Tips for using your FAQ page to Generate More Traffic

FAQ pages are an often overlooked way to generate free traffic to your website. Many people don’t realize the potential they have. Here are seven tips for using your FAQ page for traffic.

Put each question, and answer to that question on a seperate keyword rich page. By doing this you are developing content for your website that is on topic, search engine friendly, and easy for the visitor to find, both from your website and in the search engines.

Research keywords people are using to find information on the topic of your website, these are the FAQ’s you should be answering as well as the questions asked by your customers. Many times it is easier to rank well in the search engines for these terms. Answer common questions on the topic of your website, not just questions about your product.

When doing your keyword research use phrases like “how to”, “learn”, and other phrases a person might use when looking for information on a specific topic.

Put the chosen keyword people are using to search for your topic in the title of the page, and naturally within the body of the page. Make the page simple with little or no graphics and a link back to both the index of your FAQ and your home page.

Use keyword rich link text to link to your individual FAQ pages. Link text will help any page to rank higher in the search engines

Make an index page with a link to all the FAQ pages you have created. This would like a little mini site map for both the visitor and the search engines to index your FAQ pages.

Use keyword rich link text to link to your FAQ index page. For example if your website is on the topic of SAearch Engine Optimization you could use “SEO Terms and FAQ’s” for your link text instead of just FAQ’s.

Kaltura for Joomla now available.

Embedding videos in Joomla content can be a little tricky sometimes; with a stock Joomla site you really just have one main content area to bung embed code into, but you usually have a wysiwyg editor installed so that code gets messed up in html translation mistakenly or otherwise doesn’t display whilst editing your content etc… Of course, to make the job easier, extensions have emerged as plugins that let you use special tags in your content (such as Allvideos), but well, who wants to remember how to properly reference a 3rd-party hosted clip right?
I’ve been excited about Kaltura for some time – its an Open-source video platform which works just like some of the major commercial ones (eg. Brightcove.) – only its cheaper (free?) and has some cool tools to let your community remix videos right in your website – using a huge assortment of samples; from your collection to anything hosted on Kaltura member sites.

Kaltura just released an extension for Joomla and it looks pretty amazing; with it, you can:

upload/embed videos,
embed flickr/myspace video/photo/audio media in your articles,
manage media in a central control panel,
customize the embed player on your site,
edit and remix video to embed in your site and much more!
Now, Kaltura still doesn’t solve the issue of embedding content from 3rd party hosts like youtube, vimeo, etc..; it seems to offer myspace video embeds (ahem, what?) and thats about it.. so you’re still going to have to use somethign like the Allvideos plugin to easily embed them, but Kaltura can be a very easy way to upload and embed original video – you can upload video files or record directly from your webcam…

How to Obtain a Memorable Domain Name

As each day passes, it becomes more difficult to obtain a popular domain name. Studies have shown that over 20 thousand domain names are registered on a daily basis. With all of these domain names being taken, a memorable domain name is very hard to obtain. Gone are the days of obtaining main-keyword domain names such as “Domain.com” or “Keyword.com”. Simple domains like this are nearly impossible to obtain, unless of course you are willing and able to spend exuberant amounts of money. However, there are ways one can obtain a memorable domain name without lots of cash.

Obtaining a Popular Domain With Little Funds

One way you can acquire a professional domain name is by searching the database of infinite expired domain names. Many times there are domains that have expired that would suit your keyword perfectly. Everyday new domain names expire that can potentially represent authoritative websites in your desired niche. Buying expired domain are not only more cost efficient, but it gives you the opportunity to gather a group of visitors that may have previously visit the expired domain. In some cases you may find yourself on the fortunate side of anothers misfortune. Domain names expire when the webmaster is unable to pay the renewal fees. Sometimes a domain owner may fall victim to an accident, or may simply be unable to maintain their website, leaving you to pick up where they’ve left off.

Where to Find Expired Domain Names

Finding the right expired domain is a task that requires plenty of diligence and searching. Settling for the first domain name that is available is not necessarily the best route. However, it may be advisable to rack up on as many domain names as possible, giving your business more visibility. If you are searching for that one domain name that is going to give your site the reputability you’re seeking, then you may need to enlist the help of an auction sniping software. Since domain names are sold at auction most of the time, it can be hard to squeeze in the last bid, thereby securing your chances of obtaining the perfect domain name for your online business.

Domain Name Sniping

However with auction sniping software, you can set a maximum amount of money that you would like to bid, and the software will automatically bid for you in set increments of time and money. For example, you can place the maximum bid of $500, and the software will automatically place bids in increments of $10 every 30 minutes, or to the specifications you desire. In fact there are also sniping softwares that are made especially for domain name sniping, that will notify you when the best domain names are available as soon as they expire, based on your keyword preferences.

How Important are Back Links?

When setting up your website for SEO (Search Engine Optimization) on Google there are several factors you need to look at in order to obtain a high rank on their search engine. Of course your content and meta tags must be inline with positive density percentages and reciprocal links. Google then takes your website and performs a mathematic equation and places a numeric value on your website depending on one of the most important features, reciprocal or back links.

A back link and reciprocal link are identical. They both say the same thing to the Google engine, that your site should be ranked higher in the order because other people find value in what your website has to offer, thus they provide a link to your site. In turn, you keep a closed loop by reciprocating the favor to the other website by extending the same courtesy of a back link. Thus creating a solid network connection. Google likes to see interconnectivity and will reward your website well for planning it this way.

There are drawbacks to the equation. As things change a website that you are affiliated with may drop a hyperlink or a page may get accidentally deleted. When the Google robot goes through your website and finds a dead link it notes that you arent keeping good care of your website and punishes your web rank by reducing its point value. If you wish to know what your sites current point value is download The Google Toolbar and search for your website www.yourwebsitename.com in the box and perform a Google web search. Upon reading the full URL, Google will go directly to your site first thus pulling up your home page. There on the toolbar will be a page rank for your website between 1 and 10. 1 being a less visited and noted website and 10 a site that screams traffic 24/7.

Some of the individuals you share reciprocal links with may in fact scan all their links for continuity, should they receive a bounce back for a broken link on your website you can be assured you will receive an email from them. Keeping your website in balance with other sites you share links with will keep the Google engine happy. If you go off and add a company that is not Google friendly, meaning they have no back links you may also lose points.

How to use website templates

Before you want to use a web template, you’ll need to know what it is. A web template is a website layout design, a shell of a website that you can use to create your own website. If you don’t know where to begin with designing a website web templates are the right thing . Most web templates do not contain any type of programming or scripting.

When searching for a web template for your website you’ll need to know what the requirements of your website are. For example does your website have a theme? How many pages will you need? You can find web templates by going to your favorite search engine and typing in the type of web template that you need. For example if you need a real estate web template, type that in your browsers search page to find real estate web templates.

Once you have found a template, it’s always best to read description of the website template thoroughly and ask questions. If you have specific needs you’ll need to make sure the web template will work for you. Digital products can’t be returned so you should make sure you are purchasing the right product.

If you are a beginner to website design, it will be best that you look for a website templates made for a beginner. Before you make a purchase you should ask if the web template comes with instructions on how to use the web templates. If you are a beginning Webmaster and lack website design experience instructions should be a requirement. Yes, you might be able to figure it out yourself with a lot of grief but instructions are always helpful.

Popular forms of website templates are PSD (Photoshop) and HTML (web page) formats. When choosing between PSD and HTML web templates take into consideration your web design skills.

Following these tips will help you to pick out the right web template for your website.

What Is A Domain Name

A domain name is a name that identifies one or more IP addresses. For example, the domain name microsoft.com represents about a dozen IP addresses. Domain names are used in URLs to identify particular Web pages. For example, in the URL http://www.vivahost.com/index.html, the domain name is vivahost.com.

The only way to register a domain name is to use the services of a domain name registrar. The domain name industry is regulated and overseen by ICANN, the organization that is responsible for certifying companies as domain name registrars. At one time there was only one domain name registrar — Network Solutions Inc.- but today there are dozens of accredited registrars. Only a domain name registrar is permitted to access and modify the master database of domain names maintained by Internic. If you come across a registrar that is not on the list, it is most likely that the organization is acting as a reseller for one of the accredited registrars as only an accredited registrar has the capability to modify the database of domain names. The registrar you choose will determine the cost for registering a domain name, but in general expect to pay a yearly fee.

Spam?!

Do you know what is spam? Well, if you don’t – open your email. I am sure you will find out a lot of emails there, that you did not request to receive and don’t have ANY idea who their sender is. They are annoying, irritating and can drive you crazy with their high volume – that is SPAM.

So, how do you fight SPAM? Well, there isn’t any universal method that can get rid of ALL the Spam you receive. However, there are some things you can do. And certainly, there are some things your email provider can do to prevent SPAM emails being received by YOU, the End User.

Vivahost as a web hosting provider aims to prevent most of the SPAM emails which are sent to or by our servers to reach their destination. At first, we do the common and obvious things:

We check the sender’s domain name and IP address versus several large RBL (Real-Time Blackhole List) lists. If we find out any of them is listed in any of the lists, we discard the email message.
We check if the message contains a valid ‘HELO’ request. By RFC (Request For Comments) definition, each email client should start the email communication with a ‘HELO’ request. If no such are present, we ban them.
We check in an internal database if the IP address of the sender or the domain name of the email has tried to send too many emails for a short period of time. If it has, we discard the emails and send a warning message to the customer.
We screen each message and the sender’s address and identify it as spam.
So, let’s assume the email passes our phase-one checks. Then, it is relayed to the Spam Assasin (http://spamassassin.apache.org/) daemon which gives a SPAM score to each email. Emails with score lower than 7 are directly delivered to the customers’ mailbox. Emails with score higher than 7 might be flagged for a manual or automatic review by our internal in-house built systems or might be discarded.

If the email passes the Spam Assasin score system, it’s checked for bad attachments (for example .dll or .pif files – which may and will harm your computer) and is discarded if such are found.

We check if the user trying to send emails to any of our servers is brute forcing email addresses and if we catch him to do that, we automatically discard the email. The same applies to a user trying to identify to the server with too many usernames and passwords for a certain period of time.

The latest addition to our Anti SPAM filters is an ACL (Access Control List) filter which denies sending emails from a spoofed domain name. This means that if you, for example, host the domain name “yourdomainname.com” with us and “yourdomainname2.com” with another hosting company, you would not be able to send emails from the “yourdomainname2.com” domain from any of the VivaHost servers.

With all that said you should already know that VivaHost has invested a lot of time and effort to build automatic systems to prevent SPAM. And we’ll keep doing more and more. Fighting spam is a continuous process and we make sure we stay ahead!

Why would I need a Private SSL or Dedicated IP?

Many web hosts will assume that in our technical age everyone understands terms like Dedicated IP Address, Private SSL Certificate and Domain Privacy. I can assure you that before I started working for a web host I had no idea what these services actually were and why on earth they would be useful. However, with a little research it became pretty clear the advantages of adding these features to your hosting package.

A Private SSL – Secure Sockets Layer – Certificate is recommended for all sites that accept credit card payments or take customers personal information, as it provides your site with the extra security required to protect such details. A Private SSL keeps all the information sent from your site to your host’s server confidential by encrypting it and activating the secure lock in your web browser.

If you think your site requires a Private SSL Certificate then you will also need a Dedicated IP. This will mean that your site is the only one on the internet using that unique IP number. A Dedicated IP is a necessity for most large websites or ecommerce enabled sites. If you website is business orientated and you are planning on a merchant account, Viva Host would highly recommend that you purchase a Private SSL Certificate and a Dedicated IP.

Both Private SSL Certificates and Dedicated IPs are now available to purchase from VivaHost as part of your plan. If you would like any further information about either please email us.

HTTP Error Codes

Server Error Codes
Downtime can be frustrating enough for any webmaster let alone when the source of the problem is unknown. Hopefully your website will not experience much downtime but in preparation of a worst case scenario, we have compiled a list of some of the most common error codes along with their meaning so you can find a solution to the problem and get your website back online in no time.

Client Error Codes:

400 Bad Request

The HTTP request was rejected due to a syntax error within the request.

403 Forbidden

The server was unable to serve the requested data.

404 Not Found

The page you are trying to access no longer exists or never has existed.

408 Request Timeout

Communications between the server and client were taking too long so the server closed the socket. This could be due to load or bandwidth issues with the server.

Server Error Codes:

500 Internal Server Error

The server has been misconfigured in some way that prevents it from responding correctly.

502 Bad Gateway

The page requested is stored on a third party server and has issued an error preventing the server from accessing it.

This is just a select few error codes that most webmasters will stumble upon in their life time. Error codes can be even more complicated and aren’t always easy to diagnose. If you are ever unsure as to what is the cause of the problem, our friendly 24/7 support team will be able to help in no time. Feel free to get in touch by phone, email or live chat.

For a more complete and detailed list, visit Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_HTTP_status_codes

Prevent Your Site from Being Hacked

A Growth Industry
Recently the number of sites being hacked or infiltrated has risen rapidly. We see a lot of distraught site owners who have had their sites damaged, experienced a loss of rankings, or had data stolen.

Use Protection
Although most good hosting companies will protect their servers (and usually your site to some degree) it’s important to understand that you are responsible for your own site.

Take this analogy: You can use the strongest safe in the world, but if you leave the door open and someone empties it, you can’t blame the safe manufacturer.

Hacked Huh?
Before we offer you some simple tips, it’s worth understanding a few basics about the different kinds of hacks, their purpose and how they can affect you.

We won’t go into detail at this stage, but the number of exploits and the number of different types are increasing. Some of the most common include: XSS, SQL Injections and defacing

Staying up to date is a full time job, but like most types of crime, being prepared and protecting yourself should give you a better chance of weathering a storm should it happen.

So without further ado, here’s a basic primer on protecting your site from being hacked when it’s on shared hosting.

Simple Security Tips
1. Keeping Software Up to Date
If you are running old versions of software chances are it’s insecure, make sure you upgrade to the latest release. Most updates to software are security or functionality related, which means if you aren’t running the latest version you are likely to have missed a few security fixes.

2. 3rd Party Scripts and Code
Plugins, widgets or any other code (including free templates and themes) you install are written by other people under unknown circumstances. Some may be great, some may be full of holes. Be sure to research any code you want to use that you didn’t write yourself. Even a few Google searches should help you find out how secure the code you are using is.

3. Your Own Fault
One of the biggest causes of Identity theft and an easy way for someone to get details to your site(s). Your own computer is likely to be a weak link in the chain. Whether it be from poisoned powerpoint files or someone phishing your account details, the vulnerabilities are limitless. No matter how secure your site is, if the machine you access it from (including logging in and editing etc.) is not secure you stand a good risk of being compromised and it may affect more than just your site.

Use virus scans, clear histories, secure your passwords and be aware of general security issues (try not to let your shiny new MacBook air be stolen). Open and Public wifi spots are an obvious security risk. If you give everyone access to your PIN number for your bank account, expect to be robbed.

4. Secure Passwords
A secure password goes a long way to slowing down a potential infiltrator (real ‘hackers’ do not tend to be people that destroy sites, but ethically search for security holes in technology). Put simply passwords should always be a combination of letters and numbers, uppercase and lowercase. The longer the password, the better (though conversely the longer it is the harder it is to remember).

No dictionary words, no family names and no easily guess-able information either.

You can also generate a random password which is even more secure.

5. Checking Your Logs Regularly
Without watching who is visiting your site, what you are ranking for and similar you could be compromised and never even know it.

If you spot any unusual traffic (ranking for gambling, pharmaceuticals and sex terms is a common one) try working out where it is coming from / going to. From there if you are sure it is a hack you can get some quick help. (Send us a message, we’ll do what we can).