What actually is a domain?

Simply put, the domain is the address of your website on the Internet. Just as you have a postal address, your website requires a fixed address where people or computers can find it. The domain is what you type into the address bar of your browser.

The actual name, e.g., start-the-loop.com, hides an IP address, which consists of a series of numbers that defines exactly where and on which server your website is located:

Please note: In shared hosting, which most of the people with smaller websites use, many domains are located on the same server. So it is completely normal that many domains share one IP address. All domains that we have registered can be found via the IP displayed above.

Domain Structure

The complete name of a domain is the Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN).

The Top Level Domain (TLD) is the highest level of the domain hierarchy, that is what we see as the extensions of the domains. These can be country codes such as .de, .ch or .at or also endings such as .com, .net, .org. In recent years, many more have been added, for example names of cities, such as .hamburg or .cologne. Compared to the “simple” .de domain (8 to 12 €/year) these are relatively expensive (> 50 € / year).

The Second Level Domain (SLD) describes the part of your domain that you choose for your business. In our case, this is “Start-the-Loop”.

Occasionally you still see that the domain name is preceded by “www.”. This is unnecessary, because “www.” is just a subdomain of your domain and usually redirects to the actual domain.

Why should I register a domain?

There is often the possibility to use a free third-level domain of the hosting company or a website builder, for example, your-name.WordPress.com. With free packages, this sometimes comes with some disadvantages, for example, the provider may place advertisements on your website.

Having your own domain name therefore offers advantages: Your website looks more professional when you use your own domain. Visitors to your website might recognize what your company is about just by seeing the domain. Or they already know you and can find you more easily on the Internet using your domain.

You also have the option to set up email addresses with your domain name. These have a more official look and feel than addresses at GMX, web.de or Gmail. Often people can remember them more easily as well.

Choosing a good domain name

Of course, there are some formalities to be observed: Just as in other areas of business, trademark rights must be met, and an “accidentally” similar domain name such as the name of a prominent person or a very well-known brand can also cause trouble. If in doubt, do some research to find out whether there is any potential for conflict.

Selection criteria for the domain name

Basically, your domain name should be rather short and concise. If it is easy to remember, all the better.

Has your company existed for a long time? Then the company name would be a good option, provided that the domain is still available.

What I would not recommend: If a company with the same name uses for example Your-Name.com I would not register Your-Name.de. Experience shows that people don’t really notice the suffix, i.e., the top-level domain (e.g., .com or .de). This only leads to frustration, because your customers will always arrive at the wrong website.

Then it’s better to take a step back and possibly include a keyword in the domain name.

Service or place as part of the domain name

For example, an optician could always use optician-YourName.de or Glasses-YourName.de. If it is a local company, it would also be conceivable to include the city in the domain name. optician-yourName-yourLocation.de gets somewhat long and “bulky”. It also quickly looks a bit dubious if too many terms are strung together with hyphens.

Ideally, I would always register at least the appropriate country code extension for your business (i.e., .de, .ch, .at etc.) and the corresponding .com domain. Which one you end up using for the website depends on your business:

If your business is predominantly active in one country, the corresponding country extension probably fits best. If you see yourself rather internationally, this would speak for the use of the .com domain. All unused domains can refer to the “main domain”.

Your name as part of the domain name

The decision is more difficult if there is no established brand name. For sole proprietors, the question then arises whether the domain should contain their own name. In many cases, this is a good solution. The sole proprietor is the direct contact person for the customers. So it is only logical that the domain contains his / her name.

But sometimes even that is a dead end: My name for example (Elisabeth Hölzl) is very widespread in southern Germany, Austria and even South Tyrol. Some of my name cousins are very active online, the large top-level domains are already taken. I would probably have little chance to be found under that name.

In that case, one option would be to include the name and the service in the domain.

Registering a Domain

Now we can go ahead and register our domain(s).

It makes sense to register the domain where you plan to host the website. Otherwise, you will incur additional fees. Plus, the permanent forwarding of the domain from one provider to another can be prone to errors.

Often, the price of the hosting package also includes the domain registration fee for at least one domain.

Of course, you can always transfer the domain from one provider to another.

The common TLDs (.de, .com, etc.) can be registered with all major hosting companies, although pricing may vary somewhat.

For some more specific TLDs, you have to fulfill conditions. For .it, for example:

• VAT no./personal ID must be provided.
• The specified registrant / administrative manager of the domain must have his residence / company headquarters in a country of the European Union.

So you choose a domain from the hosting company of your choice. Now you have to enter the registration information. For most common domains, name, address, and contact details are sufficient.

A domain is registered for one year. Your hosting company usually renews the domain registration automatically. This makes a lot of sense, because losing the domain unintentionally is no fun. Therefore, I always make sure that automatic renewal is provided by the hosting company.

Once everything is settled, and you are the proud owner of your domain, you can start building your website. Or, if the website is already finished, point the domain to the website.

The post A Domain for my new website has first been published on start the loop_.

Most of us have never learned to write that type of texts. The good news is, though: It’s not so hard, if you keep some things in mind.

How do we collect information on the web?

Each of us visits many websites every day. We can use this experience to better prepare the content for our own website.

When I visit a website, I have specific goals:

• I’m looking for information on a particular topic.
• I want to get an idea of a person, a company, a product.
• I’m looking for a specific product.

Websites that make it easy for me to reach my goal, appear pleasant. I stay and spend some time, and more often than not I read more than what I actually had come for.
I leave websites that make it difficult for me relatively quickly.

What does “make it easy” or “make it difficult” mean here?

It all depends on how quickly I can grasp the information available. I scan the texts and try to decide whether what I want to know can be found here on this website.

Of course, I can make this easier for my visitors by preparing the content accordingly.

1. Headlines

Headings and subheadings are a good way of structuring texts and making them easier to read. This way, when I’m skimming, I can quickly grasp whether what I’m looking for is actually in the text.

By the way, headings also help search engines and people with screen readers.

2. Lists

Lists can be used to highlight important points. If there are too many list items – or too many lists – they, too, become confusing. However, lists work very well when used sparingly and in a targeted manner.

3. Sketches, pictures, graphic elements

4. Videos

Videos can also help to convey content better. As a rule, these should be rather short videos on a specific topic.

With videos, it is helpful to offer the information from the video either as a transcript or as a short explanation in addition to the video. This helps people who are currently in a place where they can’t watch a video, and also people with a visual impairment.

5. Simple language

Short sentences make reading easier. Clear, simple language, without complicated foreign words, helps people to grasp the content. Where foreign words cannot be avoided, you should offer a brief explanation.

Why is simple language important?

People often visit websites “in passing.” Your mind may not be focused. Or the language of the website is not your native language. There are many reasons why unnecessarily long, complicated sentences are difficult to grasp.

Where to put my beautiful, long texts?

The good news for all long and frequent writers: Of course, longer texts are also allowed on the web. The essential thing is that the long version is not the only format we offer.

Writing from coarse to fine

What I mean here is to offer the information in different sized “bites”:

• Short version:
  As a heading and excerpt to give a brief overview.
• Medium version:
  As medium-length text that may include a list of important points and a few paragraphs.
• Long version:
  As a long text, carefully elaborated with headings and, if necessary, interrupted by graphics to clarify the information.

Depending on the context, the short, the medium or the long version is used. All these versions can and should coexist.

Leading into the website using links

We want to encourage visitors to our website to engage thoroughly with our content. First, we need to arouse their curiosity. We offer a morsel (headline and excerpt), with the option to get more of it.

This way I can lead people who are really interested in my content to my long text as well. After all, now they had a choice and actively chose to be informed in detail by me.

The whole process also helps with search engines, as they pay attention to how many links are set within the website. So if I prepare my content in this way, you will get additional benefits from Google.

To help you to get started, I created a writable PDF-Template “content creation”.

The post Creating content for your website has first been published on start the loop_.

The event is over, everything is quieting down. What now? Usually the website remains on the server space for some time. But no one maintains it any longer, there certainly is no new content nor does anyone take care of the WordPress install. Eventually, someone comes along and deletes it. If you are in luck you might still find the website via the WayBack Machine.

But in many cases it would be a shame to just delete the website without further ado. Often, these websites have had a short but ample life. There have been lively discussions; videos, presentations, photo galeries and maybe even results have been published. All in all much too valuable to just dump it!

Options for websites that are no longer in use

1. Keep WordPress alive and running

One option is to just keep the website. In this case, you need to be aware of the consequences: An unkempt WordPress website poses a safety risk not only to the website itself, but also to all other websites within this server space. Therefore you need to make sure to regularly update WordPress core, plugins and themes. If you used premium plugins and themes you need to maintain the subscriptions in order to get all the updates.

As long as you keep everything up-to-date, your website can be healthy and clean for years to come. If you don’t take care of it you will be running into problems sooner or later. This could mean the end for your website or at least some major refurbishing.

Right now, for instance, most hosting companies are about to retire older versions of PHP. Among them PHP 5.6 which has been the standard PHP version for WordPress projects in many years.
If your website is a couple of years old it might not work with PHP 7. There can be countless faults: You might experience the dreaded “white screen of death”, that is all you see is a blank screen. Or you might not be able to log in any longer. There is no general fix, one needs to take a look at every particular case.

2. Converting the website to HTML

Generating the static HTML version means that a plugin creates an HTML file for each page and each post of your website. Additionally, all images and further information need to be saved in a way that they still are accessible. This helps to ensure that the website will look the same as before.
In the end, this can amount to a lot of files and directories.

Editing this website is not so easy any longer. (That’s why you installed WordPress to begin with.) With some knowledge of HTML it’s still possible to edit these pages as well, though.
And people can still go back to it and see all the content without you taking the safety risk.

Using HTML to secure your active website

You certainly could make use of generating a static HTML website to keep your active website secure: In that case, the WordPress website can be hosted and maintained on a secure server while only the static HTML version is accessible publicly.

That is probably the most secure way to run a WordPress website. But it also has drawbacks: Interactive functions won’t work on a HTML website. And for each change in your WordPress website, the HTML version needs to be updated as well. That can certainly be automated, but it still is more hassle than with your website being accessible publicly.
So far we haven’t used this method for active websites yet. I believe this would not be feasable for most of our client projects. But it’s definitely something to keep in mind.

The post When WordPress Websites retire has first been published on start the loop_.

Yes, in my opinion, WordPress is secure.

It certainly isn’t secure all by itself. Just like any computer or any other content management system or other piece of software out there. There are a couple of rules you need to follow. They are pretty straightforward and can be implemented easily.

Who do I need to guard my website from?

First and foremost, from myself. All the little things I, the one in front of the screen, might trigger. That could be faulty updates of plugins or themes. Or bugs in my code. And plenty of other options.

Plus, there are hacking attempts that come via the web. WordPress powers somewhere between 30 and 40 % of the web. Therefore, it is exposed to a lot of hacker attacks. But that are not real people, sitting in front of their computers. These hacking attempts are performed by bots. They surf the web and try to get into as many WordPress installs as possible.

Usually these attacks have nothing to do with your personal website. Nobody means to steal data from your website or get content that might be hidden somewhere. But a website that has been compromised can be used for all kinds of mischief.

How to secure your WordPress website

House-Keeping

Make sure that your server space is clean.
What I often find on my clients’ server spaces: The previous (WordPress) website you did not want to get rid of yet. The WordPress installation you tested something with and kind of forgot about. Or installations of other CMS. Make a backup, if you are not sure, and then delete it from your server space. Also, don’t forget the database that went with your old website.

This applies e.g., to comments on your website or information from contact forms, never mind more sensitive data like credit card information.

Please make sure to test how to restore your website from the backup. This way, you will know your way around in case of an emergency restore.

Updates!

Your Workspace

The computer you or your employees are using to work on your website need to be secured as well. It generally is essential to run the most recent software possible, as on your WordPress website. And please, don’t forget to run regular security scans!

When working from public Wi-Fi: Please make sure to use a secure connection (VPN). Also, think about whether you really need to access your website backend via that network. If you do, don’t use the full admin account if at all possible.

Secure access

• Safe passwords are the most critical part! And please: Do NOT use that safe password for more than one account.
• Add another level of security: Activate 2-factor-authentication whenever possible.
  That means that on top of username and password, you need a third way of authentication.
  This information is generated on the spot, so there is no writing it down or memorizing it. It is usually a code that’s generated via an app (e.g., Google Authenticator) or, in some cases, sent as SMS.
• While you are at it: Please remember to also add secure passwords to FTP accounts and your hosting account.
  You even might be able to activate 2-factor-authentication for your hosting account. If not, ask your hosting company about it.
• Are the access rights of your WordPress installation correct?
  Directories should not have more than “755”, while files should not have more than “644”.
  Normally, WordPress has the correct access rights, and you don’t need to fiddle with it, but I truly have seen the strangest settings here, so don’t take it as a given.

Posts are written by an editor

WordPress offers different user roles, depending on what the needs of the specific user are. The author of your posts is visible from the outside. In this case, a bot only needs to guess the password, not the username.
Therefore, it does make sense to only publish posts as an editor. And log in as an administrator if you actually require it. Or, if you are like me and always forget to do that, you assign the blog post to your editor before publishing it.

To be able to keep an eye on things, there should be as little administrator accounts as possible. Not every user of your WordPress website needs to be able to handle plugins and themes, for instance. To enhance safety, you can be inventive when creating the username for your administrator. You can always add an easy name as display name.

Last but not least – Hosting and WordPress

The choice of hosting provider also has a big impact on how secure your website is. The cheapest hosting company will most likely not be the most secure. The less the whole package costs, the greater the risk that the company is cutting corners at some place. And the more projects get crammed onto one server, the higher the risk that a security breach will appear somewhere.

Designated WordPress Hosting

Meanwhile, almost all hosting companies offer special packages for WordPress websites.
Often this involves very specific WordPress services, e.g., backups, staging sites additional security packages. These packages are usually more expensive than the “standard hosting package”, but of course they offer a lot more: A sophisticated hosting package can facilitate or even relieve you of many of the points I listed above.

So if you cannot or do not want to deal with how to restore your website from a backup yourself, you are in a nice position with high quality hosting. There, you will be able to do all these things with the click of a button in the customer menu.

If you have invested in a hosting package that offers a staging environment, you have the option to try new things on an identical copy of your website. Whether that’s the latest WordPress update or things you want to change on your website, you can always abandon it and start again. Your live website remains completely unaffected by it.

And once everything is as you like it, you can easily replace the live website with your staging website. No drama, no nightmares.

Conclusion

Securing WordPress really isn’t that hard. You might need to change some things and be a bit more conscious about your procedures, but it’s not undoable.

If you keep in mind the basic rules we mentioned here, you are at least 80 % there. Sure, you can always do more. But hey, it’s the basics, and they get you pretty far. Once these are all in place, you can think about if you are ready to do some more.

If you are unsure about the status of your website, we are here to help. Drop us a line, and we can assess your website and give you an estimate of what needs to be done.

The post How to secure WordPress has first been published on start the loop_.

Reasons for a multilingual website

Many of our clients want to offer their content not only in their native language but in other languages as well. The companies often have clients in other countries already and want to expand, or they feel that they cannot reach enough people if they confine themselves to one language. Some are located in countries that are multilingual, like Switzerland, Canada or Luxemburg, and they want to cater to all of the languages spoken in their home country.

This does not apply quite as often to companies located in English speaking countries, but here in Germany it is rather normal to offer at least an English version of your website. The only exception being many local businesses who don’t need to reach out quite as far. But I feel they cater more and more to expats as well.

What is the best way to build a multilingual website with WordPress?

Well, in short: Their is no best way. This really depends on your website:

• What kind of content do you offer?
  • Do you write a blog in different languages?
  • Or do you basically provide information about your business, that is more “static” content?
• How many languages are you planning to offer?
• Will all languages get the same amount of new content?
  That is, you might offer a website with a blog in your main language but only your business information in other languages.
• Does your website have complex functionality, e.g. a shop?

Which options do we have?

There are two basic concepts in order to implement multilingualism:

• Using a plugin that allows for your to create different language versions of your content within one website.
• Using a WordPress Multisite install, that is creating a website for each of your language versions, and using a plugin to take care of the connection between the different versions.

Various language versions within the same website

There are a couple of free and premium plugins that allow you to create different language versions of your website within your single website.

The best known free plugin (with the option of adding functionality by buying the premium version) probably is Polylang, the best known plugin, that’s only available as a premium version probably is WPML.

You basically get the option to add additional languages to your WordPress install and now need to decide for each piece of content in which language you want to provide it. You are also able to interconnect the different language versions of an article. This allows for your readers to start in one language and switch languages for every individual piece of content they are reading.

So if you had 10 pages for your single language version of your website you will end up with 20 for 2 languages and so on. Same for posts and other types of content, e.g. products in a store.

This probably gives you an idea what the problem is with that kind of solution: If you are an avid writer you will pretty soon have a lot of posts that need keeping track of.

But there is another option as well:

Keeping your language versions strictly separated within a WordPress multisite install

WordPress can be turned into a so-called multisite install. And it is what it sounds like: It’s possible to organize multiple websites within one WordPress install. This way each language version gets its own website and the content stays strictly separated.

The premium plugin MultilingualPress uses this option to organize your different language versions and interconnect all of your content. It keeps things nice and tidy, and you won’t have problems with getting the correct translations at certain points, e.g. with contact forms or the check-out in your shop.

The drawback: Managing a WordPress multisite install is a bit more complex than managing a single site. There are some more error sources added to the mix and not all plugins like to be installed within a WordPress multisite.

It also is a rather pricy solution right now: It comes with a price tag of 199 $/year for one website*. Additionally, you might need more expensive versions of other premium plugins you might want to use, because multisite support often does not belong to the standard features of many plugins.

*There has been a rumor that there might be a smaller version as a free plugin within the WordPress plugin repository, but I haven’t heard more about it so far.

The post Making your WordPress website multilingual has first been published on start the loop_.