Happy World Backup Day!

by Jacquie Robertson | Mar 31, 2024 | web hosting, Website Backup, website maintenance

Happy World Backup Day!

In this digital age, where your business thrives online, the integrity and security of your website are paramount. Yet, despite advancements in technology, websites remain vulnerable to various threats ranging from cyberattacks to technical failures. Safeguarding your website through regular backups is not just advisable – it’s essential.

Why Backing Up Your Website Matters

1. Protection Against Cyber Threats:
Cyberattacks, such as malware injections, ransomware, and Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks, pose significant risks to websites. A robust backup strategy ensures that even if your website falls victim to such attacks, you can quickly restore it to a previous, uncorrupted state.

2. Minimise Downtime:
Website downtime can result from server crashes, software updates gone wrong, or human error. By maintaining up-to-date backups, you can swiftly recover your website, minimising downtime and preventing potential revenue loss.

3. Content Integrity:
Your website’s content represents your brand and communicates your message to the world. Regular backups ensure that your valuable content, including blog posts, product listings, and multimedia files, remains intact in the event of accidental deletion or corruption.

Implementing a Backup Strategy

1. Choose the Right Backup Solution:
Select a backup solution that aligns with your website’s platform (e.g., WordPress, Joomla, Shopify) and hosting environment. Options range from manual backups performed through your hosting provider’s control panel to automated solutions offered by third-party services.

2. Establish a Backup Schedule:
Define a regular backup schedule based on the frequency of updates to your website’s content and the criticality of your data. Daily or weekly backups are common for dynamic websites with frequent content changes, while static websites may suffice with less frequent backups.

3. Store Backups Offsite:
Storing backups offsite, preferably in a secure cloud storage service or on a separate server, mitigates the risk of data loss due to server failures or physical disasters. Ensure that your chosen storage solution provides adequate security measures, such as encryption and access controls.

4. Test Backup and Recovery Procedures:
Periodically test your backup and recovery procedures to verify their effectiveness. Simulate scenarios such as restoring a backup to a new server or recovering specific files to ensure that you can confidently recover your website in case of emergencies.

Backing up your website is not a luxury but a necessity in today’s digital landscape. By prioritising website backups, you protect your online presence, maintain business continuity, and uphold the trust of your audience. Remember, investing time and resources in a comprehensive backup strategy today can save you from costly disruptions tomorrow. Stay proactive, stay secure, and safeguard your digital assets with regular website backups.

All our own hosted websites are backed up each month to our remote Cloud Storage System as part of our Maintenance Plan.If you’re unsure as to whether you have a Backup Plan contact your Web Hosting Company or Web Designer.

Wix or WordPress?…

by Jacquie Robertson | Apr 19, 2021 | domain name, web design, web hosting, website maintenance

WordPress or Wix? What’s the difference?…

If you are a complete beginner, don’t want to hire a Web Designer and want a quick and easy way to get your website up and running then Wix is the perfect solution for you.

Although Wix offers a basic website builder service for free it does have some drawbacks…

- Wix branded advertisements on the header and footer of your website
- You can’t use a Custom Domain name for your website so it will appear as
- username.wix.com/sitename
- There is no SEO or E-Commerce functionality

If you want to remove the advertisements and get additional features you’ll need to upgrade to one of the Wix Premium Plans.

WordPress

A WordPress website will give you complete control of every aspect of your website.

You have the flexibility to build an E-Commerce Store, run a Blog or start a Membership Site, plus you have access to over 58,000 Plugins.

Apps and Plugins

Wix calls them Apps and WordPress calls them Plugins. Some are free and some require a monthly subscription payment.

What are they?

These are lovely addons which you can bolt onto your website. They’re an essential part of building and creating an amazing website.

There are Apps / Plugins to boost your sites speed and performance, improve SEO, add contact forms, sell online courses. Some are free and some require additional monthly or annual subscription payment.

Your Fiit Marketing Website comes with additional features such as animated text, flip picture boxes, image hover boxes, and links to your Social Media.

Domain Name and Hosting

With a WordPress website you’ll need your own Domain Name and Hosting Service. At Fiit Marketing we can help you to find and purchase your own Domain Name. All our websites are hosted on our Shared Server account with Bluehost. If you want to add an E-Commerce functionality WooCommerce can easily be bolted on which gives you the ability to start selling products directly from your website. With a WordPress website you can backup your website, download your media files. You can even move your website to a new hosting company and designer. Wix makes it a little harder to move your website and files to a new hosting company so if you want a WordPress site it’s sometimes easier to walk away from Wix and start afresh.

Blogging

If you’re looking at writing a Blog, WordPress wins hands down. It started as a blogging platform and now is used on 40% of all websites.

Themes

This is the most important part of your website – how the design and layout look and work.

Your website must be user friendly, easy to navigate and especially needs to be functional across all platforms – mobile, laptop, tablet.

Wix comes with over 900+ website themes. However the drawback is that once you have selected your theme you can’t switch to another template. You can change the colours and layouts but not the overall look of your website.

Imagine wearing the same clothes day in and day out and not being able to change them?

A WordPress site allows you to easily change the look and feel of your website whenever you feel like having a refresh.

As your business grows and develops your website needs to reflect this and grow with you.

Cost

Over time Wix is the more expensive option.

At Fiit Marketing we have created transparent website costs, monthly payment plans and ongoing hosting options once your website is completed. You can come back to us to add more features to your site whenever you’re ready and we are always here to help.

Summary

We can get your new WordPress or Wix website up and running in no time at all.

If you have a Wix website, we can help you to update your site – but not give you a new theme – and we can add on additional Apps for you.

(Ref: https://www.wpbeginner.com/opinion/wix-vs-wordpress-which-one-is-better-pros-and-cons/)

Don’t Get Locked In

by Jacquie Robertson | Apr 5, 2021 | domain name, web hosting

Don’t Get Locked In

I was chatting to a friend the other day and she had some exciting news…

She’s been making organic cosmetic and skin care products for a few years now – quite literally from her kitchen table. She’s entirely self-taught and has built a loyal band of repeat customers.

She’s decided to take the plunge by opening her first shop, but has faced some unexpected difficulties.

It’s not that retail is on its knees thanks to online shopping – as she says you can’t sample your favourite to-die-for perfumes or skincare products online.

Her vision is to create an overwhelming fragrance experience, meaning as soon as her customers walk through the door, the fragrances hit them and their buying juices start to flow right away.

And she is absolutely right.

Her problem was landlords!

She thought she’d found the ideal property – good location, footfall and monthly rent – and she could already visualise her business name splashed across the shop front.

Trouble was, the landlord wanted a minimum lease of eight years.

“What if my business changes over the next eight years” she said.

“I hope to grow, so I may need bigger premises. What if things don’t go according to plan and I have to downsize?

There’s no way I can be locked into a lease I can’t escape from.”

I could see where she was coming from and that got me thinking about my own web design business clients. I wish I’d a pound in my pocket for the number of times I’ve heard from fitness professionals feeling trapped and locked in to their current website providers. All because they’ve piggy-backed.

What do I mean by piggy-backed?…

When I design a client’s website, I make sure their domain name remains totally independent of me. This gives my clients the freedom to move their finished website whenever they want – without being locked into my services.

I’ve got enough confidence in my abilities that my clients will want to stay with me.

Once clients have paid for their website, I believe they should be free to move to any other provider if they want to. They should be able to take their own domain name which their customers use, week in week out with them.

That’s a freedom I would certainly want.

After all, a website is just like the attractive shopfront my friend visualised.

She visualised that once they walked through her door they’d be captivated – just like the personalised story I try to tell though the pages I design.

Piggy-backing means you’re in effect renting space from someone else, by bolting on to their domain. You’re using their domain address (alias shopfront) with your name simply bolted on. You’re probably also using a design layout being used by multiple others.

The big problem about piggy backing is if you want to change to another provider, you may have to ditch your domain – which after all is your main shopfront link to your customers.

Starting all over again with a new domain address is never a good idea.

So, for example, if you use an (no names mentioned) international web design company to construct and host your website, you’d need their permission to move to another provider.

Guess how difficult that can be? Just check out the review pages.

So, the message I’m sending out to all is simply this…

Look before you leap. Whoever you use as your website designer, make sure your domain belongs to you.

Make sure you have freedom to choose your own future.

Unless, of course, you like the idea of a landlord’s eight-year lease.