Dear Exclusive Web Fam,
Due to the current COVID-19 pandemic, SA will be going into lockdown as of 23:59 on Thursday 26 March 2020.
We have put the following measures in place to ensure that we continue to provide you with uninterrupted service:
All support staff will be working from remote locations/home as of 26 March 2020 and we have provided backup power/inverters, laptops, and LTE backup connectivity to ensure we stay online during the 21-day lockdown.
Remote staff situated near our Datacenter providers will be on standby to resolve any issues should there be any.
The Exclusive Web team will remain online and our operating hours will not be affected during the 21-day lockdown.
All support channels will remain operational and it will be "business as usual" from our side.
Our top priority remains the health and safety of both our clients and team members. We will ensure that all services remain online during these tough times.
We wish you all the best and stay safe.
Stay abreast of the COVID-19 Pandemic by visiting the SA Coronavirus website.
Best regards,
The Exclusive Web Hosting Team
Social media is a powerful marketing tool and because it is (mostly) free, many small businesses feel there is no need for a website. This couldn't be further from the truth. The fact is, social media is just a marketing tool, whereas a website is your business's digital premises. Alone, social media isn't enough to promote your small business online. But combine it with a website and it will boost your online presence quite a bit.
Using social media alone isn't enough to market your business online. At the very least, you will need a professionally designed website to succeed online.
Here are 5 reasons why social media isn't enough to promote your small business online:
Social media was created as a place where people can socialize and engage with businesses. It isn't intended as a place to sell your products or services.
While it is a great place to share your content and engage with clients, ultimately, you need to be pointing your clients to your website where they can get the information they need.
Think about it, social media platforms show us feeds, so nothing is really organised. You'll see the latest posts by a company on their page, but you'd need to do a lot of scrolling to see everything they have to offer. This can be quite frustrating for a potential client who is looking for a particular service / product which you might offer.
A website, however, will have everything neatly organised into various categories and pages. It has clear navigation, which makes finding something specific a lot easier.
Go onto your favorite social media platform and look at your feed. Notice how many business posts you see compared to posts by friends and family who you follow. The same is true of your target audience. This is because the algorithms used to personalise that feed are based on your preferences - such as the posts you like or share.
I'm not saying that social media shouldn't be used, it's actually a fantastic marketing tool and should definitely be used, but it needs to be used properly in conjunction with a website to make it effective.
While you are the owner of your content on social media platforms, the platform itself is still owned by someone else. This means that should anything happen to the platform, or your account be closed, you lose your content.
With a website, you own the domain and space you're renting, so it's yours and you have full control over it.
Keep in mind that free websites pose the same risk. The difference with those free websites is that you do not own the content you post there. And should you want to move to a proper hosting platform, you will be unable to move the site you created.
Social media platforms aren't used by everyone so you're not reaching your entire target audience by using these platforms alone. On the other hand, everyone uses the internet to search for something they're looking for.
To be found in these searches though, you're going to need to do some search engine optimizations and market your business. This does take time, so don't be disheartened when you aren't found immediately. Which is actually where social media comes into play. Both work hand in hand to getting your business online and reaching your target audience.
Have you ever found a business through social media and looked for their website address but found none? How did it make you feel about that business? You were probably disappointed and left to look for one who did have a website. Or, you didn't bother looking through social media and went straight to Google / Bing / Yahoo (whichever your search engine of choice is) and looked for someone with a website right?
This is why social media isn't enough and you need a website as well if you want to succeed online.
While social media is an excellent platform to promote your business, you still need a website where people can find all the information they need in order to purchase your product / service.
Still not convinced that social media isn't enough to promote your business? Head on over to our article about the benefits of a website for your small business for more information.
Looking for the perfect website for your small business? Choose the package that best suits your needs to get started.
With more people searching for local businesses every day, it has become imperative to get your business online or get left behind.
And while it may seem like a daunting task to get your business online, in reality it's actually very easy. That's why we've compiled this guide with easy to understand, easy to follow steps to get your business online quickly.
To get started, you're going to need a website, domain name and hosting. Then once that's done, you'll need to get started with marketing.
Before we go through the purchase process, let's briefly discuss domains, hosting and websites.
A domain is the name registered for your website and email. It is the address where you visit a website, ie. www.exclusiveweb.co.za, and it is the address where you send emails to and from, ie. info@exclusiveweb.co.za.
You need a domain name if you're going to have a website and use emails. And while you could get a free email address from google or similar, having a unique domain will add a lot more credibility and trust.
If you think of your domain name as a physical address (like your business address), hosting can be likened to your business premises. So hosting is where your website and emails are stored, while a domain name is the address where they are located.
You may be wondering why you need a website when you have access to free social media. The answer is that social media isn't enough. Since we've written an in depth article about the benefits of having a website for your business we're just going to list a quick summary of those benefits here:
Looking at all the options available, you may be unsure which package to choose. So let's take a look at those packages and discuss which one is best suited to your needs.
Now that we know what a domain name is, why you need hosting and why social media isn't enough, let's go through the process of purchasing a website design package. (The process is the same for all hosting packages)
Step 1: Go to your page of choice (web hosting or reseller hosting) and select your desired package.
Step 2: Enter your domain of choice and click check. If the domain is available it will automatically be added to your shopping cart. If you wish, you can add more domains before continuing.
Step 3: Choose your billing cycle, check that you have the correct package selected, then click continue.
Step 4: If you wish to add domain ID protection, you can do so here before clicking continue. ID protection masks all your personal information when someone does a WHOIS search on your domain.
Step 5: Double check your package, domain and cart total. If you have a promo code, you can enter that then validate it before clicking checkout.
Step 6: Enter all your details here, then scroll down. Please note, you'll need to enter details for everything that isn't marked as optional.
Step 7: Tick the "I have read and agreed to the Terms of Service" box then click complete order. When you click on the word "Terms of Service" a new page will open with the Terms of Service.
Step 8: After clicking Complete Order, you'll be redirected to the invoice page where you can click Pay Now. If you choose Subscribe, the payment gateway (PayFast) will automatically debit your account each month. Please note that we do not keep any card details.
Step 9: Choose your payment method of choice then continue with payment. Once payment is completed, you'll be redirected to your client zone.
Step 10: You'll receive emails from us confirming your order and payment as well as an email containing your account details. Please keep this last email safe as you'll need the login details to access your client zone and services.
So your website is up and now you're wondering how to get visitors to your website. This is where marketing comes in. We've written a detailed guide on marketing your business on a budget, so here's a quick summary list for you:
So to get your business online and ahead of the competition you need a domain name, hosting, a website and marketing.
We wanted to show you just how great LiteSpeed is in comparison to Apache. So we decided to run a web hosting speed test between ourselves and three other hosts. In addition to this, we wanted to compare the performance of LiteSpeed's LSCache plugin to WP Super Cache.
So for the best results, we split our tests into two categories - Unoptimized vs Optimized - and created a website which would mimic the average website out there.
In order to do the web hosting speed test, we created a one page WordPress website with images, text, parallax effects and animations. We also used Beaver Builder as it is a lightweight page builder to create the website.
We installed the following plugins:
The web hosting speed test was done using:
We then took the averages from these tests and created graphs to show our findings.
What exactly do we mean by unoptimized? We uploaded the website as is without optimizing the images, caching, page speed etc.
Let's take a look at the results below:
Scoring Scale: 90-100 (Fast) - 50-89 (Average) - 0-49 (Slow)
This is measured by the time you navigate to the website to the time when the browser renders the first bit of content.
This is the time it takes for a page to become interactive.
This is the time it takes for a page to fully load upon a second visit once the browser has cached certain items on the page.
Check out the results for yourself
[fl_builder_insert_layout slug="photogallery"]
For the optimized portion of our tests, we gathered all the optimization suggestions from our various tests and put them in place. Since some optimizations could not be done without breaking the sites, we had to leave those out. Furthermore, all websites were optimized in the same way with the only difference being the caching and optimization plugin used. And where the plugin did not edit the .htacess file, we did so ourselves.
WP Super Cache was installed on the Apache hosted websites, and LSCache was installed on the LiteSpeed hosted website. We also activated the LiteSpeed caching function on the server. The only problem with WP Super Cache is that it doesn't provide optimization, just caching, so we went ahead and installed Autoptimize as well.
Before performing the optimized web hosting speed test, we also cleared our browser cache for accurate results.
Let's take a look at the results below:
Scoring Scale: 90-100 (Fast) - 50-89 (Average) - 0-49 (Slow)
This is measured by the time you navigate to the website to the time when the browser renders the first bit of content.
This is the time it takes for a page to become interactive.
This is the time it takes for a page to fully load upon a second visit once the browser has cached certain items on the page.
Check out the results for yourself
[fl_builder_insert_layout slug="optimized-speed-tests"]
Since the majority of websites are not properly optimized, we found the differences in the unoptimized web hosting speed test to be very interesting. Especially important to note is the First Contentful Paint. For this, Google recommends a time of under 2 seconds to prevent users from becoming frustrated and leaving your website.
LiteSpeed Web Server is one of the fastest web server applications available today. It is a drop in replacement for Apache, which means it is compatible with Apache features like .htaccess, mod_rewrite and mod_security.
LiteSpeed replaces all Apache functions which makes it a lot less complex and easier to use, unlike other solutions that act as front-end proxies. It has built in anti-DDoS features which alleviates server load and keeps the server running during DDoS attempts.
Many hosts still use Apache which is free and has been around since 1995, while LiteSpeed is a paid for web server and has only been around since 2002. We've decided to run all our servers using LiteSpeed to provide you with the best speeds and performance possible.
Because LiteSpeed is an event-driven server it is able to handle a lot more concurrent connections compared to Apache which is process based. What this means is that, with LiteSpeed, each process is able to handle multiple requests. Unlike Apache, where each process is only able to handle one request at a time.
Imagine for a moment your web server is a busy restaurant and the customers are the requests the server needs to handle.
In a process-based restaurant, each employee (process) serves one customer (request). So the employee takes the order, makes the food, and takes payment.
If there are 5 customers, your restaurant needs 5 employees to assist these customers. But what happens when you don't have enough employees? The customer will need to wait, a queue will form and customers will leave.
Now imagine the same amount of customers for the event-driven restaurant.
One employee takes everyone's orders and relays this to the chef. The chef cooks all the meals and gives the order back to another employee who delivers these meals.
Once the customers have eaten, they pay another employee and leave, and when more customers arrive, there is no queue as the employee who takes the orders is available to do so.
The LiteSpeed LSCache plugin is also available for all popular CMS such as WordPress, Joomla, Drupal and Magento. It is much faster than other caching plugins available and is packed with a variety of features to deliver superior performance to your CMS sites.
Are you looking for fast hosting? Then check out our web hosting, reseller hosting and website design packages. We use LiteSpeed on all our web servers and all CMS users have access to the LS Cache plugin free of charge.
Oakly Capital, the holding company for cPanel, has recently announced a cPanel price hike for all licenses. This has severely affected the hosting industry world wide and has caused a major uproar from hosting providers. In this announcement, cPanel mentioned that they will no longer be providing server licenses for unlimited users and will instead charge per user.
The company explained the change in its updated licensing guide, saying that:
When cPanel defined its original pricing structure, some twenty plus years ago, servers were not as powerful as they are today. Thanks to constant innovation in the hardware sector and optimization in our software, we can now run hundreds of websites on a single processor system. With this change, we align ourselves with this growing technology.
In the past, a cPanel license for one server was set to $45 for unlimited accounts. Now, with the pricing restructure, the same cPanel license of $45 only covers 100 cPanel accounts. Additional accounts will be charged at $0.20 each.
As a web hosting customer, this will have no impact on you as our pricing structure includes the cPanel license. However, it will have an impact on all resellers. We have amended our reseller packages to limit the amount of cPanel accounts as a temporary measure while we investigate alternative options for our resellers.
In the mean time, resellers have access to a reasonable amount of cPanel accounts free of charge and can purchase additional accounts for R3.50 each via the client zone.
We'd like to provide our customers with the best hosting experience and since cPanel is a well known and widely used control panel, we want to make sure that we find the best possible alternative before we implement it.
WordPress is the most popular CMS used today. And with more than 30% of all websites powered by WordPress it is no wonder that hackers focus a lot of attention on these sites. It doesn’t matter what kind of content you have on your WordPress website… if you don’t take precautions to secure your WordPress website, you’re likely to get hacked.
So let’s take a look at 15 ways you can secure your WordPress website.
It may be tempting to choose the cheapest hosting available, however, cheap web hosting often means the server administrator hasn’t purchased additional security software and there are no additional layers of security in place.
Rather choose a hosting company who has installed additional security software and configured the server to protect against attacks. You might pay more, but at least you’ll know you have extra security against malicious intent.
When installing a WordPress website, you have the option to change the database prefix. The generic one is wp_. Change this to something random which has no connection to your site content.
The first thing hackers do is try the usual admin user names so it is important to use a random name which can’t easily be guessed.
Avoid using the company name or your personal name for the admin login and rather create a secondary account for posting articles which has limited access to back end functionality.
Use a very strong password which is hard to guess for all your accounts. If you’re unsure, use a password generator. I may be a bit paranoid when I create my passwords, but I usually string two passwrods together for that extra bit of protection.
A good WordPress security plugin is essential to keeping your WordPress website secure. It will scan for viruses and malware, protect you from brute force attacks and blacklist suspicious IPs.
Some plugins will allow you to rewrite your login url and allow you to login via email. Other will also have anti-spam measures in place and will protect your forms.
A lot of problems arise when using some themes and plugins, especially the free ones, so do a lot of research before installing a theme / plugin and read the reviews to ensure the theme / plugin is kept up to date and is secure.
Stay away from cracked themes / plugins as they contain hidden malicious code which could destroy your website and database or get access to your admin credentials.
If you security plugin allows it (and a good one will), limit the amount of login attempts to the back-end and additionally, only allow logins from trusted IP addresses.
Futhermore, you can change your wp-admin and wp-login url to something random which will further protect you from brute force attacks.
Install an SSL certificate to secure your WordPress website data. A good hosting company will provide free and auto SSL certificates, so all you need to do is ensure the certificate has been installed and that your website is using HTTPS instead of HTTP.
An SSL certificate encrypts data being sent to and from the server, so this is a vital security measure if you’re using any kind of form on your website.
No matter how secure your WordPress website is, it’s always a good idea to make regular backups. While your hosting company may provide you with regular backups, you’ll want to ensure you have your own backups which can be downloaded to a local drive as well.
A big part in keeping your WordPress site secure is to update it often. WordPress sends out updates regularly to close any security flaws they find. So as soon as an update is released, it is a good idea to apply it. This applies to the core files, themes and plugins.
Ensure you are using the latest PHP version as any versions older than two years will no longer be supported. This means that any vulnerabilities in older, unsupported versions are no longer being fixed.
WordPress security keys are random variables which improve the encryption of information stored in the user’s cookies.
WordPress has a free tool which you can use to generate these keys. You can update your current keys which are stored in your wp-config file.
Check your file and folder permissions and ensure that the correct permissions are in place. Your wp-config file should be set to 440 or 400 to prevent other users on the server from reading.
Additionally, you’ll want to move your wp-config to a new location in your hosting environment. To do so, copy everything from your wp-config to a new file then place the following snippet in your old wp-config file to point to the new location:
<?php
include('/home/yourname/wp-config.php');
Note: the directory path may differ based on your web host and setup.
Another step you can take to further secure your WordPress site is by using the latest HTTP security headers. In a LiteSpeed environment, these headers are placed in your .htaccess file. If you cannot see your .htaccess file, simply unhide the file in your cPanel File Manager. And if it’s still not there, you’ll need to create a new one.
There are a lot of HTTP security headers, but the most important ones are:
To see which HTTP headers are currently running on your WordPress site, open Chrome devtools, go to Network and press Ctrl + R to reload the page, then click on the url and headers.
If your WordPress site has multiple users and administrators, it is a good idea to disable file editing in order to further secure your WordPress website. Not only does this prevent users from editing your files, but it also prevents outside access to your files.
To do so, go to your wp-config file and add the following code:
// Disallow file edit
define( ‘DISALLOW_FILE_EDIT’, true );
To sum it all up, here are the 15 things you can do to secure your WordPress website:
So, what can you do to be proactive as a shared hosting customer? In a nutshell, being a proactive shared hosting customer involves securing your website against malicious attacks. And it’s pretty easy to do.
Let’s start by asking ourselves a few questions:
Common CMS platforms include WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, Magento etc. There’s a LOT of them available, and WordPress is the most popular with over 30% of websites using it.
The most important part of maintaing a secure CMS installation is to keep it up to date. It is vital to update the core CMS, themes and plugins as soon as an update is released.
These updates usually close any security holes which have been discovered, so apply them as soon as they’re released.
SSL certificates secure the transfer of data, like account details, passwords and payment information.
Gone are the days when SSL was only necessary for bank or ecommerce websites. Nowadays, it’s important to have an SSL certificate installed for all websites.
Basically an SSL certificate protects you and your users from electronic eavesdroppers and keeps your data safe.
The most common password used today is still 123456 and it is the first password a hacker will try when attempting to access your account.
So create a tough password which is hard to guess. Better yet, use a password generator and keep that password in a safe place.
Don’t use the same password for everything either. Once one account is compromised, all other accounts will become compromised.
Where possible, use 2-factor authentication. This additional layer of security will further protect your accounts.
Most websites allow for user input in some form or another. Whether it is a contact form, newsletter subscription or log in form, these forms are susceptible to malicious intent.
What do I mean by malicious intent? Malicious users have the ability to inject code into your forms and can change or steal information. This is known as SQL injection.
Here are a few articles you can read to secure your forms from these kinds of attacks.
Your website files and folders will have certain permissions which allow users, groups or everyone to read, write or execute them.
For instance, you might hear someone talking about giving a file permissions of 777. This is a very bad idea as it allows all users, groups and everyone the ability to read, write and execute the file. This means EVERYONE can change the file.
Understanding these numbers and how to use them is not covered in this article, however, I encourage you to read up on it further.
You can be a proactive shared hosting customer by keeping your CMS up to date, using an SSL certificate, using strong passwords, protecting your forms and ensure the correct file permissions are used.
In this article we discuss what to look for in a good web hosting company.
Web hosting in South Africa has grown exponentially over the last few years and with it comes an increase in web hosting providers. Having a wide range of web hosts to choose from is great, however it also becomes difficult to choose a good web hosting company for your needs. Since there are so many factors to consider when choosing a web host, we decided to take a look at some of the more important ones.
Most of the time we’re tempted to go with the cheapest option available, but this might not always suit our needs. Cheap hosting is cheap because the packages are severely limited. Some functionality isn’t included or it is up sold instead. The shared hosting environment is usually over-crowded and running on old or cheap hardware.
A good web hosting company will charge a bit more, but with the additional cost, you get additional benefits. Good web hosts will include all the functionality you need to run your website and will make it easy to do so. The servers they provide will also be high quality servers and won’t be over crowded either.
After sales support, customer service and technical support are all extremely important when it comes to looking for a good web hosting company. If things go wrong, you need that someone to be there for you to fix those issues as soon as possible. Aint nobody got time to wait! And we get that! A lot of hosts promise excellent support and don’t always deliver. So it is important to read the reviews to see what kind of support you’re going to get.
A good web hosting company will have highly trained, highly knowledgeable staff. They will be able to provide you with the support you need and will have a short turnaround time. Their staff should also be trained in the basics of website design in order to assist you with any issues you might have.
Server reliability and security are just as important to your business as decent premises and security staff. You want your website to live in a secure environment in order to protect your sensitive data. You also want that peace of mind know your website will always be online.
A good web hosting company with provide you with additional layers of security. They will also monitor their servers 24/7 to prevent any down time. Look for a host who can protect against DDoS attacks as well as one who can provide additional mail security. A good host will also provide you with free and auto SSL certificates.
Another important factor to consider when choosing a host is the kind of hardware being used as well as the server software. Many hosts use Apache because it’s free but unfortunately not as fast as LiteSpeed. This will affect your website performance, especially if you’re using a CMS like WordPress.
You’ll also want to look for a host that provides additional redundancy measures by configuring their hard-drives in a RAID array. And, you’ll want a host whose servers are not overcrowded and have a lot of CPU cores and memory available for the shared hosting environment. The more resources the host has, the more you have access to.
This section ties in closely with pricing since many cheap packages are extremely limited in features and other hardware limitations. Another problem is that more often than not, there’s very little transparency with what you’re actually getting. It’s a good idea to see exactly what it is you’re paying for and get the best value for money before going for the cheapest option.
A good host will provide you all the features you need to successfully host your website. The limitations will also be well suited to hosting your website properly without affecting your peers.
When it comes to parting with your money, you’ll want to ensure you have the option to back out if you’re unsatisfied with the product / service. So look for a host that provides you with satisfactory refund guarantees. Read the web hosting company’s policies as well as user reviews to see whether refunds are honored.
Emails are very important to a business when it comes to looking for a web hosting company. You’ll want to find a host who provides additional security, spam prevention and redundancy measures for your emails. Keep in mind that in a shared hosting environment, everyone shares the IP address and if anyone abuses the email system by sending spam, you’ll be affected as well.
Most hosting companies allow the purchase of dedicated IP addresses due to the fact that an IP address can get a bad reputation. We’ve gone a step further and provide all our resellers with a free dedicated IP to further prevent IP’s becoming black listed.
Having your content backed-up regularly is another vital step in security and redundancy. Anything can go wrong and if your stuff isn’t backed-up, you lose it all. So look for a host who will provide you with regular backups at no additional charge… You shouldn’t have to pay for something that is automated anyway.
Also check to make sure that these backups are actually happening, and as an additional measure, create your own backups as well.
To sum it all up, you’ll want to find a good hosting provider whose pricing is reasonable, but not cheap. Whose support staff is highly trained, efficient and effective and will respond to your tickets quickly. The hosts’ servers need to be reliable and the hardware needs to be up to scratch for a shared web hosting environment. A good host will also provide you with all the features you need and will be transparent with the limitations set. Backups and email security is also essential to a good hosting environment and if need be, a refund guarantee.
To fully understand what shared web hosting is, we’ll liken it to an apartment building.
Think of the building as the web hosting server.
You don’t own the building, but you might rent an apartment from the person who does own the building.
Since you’re sharing the building with your neighbours, there will be some rules you need to follow.
For instance, you need to be mindful of the noise you make, and you can’t do any structural damage to the building. These kind of things will affect your neighbours and your landlord will probably kick you out.
But, it is still your apartment and you get to decide who can visit or who can’t. You are the one in control of the security of your apartment. You’re also able to decorate and furnish as you please. After all, it is your home.
However, you’ll need to rely on your landlord to do certain things such as:
So now you have a website and you begin your search for a web hosting provider. Most of the time you’ll come across two options: Shared Web Hosting and Dedicated Web Hosting.
Dedicated web hosting would be similar to you renting the entire apartment building, where with shared web hosting, you only rent a space inside the apartment building.
With dedicated web hosting, you’ll need to configure the server yourself, but with a shared hosting environment, the server administrator configures the server.
Shared web hosting is more suited to single websites which don’t see millions of visitors each month.
Who you choose to purchase your shared web hosting from, what’s on offer and how much it costs will be important factors for you to consider. After all, they’re going to be your websites landlords for as long as you stay with them.
Earlier we spoke about your neighbours in an apartment block, and the same applies for a shared web hosting environment. Your website will be hosted on a server that’s also hosting other people’s websites.
This usually doesn’t affect you. If you chose wisely, and you’ve got a knowledgeable and reliable server administrator, then you environment will be secured and isolated in such a way that you never have to deal with other people occupying the server.
However, if you abuse your resources then that does affect your neighbours.
If you’ve set up an insecure environment, you might quickly become targeted by malicious users. So unbeknownst to you, you may have had your email compromised as a result of a security flaw. This can affect other users if your email accounts are sending out masses of spam mail and it blocks the email queue.
So even though your system administrator is doing everything to secure the host environment, you’ll also need to do your part and be a responsible and proactive shared web hosting customer.
A shared web hosting environment is one that you share with multiple other people. You have a server administrator who takes care of the server and will secure the server. You rent a portion of the server in order to host your website, and while your portion doesn’t affect other users, there are times when, due to malicious activities, it might affect the server as a whole.
