Factor Authentication . With all online accounts, you need to enable 2FA or Two Factor Authentication. Let's say you get a criminal tries to log in to your website with your password, you'll get an alert via text or email asking if you're the one logging in. If you're not, you're given the opportunity to deny the login and change your password. Guaranteed to keep your accounts safe. -- If you love your website, go ahead and back that thang up . Web-based designed websites are hard to back up because you're normally relying on the host to back it up for you. Never just rely on one source. Although you can't always download that site to your computer or a thumb drive, there are several things you can do to keep a record. Take photos of it. It may sound dumb, but photos will at least help you keep a record of how the website was laid out. If you have to recreate it, you have a good jumping-off point. Go to the Internet Wayback Machine. The Internet Wayback Machine is a website run by a non-profit. T his site keeps a large amount of the records for websites. If a last-ditch effort is needed for you to look at a visual of your damaged site, go to https://web.archive.org/ . -- Check out Your Plugins and update that Software Regularly . You won't have to do with most internet-designed websites, but sites like WordPress need to be updated to have plugins updated regularly. These programs can enhance the look and feel of your website, but you want to update them. Outdated plugins can be a gateway for a criminal to gain access to your website. -- Just let someone do it . Yes, being able to assemble your own website can save a lot of costs, but if you let someone design and host your website, it will take a lot of stress out of creating and protecting your site. Before you turn your website over to anyone, there are some things you need to check out: What tool are they using to design your website? If you're hiring a company to design your website and they are using an internet-based web design tool, make sure they are taking all the precautions needed to keep your site safe. If they are creating the website from scratch using HTML find out how they are going to host the website. Will they continually support you? If someone is hosting and designing your website, what type of support are you going to get after the website is up and live. Will you have to pay a monthly fee for support? You need to have a plan in place if no support is involved I hope you can use these tips to prevent your website and business social media site from being hacked by hackers. If you need further assistance, please reach out to In Sync Web Design with any questions you might have. Amy Kesler is always happy to help! Looking for More Useful Tech Tips? Integral's Tuesday Tech Tips Blog is released every Tuesday. If you like video tips, they LIVE STREAM new episodes of 'Computer and Tech Tips for Non-Tech People' every Wednesday at 1:00 pm CST on Facebook , Instagram , LinkedIn , and Twitter . Technology product reviews are posted every Thursday. You can view previous episodes on our YouTube channel.

Aug 8, 2021

How to Spot Fake Reviews Before You Buy

Online marketplaces are cracking down, but a little due diligence on your part goes a long way We've heard the term “fake news” quite a bit recently, but another big problem in the age of misinformation is fake reviews — and it's one that can hit you right in the wallet. Discerning whether online reviews are legitimate can be tough. Consumer Reports found that 74 percent of Americans read online reviews before making purchase decisions “at least sometimes,” according to a 2020 national survey. But 76 percent of those surveyed said they thought they had encountered fake reviews in the process. To help combat fake reviews, Consumer Reports recently introduced CR Recommended , a program designed to showcase the organization's objective product recommendations at the point of purchase. Whether shoppers are online or in a store, they may see a CR Recommended certification that guarantees the product meets the organization's strict criteria for performance, reliability and other variables — including safety, if it's a vehicle.

Jul 10, 2020

Inexpensive Ways to Point Visitors to Your Website

Being able to get more traffic to your web site without investing a lot of money is what any Internet business strives towards. The basics will be covered here and followed by other focused ways to get traffic to your site. Not many people know that there are ways of attracting visitors to your website without spending a lot of cash. But keep in mind that it is not simple and it takes more work then you think. So, if you don't mind working to get traffic to your website, then here are a few simple tips in which to accomplish that: 1. Consider article directories which is one of the great ways to create backlinks to your website. It is also a valuable way of pointing traffic to your website. When you write and submit articles with a topic associated to your web site, you are creating a way to almost guarantee getting visitors to your website over a long period of time. Keep your articles in the online directories that you submit them to, so people can easily find them. This is will result in receiving a substantial amount of traffic to your website. Blogger.com and Ezinearticles.com are the two largest directories in which to submit your articles. 2. Search Engine Optimization is a method that you place on your pages to improve your ranking in the search engines. Search engine optimization is not difficult to grasp. There are also several software programs that can assist you with SEO. In order to determine the theme of your site, search engines utilize the web page meta tags. Here are a few key considerations when applying meta tags: a) The keyword should be in your domain name. b) The keyword should be included in the title tag on each page of your site. c) The first paragraph of your page should contain the keyword. d) The keyword should be included in your image alt tags. e) The keyword should also be in the file names of each page. f) The directory of your site should contain the keyword. 3. Backlinks are needed. As previously stated, the use of backlinks in posts at Blogger.com are gladly indexed by Google and other search engines. When you update your blog with more posts, you are encouraging the search engines to crawl your website over and over. They sense when you put new content out there, then their search engine spiders come crawling. It's very important to put your keywords in the content of your pages. As a result, it will help you rank higher in search engines such as Google. Your site gets updated and indexed more often when you place a keyword link in your blog back to a page on your website. So when you blog, it's one more way to easily add you website page links to the search engine index. This will increase your chance of being found in a keyword search. 4. Forum posts relevant to your topic gives you the change to put your links to your services and/or products in the signature line. Then visitors from the forum will follow your link back to your website. Make your forum signatures memorable to capture readers attention and make them want to click on your the relevant link and come to your website. These marketing methods are cheap and simple ways of driving visitors to your website. When you implement these strategies on a consistent basis, you will create a continuous flow of traffic not just for a brief period but for the long haul.

Jun 4, 2019

Things to Consider When Seeking New Clients

120 Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0in; mso-para-margin-right:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:8.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0in; line-height:107%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} Your first contact with a prospective client will set the tone for everything you do later. It will take longer for your prospects to know, like and trust you in order to do business with you if the right tone isn't created up front. Prospects will more likely buy from you when you make your first communications all about their needs. Once this is accomplished, they should be more open to any offer you give them. In the world of marketing, no one approaches it this way. Make it all about them. If someone views something is their reality, it's because they believe it is their truth. Therefore, isn’t to your advantage to “steer” (as much as possible) what your prospects believe to be the truth? When you portray yourself the way you want someone to perceive you, you can mostly control how people react to you. In order to get your prospects to respond to you in a positive way, it's more important to give them a reason to respond by showing them what they want without thinking about what you want. Remember, people care about themselves first because they are predictably selfish. Unfortunately, many people decide what someone is all about by simply looking at them. Meanwhile, other people truly believe that their self image is the only one that counts. That is because people tend to see other people as how they intentionally present themselves to them. Here is a real-life example. An acquaintance was on his way home one night and stopped to get gas. He wanted to use his bank card at the ATM inside because he realized that he didn't have his credit card with him. He walked up and introduced himself to the attendant inside. He then asked the man behind the counter that was approximately 5’ 4” if he could come in and use the ATM. IMPORTANT NOTE: My friend gave the gas attendant what he wanted before expecting what he himself wanted because my friend knew that people care about their own needs first before thinking about someone else's needs, My friend needed to use the ATM inside the store. But more importantly, the attendant needed to know that my friend didn't pose as a physical threat. Because my friend purposely projected himself in a non-threatening manner, this allowed the attendant to judge my friend as someone he could trust. My friend realized that how he projected himself was in a manner of how he wanted the man to think of him. It was completely understandable if the attendant had not opened the door. Because the attendant did and as my friend entered, the attendant considered two things: 1. He felt it was alright because my friend didn't look like someone that is going to warm him. Actually, the attendant didn’t have any reason to make that assumption. It's because of the way my friend presented himself made his intentions clear before asking for what he wanted. 2. The second thing is that as my friend walked in the door, another guy tried to walk into the store with him. The attendant got mad at this second guy and told him to get out. Why would the gas attendant let my friend in but not the other guy? Even though they were both the same height and trying to get into the store, my friend got in and the other guy had to leave. IMPORTANT NOTE: The attendant had nothing to base his opinion that my friend was not going to harm him, other than my friend's ability to give the impression that he wasn’t going to rob him. Do you understand this example and how is relates to creating a trusting relationship with your prospects (that don’t know you), in order to get them to buy from you? Prospect creates an opinion of you from the person/image you present to them. If you project a different image, like the vast majority of your competition does, you will be related to them even if you’re nothing like them. That is why it’s extremely important to make your intentions transparent from the get go. By doing things that your competition has not done or thought of doing is what will make you different. When you think "outside the box." you will make your competition look as though they are only thinking of what they want... not what their prospects need. If you haven’t made your intentions clear, prospects will think you are trying to “sell” them. IMPORTANT NOTE: Did you notice the number of times I used the word “because” so far? Some of that is natural but a lot of where the word was used was to (shut your brain off) get you to instantly accept what I said before it. I am purposely guiding you and not giving your brain a chance to question what I am saying. I told you A is true because of B, instead of just saying A is true. If I had just said A is true, then you would be thinking whether it really was true. But when I say A is true because of a reason, people will most likely accept whatever answer you give them, even if it doesn’t really make sense to them at the time. You don’t want to leave gaps in what you are saying because people will try to figure it out themselves. That’s how the brain operates. It fills in the gaps between. If you can get people to believe your intentions, you can get them to do things for you they wouldn’t do for anyone else. Using my example, my friend introduced himself and made it clear to the gas attendant what his intentions were having given the attendant a “because” reason. The other guy simply tried to walk in behind him and wasn’t thinking about the attendant’s need to feel secure. That is why the attendant didn’t let him in. This need to feel secure applies to all situations in life. People are conditioned to believe that there is a catch when receiving free information. Making your intentions clear is very important when communicating in order to make someone comfortable enough to let you in their world. There is a lot of people out there teaching you how to build your warm contact list but never teach you what to do with it. You want everyone who signs up on your list to at least read the first email you send. Therefore, this first email is extremely important because it sets the tone of who you are and your intentions. You want to present yourself in the best way possible. You don’t want them to draw their own conclusions about you because this is almost never good. It’s critical to create a positive atmosphere for your prospective clients. Tell them why they should stay subscribed and make them want to listen to what you have to say. That’s why my friend projected himself as someone the attendant could feel comfortable about unlocking the door for. How people see you has to do with the type of person you present for them to see. What can you do to change how people perceive you? 1. Take an honest look and ask yourself. Are you perceived as a person that is worth listening to and buying from? You need to project yourself as someone who your prospective clients can look to for guidance, support and answers in achieving their goals. Typically, people only care about their goals and people who want to help them reach their goals. That’s why it’s very important to give them the best information you can. 2. Take a good look at your surroundings. You need to remove yourself from your competition and show your prospects that you are different from the average marketer that only cares about themselves. You only get noticed if you do what others aren’t doing. If not, why would prospective clients pay any attention to you? You need to research what your competitors are doing so you can see how to make yourself stand out from them. Unlike your competition, you want your prospects to see that you are making an honest effort to connect with them. 3. Figure out what your readers want. It’s important to know that people are dedicated to people who are dedicated to them. You need to be willing to do something for your prospects if you want them to do something for you. Most often, you will have to be the one to initiate the business relationship. Keep in mind that it’s about serving your readers and not trying to get them to buy from you. They will only buy if they feel like you’ve first done a good job of identifying their needs. When you fill your prospect’s needs, you won’t have any trouble making as much money as you want.

Aug 21, 2018

Keep Hackers from Screwing up Your Site

120 Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; line-height:12.0pt; mso-line-height-rule:exactly; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} If you have a WordPress (WP) site, then you especially need to know how to keep your website safe from hackers. Because WP is an open-source platform, there is no built-in security without knowing the steps you can take. Hackers are called “black hatters” (the bad guys) and for good reason. It’s because they used to be “white hat” users (the good guys) and now know all the ways to mess up your website and even take it down. They do this by taking advantage of all the back doors and weaknesses that naturally exist in WP. Without being aware of all the loopholes in WP yourself, sooner or later you will become victim to these hacker’s dastardly tactics. Here are just some of the most common things hackers can do after they get access to the back end of your website: · uploading malicious code to your server · adding users with administrative access to your WP database · modifying files already on the server · redirecting your users to malware sites To keep from having this unpleasant experience, I will talk about why hackers focus so much on WordPress websites and what you can do to protect yourself. One reason it is easy for hackers to gain access to the back end of WP sites is that a large majority of the websites use “admin” as the username, which can be accessed through either /wp-admin or /wp-login.php. This may not seem important, but it means WP put out a welcome mat for hackers to get halfway through your front door. At this point, all a hacker will need is your password. The more experienced hackers don’t just try to guess your password. They use malicious bots that are written to exploit known weaknesses in your website. This is much faster and more effective than trying to guess the password. One of the most popular features of WP is the use of plugins. They are built-in apps (i.e., shopping carts, contact forms, etc.) that are a low-cost means to easily add various features to your site. But they are also one of the biggest WordPress security risks. Plugins help you save time and money because you don’t have to hire someone to create custom code, but you are also at the mercy of the plugin developers. Plugins require constant updates on an on-going basis. If you don’t stay on top of these updates regularly (or if the developer of the plugin doesn’t issue updates regularly) your website will become outdated very quickly. This will cause the core WP software and plugins to become incompatible over time and cause a security risk to your website. Because WordPress is built with open-source software, there are other risks involved. WP publicizes changes and additional security measures made with each release. So, besides every new release being easily accessible to your web developer, it is also available to hackers. Although no one can see the exact code changes in the update, anyone with coding experience can read the public information and identify weaknesses that were addressed in the newest release. Therefore, they will know exactly what to target in websites that have not updated to the newest version of the software and plugins. Ways to Prevent Hacks Use strong passwords – Make sure your password is at least 10 characters long or more. Use capital/lower case letters, numbers and symbols, but don’t use the @ sign. This can sometimes be translated as an email address. You can use the strong password suggestion in WP when setting up a user account. You can also go here to test your password strength ( https://www.betterbuys.com/estimating-password-cracking-times/) . Then be sure to store this sign on information somewhere safe. Don’t login to your WP website on public networks – This is another opportunity for hackers to access your website and server. If you have no choice, be sure to use a Virtual Private Network (VPN). This will encrypt your traffic. Keep core WP themes and plugins up to date – I highly recommend using Wordfence ( https://www.wordfence.com/ ) to add a firewall and malware scan to your website. Another good one is WP Shield Security ( https://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-simple-firewall/ ). You will have to upgrade to their Pro version to take advantage of the full protection. Also, be sure to choose themes and plugins that provide continued support. In the back end you can see the last time they were updated. Anything not updated in the last 5 or 6 months, you might want to avoid. But you can also try to contact the developer asking if there will be an update soon. Delete all unused files – Leaving these on your server can offer more opportunities for a hacker to cause havoc. Make sure you have an SSL certificate – Google now requires this for your site to be considered safe. If you don’t have an SSL certificate, it will also affect your Google rankings. You will definitely need an SSL certificate if your collect personal information (via contact form) or credit card information (through shopping cart) on your website. Ongoing ways to monitor your website – Using either Wordfence or WP Shield Security are very helpful in maintaining security on your website. Other ways to check for any issues is by checking the error_log or .htaccess file in your server cPanel > File Manager. Be sure to backup all your site files and database – This should be done on a regular basis. It should be done a minimum of once a month. It should certainly be done after each time you update the theme and/or plugins. Then you should keep at least the last two backups in a safe place (Dropbox, FTP, etc.). I know this is a lot of information at one time. I hope it helps those that can implement these procedures themselves. For those who simply wanted a website and find this all overwhelming, you will need to hire a professional WordPress security expert to maintain and keep your website secure.

Apr 20, 2018

How to Avoid Costly Mistakes When Designing a Website

There are lots of factors to consider when designing a website. It depends on what your purpose is for creating a website.

Jan 16, 2018

5 Reasons Why Good Content is Critical for Your Website

Good website content keeps people coming back for more. Conveys a clear message and lends credibility. If you want to incite action, use good website content.

Dec 28, 2017

10 Reasons Why You Should Love Blogging

Blogging a great way to get recognized within your community and share your voice... good for seo... it brings people back to your site... and it's free (if you do it yourself).

Aug 30, 2017

Maximum Exposure on Low Cost Internet Ads

Ad media plays great role in determining the success of product or service awareness.