In today’s digital age, having an online presence is essential for any business or individual looking to establish themselves in the market. One of the key elements of building a website is choosing a domain name that accurately represents your brand or identity. Your customers should be able to remember how to access your website, and the name should be fairly easy to type in the browser. While free domain names are available, choosing a custom domain name has numerous benefits and is a worthwhile investment for anyone looking to establish a professional online presence. The top benefits of using a custom domain name for your website are as follows:

Brand Recognition

A custom domain name creates a memorable online identity for your business or personal brand. It’s much easier for customers to remember and return to your site if your domain name matches your business or brand name. This helps to build trust and credibility, and can lead to repeat business.

Improved SEO

A custom domain name can help improve your website’s search engine optimization (SEO) by making it easier for search engines to recognize and index your site. Using relevant keywords in your domain name can also improve your website’s ranking in search engine results pages.

Professionalism

A custom domain name adds a level of professionalism to your online presence. It shows that you have invested in your website and that you take your online identity seriously. This can be particularly important for small businesses looking to compete with larger competitors. Already, there are social norms that have been established where if a user sees that your domain is still held by a platform like Wix or Squarespace, they are less likely to trust the site.

Email Addresses

A custom domain name allows you to create professional email addresses that match your domain name. This adds to your brand’s credibility and professionalism, and can help improve communication with customers and clients.

Now that you understand the benefits of using a custom domain name, here are the steps you can follow to set one up through your web host:

1. Choose a domain name:

Start by choosing a domain name that accurately represents your brand or identity. It should be easy to remember, spell, and pronounce. Avoid using numbers and hyphens, as these can be confusing for users.

2. Check availability:

Use a domain registrar to check if your desired domain name is available. If it is already taken, you may need to choose a different name or consider using a different domain extension.

3. Purchase the domain:

Once you have found an available domain name, purchase it from a domain registrar. Many web hosting companies, such as HostGo, offer domain registration services so you can purchase your domain and hosting from the same provider.

4. Configure DNS:

Once you have purchased your domain name, you will need to configure the domain name system (DNS) settings to point to your web host. Your web host will provide you with the necessary DNS information, which you will need to enter into your domain registrar’s settings.

5. Set up hosting:

Finally, set up hosting for your website. Your web host will provide you with instructions on how to set up your website and upload your content. Once your website is live, you can start promoting it and building your online presence.

In conclusion, using a custom domain name has numerous benefits for anyone looking to establish a professional online presence. By following the steps outlined above, you can easily set up a custom domain name for your website through HostGo web hosting. With a memorable and professional domain name, you can improve your brand recognition, SEO, and overall online identity.

Web hosting providers play a critical role, if not the key role, in your website’s security. It may be hard to imagine that your website belonging to you, your organization or business would be the target of threats, however the data shows that a cyber attack occurs every 39 seconds and so it is worth taking steps to protect your site. In this blog post, we’ll discuss the primary web security threats from a web hosting perspective and provide you with the practical solutions to help keep your website and users safe.

Web Security Threats

Malware and Virus Infections

Malware and virus infections can occur on a website when hackers insert malicious code. This code can infect website visitors and steal their data, damage their devices, or even gain control over their systems.

Brute Force Attacks

Brute force attacks involve repeatedly attempting to log in to a website using various username and password combinations. If the attacker succeeds, they can gain access to sensitive information and wreak havoc on your website.

DDoS Attacks

DDoS attacks involve overwhelming a website with traffic from multiple sources, making it unavailable to legitimate users.

Web Security Solutions

Regular Backups

Hosting providers should regularly backup website data and maintain multiple copies of backups. Backups can restore websites to their previous state before a security breach occurs.

Best Practices

Web hosts can enforce strong password policies that require users to create complex passwords that are difficult to guess or crack, along with limiting the number of failed login attempts a user can make in a given time period. For example, after three failed login attempts, the user’s account can be locked out for a specified period. It is smart for a host to monitor server logs to detect and prevent brute force attacks in real-time. While these might seem obvious, it is important to look for a web host that implements these practices on a regular basis and advertises that to you as their customer.

Secure Server Environment

Hosting providers should use firewalls, intrusion detection systems, and antivirus software to secure their servers from attacks. Additionally, hosting providers can limit access to sensitive data by restricting access to certain IP addresses.

SSL Certificates

Secure Socket Layer (SSL) certificates encrypt data transmissions between web servers and visitors. Hosting providers can offer SSL certificates as an added security measure.

When choosing a web host, it’s important to be educated about the types of security threats your website will likely face, and that you are equipped to look for the right qualifications of the host and be able to adequately communicate your concerns for them to address. Sozo Technologies keeps your website’s safety as top priority when it comes to hosting through our brand, HostGo. Our dedicated experts ensure that all of our equipment and processes allow your website to operate safely and securely. You can learn more about our web hosting plans here.

 

 

You’ve heard all the talk about Office 365. Your employees have been dropping hints about it. You’ve even taken a look at all the tools and features and now you’re wondering if Office 365 really is the solution for your small business. The answer is yes. Office 365 can help your employees work together in new and more efficient ways. But, Office 365 is more than just a set of tools. It’s a new way of working. Here are seven reasons small business owners should consider using Office 365.

1. Stay up and running, no matter what happens

Let’s face it. If your in-house system crashes or your office building is destroyed by a fire or flood, you’re stuck. You have no data, servers or website. Statistics collected in 2015 by the U.S. Institute for Business and Home Safety showed that 25% of small businesses do not reopen following a major disaster. If you send your data to the cloud, all your business documents and applications, such as email, will always available. You’ll be up and running, no matter what happens.

2. Data security and control

Data security in the cloud is no longer an issue. Office 365 has built-in security and continuous compliance so small businesses can focus on the right things. You always know where your data is and who has access to it. You can also remotely wipe all data if you lose your mobile device. So, go ahead and store your data safely in the cloud. Storing your data online also keeps it safe in case something happens. Imagine losing your laptop or breaking it? Thanks to 1TB of OneDrive online storage, your data is safer than ever before.

3. You can work anywhere at anytime

Working remotely used to mean you needed help from an IT friend or cousin to set up a Virtual Private Network (VPN) so you could access your files from the office. With Office 365, this isn’t necessary. You don’t need any special configuration or IT skills. All you need is an internet connection and you can start working. It’s that simple!

4. Get Organized

Meetings, email and contact management are a big part of everyday life in a small business. When you use Office 365, email, calendar and contacts are all synchronized to work together. Update a contact on your mobile phone and it will be automatically updated across all your devices. This is a really cool feature to help small businesses get the most from Office 365. You can also access the same data from any device. Save a document on your PC and continue working on it on your mobile or tablet.

5. Predictable Monthly cost

This one is pretty cool for small businesses. Forget about upfront costs! Office 365 has a flexible monthly billing process that lets you add or decrease the number of users to suit your needs. You’re not locked into a contract and you change plans at any time to suit your growing business needs. This kind of scalable solution might be exactly what a small business is looking for to get started in the cloud. Since you don’t have to worry about upfront costs, it will be easier to fit this solution into your monthly budget.

6. Larger mailbox storage

We all have this tendency to store all our email messages in our inboxes. Sometimes we try to clean it up, but we end up keeping every single email we’ve ever sent or received. With Office 365, this kind of housekeeping is behind you! You can say goodbye to that red popup that reminds you it’s time to clean up your email. Instead, say hello to 50GB of email storage space.

7. No more licensing mess!

Sorting out software licenses can be a real headache for a small business owner. One of your employees might be using one version, while another employee is using an upgrade of that same version. The result? You don’t know how to bring everyone up to speed so they’re all working on the same version. Office 365 includes all licensing and it can be deployed company wide. This means everyone has the same version of Microsoft Office, and all users will get upgrades at the same time.

Follow these suggestions, and watch your website rise the ranks to the top of search-engine results.

1. Publish Relevant Content

Quality content is the number one driver of your search engine rankings and there is no substitute for great content. Quality content created specifically for your intended user increases site traffic, which improves your site’s authority and relevance.

Identify a keyword phrase for each page. Think about how your reader might search for that specific page (with phrases like “Italian restaurant in Indiana,” “best Italian chicken parmigiana,” or “taste of Italy”). Then, repeat this phrase several times throughout the page—once or twice in the opening and closing paragraphs, and two to four more times throughout the remaining content.

Don’t forget to use bold, italics, heading tags, and other emphasis tags to highlight keyword phrases, but don’t overdo it.

Never sacrifice good writing for SEO. The best pages are written for the user, not for the search engine.

2. Update Your Content Regularly

You’ve probably noticed that we feel pretty strongly about content. Search engines do, too. Regularly updated content is viewed as one of the best indicators of a site’s relevancy, so be sure to keep it fresh.

3. Metadata

When designing your website, each page contains a space between the <head> tags to insert metadata, or information about the contents of your page. If you have a WordPress, Joomla or similar CMS (content management system), you may have to use a plugin to insert the relevant metadata.

Title Metadata

Title metadata is responsible for the page titles displayed at the top of a browser window. It is the most important metadata on your page.

Description Metadata

Description metadata is the textual description that a browser will use in your page search return. Think of it as your site’s window display—a concise and appealing description of what is contained within, with the goal of encouraging people to enter.

Keyword Metadata

Keyword metadata are the search phrases that people type when they want to find your page. You’ll want to include a variety of phrases. However, don’t get greedy: if your list becomes excessive, the browser may completely ignore the data. As a general rule, try to keep it to about 6-8 phrases with each phrase consisting of 1-4 words. A great example would be “local Italian restaurant.”

4. Have a link-worthy site

Focus on creating relevant links within the text. Instead of having “click here” links, try writing out the name of the destination. “Click here” has no search engine value beyond the attached URL, whereas “crispy artichoke hearts with creamy sauce recipe” is rich with keywords and will improve your search engine rankings as well as the ranking of the page you are linking to.

5. Use alt tags

Always describe your visual and video media using alt tags, or alternative text descriptions. They allow search engines to locate your page, which is crucial—especially for those who use text-only browsers.

Many small businesses fail to implement regular preventative maintenance for their computer networks. With the complexity of day-to-day operations, data backup may be the last of a small business owner’s worries. But the nature of small businesses is what makes online backup so crucial – a small business can be completely wiped out by a data loss event.

Your business data is vulnerable:

• 100% of disk and tape drives will eventually fail.
• An average of 50% of critical corporate data resides on unprotected PC desktops and laptops.
• Computer viruses cost U.S. businesses upwards of $55 billion in damages.
• 60% of small businesses go out of business within 6 months of a critical data loss.

Don’t become a statistic. Use Sozo’s Cloud Backup to secure your data.

If you invest time and resources into your business,  you should invest in your backup system.

Isn’t my IT Department enough?

In a word, no. No matter how capable your IT Department may be, they deal with multiple tasks throughout the course of your business. Cloud Backup is our job. It’s our specialty. And not to brag, but we’re really good at it.

But we backup our files daily!

Unfortunately, in-house backup systems are notoriously unreliable and highly likely to fail in the event of a data loss. Some 40% of enterprise backups fail – even with professional system administrators and costly software.

Oftentimes, shortcomings are discovered only after a major event wipes out significant data.

• Only 34% of companies actually test their tape backups once they’re in place.
• Of the 34% that test, more than three-quarters find failures in their backup systems.

After a disaster or data loss event, your business may stop while you attempt to repair your network, or find someone who will. Our Cloud Backup will save time and help you avoid costly repair bills. With so much on the line, secure your information online.

Sozo Cloud Backup is:

• Simple. One-Click File Sharing lets you share files with anyone with an email address.
• Powerful. Our powerful recovery tool keeps an unlimited version history of all your files. This exclusive tool allows you to recover any version of your file from any given date.
• Secure. We use a three-tiered encryption system which encrypts data on the user’s computer, again in transit and finally when at rest in storage.

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Contact us for a free quote. Secure your system today!