Design

WordPress 5.0 has been released

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WordPress 5.0 has been released

WordPress 5.0 'Bebo'

The latest version of WordPress, WordPress 5.0 ‘Bebo’ (known as “Gutenberg” during its development) has been released. For those unfamiliar, WordPress is a website content management system used by a majority of CyberGuru clients to build their websites. WordPress now powers 32% of the websites on the internet today, and in order to keep up with emerging trends, WordPress 5.0 has seen the largest upgrade to date on the platform.

Going from the current version of WordPress to the Gutenberg release is like changing from a manual car to an automatic. Just as an automatic car doesn’t look that different from a manual, websites in WordPress 5.0 won’t necessarily look vastly different from those using the current version of WordPress. However, the driving experience of automatic is substantially different from a manual and similarly the website design process is considerably more intuitive and user friendly in the Bebo release. Given the magnitude of this upgrade it is understandable that some plugins may not work and many websites may require tweaking to take full advantage of the upgrade.

The most significant change since the last major release some four years ago, is a block-based editor, similar to Divi and SiteOrigin Page Builder where editable content, such as text boxes, images and other items, can be added as simply as adding a block and modifying these. This is a large change from what was previously generally editing similar to a Word document. According to WordPress, they plan to continue to support the “Classic Editor” until at least 2021.

Another change is the frequency of updates. WordPress have proposed minor WordPress release twice a month. Further information is yet to be shared by WordPress, but we understand that these will be focused on improvements and bug fixes.

As it is nearly time here for Christmas (Summer) holidays, we recommend that our clients postpone upgrading until this can be reviewed closely in the new year. It is likely that there will be issues with possibly a theme, plugin or translation that may cause the upgrade to not go as planned. As with any new release, there is a likelihood of bugs and other issues to present itself themselves. It is anticipated that as an increasing number of websites begin to use the new version, these will be identified and resolved. Waiting until the new year will hopefully reduce the issues and be more stable and reliable.

We suggest having a working backup and testing the website prior to changing over to identify potential issues. We will be working with our clients to discuss how best to plan and manage this for their particular circumstances in the new year and identify a suitable time to upgrade.

We do not recommend taking this upgrade lightly. If you have any questions or require any further information, please contact us.

Ask CyberGuru: Should my domain name include my business’ service?

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Ask CyberGuru: Should my domain name include my business’ service?

Ask CyberGuru

CyberGuru has recently received some enquiries regarding what domain name a business should use. For example, should a bookkeeping company called Acme use domain name acme.com.au or acmebookkeeping.com.au?

In terms how important the word is (in this case bookkeeping), if your business is predominately a bookkeeping company, then having www.acmebookkeeping.com.au is useful to search engines such as Google as it would likely index you more accurately (through the word “bookkeeping” being added).

However, you may also wish to purchase www.acme.com.au as this is easier to manually type from say a business card or brochure, or your business was to expand from just computers in the future. These domain names could be linked in that if you were to have both, you could redirect one of them to the other.

If you have any questions or to register a domain name, please contact us today.

Are you ready for the upcoming SSL/HTTPS changes?

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Are you ready for the upcoming SSL/HTTPS changes?

Are you ready for the upcoming SSL/HTTPS changes?

It’s been confirmed, Google has announced that in July 2018 they will begin to identify all websites that do not have SSL certificates as “not secure”. Have you checked whether your website is displaying as secure?

You can check whether your website by seeing if your website if your website address bar contains HTTPS. As per Google’s Blog posts, “A secure web is here to stay” and “Evolving Chrome’s security indicators”, Google Chrome will be identifying websites without HTTPS in their website address as “not secure” in version 68 due out in the next month. It is expected that the other browsers, Mozilla Firefox and Microsoft Edge, will also follow suit in due course.

With only a few weeks until these changes occur, we strongly suggest you ensure that your website has an SSL certificate so it will continue to be displayed as secure. If your website address doesn’t contain HTTPS then your website server will require the installation of an SSL certificate and changes will need to be made to the website itself.

CyberGuru’s newer website hosting plans can take advantage of an AutoSSL certificate at no cost, however we will need to make some changes to the internal workings of your website for it be compliant. This includes enabling the SSL certificate, updating your website’s internal links to ensure they go to the HTTPS version of the website and testing to making sure your website works as it is intended to.

We are providing a service for both CyberGuru clients and non-CyberGuru clients to perform the required changes on your behalf. In order to do this, we will require access to your website’s cPanel account as well as WordPress account. We will be aiming to complete all SSL/HTTPS website changes before July, however we will be working on a “first come, first served” basis depending on popularity of this service.

Please contact us for a quote on how we can make your website SSL/HTTPS compliant.

How can I protect my website from being hacked?

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How can I protect my website from being hacked?

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Having a website is like having a virtual shop front to your business and provides the ability for your visitors to come and browse you and identify possible products and services they may like to buy. However, like a physical shop front, you should ensure you have security measures in place to protect the information that is stored on your website.

1.      Perform regular backups of your website.

Having a regular backup of your website providing you with the ability to have a copy of your website to restore if required. Whilst website hosting providers will often perform nightly backups, there is often a cost to restore these. We suggest at least taking a backup once a month to ensure you have a copy of it at a point in time to restore to if required.

2.      Remove any users no longer required and change passwords.

Depending on how your website was designed, you may have had a previous designer or developer or staff who have had access to your website to maintain it on your behalf. If these users no longer require access to do this, we suggest you remove or change the level of access to not allow them to make changes. Similarly, change your passwords on a regular basis. Passwords that have not been changed for some time may be likely to be compromised especially if they are simple.

3.      Install updates on a regular basis.

Most of the common website content management systems, including WordPress, Joomla and Drupal, all require regular updates, along with any associated third-party plugins, themes and translations. These improve the features, performance and security of the website.

4.      Disable or remove unnecessary plugins.

You may have plugins for your website that you are not using. If you have upgraded your website in the past, you may have plugins installed that were from your older website, or are no longer in use. If you are not sure if you are using them, you may decide to disable these until you determine that they are not needed. However, if you are certain you are not using them, then you could remove these.

5.      Install a security plugin to report security issues.

There are various security plugins available that can notify you when an administrator logs on to your website, users have been blocked (through incorrect passwords when attempting to login or malicious attacks), when files are modified, and when updates are needed.

6.      Consider a website maintenance service.

You may wish to consider a website maintenance service, such as CyberGuru’s to perform the review and maintenance for you, including backups, updates and test your website on a monthly basis. For further details, please see the Website Mainternance Service page on the CyberGuru website.

If you would like to know more how you can protect your website from being hacked, please contact us today.

Getting visitors to your new website

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Getting visitors to your new website

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So you have a website, but how can you get it seen by your visitors? Following developing a new website, you may think it is “build it and they will come” but once the website has been launched, it doesn’t stop there!

Here’s five tips on how you can attract more visitors to your website:

  1. Add your business to local search providers. Providers such as Google My Business and Bing Places for Business allow local business owners to add a listing for their website on their respective search engines. Similar to Yellow Pages, these local searches allow anyone to search for a desired organisation near them (such as a plumber in Chermside). There also many other local search providers, such as True Local and Yelp. Should someone search for a business or one similar to yours on search or Maps, you can have a listing appear that outlines your business (including a brief description and photo) including phone number, address, as well as opening hours, website and address (if chosen).
  2. Add your business onto search engines (Google and Bing). In addition to using the websites above, you may also wish to manually add your website to search engines. For Google, you can submit this through the Google Search Console (a Google account is required) and for Bing, through the Bing Toolbox. You can also consider paid search engine optimisation but at this stage.
  3. Include your website address on your promotional material. We strongly suggest when launching a new website to promote it anywhere you can, such as newsletters, email broadcast and social media. However, you should also think about ensuring your business cards, fliers, email signature and signage also all contain your website address.
  4. Start blogging and updating your website on a regular basis. Having a new website doesn’t stop at launch, you need to continue to maintain your website by adding new blog articles, updating your content and reviewing existing content on a regular basis. Similar to retail stores, by regularly changing your website, visitors are likely to come back more often to see what is new.
  5. Link your blogs on social media. Depending on your chosen platforms, you may wish to provide a link to your blog articles on your social media channels. LinkedIn allows you to include your blog articles on their publishing platform. Other social media channels, Facebook, Twitter and other platforms generally include an image as well as excerpt from your article and a link. We suggest also including tagging where possible!

If you are starting out or already established your website, CyberGuru can help you with your website requirements. Please feel free to contact us if we can be of any assistance.