How can I speed up my site?

It might help to imagine a website as if it were a car. To maximize a car’s performance, one must tune, clean, test, service, upgrade, and maintain it over time. The same goes for a website. Bluehost may maintain the best hardware in the industry, but the software underlying each and every website requires just as much attention and long-term care to ensure peak performance.

Here are some tips to keep your website lean and mean:

1. Disable and remove unnecessary or unused software. This can include superfluous plugins, old themes, wasted add-ons, and other extra features that are just sitting there, unused. Often these elements clog your software in ways you can’t see and slow things down. The basic rule of thumb: if you’re not using it, get rid of it!
2. Upload images in a size appropriate for the WEB. Images are one of the largest drains on website load times. Try to limit the amount of images you have on your website. When you do use imagery, make sure it is exported to the exact dimensions for the space it occupies and no larger. Also, compress images as much as possible without sacrificing image quality. There are countless free utilities online that do this.
3. Install a caching plugin.  Caching is a process in which static HTML files of your website are created and given to visitors behind the scenes. Then when visitors come again to your site, any dynamic content (e.g. images) loads faster because the static material is already there, ready and waiting. If your site is a WordPress site, we recommend a plugin like WP Super Cache. You can also check out our Bluehost Help Center article about WordPress caching plugins for detailed instructions.
4. Activate CloudFlare. CloudFlare is a fantastic caching tool for all websites – especially those that for one reason or another cannot utilize a caching plugin. CloudFlare maintains a cache of particular files from your website, typically those that are traditionally problematic or require longer load times. It then stores this information on various servers all over the world. This effectively places your website closer visitors, making it load faster. With your Bluehost account, you can enable CloudFlare on your site for free! Check out our Bluehost Help Center article for further details.

These are just a few ways to quickly and easily speed up your site. You can further examine how your website is performing by using a site like GTmetrix. Services like these sometimes even offer insight as to what particular website elements need to be optimized!

When your website is tuned and running well, more of your server resources can be devoted to serving actual traffic and visitors, instead of doing heavy lifting with slow, heavy, sluggish website software. Make sure to keep your website lean and mean and you’ll be guaranteed to have more success!

If you need help with any of these steps, you can always contact our Bluehost Help Center by calling us 24/7 at 888.401.4678 or through 24/7 live chat. Don’t miss our next post that will explain the difference between various types of domain settings.

How do I backup my website?

One of the most important things you can do is make sure all of your data and content is regularly backed up. Websites take a lot of time, energy, and even money to develop, so you want to make sure your investment is protected. Most Bluehost customers seem to understand this, as they frequently call in asking how to best ensure a proper backup of their websites.

First, some good news: At Bluehost, we perform complimentary backups of your entire account data on a monthly, weekly, and even daily basis! So you can rest assured your data is protected against loss. Should you ever need or want a prior version of your files, here’s how to access and restore these automated backups.

Access system backups with these simple steps:

1. Log into your Bluehost control panel.
2. Go to the “Files” section and select “Site Backup and Restore.”
3. Select from the list which aspect of your website you wish to backup or restore.
4. Choose which system backup or restore option you prefer, either a daily, weekly, or monthly version.
5. From the download window, select a format in which to save your backup and click “Start Archiving”.

These automated backups can serve as a great safety net against loss. But to truly protect your data, you should perform regular manual backups, particularly after any significant work has been done on your account. Fortunately creating a manual backup is simple. Here’s how to do it:

Create your own backup with these simple steps:

First, if you are using a CMS, blog, or eCommerce platform, make sure you create a backup of your database.

1. Log into your Bluehost control panel and open the phpMyAdmin tool.
2. Identify the relevant database on the left-hand side.
3. Select the “Export” tab.
4. Make sure the format is “SQL”
5. Click “Go.”
6. Once the download is complete, save your exported files in a safe place, such as an external hard drive or cloud storage solution.

Once you’ve backed up any important databases, the final step involves backing up any website content.

1. Create an FTP account from your Bluehost control panel if you don’t already have one.
2. Open your preferred FTP program (e.g. Filezilla or Cyberduck) and connect to your account with your FTP information.
3. Download all your website files.
4. Save your files in a safe place, perhaps along with your saved database files.

Backing up files is one of the most important aspects to building and maintaining a successful website. Unfortunately, not many people take a proactive role in this process. Because Bluehost makes automated backups regularly, this helps spare a lot of customers who didn’t know better a lot of grief. But just the same, now that you know how to create your own backups, make sure you do so!

And if you ever need help backing up your site, visit the Bluehost Help Center for detailed instructions, or just give our support team a call 24/7 at 888.401.4678. Stay tuned for our next post about how to speed up a slow website!

With over 2.2 billion people online, the internet has revolutionized how we find and share information. The online world is moving at a rapid pace and doesn’t show any signs of slowing. For businesses, a web presence has become a fundamental part of success. But why is a presence on the web so important? How significant is the impact of being online? We’re glad you asked.

After several years with Fidelity Investments, in 1996 Richard Sexton decided to step away from the corporate world and follow his passion by opening Himal Home Gallery, a local home furnishings store in his hometown of North Carolina.

“I didn’t have any experience in running a retail operation. [The] learning curve had its fair share of mistakes,” Sexton said. “Going online early and choosing to use Google products were some of the better moves.”

During the ‘90s, no one knew for certain if there was a place for small businesses online or if they could find success there. But Sexton took the chance and launched a website for Himal Home Gallery.  The online presence gave Sexton’s small business a great deal of attention and the small shop took off. In 2000, Sexton relaunched the furniture store as Carolina Rustica, focusing primarily on wrought-iron furniture, their best selling item.

“We started with a small 500 square-foot booth in an antique mall and now our gallery is almost 20,000 square feet,” Sexton said. “Through the web, we could reach a much larger audience, and we began to invest in marketing activities that could connect us with us potential customers. I am very happy with the results. Our sales have increased 50% year on year.”

Carolina Rustica is just one of the many small businesses that found great success establishing an online presence.  But can their model apply to other business types? Can business that don’t sell products online still find a success with a website? Is having a business website really that important?

Yes, absolutely.

Never before has the world been able to connect across the globe and interact so easily. Think about the last time you needed to know something, anything — chances are you went to look it up online. The Internet has completely changed the way we live and how we gather information. Not only is it now our primary source of information, but it has revolutionized the way businesses operate and communicate with customers.

Websites and the online tools that promote them should be the focal point of all advertising and marketing for all businesses, big or small. Here’s why:

Because people are online. If you’re looking for an audience, more customers, or people to influence, the web is where your business needs to be. With over 78% of adult Americans using the Internet and an astounding 2.2 billion people online worldwide, it’s no surprise that small businesses with websites experience an average of 39% greater revenue per year than those without websites, according to the Small Business Administration.

But what if my consumers aren’t online? At Bluehost, we get asked this question all the time.  For example, sometimes our clients refer to their consumers from an older demographic. We always tell them that they would be surprised at the amount of adults over 50 using the Internet.

When Roy Williams (business guru and New York Times bestselling author of “Secret Formulas of the Wizard of Ads”) was giving the keynote at a trades conference in Las Vegas, the chairman of the organization asked him to avoid mentioning the Internet because nearly all their 1,600 members were over the age of 55. Surprised by his request, Williams decided to start the talk by asking the crowd, “How many of you have used a search engine within the past seven days to research a product or service you were considering purchasing?” Almost instantly, over 95 percent of the members raised their hands.

A personal example: My gramps is an old-fashioned man who frankly didn’t care for computers until after he retired in 2002. But now at 70, he can’t get enough of his iPad or sharing vacation pictures with his friends on Facebook. (Yes, that’s right, my gramps is on Facebook with his friends). When I asked him why he changed his mind about the Internet, he simply said, “It’s convenient. That’s where everybody and everything is. It’s the fastest way to do or find or share anything.”

Your consumers are online, trust us.

Because it establishes credibility. When consumers can’t find a company online it raises a red flag. Does this company really exist? Can I trust them? Are they trying to scam me? People are more skeptical than ever.  Even when consumers don’t purchase online, they research and look online before they buy. In fact, 58 percent of global online consumers said they more likely to trust a company with “owned media,” such as a company with a website, versus one who doesn’t (Nielsen Advertising Survey, 2012).

When you have a good website, it gives people a peace of mind about your business. Whether you’re selling a product or service, or simply providing information, it’s important for your business to have a web presence in order to establish credibility.

Because it’s a great way to build your brand. A website lets you brand your business like never before. Websites give you unlimited freedom to determine how your business looks to your customers. Websites are flexible and can grow as yours business evolves, and they also allow your business to be available around the clock, even during off business hours. Add to this that websites are one of the most cost-effective tools available and it’s obvious why so many businesses now leverage a website.

Business branding through the web will help you develop a stronger reputation to millions around the world. Potential customers will be able to research your business and find good reviews about the product or service you provide. In fact, consumers say they trust online consumer reviews second from personal recommendations (Nielsen Advertising Survey, 2012). Think of your website as an extension of your sales staff, helping you nurture and generate leads by educating people on your products or services.

Because it is the best way to engage with prospective customers. Word of mouth has and always will be the most trusted form of advertisement. 92 percent of consumers around the world say they trust earned media, such as word-of-mouth and recommendations from friends and family, above all other forms of advertising (Nielsen Advertising Survey 2012).

With a website, you make it easy for consumers to share your business. With a simple link, they can instantly access all your business information. And with social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook, it’s now even easier for people the to share things they love or recommend. When you have a website, you give these recommendations a place to go. Websites serves as central place for potential customers to learn more about why your business is so great.

We’re here to help you be successful. A website is the foundation for a web presence, which is the first step to making your business successful. The task may seem a bit daunting, but we’re here to help guide you through the entire process.  At Bluehost, we want you to be successful, so we work hard to give you all the tools you need. Throughout the next couple months, we’ll be going over, step-by-step, the entire process of building a website and establishing a strong web presence for your business. From layout to design, creating content, measuring analytics, to learning about different promotional tools, etc., we’re here to help you every step of the way!

Tiffany
Bluehost

To best address your needs, Bluehost provides various SSL certificates featuring different levels of protection. Protect your visitors and give them confidence that your website is secure. Learn more about Bluehost’s SSL certificate options by visiting the “Upgrades” tab in your Bluehost control panel.

The average Web user maintains 25 separate accounts but uses just 6.5 passwords to protect them, according to a landmark study (PDF) from 2007. As the Gawker breach demonstrated, such password reuse, combined with the frequent use of e-mail addresses as user names, means that once hackers have plucked login credentials from one site, they often have the means to compromise dozens of other accounts, too.

To read more about Goodin’s findings and his suggestions for good password practices, check out his full article here.

By now we all know the importance of security when it comes to a website or blog. Attacks and viruses quickly cause visitors to question the legitimacy of your site, hurting your reputation and undoing much of your hard work. Here at Bluehost, our customers often ask us how to help increase security on their WordPress websites and blogs. While there are many great tools available, one great plugin we recommend is called Wordfence.

Available in both free and premium versions, Wordfence is a full-fledged security plugin. It dates back to the TimThumb vulnerability in 2011. After author Mark Maunder had his personal blog hacked via TimThumb, he wanted to find a way to help prevent other WordPress users from suffering his same fate. Maunder teamed up with TimThumb to close the security vulnerability and to create Wordfence to improve WordPress site security overall.

Wordfence includes the following features:

• WordPress core file integrity verification and repair.
• Malware, virus, and backdoor scanning.
• Scanning for known malware URL’s in all your files, comments, pages and posts.
• A firewall that includes rate limiting, blocking fake Google crawlers, IP whitelisting and IP blocking.
• Real-time traffic that includes Google Crawlers, RSS feed readers and all other crawlers and bots. (Google Analytics does not include this data.)
• Commercial grade geolocation for your real-time traffic.
• Email alerts of warnings and critical problems.
• Brute force hacking protection.
• Active support forum and email support for paid customers.
• Many other features, such as WordPress version hiding, password strength verification, comment impersonation protection.

To keep your site running quickly, Wordfence will offload CPU and memory intensive tasks to the Wordfence cloud scanning servers, powered by Feedjit Inc. For example, rather than store large data structures in memory, Wordfence sends data in secure compressed packets to it’s scanning servers as your security scans run. This reduces your memory usage and keeps your site running fast and secure.

Click here to learn more about Wordfence and how to install it. And stay tuned for more recommendations about how to increase security on your WordPress website!

The PRO package allows you to bundle together the most popular premium features for a savings of over $200. In addition, your site is instantly migrated to our exclusive pro servers, which not only feature supercharged hardware, but also support less users. This empowers your account to automatically access and utilize more CPU, IO, and memory.

Give your site an extra boost with our PRO package. Simply visit the “Upgrades” tab in your Bluehost control panel.

However, for those seeking more powerful options with added flexibility, we offer Site Back-up & Restore PRO.  This lets you back up specific files/folders, databases/tables, specific emails, and more! To enable and utilize this powerful tool, simply visit the “Upgrades” tab in your Bluehost control panel.

For the next couple of weeks, we’ll be doing a series of posts about different WordPress plugins and how they can help enhance your website or blog. The first type of plugin we’ll examine: webpage sliders.

Chances are you’ve been to at least one (if not several) websites that feature sliders. They usually occupy the top section of a website, and present large images and bits of information that rotate automatically. Think of them as billboards for a website. They’ve become popular among professional websites and blog sites alike.  Sliders not only aesthetically draw in visitors, but provide a powerful medium with which to share information.

If you were to create a slider on your own, the task would be daunting. There’s typically a great amount of coding involved in creating good sliders. But with a WordPress plugin, you’re just a few clicks away from featuring a professional, elegant slider right on your website. Most slider plugins require no coding at all!

There are several hundred slider plugins out there to choose from and it can feel a bit overwhelming when trying to decide which best fits your needs. So to help, we’ve provided a few recommendations here that address a range of needs.

Easing Slider

This is a beautiful, free, and easy-to-use plugin. It comes with multiple styling options, such as: image linking, pagination, next/previous buttons, three different shadow types, seven different types of preloading icons, padding and border settings, and lots more. Easing slider also comes in a pro version for those looking for a more unlimited tool. To see a demo of this slider in action, click here.

(image courtesy of http://www.easingslider.matthewruddy.com/)

Nivo Slider

Nivo is a sleek and powerful slider tool. It has easy-to-use features coupled with step-by-step video tutorials to help you every step of the way. Nivo comes on two platforms: jQuery for advanced web designers and the WordPress version for users who want to avoid the coding hassle.  It gives you the ability to create multiple sliders and makes editing them a breeze thanks to simple drag and drop features. Nivo also includes prebuilt themes and the option for full CSS personalization. One the most popular features from Nivo is their automatic cropping and sizing feature. If your image is too big or too small, don’t worry, Nivo will ensure that they come out perfectly in your slider. For a live demo of Nivo, click here.

(image courtesy of http://nivo.dev7studios.com/)

Content Slider by SlideDeck

This slider is focused to those looking for a slider featuring content.  Content Slider by SlideDeck is capable of incorporating various kinds of media, such as images, video, and audio. This content focused slider is available in both a Pro & Free “Light” version. As a WordPress plugin, Content Slider runs on a graphical interface, so don’t worry about coding. One bonus: all the content included on your sliders is completely indexable by search engines. View live demo of Content Slider by SlideDeck, click here.

(image courtesy of http://www.slidedeck.com/)

These are just a few of the many slide plugins available through WordPress. Hopefully these recommendation can help you find the best slider option to suit the needs of your website or blog. If you need more alternatives, you can find additional sliders plugins here. And if you have any sliders you would like to recommend, just name them in the comments.

Stay tuned for the next part of plugin series: photo galleries!

Tiffany
Bluehost

The Bluehost data center is the best in the business. While no system escapes the occasional problem, especially one with as many moving parts as a data center, our professional admin team is always on hand 24/7 to monitor our servers, replace and upgrade equipment, and ensure everything runs as smoothly as possible. But even when running perfectly, data loss still happens. The most common cause? Human error: people accidentally delete or overwrite existing files or emails.

Redundancy, Redundancy, Redundancy

Our internal backups can be super helpful when tragedy strikes, but the timing of these does not always capture the latest changes made to your website. That’s why we recommend you make your own personal backup every time you make significant changes to your site. And even if you aren’t often updating your website, regular monthly backups make it much easier to restore data if needed.

Here’s how to create backups of your files:

1. Login to your cPanel.
2. Scroll down to the ‘Files’ section and click the ‘Site Backup & Restore’ icon.
3. Select ‘Full cPanel Backup’.
4. Select the starting date from when you want to create a backup.
5. Select an archive type (.tar or .zip).
6. Download and Save the file.

It’s just that easy to create a reliable backup of your files right on your home computer for safe keeping. It just takes a few minutes to go through these steps and can help you avoid a lot of frustration and heartache. As always, call us if you have questions or need a hand!

One More Tip

Are you an advanced website builder? Lots of our clients prefer using more sophisticated backup tools. Our Site Backup & Restore Pro tool allows even more control when restoring and backing up files: you can elect to restore only individual files, only the files that have changed, or just databases and tables. Check it out!

Camille B.
Billing Manager