Cheap Windows Hosting Tutorial – Protect Your Website from Hackers NOW!!
CheapWindowsHosting.com | In this post I will share some tips to protect your website from hacker.
Even if you are running, a small website that you think will be of little interest to hackers, there is never any reason why you shouldn’t be taking the security of it seriously. Hackers use automated scripts to find holes and will exploit any vulnerability they can find on any website. Perhaps best known for defacing websites and stealing data, hackers more often than not are after your website or web hosting server for another purpose – to relay their spam emails or to host fake websites to steal data from unsuspecting end-users.
We’ve put together some tips that we think will contribute to a secure website and that you should follow so that you can be confident your website is protected.
Updating software regularly
Every now and then even the most popular and well-developed applications can be released with undiscovered security holes that could leave websites open to attack. However, it is also these applications that see the fastest security updates to make sure that these holes are patched as soon as possible and the potential for attack is neutralised. If you do happen to be using a particular version of an item of software on your website that has proven to be vulnerable then it is imperative that you update as soon as possible so that you don’t come under attack; updating on a regular basis also has the added advantage of providing access to the latest and best features.
Improved SQL queries
If an SQL query is being populated using data from a submitted form of a URL variable, then it has the potential to be used for the purpose of an SQL injection. An SQL injection attack could be used for a number of purposes as rogue statements can take all forms; a ‘SELECT’ statement could be used to reveal the contents of your customers table, an ‘UPDATE’ query could be used to update the admin password for more in-depth access, or a ‘DELETE’ query could wipe your tables completely. An SQL injection attack can be prevented with most scripting languages by using paramaterised queries instead.
Strip out HTML from submitted forms
Encoding and stripping any HTML out of form submissions can help to guard against XSS (cross-site scripting attacks). An XSS attack occurs when an attacker attempts to use a form to submit Javascript or other code to execute malicious code against the visitors on your website.
Don’t give away too much in your error messages
Although many people see error messages as a way of letting users know why they can’t do something, such as login, hackers can use the information provided by an error message to perform a more calculated attack on a website. If a malicious attacker was to perform a brute force attack on a login page for example, then mentioning common error messages such as “incorrect username” and “incorrect password” individually will let the attacker know that they’ve got half of the username/password combination right, whereas a message such as “incorrect username or password” when one may be right and the other may be wrong won’t give them any extra and potentially helpful information.
Validate form input
The input of any forms should be checked on both the server and client side. Web browsers can be used to pick up on simple mistakes like missing out a mandatory field or entering words in a field where only numbers are required. For a deeper analysis of the contents of a form, implementing server-side validation can detect potentially malicious attacks such as where an attacker has attempted to enter code to exploit a vulnerability.
Secure passwords
Nowadays it is now common sense to use secure passwords that use a combination of numbers, characters, and letters rather than just letters on their own. Brute force and dictionary attacks have proven to have a high success rate on cracking accounts where users have used simple and ineffective passwords including the word “password” itself; the only way to circumvent having your account details exposed because of a weak password by choosing something that isn’t in the dictionary. Web developers should include password strength indicators on their registration forms so that users have an idea as to just how strong their password is; including a random password generator is another recommended move and can be beneficial for users who aren’t really sure of how to compose their password.
Take a closer look at file uploads
No matter how you look at it, allowing your visitors to upload files to your website can post a massive security risk. There is always the off chance that a file could contain malicious code that can be executed on the server, regardless of the file extension being used. Because of this, all files need to be treated with equal suspicion.
The best solution for this is to prevent direct access to all uploaded files. Storing files in a directory outside of the actual web root or as a blob in a database means that there is no direct way of accessing them or executing them. You’re probably wondering how you can still serve them to your visitors though, but this can be pretty simple; just put together a script that will be able to fetch them from the database or private folder and then render them to your pages or in the browser by providing the appropriate content type.
Install an SSL certificate
An SSL certificate is a relatively cheap and simple way of giving your website a massive security boost. Ordinarily web traffic is unencrypted and web pages are sent as clear text across the Internet from the server to the visitor’s machine, where their web browser will then take the plain text HTML and render it as the intended design. However, this traffic is very unsecure and is open snooping; if a hacker were to eavesdrop on the connection they could easily see the pages that a target has been visiting and any submitted form information, which is the biggest issue since forms are often use for the input of personal information.
By installing an SSL certificate for your website, you will be removing this vulnerability by encrypting all traffic transferred between your website and your visitors’ computers. Any hacker who attempts to eavesdrop on an encrypted connection will only see garbled text that will be of no use to them, making SSL a vital investment for any website, and is pretty much mandatory for any website handling personal information.
There are several different options for purchasing an SSL certificate depending on how many domains you’d like to protect and the value of the warranty provided.
Cheap Windows Hosting – 10 Tips SEO Tutorial For Beginners in 2016
CheapWindowsHosting.com | Today we will learn about SEO. Do you know SEO? Nowdays almost people know about SEO, but there’s some people don’t know about that, so today we will tell you about SEO for beginner. Lets see it.
What is SEO?
Search Engine Optimisation ( SEO ) in 2016 is a technical, analytical and creative process to improve the visibility of a website in search engines, with the aim of driving more potential customers to it. SEO is the acronym for search engine optimisation. Search engine optimisation is the process of optimising your website and its content so that it can easily be indexed by search engines.
As a beginner to search engine optimization (SEO) you need to understand that there is no magic way to rank your web site in the first page of Google, Bing or Yahoo. Search engines are governed by complex algorithms and it takes a lot of effort to ‘convince’ them that your web site or page deserves one of the top spots.
Nevertheless, there are certain rules you can follow to optimize your web site and provide the bots with the necessary signals. While the web is floated with SEO tips and advice these are explained in a theoretical level and not how they can be applied in practice. In my opinion, this is why most web site owners are confused and they either give up with SEO or simply do not get the expected results.
1. Page Titles and description
Page titles
Page titles are a very important aspect of SEO and this is why it is first on the list. My findings the last couple of months show that page titles are more important than ever especially for Google SEO. Exact page titles for low volume keywords can give you a competitive advantage in search results but this is something I will discuss in another post. For now the most important characteristics of a page title are:
- Each page needs to have a unique page title that accurately describes the page’s content.
- Be brief and descriptive.
- Help the user understand what the page is about
Home page title: The title for your homepage can list the name of your website/business and could include other bits of important information like the physical location of the business or maybe a few of its main focuses or offerings. For example:
Post/other pages title:
Title of other posts/pages of your web site should accurately describe what the page is about and be attractive for the searcher.
Description
A page’s description meta tag is also very important. It gives users, Google and other search engines a summary of what the page is about. Google may choose to show what you type in the description as a snippets for your page or may decide to use a part of your page’s content. In other words it does not mean that what you write in the description will show in the snippet. The guidelines for writing a good description are:
- Always provide a unique description for all pages, post, products of your website.
- Keep the size between 150-160 characters.
- Avoid repeating the title in the description
- Don’t add too many keywords
- Try to use the description as a way to ‘advertise’ your page to the reader so that they click on your title and visit the page.
You can see from the examples above how I use the description tag for my pages.
2. Permanent link structure
The permanent link structure is a term used to describe the format of URLS for pages (categories/tags) or individual posts of a web site. It is shown in the browser address bar and in the search results (below the page title).
Guidelines for optimized link structure
- Make Urls simple and easy to understand for search engines and users
- Use hyphens ‘ – ‘ to separate the words that make up a url
- Avoid lengthy Urls with unnecessary information
- Use words that describe what the page is about but avoid keyword stuffing
Examples of BAD url structures
- http://www.example.com/UK/123213/5005.html
- http://www.example.com/socialmedianews
- http://www.example.com/id=7&sort=A&action=70
Examples of GOOD url structures
- http://www.example.com/social-media-news
- http://www.example.com/2002/12/social-media-news
3. Internal links
When we talk about internal links we mean links in a page that point to other pages within the web site i.e. not external links. In the example below when you click on the link with anchor “increase the intensity” you will be redirected to a page with-in the web site to find out more information on how to increase the intensity of an exercise.
Internal linking is a very important factor for web site SEO but still many web site owners are not using it correctly. The rules to follow for internal links are simple:
- Link related articles together either by using keyword anchor text or by using the full article title
- Make sure that the links are useful both for the user and easy to understand by search engines.
- Don’t make links for search engines only. An internal link should help the user navigate the site better.
- Do not use terms like ‘click here’ or ‘[..]’ for internal linking.
- Don’t overdo it. 4-5 internal links per page are enough (create more if really necessary)
Don’t always link old posts from new posts but every couple of weeks go back and link newer posts from older posts. It’s not an easy task to do especially if you have a lot of posts but it’s a very valuable tool for on-site SEO.
4. Text formatting and the use of H1, H2 and H3
Don’t just publish text on your web site without first doing some basic formatting. This is not good for the user experience and works against your SEO efforts. General guidelines for formatting a post or page on your web site:
- Use H1 tags for the title of your post
- Use H2 tags for the main headings of your post.
- Use BOLD and Italics to draw users attention
- Don’t use H2 tags for all your headings
- Write small paragraphs
- Use a font size that is easy to read
When formatting your posts always have in mind the user experience. Can the user identify the main sections of your post (H2 tags) just by looking at the page? Is the text easy to read even on other devices
5. The 404 Page
SEO is about improving the user experience and a proper 404 page contributes to that goal. The 404 page is the page shown when a user is looking for a page on your site that doesn’t exist or mistypes a URL or follows a broken link. When the 404 page is not configured looks like this:
This is not useful for the user and negatively impacts the user experience.
A properly configured 404 page should:
- Give some info to the user of what happened rather than displaying “Not found”
- Have a design consistent with the rest of the website
- Give options to the user to navigate to other pages of the site.
If you are using a professional theme (like Thesis), it takes care of the 404 page. This is how my 404 page looks like:
6. Image Optimization
Images are sometimes necessary to enhance the user experience but care should be taken not to create other side effects like problems with page load speed or slow response. Especially after the success of Pinterest many webmasters started using more images in their posts. If you do decide to use images, mind the following:
- Use Alt Text to describe the image. You can add keywords but don’t overdo it.
- Use keywords in image filenames (separated with dashes). Avoid using filenames like image1.jpg or person1.jpg. Instead use meaningful names with dashes. For example woman-working-out.jpg
- Keep all image files in a dedicated folder in your site i.e. www.mydomain.com/images/
- Optimize the image size. The smaller the size of the image (in KB) the faster is your web site. You can use this free tool from Yahoo to make your image size smaller without losing the quality.
7. Page Speed
Google has many times said that page speed is a ranking factor and yet many webmasters don’t optimize their web sites for speed. Their aim (Google’s) is to provide the searcher with the most accurate results in the fastest possible way. It is certain that page speed (as a ranking factor) will gain more importance in the next couple of years.
Fast web sites improve the user experience and it is a factor to encourage the visitor to come again. In addition, a web site that loads in less than 8 seconds is more likely to:
- Rank better in search results
- Get more page visits per user
- Get more conversions
How to tackle the page speed problem?
- Remove any unnecessary plug-ins (if you are using WordPress) or java script from the pages.
- Optimize the size of your images
- Use a caching service or plug-in (I use WP Super cache and W3Total Cache).
- Go to http://www.webpagetest.org/ and test how many seconds it takes for your pages to load from different locations, internet speed and browsers. The analysis report at the end will also tell you which components of your page take too long to load so that you can remove them.
- Go to Google Page Speed Service to analyze your web site and get performance recommendations.
- If you have a lot of images on your site and you cannot improve performance with the recommendations given by the tools mentioned above you can consider using a CDN (Content Delivery Network) service such as Cloud Flare or Amazon Cloud Front
8. Google authorship
What is Google authorship status?
It’s a way to bind your content with your Google+ profile. When you do that successfully your picture appears in the Google search results next to your content (see example with my picture above)
How Google authorship status relates to Search Engine Optimization?
- It improves the credibility of a web site in both the minds of users and search engines.
- Studies have shown that more people are likely to click a link from the search results if the author is verified.
- You increase the chances of getting natural links (people are more likely to link to your web site or page if you are verified).
- There is also a confirmed hidden benefit from authorship status which gives you additional listings in the SERPS.
9. Mobile friendly web sites
A significant number of searches performed each day are through mobile devices. Many studies over the last 6 months identified that the number of searches using smartphones is steadily increasing especially when it comes to making online purchases.
I am sure that if you have a look at your analytics data you will see a good percentage of your daily visits coming from mobile. In the example demonstrated below, almost 30% of the traffic is from mobile with Apple products (iPhone, iPod and iPad) being on the top positions
It’s not in the scope of this post to go in detail into mobile SEO but there some simple steps to follow to ensure that you web site is mobile friendly.
- First thing to do is understand the difference between a mobile friendly web site and a native Android, iPhone or Windows Mobile app. After talking with a number of webmasters I realized that many people fail with their mobile strategy because they do not understand this difference and because they have not yet realized the enormous potential of mobile markets.
- A mobile friendly web site is optimized for viewing on the mobile browser (i.e. Chrome on android or Safari on iPhone). A native android (iPhone or Windows Mobile app) is an application that can be downloaded from the mobile markets (Google Play or Apple Store). I will cover this with more details in another post but for SEO purposes you must provide a mobile friendly version for your users coming through mobile browsers.
- The easiest way to create a mobile friendly web site is to use a plugin (if you are using WordPress) or a service (there are free and paid) which will optimize your web site for mobiles.
10. User Sitemap
A sitemap is a list of all posts/pages of your web site. You need 2 types of sitemaps. First an xml sitemap to submit to Google, Bing and other search engines and second an html sitemap to help visitors find your content easier. It is recommended to place a link to your user sitemap from the main menu.
