custom wordpress theme – Tech Warrior

I am concerned about my site being hacked. How do I prevent this?

Matthew Green — Thu, 22 Oct 2020 00:30:00 +0000

What does being hacked mean?

What exactly does the word hacking or hack mean? Why would someone or something want to hack my small business website?

The word hack is often used in a number of ways, depending on what is being hacked. For this article we are going to focus on what it means in relation to a website. Someone (a person) or something (a bot or computer program) attempts to gain unauthorised access (breaking in) to your website with a view to do something with it (stealing data, using the computer’s resources) for something other than what it was originally intended to do.

Why would someone hack my small business website?

Often the answer is related to money. I won’t go into the different types of money or the idea that there is not enough - there is approximately US $37 trillion in circulation so there is more than enough. Hackers extend the effort because it can be an easy way to make money. Almost all attacks (hacking attempts) are automated. The reason behind the attacks runs from harmless to severe.

In the former, someone might just be trying to see if they can. Usually this is the domain of pranksters. If the attempt is successful what usually happens is that the homepage is defaced with no real harm being done.

In the latter, the website might be used as a springboard to infecting other websites so that the computing power of the server can be used for spam. Spam is a numbers game which is why there is so much of it. The website could be infiltrated with links trying to boost dubious and dodgy sites in Google so they come up higher in the search results. At its worst, the hacker could set up the website so it tries to install software on unsuspecting future website visitors with a view to extorting money.

Purchasing domain names carefully is a very important aspect of owning a website. Having a website is an important part of running a business. Make sure you are the rightful registered owner of your domain name.

What can I do to stop my site from being hacked?

All websites are vulnerable when it comes to being hacked. WordPress based websites are often targeted more than other sites because of how popular WordPress is. In a similar way to how Windows based computers are targeted due to the number of computers running Windows. Tech Warrior uses WordPress to build all versions of its Small Business Websites product. There are some guidelines for ensuring your website, WordPress or otherwise, stays safe and secure from hacking attempts.

We suggest following these three steps to make sure your website is protected against hacking.

Choose a good hosting provider
Change the default username and password
Keep your website software up to date

Choose a good hosting provider

Not all website hosting providers are created equally. Cheap hosting providers often provide the bare minimum. You could be vulnerable to a hacking attempt if the hosting is not properly or securely set-up.

Change the default username and password

If you use a content management system or web builder like WordPress, make sure you change the default login name and choose a strong password. Often hackers will take a chance and try using the login name and password as their first and easiest entry point.

Keep your website software up to date

Out of date software and in the case of WordPress, plugins, are also an easy entry point for hackers. Keeping software up to date ensures that any bugs or holes that could be exploited by an attacker or hacker are minimised.

Do your part

At Tech Warrior we have a Website Armour product that keeps the website software, WordPress, and the plugins up to date. In addition it checks for viruses and other nasty bugs. It also comes with offsite backups as a further layer of security.

When it comes to keeping your website safe from hacking, nothing is 100 percent attack proof. There are often stories in the news that cover hacking attempts and security breaches. The best you can do is ensure that you follow some best practices as outlined above and ensure that you do your part.

If you define yourself by how you differ from the competition, you’re probably in trouble.
—Omar Hamoui

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What is the best WordPress theme for my website?

Matthew Green — Fri, 16 Oct 2020 10:02:50 +0000

There’s a difference between best and popular. Just because something is popular doesn’t make it the best. And, often, something that is the best might not always be the most popular. The same applies when it comes to choosing a WordPress theme for your website. In this article I’ll show you how to decide what the best WordPress theme is for you.

Before choosing a theme for your website it’s useful to answer the following questions.

What kind of website do I want for my business?
How much am I willing to spend?
What is my website experience level?

What kind of website do I want for my business?

Are you just starting out with a website for your business? Is it a do-over, refresh or upgrade? What about adding in extra functions, like an online shop? Planning is key when it comes to doing anything. You wouldn’t build a house without a plan and your website is the same. Spending time upfront getting clear on what your needs are will stand you in good stead down the line.

The expert at anything was once a beginner.
—Helen Hayes

Get clear on what the theme must do for your website. WordPress started out as a tool for blogging and has since evolved into a powerful website management system that runs 34 percent of all websites on the Internet. If you can imagine it, there’s a good chance that you can build that kind of site with WordPress. There’s a but though. The more sophisticated and intricate you want a website to be, the more you will impact the next two factors - cost and experience.

Brainstorm and get as much detail on what your website must do for you and your business. Look at what you want the website to do now, in six months and a year. And then plan for that. At this stage don’t worry about the how. Just get clear at a high level on what your expectations are. Product sales? Weekly updates? Membership of a group or club? And so on.

How much am I willing to spend?

Once you have a clear idea of what the website must do the next step is to consider costs. You can get a free WordPress theme or you can pay for a theme. Theme cost is not the only consideration when it comes to working out a website budget. How much of the website building or development are you doing yourself? How much will you have to get someone else to do? What about where the website will live (be hosted)? Again, it’s useful to make a list and plan so that you can see very clearly all the costs that go into a website. Do you have a logo and colour scheme for the website?

Once you know what your overall website budget is, you can decide more easily how much you want to spend on the theme? Does the budget have room for a fancy theme, with lots of features, or do you have to scale down your expectations a bit?

What is my website experience level?

Nowadays WordPress is much simpler to use than when it started out in 2003. There is still a learning curve involved though. You will need some level of understanding when it comes to the jargon of website development. You will come across terms like domain name registration, hosting, PHP, themes, responsive design, browser compatibility and SEO.

Do you know what they mean? If not, are you prepared to make the investment in learning what they are about? If your business is better off with you at the steering wheel and you can’t take the time to become familiar with these terms, considering a third-party professional website developer to help with the development of your website is a good option.

Much like a recipe there’s an order for putting a website together. Again, things are much easier now than back in the day (1994) when we started out but you will still need to go through the various steps in the correct order. Can you afford to take the time to work them out?

Great theme developers and companies offer dedicated support to assist with their theme and getting it up and running. What happens if something else goes wrong? Can you fix the problem? If not, do you know where to turn for general website help and support?

How to choose the best WordPress theme for my website?

When it comes to picking a theme for your site this usually means you are going the DIY route with the development of your website. Spend some time planning and deciding how much you know and are prepared to learn. Thereafter go through the areas and questions outlined above and you will be well placed, within budget, to make the best choice for you and your business when it comes to choosing the best WordPress theme. Alternatively, you can consider using a professional web development company like Tech Warrior, who have developed a custom website theme that sits at the foundation of all Small Business Websites.

The thought of putting the content together really scares me

Chantal Dawtrey — Wed, 07 Oct 2020 14:46:04 +0000

Now you have published a book, you really should get a website for yourself," I urged a friend. “People need to find you. They need to know what you have done and what you can do."

"Oh, I don’t know," she responded pulling a face, "I then have to get all the content together. I don’t think I have the time and inclination."

This coming from someone who had recently completed her PhD, written a book and was a coach, lecturer and facilitator of several leadership development programmes. She wrote all the time. She had the content. She probably had too much content.

And another occasion, another colleague, "Made a decision about your website yet?"
"Oh, I don’t know. I’m so not tech savvy," she responded, hunching her shoulders, and squinting her eyes, "The thought of having to get the content together…."

She too writes content all the time. Content for training programmes and the various services she offers. Content to get accreditation and tender for business. She has the content. She probably has too much.

Easy to follow guidance

What both of these potential clients need is some easy to follow guidance on what is required for their websites. They have all the content they need. It’s just stuck in their heads or in many other documents prepared for many other reasons. They just need a way of simplifying it and presenting what their clients will be looking for so that they can find them quickly and easily. Isn’t that the purpose of a website, after all?

In our experience less is more. People don’t read much these days. They want short, bites sized content that gives them answers to their questions they have. Questions about the service or products they are searching for. Their questions will be about what is on offer, what problems it solves, how to get it, how it works, how long it will take, what other people think of the product or service and how much it costs. First and foremost clients will want to know how much it costs.

Provide prices and educate

Rule number 1. If you don’t put your prices on your website, your potential clients will probably go elsewhere.

Rule number 2. Your job is to educate. You may know your business, services and products inside out, but do not assume the same of your clients. Do not assume they know where you are, if you are a handyman, for example, your clients will want to know what areas you work in. If I search for “handyman services near me” and you are near me, you may want your website to pop up. Yes?

Painting by numbers

At Tech Warrior, we provide our clients with an online scope and content document that they work through. This document helps them think through all the elements of a website and its content they may not have considered. Like including your address so Google can ensure you pop up when searched for “near me”.

It asks the questions that our clients’ clients may be wanting answers to. It gets our client to look at his or her website from the point of view of his or her client. It’s a bit like painting by numbers for website content.

A lot of people have gone further than they thought they could because someone else thought they could.
—Zig Ziglar

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Does my website need to look like everyone else’s?

Tristan Green — Wed, 07 Oct 2020 14:23:02 +0000

Why we design the way we do

When buying a new car there are some things I can change and customise to suit my needs, preferences and budget. These include things like metallic paint, alloy wheels, sunroof, heated seats, a more sophisticated media player and so on.

What I can’t change is the basic structure of my chosen model of car. For that matter I can’t even change the overall setup of a car. The position of the wheels, engine, steering wheel placement and number of doors is fixed.

The same applies when it comes to choosing one of Tech Warrior’s Small Business Website versions. The overall setup and structure of the website is fixed. You can customise how it looks and add in various options to best suit the needs of your business and brand. But you can’t have something that is designed from scratch to your exacting needs.

The reason for this approach for all of our client websites is due to the following three reasons:

Overall cost and price
Your time (and ours) is valuable
Content and lack of content

The elephant in the room – cost

Our websites may not be the cheapest but they are definitely not the most expensive and that’s the point. What our website offers you for the price you pay supersedes anything we’ve seen available on the market.

Our websites aren’t hardcoded which helps bring the cost down, mainly because we don’t have a sleep deprived, green tea-fuelled programmer sitting behind a screen making sure an image is placed correctly. We utilise a nifty drag-and-drop system which means if there’s a heading you want where a picture is, we can edit and replace it without hassle.

The aforementioned ties into all of Tech Warrior’s websites. They are all built using the same basic framework, honed and perfected over the 25 years we’ve been building websites. In essence it’s a completed website with everything we have to offer pre installed - it’s our custom WordPress theme - ready to go, again, bringing the cost down. All the website needs is your customising and branding which means content, specifically text and images.

We offer different packages to cater for your budget. If at the beginning of our relationship you only have a budget for a one paged website, but want to upgrade to a five or ten pager at a later date, we’ll be there to help set everything up so that you can expand when you are ready to. Head over to our website pricing page and take a look at the different Small Business Website offerings Tech Warrior has.

The most valuable commodity – time

One of the more important aspects of our website building process is that we don’t want to waste your time and, equally, we don’t want to waste our time. This is why we do our best to engage with you, helping you get your content in order so we can launch your website quickly and smoothly.

We do our utmost to achieve this by creating online documents you can complete, with the guidance of a Tech Warrior team member, that will help you write great content. This means you are able to give us something to work with!

Website content checklist

To streamline the start of this process we provide you with a checklist – making sure you have a colour palette, hero images, gallery images, write ups for all the sections on your site; all we need from you is to be met 50 percent of the way by providing us with all the necessary content needed for your website. This process helps reduce how long you spend writing and providing content and how long Tech Warrior spends building and populating your website with said content.

We can have a website up and running within a very short space of time (especially compared to a more conventional website development process) provided all content is supplied, on hand and no major changes are requested.

Success is where preparation and opportunity meet.
—Bobby Unser

Meeting us at the halfway point – content

If writing content isn’t your thing, that’s okay. More often than not, people believe they need to have this near perfect level of content in the first draft: zero typos, no grammatical or punctuation errors. This puts you under unnecessary stress and pressure, besides all of Tech Warrior’s content capturing is done online. This means we can assist you every step of the way from start to finish and mitigate the stresses of wanting perfect content from the onset.

Planning out what needs to be said on your website should be top of mind when you’re generating content. Are you descriptive enough for people to understand what it is you and your business have to offer? Are you able to solve the issues and problems people have? After all they’re visiting your website to see if you are the best choice for them. If you have a minimal amount of content which doesn’t capture your audience’s attention, chances are your website isn’t going to be as successful as you’d like it to be.

Tech Warrior always provides its clients with a foundation to build from - we’ll provide guidance where needed, but we need something to work with in order to help you deliver the best possible content.

Your site may not look entirely different to one of our other client sites, but it will be yours in a unique way.

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The post Does my website need to look like everyone else’s? appeared first on Tech Warrior.

custom wordpress theme – Tech Warrior

I am concerned about my site being hacked. How do I prevent this?

What does being hacked mean?

Why would someone hack my small business website?

What can I do to stop my site from being hacked?

Choose a good hosting provider

Change the default username and password

Keep your website software up to date

Do your part

What is the best WordPress theme for my website?

What kind of website do I want for my business?

How much am I willing to spend?

What is my website experience level?

How to choose the best WordPress theme for my website?

Further reading

The thought of putting the content together really scares me

Easy to follow guidance

Provide prices and educate

Further reading

Painting by numbers

Does my website need to look like everyone else’s?

Why we design the way we do

The elephant in the room – cost

The most valuable commodity – time

Further reading

Website content checklist

Meeting us at the halfway point – content