Three Ways to Safe Guard Your Website

March 19, 2008

After the events of the last few weeks I wanted to put together a list of things that can help you get your business back on track faster when your website goes down, your database crashes or any number of other things that could happen when the “lights go out”.

Backup your Website and Database on a regular basis – I say this because many people and companies do not backup there website as it changes and goes. Most companies do not remember this and when the stuff hits the fan it is too late because most times your web hosting provider doesn’t backup your website on a regular basis if at all.
Auto Renew your Domain Name – You don’t want to get caught when your domain name is attached to all that your business is online, all the SEO, the web development, the analytics and everything becomes meaningless because you forgot your domain name was expiring and someone else buys it up.
Keep notes about everything you’ve done for your online business – Retracing the steps you’ve taken over a year to get your website to where it is can be very tough to say the least. Keep notes of when you’ve made changes and back it up to a disk because you never know when that is going to come in handy and save your butt.

I hope that these tips help you to avert a disaster with your online business and good luck safe guarding your website from the elements.

Luc

Posted by Lucas | Filed Under General, Web Design Resources, Web Development | Leave a Comment

How Do SEO, Web Design, Web Development Web Analytics and Web Intelligence work together?

March 18, 2008

You hear a lot about SEO (Search Engine Optimization), Web Design, Web Development, Web Analytics and a little bit even about Web Intelligence. But how do they all work together to improve your business?

Web Property (aka ‘Presence’) Management – Similar to the idea of property management that real estate companies use. This where all things related to your web site, web store, portal and anything “web” begins. Keep in mind this is a simplified article that discusses how all these practices work together
Web Design and Web Development – These two terms go hand in hand in the world of the web. Web Design is the initial creation of an online presence whereas web development is the ongoing development of that online presence. Before you can have SEO and web analytics to drive web intelligence you must first have a website.
Search Engine Optimization – After the site is built you usually need search engines to pick it up, index it and rank it and continue to do this. This is also related to search engine marketing (aka SEM)
Web Analytics – Once you have the site optimized and running you can then start to track your visitors. Many people track visitors simply based on click stream analysis (the process of measuring a site’s worth in clicks) but lately organizations and individuals are moving away from this form of measure because it is not effective in understanding the needs of your customers online and it offers no insight into customer’s activities and behaviours.
Web “Business” Intelligence – Lastly, Web Intelligence allows you to then make improvements actionable for future business decision making by analysing trends on your web property to improve and drive the success of the online business.

This general overview of how SEO, Web Design, Web Development, Web Analytics and Web Intelligence work together should give you an understanding of where you are at in the development process and what you should think about as you progress and your web presence develops more and more into a long term business system or sales channel for your operations.

Luc

Posted by Lucas | Filed Under General, SEO / SEM, Site Optimization, Web Analytics, Web Design Resources, Web Development, Web Intelligence, Website Usability | 1 Comment

Hiring a Web Design Company in the Greater Toronto, Ontario Area

February 25, 2008

I figured that since I am based out of the Greater Toronto area it was about time to start letting the world (and you) know it. Now there area a number of things that you should consider when choosing to work with a web development company and personally I believe the biggest is “Location, location, location”.

Why is the location of your Web Development firm important?

Let’s say that you need changes done to your website, you are in the Toronto area and your web developer is in India. You have to ask the question “How much is this going to cost me having to talk to someone in India and what are the results going to be like?”

If you have a business then you know how important your time is so naturally having a partner that understands your business and is willing to help you long term and is located locally (like in the GTA) is very important. You may pay more for it but the benefit is having someone local that understands your online business.

Because PureWebAnalytics.com is based in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA for short) naturally there benefits to hiring us to help you with the online portion of your business.

Luc Arnold
President
PureWebAnalytics.com - A Greater Toronto Area Web Design Company

Posted by Lucas | Filed Under General, PureWebAnalytics News, Web Development | Leave a Comment

Where do I add my Google Analytics Tracking code on a WordPress Site?

January 31, 2008

If your website is built using a package like WordPress, Joomla/Mambo, Durpal or anyone of a number of other pre-built CMS-type applications then I am that there may be a little confusion as to where the tracking code goes. The confusion exists because the PHP modules that WordPress uses form a complete page. For instance let’s say that the main page of your WordPress is constructed from a Header PHP object, Page Template PHP object and a Footer PHP object (all included in the WordPress Package available from WordPress.org) it is easy to get confused as to just where the code goes. On the Google Analytics Help site it asks you to install the code just before the end of the </body> tag. Here is an example as to what that looks like in WordPress…

<div id=”footer”>

Your Footer Code

<?php wp_footer(); ?>

<!– Start of Google Analytics GA.JS Tracking Code –>

<script type=”text/javascript”>

var gaJsHost = ((”https:” == document.location.protocol) ? “https://ssl.” : “http://www.”);

document.write(unescape(”%3Cscript src=’” + gaJsHost + “google-analytics.com/ga.js’ type=’text/javascript’%3E%3C/script%3E”));

</script>

<script type=”text/javascript”>

var pageTracker = _gat._getTracker(”UA-XXXXXXX-X”);

pageTracker._initData();

pageTracker._trackPageview();

</script>

<!– End of Google Analytics GA.JS Tracking Code –>

</body>

</html>

Keep in mind that Joomla/Mambo, Durpal and other website package deployment tools are different but if you run into any issues please post a question and we’ll get back to you with an answer.

Luc

Posted by Lucas | Filed Under General, Google Analytics, Tips, Tricks and Tools, Web Analytics, Web Design Resources, Web Development | 2 Comments

Installing & Configuring WordPress

January 24, 2008

As I wrote about yesterday WordPress is a great site development & management tool that most people who setup a website should consider as an option. Now I myself have been a big supporter of WordPress for the past few years. Having products like WordPress in the marketplace that have large developer bases help people enter the era of online business development.

I remember a few years ago when the options were limited and you had to know a good amount of code to produce a decent website and now it couldn’t be further from the true, thanks in part to Blogging but also the development of CMS systems as a whole. I can only imagine what the next 10 years will look like.

Installing WordPress is as easy as 1 2 3!

All you need to install WordPress is a Linux/Unix based server, access to mySQL database technology and the will to try something non-windows related.

Unzip the package you download from WordPress.org
Create a mySQL database on your web server and modify the privileges for accessing it
Rename the file “wp-config-sample.php” to “wp-config.php” and change the following lines of code in your “wp-config.php” file to match you’re mySQL database settings

// ** MySQL settings ** //

define(’DB_NAME’, ‘putyourdbnamehere‘); // The name of the database

define(’DB_USER’, ‘usernamehere‘); // Your MySQL username

define(’DB_PASSWORD’, ‘yourpasswordhere‘); // …and password

define(’DB_HOST’, ‘localhost‘); // 99% chance you won’t need to change this value

define(’DB_CHARSET’, ‘utf8′);

define(’DB_COLLATE’, ”);

After you edit the “wp-config.php” page you will need to upload it to your website.
Lastly you will need to the “/wp-admin/install.php” script by entering it into your browser using the following path “http://www.yourwebsite.com/wp-admin/install.php”.

Your website should be ready to rock and roll after that in no time flat! Enjoy your newly installed WordPress CMS System and if you have any issues doing the install post them here.

Luc

Fellow WordPress’er

Posted by Lucas | Filed Under General, Web Design Resources, Web Development | Leave a Comment

« Previous Page — Next Page »