By separating the content from the underlying code, a CMS empowers individuals and businesses to manage websites without requiring extensive technical expertise. Whether you’re building a blog, launching an eCommerce store, or managing a corporate website, a CMS provides the tools you need to maintain your online presence efficiently.

Let’s answer what is a cms, explore the differences between a CMS and blogging, and look at how to choose the right content management system for your site.

CMS Meaning: What Does CMS Stand For?

Still not sure how to answer the question what is a cms? The term CMS stands for Content Management System. It is a platform that serves as the foundation for building, organizing, and maintaining websites. A CMS empowers users to manage the content lifecycle seamlessly. Here are its core functionalities:

1. Creates Content: Users can easily draft, format, and publish various types of content, such as blog posts, web pages, multimedia, and more, using a visual editor or intuitive interface.
2. Manages Content: A CMS acts as a centralized repository for organizing and storing text, images, videos, and documents. It also supports tagging, categorization, and search functionality, making it easier to locate and update existing content.
3. Delivers Content: The CMS dynamically serves content to website visitors through pre-designed templates or themes. This ensures a consistent and visually appealing presentation across devices and browsers.

By integrating these capabilities, a CMS allows individuals and teams to focus on creating high-quality content rather than grappling with complex code or backend systems.

Key Features of a CMS

Whether you’re a solo entrepreneur, a blogger, or part of a large organization, these features are what make a CMS an indispensable tool for building and maintaining a professional, user-friendly, and scalable online presence. A CMS typically includes the following features:

• User-Friendly Interface: Provides an intuitive dashboard where users can easily navigate and manage their website without requiring coding skills. Tasks such as creating pages, uploading media, and customizing settings can be done with simple clicks.
• Themes and Templates: Offers a variety of pre-designed layouts to create visually appealing websites quickly. Many CMS platforms also allow extensive customization to align with branding and specific requirements.
• Plugins and Extensions: Extends the functionality of the CMS by adding features like SEO optimization, social media integration, advanced analytics, eCommerce capabilities, and more. The availability of thousands of plugins ensures flexibility for different use cases.
• Media Management: Enables users to upload, organize, and edit multimedia content such as images, videos, and audio files. Advanced tools often include cropping, resizing, and optimization for faster loading times.
• Multi-User Collaboration: Supports teamwork by assigning roles (e.g., administrator, editor, author, or contributor) with specific permissions, ensuring smooth collaboration while maintaining control over the website’s content and structure.
• Version Control: Tracks changes made to content, allowing users to view, compare, and restore previous versions. This is particularly useful for maintaining consistency and avoiding errors.
• SEO Tools: Includes built-in or plugin-based tools to optimize website content for search engines. Features often include metadata management, XML sitemap generation, and keyword analysis to improve visibility.
• Responsive Design: Ensures that websites built using the CMS are mobile-friendly and function seamlessly across various devices and screen sizes.
• Analytics Integration: Facilitates the integration of analytics tools like Google Analytics to track visitor behavior, measure performance, and gain insights for improvement.
• Security Features: Provides built-in or add-on capabilities to protect the website from threats such as malware, DDoS attacks, and unauthorized access, with features like SSL support and regular updates.

Is a CMS and Blogging the Same Thing?

No, a CMS (Content Management System) and blogging are not the same thing, but they are closely related. Let me explain the distinction:

CMS (Content Management System): A CMS is a versatile software application that allows users to build, manage, and maintain websites of various types, including blogs, eCommerce stores, corporate sites, portfolios, and more. It serves as a foundation for organizing and delivering content on a website. While blogging is one of the functions a CMS can perform, it is far from the only one.

Examples of CMS Functions:

• Creating and managing blog posts.
• Building landing pages or product pages.
• Managing multimedia (images, videos, etc.).
• Running eCommerce platforms (e.g., Shopify, WooCommerce).
• Hosting forums, community portals, or corporate intranets.

Blogging: Blogging refers specifically to the activity of creating and publishing regular written content, often in a journal-style format, on a website. It typically involves posts focused on a particular topic, niche, or personal experiences.

Features of Blogging:

• Writing and formatting posts.
• Categorizing content with tags or categories.
• Engaging with readers through comments.
• Sharing posts via social media.
• Tracking engagement metrics like views or shares.

How Blogging and CMSs Are Related

Despite being different, the two are very closely related. In general, all CMSs support blogging, but not all blogging platforms are CMSs.

A CMS often includes blogging features as part of its functionality. For instance, WordPress was originally designed as a blogging platform but has evolved into a full-fledged CMS that supports eCommerce, multimedia, and more. Similarly, platforms like Ghost and Medium are primarily designed for blogging but can include some CMS-like features.

Blogging is a subset of what a CMS can handle. A CMS provides the infrastructure to support blogging and much more. If your goal is to create a broader website with diverse functionalities, a CMS is the right choice; if you’re focused purely on content creation, a blogging platform may suffice.

What Are the Best CMS Options?

WordPress

WordPress is the most widely used Content Management System in the world, powering more than 40% of websites on the internet. Known for its flexibility and ease of use, WordPress caters to everyone from individual bloggers to large enterprises. This free CMS offers a rich ecosystem of themes and plugins, allowing users to create virtually any type of website—whether it’s a personal blog, a professional portfolio, an eCommerce store, or a corporate site.

Best For: Bloggers, small businesses, eCommerce stores, and even large-scale websites.

Features:

• Extensive library of plugins for functionality such as SEO, social media integration, and analytics.
• Thousands of customizable themes for various industries and purposes.
• Strong community support, including forums, tutorials, and third-party resources.
• Scalability to handle everything from simple blogs to enterprise-level websites.

Shopify

Shopify is a leading eCommerce platform designed to help businesses build and manage online stores effortlessly. It is an all-in-one solution that combines website creation, inventory management, and payment processing into a single, user-friendly package. Whether you’re a small retailer or a large-scale merchant, Shopify offers tools tailored to streamline your operations and boost your sales.

Best For: eCommerce websites looking for an all-in-one solution.

Features:

• Built-in payment gateways, inventory tracking, and shipping tools.
• Access to a wide range of eCommerce-specific apps to enhance store functionality.
• Secure hosting and robust performance optimized for online shopping.
• Customizable storefronts with a focus on mobile responsiveness.

Drupal

Drupal is a powerful and flexible CMS that caters to enterprise-level websites, government portals, and organizations with complex content needs. Known for its advanced capabilities and scalability, Drupal is ideal for projects requiring high levels of customization, robust security, and the ability to manage large volumes of data and traffic. Despite its steep learning curve, Drupal offers unparalleled flexibility for developers and organizations seeking tailor-made solutions.

Best For: Enterprise-level websites, government portals, and other complex projects.

Features:

• Highly secure framework suitable for sensitive data applications.
• Advanced user permission controls for multi-user collaboration.
• Flexible and customizable design for large, data-heavy websites.
• Scalability to handle high-traffic volumes and complex workflows.

Joomla!

Joomla! is a versatile CMS that strikes a balance between user-friendliness and advanced functionality. It is ideal for websites that require a mix of flexibility and simplicity, such as forums, community portals, and small-to-medium-sized business sites. With a strong focus on multilingual support and a variety of extensions, Joomla allows users to build dynamic and interactive websites without extensive technical expertise.

Best For: Websites requiring a mix of flexibility and ease of use, such as forums or community portals.

Features:

• Advanced content management capabilities for dynamic website needs.
• Integrated multilingual support without the need for plugins.
• Variety of extensions for added functionality.
• Intuitive backend that balances customization with usability.

WooCommerce

WooCommerce is a powerful eCommerce plugin designed to transform WordPress into a fully functional online store. Known for its flexibility and extensive customization options, WooCommerce empowers users to sell physical products, digital goods, and services seamlessly. Its deep integration with WordPress makes it an ideal choice for businesses looking to combine content and commerce in one platform.

Best For: Small-to-medium-sized businesses, entrepreneurs, and WordPress users who want to expand into eCommerce.

Features:

• Built specifically for WordPress, enabling users to leverage existing themes, plugins, and the platform’s blogging capabilities.
• Offers a wide range of themes and extensions to create unique online stores tailored to various industries.
• Supports physical, digital, and subscription-based products with features like inventory management and product variations.
• Integrates with major payment gateways, including PayPal, Stripe, and credit cards, ensuring smooth transactions.
• Ideal for startups and growing businesses, with the ability to handle a few products or thousands as your store expands.
• Includes built-in SEO features, discount codes, and email marketing integrations to boost sales and visibility.

Squarespace

Squarespace is a sophisticated and visually focused CMS tailored for creative professionals, small businesses, and individuals looking to showcase their work online. Known for its stunning templates and all-in-one platform, Squarespace offers everything you need to design, launch, and maintain a professional website, even without technical expertise.

Best For: Creative professionals, portfolios, and small businesses.

Features:

• Elegant, modern templates optimized for visual appeal.
• Built-in tools for SEO, analytics, and eCommerce.
• Seamless integration with third-party services like payment processors.
• Reliable hosting and a simple, intuitive interface.

Magento

Magento is a robust and highly customizable CMS designed specifically for eCommerce businesses. It is ideal for enterprises and large-scale retailers looking for advanced capabilities to manage and scale their online stores. With powerful tools for marketing, catalog management, and customer segmentation, Magento stands out as a solution for businesses with complex needs and substantial growth potential.

Best For: Large eCommerce businesses with advanced customization needs.

Features:

• Robust eCommerce capabilities, including multi-store management.
• Advanced marketing tools like customer segmentation and loyalty programs.
• Highly scalable for businesses with significant growth potential.
• Flexible APIs for integration with third-party systems.

Other CMS Options to Consider

In addition to the popular CMS platforms mentioned above, here are other noteworthy options that cater to specific needs:

1. Ghost: Known for its minimalist design, fast performance, and built-in SEO tools, Ghost is ideal for those who need a distraction-free platform dedicated to publishing. It is best suited for bloggers and publishers focusing on content creation.
2. Weebly: Weebly offers simplicity and affordability for new website owners. Best for small businesses and beginners, it offers a drag-and-drop editor, pre-designed templates, and integrated eCommerce tools.
3. TYPO3: Designed for enterprise-level websites requiring multilingual support, TYPO3 offers advanced features for large organizations, including scalability, multilingual capabilities, and enterprise-grade security.
4. BigCommerce: With it’s comprehensive eCommerce tools, multi-channel selling, and strong API integrations for advanced customization, it is mean for larger storefronts and enterprise retailers with complex needs.
5. Contentful: Contentful separates the backend from the frontend, giving developers the flexibility to deliver content to multiple platforms, including apps and IoT devices. It’s best for developers and organizations that need a headless CMS.

These additional CMS platforms provide specialized features that can help you build a website tailored to your specific requirements.

What Are the Benefits of Using a CMS?

A CMS offers a wide range of benefits, making it an essential tool for website management. Here are the key advantages explained in detail:

• Ease of Use: Most CMS platforms are designed for users with little to no technical expertise. With an intuitive interface, tasks such as creating pages, uploading content, and managing settings can be done with minimal effort.
• Cost Efficiency: By reducing the need to hire developers for routine updates and maintenance, a CMS significantly cuts down operational costs. Many platforms also offer free or affordable options, making them accessible for individuals and small businesses.
• Customization: A CMS allows you to personalize your website with a wide variety of themes and plugins. This ensures that your site reflects your brand identity while providing the functionality you need.
• Scalability: As your business or project grows, a CMS can scale with you. Whether you’re adding new pages, integrating advanced features, or handling increased traffic, most platforms are equipped to adapt seamlessly.
• SEO-Friendly: Many CMS platforms come with built-in tools or plugins that simplify search engine optimization (SEO). Features like meta tag customization, XML sitemaps, and keyword analysis help improve your site’s visibility on search engines.
• Community Support: Popular CMS platforms such as WordPress and Drupal have large, active user communities. These communities provide forums, tutorials, and third-party resources to help troubleshoot issues, find inspiration, and share best practices.
• Flexibility Across Industries: Whether you’re running a blog, an online store, or a corporate website, a CMS can accommodate various types of content and functionality, making it suitable for diverse industries and purposes.
• Time Efficiency: With features like pre-designed templates and drag-and-drop editors, you can save time building and maintaining your website, allowing you to focus on other priorities.
• Security Features: Many CMS platforms offer robust security options, such as regular updates, SSL support, and malware protection. These features safeguard your website and its data from potential threats.

By leveraging these benefits, a CMS empowers users to efficiently manage their online presence while saving time, money, and effort.

How Do You Choose a CMS?

Selecting the right CMS is a critical decision that can impact the functionality, scalability, and user experience of your website. To make an informed choice, consider these factors:

1. Purpose of Your Website: Define your primary goals. Are you building a personal blog, a professional portfolio, an eCommerce store, or a corporate website? For example:
   • Blogs: WordPress offers excellent tools and plugins for content creation.
   • ECommerce: Shopify or Magento provide robust solutions for online stores.
   • Portfolios: Squarespace or Wix excel at creating visually appealing designs.
2. Ease of Use: Assess the technical expertise of your team. Platforms like Wix and Squarespace are beginner-friendly, featuring drag-and-drop editors and pre-built templates. For advanced users, Drupal or Joomla provide deeper customization options but require technical knowledge.
3. Customization and Features: Evaluate the level of customization required. WordPress is highly flexible with thousands of themes and plugins, while platforms like Shopify focus more on streamlined, out-of-the-box eCommerce functionality.
4. Budget: Determine your financial constraints. Free CMS platforms like WordPress.org require you to purchase hosting and a domain but offer extensive flexibility. Paid platforms like Shopify and Squarespace include hosting and support in their subscription fees, making them all-in-one solutions.
5. Scalability: Consider future growth. Choose a CMS that can handle increased traffic and additional features as your needs evolve. WordPress and Drupal are particularly strong in this area, supporting everything from small sites to enterprise-level applications.
6. Support and Community: Look for platforms with active communities or dedicated support teams. Popular CMS platforms like WordPress and Joomla have extensive online resources, including forums, documentation, and tutorials, to assist with troubleshooting.
7. SEO and Performance: Ensure the CMS has built-in SEO tools or supports plugins for optimization. Features like meta tags, mobile responsiveness, and fast loading times are essential for search engine rankings and user experience.
8. Security: Evaluate the security features of the platform. Look for options that include SSL support, regular updates, and compatibility with security plugins or extensions.
9. Integration Capabilities: If your website needs to integrate with other tools (e.g., CRM, marketing platforms, or analytics), verify that the CMS supports these integrations seamlessly.

By carefully weighing these factors, you can select a CMS that aligns with your specific needs, ensuring a solid foundation for your website’s success.

From WordPress and WooCommerce to Joomla!, Drupal, Ghost, and more, A2 Hosting offers affordable CMS Hosting for virtually all platforms. Simply choose the right hosting for your needs and install the CMS that fits your needs. You get premium hardware for the best site performance along with our no-risk money back guarantee, 99.9% uptime commitment, and 24/7/365 in-house customer support. Compare web hosting now and get started today.

The post What Is a CMS and How To Choose the Best Content Management System appeared first on The A2 Posting.

What Is Joomla?

Joomla! is a free and open-source CMS that allows users to create, manage, and publish websites and online applications. And yes, there is an exclamation point in the name Joomla! Whether you’re a beginner or an experienced developer, Joomla’s extensive features and customization options make it a compelling choice.

First released in 2005, Joomla is built on a model-view-controller (MVC) framework, which separates the logic, data, and presentation layers, making it a powerful choice for developers and non-developers alike.

It started as an offshoot of Mambo, an open-source CMS (i.e. a platform that enables you to create content and publish it online). The team that would go on to create Joomla! felt that parts of the new structure went against the principles of open-source, so they developed their own CMS.

Joomla is suited to a wide range of industries and website types, including:

• Corporate and Business Websites: Showcase your brand and services with a professional online presence.
• eCommerce Stores: With extensions like VirtueMart, Joomla makes it easy to manage products, orders, and payments.
• Government and Nonprofit Websites: Build secure, multilingual websites to serve diverse audiences.
• Community-Based Platforms: Create forums, membership sites, and other interactive platforms with Joomla extensions.

Its open-source nature means that it’s continually updated and improved by a dedicated community of developers, ensuring that Joomla remains a reliable and feature-rich platform.

Key Features of Joomla

Joomla’s robust feature set is what sets it apart from other CMS platforms. Here are some of its standout features:

• Flexibility and Extensibility: Joomla offers thousands of templates and extensions, enabling users to customize their websites to meet unique requirements.
• User Management: Advanced user management tools allow administrators to set multiple levels of access and permissions.
• Multilingual Support: With native support for over 70 languages, Joomla makes it easy to create multilingual websites without additional plugins.
• SEO Optimization: Built-in tools help optimize your website for search engines, including customizable meta tags, SEF URLs, and more.
• Content Management: Organizing and publishing content is seamless, thanks to features like the article manager and category system.
• Developer-Friendly Features: Joomla supports PHP, SQL, and other programming technologies, making it a favorite for developers who need a customizable platform.

Why Choose Joomla?

Joomla strikes a balance between simplicity and power, making it suitable for both beginners and professionals. It stands out as a versatile and powerful CMS, suitable for a wide range of website needs. Here’s an in-depth look at why Joomla might be the right choice for you:

Versatility

Joomla is a flexible platform that supports many website types, making it a versatile choice for developers and businesses alike. From simple personal blogs and professional business websites to complex eCommerce stores and secure government portals, Joomla can adapt to diverse project requirements. Its modular architecture and extensive library of extensions make it adaptable to various industries, including eCommerce, government, education, and nonprofit sectors. The platform supports a wide array of features, allowing users to build and customize their websites to meet unique requirements.

Customizability

Joomla’s rich library of templates and extensions gives users unparalleled freedom to design and enhance their websites. Whether you need a specific design, additional functionality, or custom integrations, Joomla provides tools that empower both developers and non-developers to bring their vision to life. This makes it suitable for projects of all sizes, from small blogs to large enterprise portals.

Powerful Content Management

Joomla offers robust content management tools that make organizing, editing, and publishing content intuitive. Features like the article manager, category system, and versioning allow users to maintain control over their website’s content with ease.

Built-in Multilingual Support

Joomla natively supports over 70 languages, making it an excellent choice for multilingual websites. Unlike many other CMS platforms, Joomla doesn’t require additional plugins for language support, reducing complexity and enhancing reliability. You can create content in multiple languages without needing additional plugins, which simplifies the process and reduces the risk of compatibility issues.

Advanced User Management

With its granular access control levels, Joomla excels in scenarios where multiple users need varying degrees of access. This makes it ideal for membership sites, community platforms, and corporate websites with complex organizational structures.

Joomla’s user management system offers granular control over user permissions and roles. This is particularly beneficial for websites requiring different levels of access, such as membership or community platforms. Additionally, its content management tools make organizing and publishing content intuitive.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Joomla includes built-in SEO features such as SEF (search engine-friendly) URLs, metadata management, and sitemap generation. These tools help improve your site’s visibility in search engines without requiring additional plugins.

Active Community and Support

Joomla’s community is one of its biggest assets. A large and engaged network of developers and users contributes to its continuous improvement, provides extensive documentation, and offers forums for troubleshooting and learning.

Security

Joomla places a strong emphasis on security, with regular updates and built-in measures to protect your site from vulnerabilities. Additionally, its community frequently provides patches and security resources.

Scalability

As your website grows, Joomla can scale with it. Whether you’re adding more pages, features, or handling increased traffic, Joomla’s robust infrastructure ensures reliable performance.

By offering a balance of simplicity and advanced features, Joomla appeals to both novice users and experienced developers. Its flexibility and rich feature set make it a solid choice for anyone seeking a powerful and customizable CMS platform.

How Much Does Joomla Cost?

Joomla is an open-source CMS, which means the software itself is free to download, use, and modify. There are no licensing fees or subscription costs to use Joomla.

While Joomla is free, there are other potential costs associated with building and maintaining a website using the platform.

• Web Hosting: You need a hosting provider to run your Joomla site. Hosting plans can range from a few dollars per month for shared hosting to higher costs for VPS or dedicated hosting. A Joomla-optimized hosting plan, like those offered by A2 Hosting, ensures better performance and reliability.
• Domain Name: To make your site accessible, you’ll need a domain name, which typically costs around $10–$20 per year.
• Extensions and Templates: While Joomla has a wide range of free extensions and templates, premium options with advanced features or professional designs may cost anywhere from $10 to several hundred dollars.
• Development or Design Services: If you hire a developer or designer to create or customize your Joomla site, costs will depend on their expertise and the complexity of your requirements.
• Maintenance and Upgrades:
  Regular updates are necessary to keep your Joomla site secure and optimized. While you can handle updates yourself for free, hiring professionals to manage this process might involve additional costs.

In summary, while Joomla is free, the total cost of building and maintaining a Joomla site will depend on your hosting, domain name, and any additional premium features or professional services you choose to invest in.

How to Get Started with Joomla! (In 4 Steps)

If you’re interested in trying out Joomla!, the first thing you’ll need to do is set up your website. Let’s walk through how to do that in just four easy steps.

Step 1: Purchase a Hosting Plan and Domain Name

Joomla! provides practically all of the tools you’ll need to build your site, but you’ll still need a place to host it online. If you’re not ready to make that commitment yet, you can try out a free 24-hour Joomla! demo to see for yourself how the software works – and whether you feel comfortable with it.

You’ll also need to purchase a hosting plan for your new site.

As a beginner, it’s best to pick your hosting provider carefully. Installing a CMS manually can be somewhat complicated. You can avoid having to do this by opting for a hosting plan that supports Joomla!, and offers an easy-installation option.

In addition, you’ll also need to secure a domain name. You can purchase a new name, use a free subdomain, or even transfer a domain name you already own.

Once you have your hosting and domain in place, you can get your site up and running. Exactly how you do that will depend on your chosen host. If you opt for an A2 Hosting plan, Joomla! will be pre-installed and configured for optimal speed. That means you can start designing your site immediately!

Step 2: Choose a Template for Your Site

Once you have a home for your site, you can start making changes and adding content. The best way to learn this platform is to plunge right in and start experimenting. You can set up your site using a default template, and update text and images from there to customize it further.

First, log into your site’s admin area. Under Configuration in the left-hand menu, select Templates. On the next page, you’ll see a small selection of default templates.

Simply select the star icon next to a template’s name, in order to make it active on your site. You can always change this selection later, and you can download additional options from the Joomla website and other directories online.

Step 3: Install Extensions to Customize Your Site

Extensions are what really sets Joomla! apart from other CMSs. This platform offers a wide array of these add-ons, which can be installed on your site to provide you with new features and options. Extensions enable you to do practically anything, such as creating a forum or managing user profiles.

You can explore Joomla!’s extension library to see many of the possibilities. To add an extension to your site, go to Extensions > Manage in your dashboard. Click on the Install from Web button. Then you can search for any extension you like, using the search feature or the list of categories.

When you find an extension you want to use, click on it for more information. Then select the green Install button to add it to your site. You’ll be asked to confirm the installation and Joomla! will get it up and running right away.

Step 4: Get in Touch with the Community

As you continue to work on your new Joomla site, you’re likely to have plenty of questions. Fortunately, the Joomla! forum is an excellent resource for basic support.

You can also search Joomla!’s tutorials for answers to specific questions, as well as how-to guides. If you find yourself in over your head at any point, you can also consider hiring a programmer or perhaps taking a class. The more you use Joomla!, the easier it should get. It’s okay to need some help, however, especially in the beginning.

Ready to start your Joomla! journey? Consider A2 Hosting’s optimized Joomla Hosting plans for fast, secure, and reliable performance. Easily add Joomla to any hosting package and start your Joomla website in just minutes. All with the reliability of premium hardware, 99.9% uptime commitment, 24/7/365 in-house support, and no-risk money back guarantee. Compare our hosting plans and choose the right package for your website needs.

The post What Is Joomla? What to Know About This Free and Powerful CMS appeared first on The A2 Posting.

Apache or Apache HTTP server is a top-rated open source web server software, commonly used by hosting providers as their web servers to host WordPress, Joomla, Drupal and many other CMS. Whether you are a hosting provider, a site administrator, or an owner of a site, web server errors are bound to happen.

Logs are records of transactions or events of a particular application commonly stored as plain text files known as log files. If you face any web server issues, a log file is probably the first place to understand further what has gone wrong and tracing its route cause. This blog will give you an overview of Apache log files, how to access and interpret them, and either solve the error on your own or hand it to your support team for further assistance.

Apache Access Log

An Apache Access log stores information on the events that occurred in your  web server. A web server administrator can gain the following information from the Apache Access log and use them to understand the behaviour of user requests for the site:

• Incoming requests to your web server
• Users viewing and accessing your site
• Status of requests
• Request response times

Apache Error Log

Error logs are considered the most important log file. An Apache Error Log records any errors in the webserver during the processing of requests, such as missing files or invalid requests. It also records the runtime errors of the Apache web servers. Information in the error log helps support teams or developers diagnose errors quickly.

Apache Log File Location

Apache server log files are stored in a separate folder, and their location depends on the operating system or hosting account type you are currently using.

View and Download Apache Logs for Hosting Accounts

Let’s look at the ways to access the Apache logs for different hosting types. Examples here refer to A2 hosting services; however, this guide applies to hosting providers with similar setups.

For more information on accessing Apache logs for different hosting accounts, refer to this article.

Access Apache Logs in Shared or Reseller Hosting

To access the Apache logs from a shared hosting account, use the cPanel dashboard to retrieve the access or error logs. To access the Apache access log, first, you need to download the Raw access log. A raw access log contains information on your site’s visitors in a plain format used to analyze its traffic.

Read more about how to configure and download the Apache access log for shared hosting in this article.

Next, access the Metrics section on cPanel and click on Errors to show the last 300 entries in your error log.

Access Apache Logs in Managed Dedicated and VPS Hosting

If you are a Managed, Dedicated, or VPS Hosting user, you can use your cPanel to access the apache log files in the following directory: /usr/local/apache/logs/access_log. You can also use the Metrics section on cPanel for a one click access to your error log:

Access Apache logs on a Dedicated (Unmanaged)  and VPS Hosting

With Dedicated or VPS hosting, you have root access, and this allows you to access and manage the Apache logs files. All Log files are stored in the var/log/ directory.

• Use  SSH and type the following command to view the last 100 lines of the Access log file:
  sudo tail -100 /etc/httpd/logs/access_log
• Use  SSH and type the following command to view the last 100 lines of the Access log file:

sudo tail -100 /etc/httpd/logs/error_log

How to Read the Apache Access Log

Now that you’ve learned how to access the error logs; this section will give an overview of how to interpret some parts of the access log. Download the access log file and open it using a text editor. You may also choose to format the log file output for readability. In this example, the log file is using the Combined Log Format, where it gives additional information for debugging purposes. Here are the fields on a single line in the access log file:

10.xx.xx.xx – – [30/Jul/2021:00:38:46 -0400] “GET /Joomla2/administrator/index.php?option=com_ajax&format=json HTTP/1.1” 200 60 “http://sarojini-test.com/Joomla2/administrator/index.php?option=com_menus&view=item&client_id=0&menutype=mainmenu&layout=edit” “Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_15_7) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/92.0.4515.107 Safari/537.36”

The Files Decoded:

• 10.xx.xx.xx – IP address of the client that made the request
• 30/Jul/2021:00:38:46 -0400] – Date and time of request
• GET /Joomla2/administrator/index.php?option=com_ajax&format=json HTTP/1.1″  – request type and resource being requested
• 200 – request type and resource being requested
• 60 – size of the object returned to the client
• http://saaaai-test.com/Joomla2/administrator/index.php?option=com_menus&view=item&client_id=0&menutype=mainmenu&layout=edit: HTTP represents the address from which the request for the resource originated.
• “Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/78.0.3904.108 Safari/537.36” – The browser by client to access the resource access client request.

Conclusion

In summary, Apache log files are essential for a web administrator to understand events on their website and gain insights on visitor requests or runtime errors on Apache servers. More often than not, the error logs are commonly used and deemed vital as they can be used to understand the root cause of an error and help the support team resolve them quickly to avoid site downtime. There are many resources available on error logging, and if you are using cPanel, refer to this link to understand further on logging features using cPanel.

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Backend & Technical Improvements

As all eCommerce business owners begin to buckle down and get ready for the upcoming holiday season many are focused on bringing new traffic to their sites to take advantage of the increased spending during Q4. But what happens when your site isn’t ready for the traffic and crashes in the middle of your biggest Black Friday Sale of the year? We want to make sure your website is fast and ready to receive all the new visitors coming your way. Here are some of our team’s top technical tips to make sure your site is ready this season.

Stay Up to Date with Updates

Keeping your website up-to-date is one of the most important maintenance techniques for your eCommerce site. Before the holiday traffic starts, be sure to have all the latest updates installed – both for the CMS itself and any plugins/ modules/add-ons that you already have installed. Luckily for all the website owners out there, it is easy to automate this process by signing up for automatic updates for major and minor releases of WordPress core and plugins. You also have the option to receive email notifications anytime there is a new release available. These updates will provide additional functionality, performance boosts, and patches for known security vulnerabilities. It’s important to verify these updates for compatibility with your combination of plugins and server configuration before updating your production site. This makes sure you don’t update and accidentally break your site.

Identify Your Resource Weaknesses

One of the secret tips to keeping your eCommerce website functioning smoothly is making sure you’re not approaching your resource limits. You should ask yourself…Have you looked at your traffic from last year? Did you run into any issues during your big sales? If so it may be important to check to see if you should move to a plan with more resources to help support a smoother customer experience. Not sure what resources to look at? Here are four important ones to check:

• Disk Space: This refers to the amount of room on your account to store files, including all of your text, code, and images.
• Memory Usage (RAM): RAM stores working data and is a vital part of a computer’s performance. A2 Hosting’s RAM options on our VPS and Dedicated plans range anywhere from 4GB to 128 GB DDR4 ECC, so we have options for any sized website!
• CPU Usage: This is the central processing unit that processes and runs instructions. We offer the choice of AMD and Intel CPUs on our Dedicated hosting plans!
• Inode Usage: This correlates with how many files you can store on your website. If you’re an eCommerce company with lots of files it may be important to get a plan with access to more inodes. Read our knowledge base articles to learn more about how to manage your inode count.

If you’re nearing the maximum usage afforded to your current plan we encourage you to upgrade! Interested in going even faster? Check out A2 Turbo, available on most plans! Confused about what all the web hosting resources are? Check out this blog on four web hosting resources to consider when choosing your hosting plan.

Try a CDN

That’s right, that CDN you’ve been debating? Now is the time to go for it. But what is a CDN? A CDN, or Content Delivery Network, works by utilizing dispersed servers. They use a global network of servers to store static assets for your web page, such as images, at multiple locations closer to the visitor to your site. Not only does this reduce load time as the assets are being delivered from a closer physical location to the customer, but this also reduces the load on your server as it does not need to service that portion of the request. This way visitors from around the world can access your site and all of its information from a server that is closer to them. Here’s a list of the benefits of using a CDN:

• Faster loading speed
• Boost in reliability and response time
• Better global reach
• Increased number of users at one time
• DDoS protection

A2 Hosting offers Cloudflare, a popular CDN, for our customers’ use.

Cache, Cache, Cache

Caching is a great way to speed up your site! Caching stores your web pages in memory, so the server can serve them very quickly, instead of fetching them from the disk each time. This is a way for your site to generate static html versions of dynamic pages that are frequently requested. Caching significantly reduces the load placed on the server to deliver that page as well as speeding up response times. Most web frameworks offer this as an option either directly integrated in the framework or as an additional plugin. Ensuring caching is enabled can make an enormous difference on the amount of traffic and number of concurrent users your site can handle. Our A2 Turbo plans come with Litespeed caching preinstalled! Read our knowledge base article to learn how to use Litespeed on your site.

Improve Your Database Indexing

A frequently disregarded aspect of website performance and scaling is the database itself. Databases include many options to make performance better and one of the most critical is ensuring you have good indexes in your databases.

A lack of indexes, or poorly designed indexes, can increase the time it takes to execute a database query by an order of magnitude. Creating basic indexes is relatively simple and optimizing indexes for your specific use case is something your web developer can typically do for you.

Similarly, it is important to make sure any database queries you are running are well written. It is very easy to write a poor database query during testing or development just to get things working and it is vital to go back later and ensure the query is written as tightly as possible to eliminate unnecessary operations to get the data you actually need.

Traffic Control

How many visitors can view your site? Only as many as your server will handle. This is why it is imperative to ensure that you have fast and reliable hosting. If you frequently experience drops in connection or other general server issues, now is the time to switch to a fast, reliable server. If you’re looking for 99.9% uptime, turbo speeds, and 24/7 guru crew support check out our plans available at A2 Hosting.

Upgrade Your Hardware Stack

You can upgrade the hardware stack powering your website to provide additional resources. A2 Hosting provides an extensive array of packages designed to meet your hosting needs. Our turbo packages are perfect for handling holiday traffic surges. These servers include NVME SSD drives for lightning-fast disk operations, Litespeed web server for dramatically improved page load times, and AMD EPYC CPUs for very high concurrency to handle the flood of holiday visitors. We also have VPS and dedicated server options for those extremely busy websites to ensure your server is not the limiting factor to your business growth during this holiday season.

Security

Security is a must if you don’t want your site becoming unresponsive, or worse, displaying undesirable content. Aside from running updates on the CMS and plugins, removing unused plugins and themes from your site will help reduce potential vulnerabilities.

Install an SSL

All traffic that provides users a way to send any type of information to your site should be secured over HTTPS with a valid SSL. A2 Hosting offers both free and paid versions of different SSLs. To learn the pros and cons of each read this blog. Using an SSL Certificate will help protect your users’ information. The presence of this certificate will help verify your identity to any potential customers and let them know that there’s an encrypted connection when transmitting their information. The great part about paying for an upgraded SSL with A2 Hosting is added security and the benefits of displaying a trust badge. These are symbols you can add to your site that will assure customers that their information is secure and your site is trustworthy (it also avoids the nasty “Unsecured” message that browsers display that makes users worried).

Check Your Authorized Users

You’ll also want to check on your list of authorized administrators/content editors. If you’ve had turnover at the company or previous contractors who have completed work on your site, double-check that their permissions have been removed by reducing their permissions, or deactivating their accounts (this applies to the CMS, as well as any server access that you may have given them). If the system provides for 2-Factor authentication, be sure you update your staff about these settings. Make sure they are aware of the new requirement, that they have their authentication setup, and that each user account is configured to require 2FA.

Increase Your Payment Security

Online security has always been important but in 2021 it’s absolutely essential. You want your information and your customer’s information to be safe and secure to help build consumer trust. Make sure you implement these strategies to help secure your site before the holiday sales:

Implement an Address Verification Service (AVS)

Don’t let those suspicious credit card transactions get by you! An AVS is a fraud prevention system that will help your eCommerce store limit its fraud and chargebacks.

Require Card Verification Value (CVV)

The CVV is the little number on the back of debit cards. By requiring customers to enter this information when trying to check out, you can add an extra level of security to every transaction.

Check Your Payments Processor

It’s also a  good idea to check the fine print on your payment processing system. Make sure you have the right setup so those sales don’t go down the drain when your customers can’t pay!

Make Sure Everything Works As Expected

Testing your key systems to make sure everything you are relying on to go right is a critical point. If you’re in eCommerce, double-check your payment processing is running smoothly.

You most likely have email notifications from your site either to customers (sending out updates, responding to contact submissions, order confirmations, etc) or to your staff (notifications of contact submissions, orders received, etc) – you’ll want to make sure these are being received by their intended target. Just because your site says it’s sending the message, doesn’t necessarily mean the customers are receiving the messages.

All notifications should have some way of retrieving the same information (contact submissions should be stored in the CMS as well as the staff email notification). Here’s our Knowledge Base section on web testing and development to help you get started!

Code Freeze

Your site should be well developed ahead of time to accommodate any changes you want to see during the holidays. By implementing a code freeze, you increase the reliability of your site by reducing the impact of your changes to the underlying system. This will require some advanced planning regarding what you will want from your website.

Have a Disaster Recovery Plan

Having a disaster recovery plan in place before you need it is critical in recovering from any unseen website disasters that may occur. At the very minimum, you’ll want local backups of your database and the site files. If you’re able to get offsite backups too that’s even better!

The second half of your recovery plan is knowing how to restore the backups. It’s just as important to know how to restore your backups as it is to make sure you have them.

Front End Website Optimizations

Getting ready for the holiday shopping season and looking to make some changes to your site? Well look no further, we have a list of great optimizations to help you thrive during Q4. Read more to learn about how we recommend you tweak your online store for success!

Choose the Right Hosting Company and Hosting Plan

Choosing the right host for your site is an essential part of speeding up your website. Our turbo plans at A2 Hosting are 20x faster with 99.9% uptime! Once you’ve found the right host make sure you’re on the right sized plan for your needs. Don’t run your large eCommerce site with heavy traffic on a shared server because it may not be able to handle the number of resources you’ll need, especially on heavy traffic days like Black Friday. We recommend a VPS or Dedicated plan if possible.

Use A2 Optimized

These days 47% of customers expect a website to load in two seconds or less. The internet is full of opportunities to shop around and if users have to wait, they may abandon your site for another one with similar products. Website speed is affected by many different factors. One big thing that could be affecting yours is your resource usage is too high for your current plan. Some factors that could be affecting this are images, JavaScript, and CSS files. Images should be compressed, and JavaScript and CSS files should be minified and combined if possible.

Image Optimization

Another area to consider is optimizing your images for web delivery. Modern cameras and even cell phones take very high-resolution images. These images can be very large resulting in slow page load times. We recommend either getting rid of them or compressing them so they take less time to load. Most web frameworks include tools to generate efficient thumbnail images as well as render high-resolution images at a lower resolution better suited to web delivery.

Go for Mobile

Many years ago – designs of websites changed to be designed mobile-first because of the shift to mobile devices so this one is likely already covered…but if not, you’ll want to work on this. If your site is not accessible from a mobile device, you will be missing out on potential users. Mobile-friendly sites do not need to replicate 100% of the desktop content or features, however, mobile users should not be missing out on anything critical. All the same, information should be able to be gathered and should be able to do so just as easily. Navigation around the site should be smooth for mobile users without having to do complicated gestures. Here’s a blog to help you through the steps of testing if your site is mobile-friendly.

Informative Website Content

If you have good information all over your store this will help your customers find their answers before they resort to your online chat boxes. Here are some elements to make sure you include or edit for clarity:

• FAQ sections
• Contact us page
• Ways for customers to reach your team (live chat, phone number, email, ticket system ,etc.)
• Social platform links for customers to check out or reach you there

Importance of Call/Chat/Ticket Functionality

Users come to your site for one thing – they are looking to get something from you – that is either information or a product. Your job is to make that as easy as possible. Hopefully, by now, your site is fast, reliable, mobile- friendly, and you’ve checked to make sure everything is working as planned – but sometimes you just can’t predict what your users are going to need. Adding a Support/Chat/Ticket feature to your website gives you an easy way of allowing users to contact you and receive a timely response. Users don’t have too much patience when it comes to getting feedback and this option gives them a way to contact you on their own terms.

Many times when a user is extremely frustrated they may want someone to walk them through a fix. That’s when having a calling system comes into play. There’s nothing like having someone fix a problem step by step over the phone, especially when you’ve tried everything and are very frustrated. Adding this functionality to your business gives users a chance to connect with the people behind a brand, which can be vital when building brand loyalty.

Give Some Love to Your Sales Team and Instructional Content

A lot of the time the people behind your phone and chat lines are having the most frequent interactions with your customers. That’s why it’s important to ensure they have a lot of training not only on your product but also on who may want to buy it and why. Taking extra time to address your clients’ questions now can go a long way when it comes to building a relationship and creating a repeat customer. Investing in interaction now with a potential client could lead to a fruitful relationship for you both in the future.

Adding a human element to a website can help potential clients feel more comfortable and be more willing to make a purchase. Creating an open line of communication with your potential clients for further discussion is very important during the customer buying process. Once that line of communication is opened, it’s time to start thinking about conversations with potential clients. When discussing options with clients, take the time to get to know them and their situation. The reasons they’re shopping with you will vary, and each individual interaction should be given the proper attention and assistance to help find the right solution. The goal here isn’t just to answer generic questions about a product or sell the most expensive option available. Instead, try to find out:

• why the client is looking to make a purchase
• if they have any particular pain points
• what is the reason they’re interested in your product

By investing the time to properly understand the client, it’ll help set up future interactions and hopefully create a long-term relationship. In the days of internet selling and fast purchases, the human element can be the difference between a client purchasing from you or another retailer. While these tips may be simple, the fundamentals of human interaction can often have the largest impact.

Write More Effective Product Descriptions

Determine Your Target Customer

Before you can begin writing the perfect product descriptions for your customers you need to identify who they are and empathize with them. If you don’t know who your target customer is, you won’t be able to write proper descriptions and your efforts will fall short of the mark.

You can do this by using the 80/20 rule. On average, 80% of sales come from 20% of your customers. If you’re trying to narrow down and find your target audience it would make sense to start by examining the top 20% of those who purchase from you already. To begin, use past purchasing data and gather customer profiles of your top 20% of customers. Now examine these profiles and look for patterns in their demographics and psychographics. Use these patterns to create personas. Personas are fictional customers that you can give a name, sex, age, career etc. By visualizing your customers in this way it is easier to write directly to them and create product descriptions that they would find appealing.

Show and Not Tell

When writing product descriptions, it’s important to remember to use clear
and descriptive language. You need to show your customers the benefits of your products rather than just telling them what they are. For example, for a service product don’t just tell your customer, “Our _______ service is reliable.” Instead, show them how reliable it is in your description: “Our ____ service is backed by an uncompromising Service Level Agreement that guarantees 99.9% uptime, a support staff with expert admins availability 24/7/365, and a 30-day hassle-free 100% money-back guarantee.”

Improve Your SEO

While high-quality images are important, search engines can’t see images – or not yet anyway. Images of your products may speak 1,000 words to your target customers and convey the emotion you’re trying to share, but they do little for SEO (Search Engine Optimization). To get your site to rank and become visible to potential customers, you must include product descriptions that are loaded with potential keywords. That way your site will begin to rank for related words to your products and your site will show up in more relevant google searches.

Make Your Descriptions Uniquely Yours

The bottom line is, your brand needs to be authentically itself and your product descriptions should embody this. To get noticed, your description copy needs to break through any commoditization noise that may surround your product. Don’t just look at your competition and try to write a description that’s 10% better, add something unique in your product’s description copy that directly taps into your brand’s authentic self.

Optimize Your Checkout Process

The holidays are the best time to get quick conversions but that can be made more complicated when you have a confusing checkout process. Now is the best time to take a look at what you have and try and spruce it up. Here are a few tips we recommend to make it as effective as possible:

• Add some urgency by including a count-down clock at the top that specifies how soon your sale is ending.
• Avoid adding in surprise costs at the end like large shipping fees. Extra costs are an issue for 60% of cart abandoners according to Optinmonster.
• Include multiple payment options. BigCommerce found that this can triple the conversion rate of your store.
• Highlight your security with a trust seal. You can purchase this with a paid SSL Certificate with A2 Hosting!
• Ask for your customers’ payment information last. You want to give them some time to make sure they trust your site and have all the details of their purchase in order before they start giving you their private payment information.
• Ideally use a single-page checkout process. You want it to be relatively straightforward with as few steps as possible. The worst thing is to have so many extraneous steps that you lose a potential conversion midway through the process.
• If you’re currently running a single- page checkout, declutter your form and only have your customers fill out the most necessary information.
• If you’re running a multi-page checkout try adding a progress indicator at the top of it! That way your customers can count down their progress rather than guessing how long it’s going to take to actually be able to buy from your store.
• Include areas that resolve frequently asked questions. If your support team notices they’re being asked the same questions all the time, include some answers. You can insert FAQ sections or flyouts with critical information that will inform your customers.

At the end of the day, you’re always going to lose some of your customers during the payment process no matter how well your cart is optimized. To try and convert this lost traffic follow up with those potential customers by sending abandonment emails with special discounts. This will serve as a great reminder of your store while also giving them some incentive to purchase from it.

Digital Marketing Strategy

The holidays are right around the corner so it’s a great time for eCommerce companies to capitalize on the opportunities that come with an increase in traffic. With proper preparation, online stores can gain brand recognition and increased conversions as they sail into the new year. Read more to learn about how to crush your digital marketing strategy this upcoming holiday season.

Pricing and Promotional Techniques

Effective pricing is a science and it’s never too late to start leveling up your pricing strategy game. The holidays are a great time to dive deeper into what makes pricing work and how you can use it to your advantage to increase conversions through promotions and deals. But before you begin to decide on your promotional pricing strategy, it’s important to first understand some basic pricing techniques:

• Price Skimming: To price skim, start your prices high and then lower them as you become more competitive in the market.
  Marketing Penetration Pricing: When your company is first starting out, set your prices low so you are more competitive than your competition.
  Premium Pricing: If you have a more wealthy target audience and are selling high-quality products you can start your prices high to signal quality and luxury appeal.
  Economy Pricing: This is when you set lower prices and target customers who are looking to make larger savings overall.

While these are good long-term pricing strategies, you may want to implement short-term pricing and promotions for the holiday months. Here are some examples of different promotional strategies to use to encourage quick conversions.

Refer-a-Friend: Tap into your clientele’s social networks and use social proof to your advantage! Give your customers some type of reward if they refer their friends to your products.

• Buy One Get One Free: This is a great way to entice your customers to try out multiple items from your store.
• Free Shipping: It’s always difficult to get to the checkout and see that shipping costs are going to add $10 or more to your purchase. By swallowing this cost you may raise your overall conversion rate.
• Free Item with Purchase of $X or More: Some customers may be buying holidays gifts in bulk. This is a great way to encourage customers to buy more of your products.
• Loss Leader: A loss leader is when you discount a product or service lower than its production cost. Some companies use this strategy to try and attract new customers or to sell more expensive products. It can also be a smart tactic if you’re trying to penetrate a new target market.

Plan Out Your Target Audience and Social Media Advertising Strategy

To ensure your promotions are a success it’s important to put a lot of thought into your advertising strategy and approach it with a target audience in mind. That way it’s easier to decide how you want to strategically choose the products you are featuring. When determining your product choice and targeting within your marketing campaigns, each social network has different options to choose from. Here’s a list of the different types of audience segments on some of the most popular social platforms:

Facebook/Instagram:

• Location: You can choose by city, community, and country.
• Behavior: Base your ads on behavioral attributes like prior purchases or device usage.
• Demographics: Choose from different demographics like gender, age, education levels, job titles, and more.
• Interests: You can segment your audience by hobbies or traits like the type of movies they like to watch or their dietary preferences.
• Connections: This allows you to decide if your audience is currently already connected to your business or unfamiliar with your products. This can be important if you’re trying to target an audience that is currently already interested in your business for an easier conversion rate.
• You can also use lookalike audiences which are created from source audiences of people that already interact with your ads! This connects you to people that are very similar to people that already follow your page.

LinkedIn:

• Job Experience: This includes job titles, seniority, job functions, member skills, and years of experience.
• Education: You can target based on degrees, subjects studied, schools attended.
• Demographics: Unlike Facebook and Instagram this is only split by age and gender.
• Company: You have access to target audiences based on industry, company names, company followers on LinkedIn, the growth rate and company size, and company category.
• Interests and Traits: Segment your audience by your potential customer’s interests, the groups they are a part of, and their traits.

Twitter:

• Demographics: You can filter by location, language, device (like phone type), platform (like phone carrier), Wifi (like internet provider), age, and gender.
• Targeting Types:
  • Conversation: This is based on the content of people’s tweets and conversations.
  • Event: Target people who attended various online and offline events.
  • Tweet Engager: Market to people that have organically engaged with your previous tweets.
  • Keyword: This allows you to search based on words your target audience used in previous tweets.
  • Movie and TV: If people mentioned any tv or movies this is how you would interact with them.
  • Interests: Twitter offers over 350+ present interests to choose from.
  • Look-Alikes: Like Facebook, Twitter lets you target people who behave similarly to accounts that already follow you.

YouTube:

• Audience targeting: Find people based on their interests, who they are, their daily habits, what they’re looking up, and their interactions with your business. This is split up based on google analytics.
• Affinity: Reach people based on their lifestyles, passions, and habits.
• Life Events: This narrows your audiences based on milestones like graduations or getting married.
• In-Market This allows you to target people who are looking up products and businesses similar to yours.
• Custom: Craft this audience based on keyword research, URLs, and apps.
• Remarketing: This helps you reach people that have already had some sort of historical engagement with your videos.
• Detailed Demographics: This is more like the other platforms and helps you create target audiences based on shared traits like their hobbies, occupations, or ages.
• Similar Audiences: This is like the lookalike audiences from above and allows you to find people that are similar to consumers that already follow you.

Publicize Your Sales with PPC and Google Ads

Now that you have a well-thought- out marketing strategy in place it’s important to promote and publicize it! PPC and Google Ads are a great way to increase the traffic to your site. Get that keyword strategy together and start bidding on the words that are most relevant to your business. It’s amazing what a good PPC strategy can do to garner traffic and conversions. Here are some things to keep in mind:

• Make sure the landing page you’re linking to is relevant and optimized for conversions.
• Optimize your negative keywords so your ads aren’t showing up on searches that don’t align with your strategy.
• Research and understand the basics of keyword matches:
  • Broad: match searches with any words or synonyms of your target words
  • Broad Match Modified: match only with searches that include all of your keywords within the query
  • Phrase Match: match only when searches use the exact phrase you are targeting plus searches that include the meaning of your keyword
  • Exact Match: match searches that have an exact keyword match and order (searches must contain all keywords in the exact order you list them plus close spelling errors)
• Adjust your bids for geotargeting. If your products are weather dependent or popular in certain areas you can adjust geotargeting spending so your ads show up to people in the most appropriate locations.
• Run mobile-centric campaigns. We recommend checking your campaign conversions by device so you can see which ones to shift to target certain users’ search preferences.

Capitalize on Heavy Traffic and Grow Your Email List with Lead Gen Tactics

Lead gen, lead gen, lead gen. It’s always important to keep building your mailing list with potential customers. With all the traffic you’re bringing in from the holidays, now is a perfect time to implement some new tactics! Here are some ideas:

• Add a place on the homepage where they can enter their email to gain access to special mailing lists (like a newsletter).
• Implement pop-ups with places for them to submit their emails in return for different deals or discounts.
• Create an interactive quiz or tool that requires them to enter their email to get the answers.
• Create special contests where you can only enter by giving you their information.
• Provide gated offers or informative content that require an email to access.
• Offer free trials so you can collect more than just their emails.

Be Strategic About Your Email Marketing Tactics

It’s important to tap into your established leads list with a well- thought-out email drip campaign. You want to make sure you’re touching your pool of potential holiday shoppers more than once to remind them about your upcoming sale and create some urgency. This is a great opportunity to use some advanced email tactics like last-chance opportunities and special offers catered to certain mailing lists. Here are a few rules of thumb to follow:

• Split your email lists into segments and groups so you can specialize the copy, graphics, and promotions displayed.
• Use perfect timing setting options when sending your emails so it lands in your customers’ inbox at the time they are most likely to open it.
• Use A/B testing on your sales emails to see which strategies worked the best so you can utilize them for your next sale.
• Optimize your emails for mobile. Around 47% of emails are opened on people’s phones according to email marketing firm Litmus. Here are some quick optimizations you can use:
  • Use one-column templates.
  • Increase your font size.
  • Make your call to action easy to identify, in the middle of the page, and easy to tap.
• Measure your performance as you go by looking at open rates, click rates, and eCommerce data through UTM tracking and your email marketing providers’ tools.
• Implement a last chance email list. Look at your email results a few days before the end of the sale and send a last chance email offer to some of the mailing lists with the highest open rates.
• Remind loyal customers why they subscribe: If your brand has a mission that’s months in the making, the holiday season may be a great time to remind your customers of their goals outside of the products you offer. This mission may be the reason why your customers stuck around in the first place.

Some email marketing plans have begun to change since Covid-19. Read our blog to see how it may impact your strategies this year!

Create Holiday Content Converts By Adding Retargeting Pixels to Your Ads

Did you know that 96% percent of customers will leave a website without actually purchasing anything? Utilizing retargeting pixels in your ads is a great way to bring customers back to your website! But what is a retargeting pixel and how does it work?

By attaching a small piece of code to your site you can track potential customers that leave your eCommerce stores and display more advertisements on Facebook and Google to remind them of your sale! This is a very effective marketing strategy because it helps you turn some of your bounced traffic into conversions down the line.

Check out our blog that describes how to implement retargeting pixels into your marketing campaign!

Ready, Set, Sell!

Now that you’ve worked on the back end of your website, the front end of your website, your digital marketing strategy, and everything in between, you are prepared and ready to capitalize on all of the positive things that come with the holiday season. If you have any further questions or want to ask our team about anything stated above feel free to contact our sales and support teams! We are available 24/7/365 and love talking with you!

The post The Ultimate Guide to Getting Your eCommerce Website Holiday Ready with A2 Hosting appeared first on The A2 Posting.

The new version of Joomla was released this year, but what’s the big deal about the new Joomla 4 dashboard?

With this upgrade to Joomla 4 users will get a redesign, new functions, greater speed, and better security. This new Joomla experience is built to give a more modern user experience, a meaningful new look, and to create an environment that is much easier to use. With this upgrade came a refresh of the Joomla Control Panel. Keep reading for a guide on the new changes to this tool!

New Features

Joomla 4’s new dashboard has quick access icon modules such as Site, System, Notifications, Last Actions, and more. These modules are customizable so you can control the quick access icons that you want to display on your dashboard and make the organization of your dashboard fit your needs.

The main menu is on the right side, with functions similar to Joomla 3:

• Content: Article management, Category management, Featured Articles, Fields, Media, Site Modules, Administrator Modules
• Menus: Administration of Menu Items, Control of menu positions
• Components: Administration of installed components
• Users: User manager and user groups, access levels, and others

One of the most notable changes is that by clicking on System, you will have access to everything including Global Configuration, Installation of Extensions and languages, template management, maintenance, information, updates, user permissions, and other functions.

Excited about the new look and feel of this dashboard and want to know how to update your site to Joomla 4? Check out our related blogs below!

Related Resources

Tips for Migrating to Joomla 4

Pre-update Checklist and How to Update Joomla 3.10.X to Joomla 4.0 

September Liaison Spotlight: Milton Parada, A2’s Joomla Expert

The post Learn More About the New Joomla 4 Home Dashboard appeared first on The A2 Posting.

While migrating from Joomla 3.10.X to Joomla 4 is considered a minor migration, the Joomla Core Extensions will be updated through the “one-click update” process. If you have any third-party extensions it is necessary to verify case by case, if these extensions are compatible with Joomla 4.

Before Migrating to Joomla 4

• To begin with, it is always wise to keep a backup copy, before these types of updates.
• Update your website to version 3.10.X
• A2Hosting complies with the necessary requirements to run Joomla 4, for this reason, feel sure that your server will work without problems.
• Make a summary of the third-party extensions that you use, plugins, modules, components, languages, and templates.
• In the summary of third-party extensions, previously created, notate which most used, barely used, and not used at all.
• Use the Pre-Update Check component, which is available in Joomla 3.10.X, to determine if the extensions you have installed are compatible with Joomla 4.

• The opportunity to migrate to this newest version gives you a great chance to clean up your site. Take this time to look at your site Categories to determine if they are necessary or not. This way you only end up migrating content you truly need.
• If you are using the Protostar template, you will no longer be able to use it in Joomla 4, it will be removed after migration to Joomla 4. As a substitute, Joomla presents Cassiopeia Template.

• If you have purchased an alternative template, make sure it is compatible with Joomla 4 before you update.

By following these above tips you should have a great update! Below are some related resources that will also help you with this process. If you’re currently looking for a web hosting company that is compatible with Joomla, look no further. With 99.9% uptime, 24/7, and up to 20x faster turbo speeds, A2 Hosting is a great option! Check out our plans today and feel free to contact our sales team with any further questions.

More Information

Pre-Update Checklist and How to Update Joomla 3.10.X to Joomla 4

September Liaison Spotlight: Milton Parada, A2’s Joomla Expert

How to Create Control Panel Icons on the Joomla Administration Dashboard

How to Add Keyboard Shortcuts to Manage Joomla Sites

The post Tips for Migrating to Joomla 4 appeared first on The A2 Posting.

Your Pre-Update Checklist

One of the latest features Joomla 3.10.X added is an enhancement to Joomla! Update Component. The Pre-Update Check allows an analysis of Required PHP and Database settings, PHP Settings, and Extensions Check so you can make sure your update is seamless.

To check your technical specifications in your website powered by Joomla, follow these steps:

1. First, you must log in as an administrator:
2. Then in the main menu, click on Components -> Joomla! Update
3. Click on the Pre-Update Check tab, if you don’t see this tab, click the Check for Updates button:

4. This tab will show you your website information: Required PHP & Database Settings, PHP Settings and Extensions check. Green indicates that it is correct, yellow is a warning, and red means that your current website is non-compliant:

If everything is green and your website is ready then it’s time to upgrade! Check out our step-by-step instructions below.

How to Upgrade from 3.10.X to Joomla 4

Joomla allows an easy and safe update to its latest version, Joomla 4. Through Joomla! Update Component and its many options, you can update your site in just a few clicks.

Before starting, you must create a full backup of your website. This is an important step in the off chance that any part of your update goes wrong. You should always be creating back-ups of your website regularly, whether you are updating or not, to ensure that you don’t lose it. Once you have made your backups check and make sure you are on the latest Joomla 3.10.X version. Finally, check and see if your technical specifications meet the new requirements. Read our blog below for a step-by-step guide on how to do this.

Starting Your Update

1. After saving your website’s complete backups, you must check if it meets the requirements to update. To do this you can Pre-Update Check. To navigate to here click on Components -> Joomla! Update:

2. Then click Options and change the Update Channel and select Joomla Next:

3. On the Live Update tab, a summary shows the details of the update. To install click Install the Update to start the update:

4. After a short wait, it will show a message indicating that the update was completed successfully.

Now your site is completely updated and you’re ready to begin working on more optimizations and improvements to get your site ready for Q4 and the holiday traffic!

If you’re looking for a good host for your updated Joomla site take a second to look at our plans here at A2 Hosting! With 24/7/365 guru crew support, 99.9% uptime, and turbo speeds, we’re ready to help you thrive online this year! Feel free to ask contact our sales team today with any questions!

Related Resources

Joomla Extensions for A2 Hosting Customers

Configuring and Optimizing Joomla

How to Change Control Panel Template in Joomla

The post Pre-Update List and How to Update Joomla 3.10.X to Joomla 4.0 appeared first on The A2 Posting.

Milton has two favorite forums for Joomla users looking for advice:

• forum.joomla.org
• joomla.stackexchange.com.

Some of his most helpful Knowledge Base articles are:

• How to Change Database Settings in Joomla

• How to Change the Control Panel Template in Joomla

• How to Add Keyboard Shortcuts to Manage Joomla Sites

• How to Create Control Panel Icons on the Joomla Administration Dashboard

With the new Joomla update, Milton has written some amazing posts on tips on what to expect and how to have a seamless upgrade. Keep your eyes on our blog this week as we share them with you!

The post September Liaison Spotlight: Milton Parada, A2’s Joomla Expert appeared first on The A2 Posting.

Domain Redirect is a plugin that loads at Joomla startup and checks if the domain used in the URL matches the one specified in the parameters. If it does not, the plugin gracefully redirects the visitor to the exact same URL, replacing the domain with the preferred one.

The functions offered by this plugin will be useful in maintaining your site, redirecting domains that are no longer in operation or simply redirecting to a specific page within your website.

Configure Domain Redirect Plugin

To install and configure the Domain Redirect Plugin, follow these steps:

1. Log in to your Joomla site as the administrator.
2. On the top menu bar, click on Extensions -> Manage -> Install
3. Select the “Install from Web” tab; search and install the “Domain redirect”:
4. After installing, you must activate the plugin. Click Extensions -> Plugins. Search it and edit:  
5. In the settings, you can add the target domain to which it will be redirected, you can also establish the link to a landing page if you want. Change the status to Enabled and click Save:
6. And that ‘s it! An easy to configure plugin that will help you with processes such as maintenance on your website to redirect or in different cases.

More information

For more information about the Domain Redirect Plugin, please visit https://extensions.joomla.org/extension/domain-redirect/

The post Redirect Domain for Joomla appeared first on The A2 Posting.

Joomla.com provides all the same basic publishing features as Joomla.org. However, as you might expect, it does comes with some limitations. Taking the key pros and cons of each into consideration will help you come to a more informed decision.

In this article, we’ll discuss Joomla.org and Joomla.com in more detail, and explore the differences between them. We’ll also talk you through how to decide which platform is right for you. Let’s jump in!

An Introduction to Joomla!

When you’re creating a website, there are a number of factors you’ll need to consider right at the beginning. Deciding which Content Management System (CMS) you’re going to use is one of the most important yet challenging decisions. There are a lot of options out there, and Joomla! is one of the most popular.

Joomla! is a free and open-source CMS that’s designed for publishing web content. The software is written in PHP, and uses a MySQL database to store content. It’s also considered fairly easy for beginners to pick up – thanks in part to the helpful online community the platform attracts.

Building a site with Joomla.org provides you with several benefits. Perhaps most notably, you’ll get an incredible level of control over your site. Sourcing a suitable hosting plan and domain is the responsibility of the user, enabling you to take full advantage of some of the great services out there.

This also means that general site maintenance and updates are also in the hands of the user. While this may be daunting for first-time site owners, many hosts will carry out these tasks as a part of their base service, particularly when you’re using a plan that’s optimized specifically for the platform.

In addition, with Joomla.org there are no limitations placed on the extensions and templates you can install to customize your site, and mailing functionality is unlimited. The level of overall freedom offered by this platform is hard for many of the alternative options on the market to match – including Joomla.com.

Joomla.org vs Joomla.com

In 2015, the developers of Joomla! introduced Joomla.com, a modified and simpler version of the original software. There are a number of key differences between the two platforms, and the easiest way to understand them is through a direct comparison.

Let’s start by checking out some of the benefits Joomla.com has to offer:

• With Joomla.com, everything is a part of the base service. You’ll receive hosting and a domain for free (making this a ‘hosted’ platform rather than a ‘self-hosted’ one like Joomla.org).
• Getting your site off the ground comes with a lower price tag. You can get a basic site up and running without spending a cent.
• Many site maintenance tasks, such as updates and installations, are automatic. Furthermore, Joomla.com comes with all of the platform’s 50+ languages pre-installed.

A site created with Joomla.com does have certain restrictions, especially when it comes to extensions. The service comes with just five pre-installed extensions, as opposed to the unlimited capabilities offered by the self-hosted version.

Mailing functionality is similarly limited. However, it’s important to mention that the core functionality provided by the Joomla.com service is exactly the same as it is for Joomla.org users.

In contrast, let’s quickly recap the pros of using Joomla.org:

• You have a greater level of freedom in regards to your hosting plan, meaning you are able to choose an option that better fits the needs of your site.
• There’s no limit on the extensions and templates you can use.
• With Joomla.org, you can directly edit your template files – this isn’t possible on the Joomla.com service. In a more general sense, your options for customization are far more open.

Of course, there are some disadvantages to consider – cost being the primary factor. The expense of hosting and domain registration can add up, although there are affordable options that will be easy on your budget.

The level of maintenance required when running a site with Joomla.org is also considerably higher. This includes the initial installation, future updates, and the addition of extra tools as needed. You don’t need to be a technical wizard, but you will have to take some time learning the ins and outs of the platform.

How to Select the Right Platform for Your Site

As we’ve seen, both Joomla.org and Joomla.com have some compelling advantages. At the same time, they’re different enough that each platform is better suited to a distinct kind of site and user. By considering the factors listed above, you can begin to decide which option meets your specific needs.

The additional level of support with site maintenance and upgrades means that Joomla.com is generally well-suited to smaller businesses and first-time site owners. It’s a useful option if you lack the time, resources, and/or knowledge to learn the platform and maintain your site.

The fact that you’re provided with hosting and a domain can also free up some resources – less research is required, for example. This means that more time can go into creating great content and marketing it. If you need to create a website but lack any kind of budget, Joomla.com is worth a look.

Those who desire complete control over their websites, however, may find Joomla.org a more attractive option. It’s extremely customizable, and you get access to limitless template and extension downloads. As a result, you can put together a site that looks and acts exactly the way you want.

What’s more, Joomla.org gives you the freedom to select a high-quality web host. This is a particularly strong draw for many users, as it enables you to choose a hosting provider and plan that match the needs of your business.

All-in-all, Joomla.org is a great choice for larger businesses and experienced website owners. If you have the time and resources to carry out the manual maintenance that’s required, you’ll reap the benefits of an extremely powerful platform.

Conclusion

Joomla! is one of the world’s most popular CMSs, and the addition of Joomla.com only cements its position further. As we’ve discussed, both platforms have some clear advantages and drawbacks. Therefore, it’s essential to assess the individual needs of your site, to determine which option will work best for you.

In a general sense, Joomla.com is better suited to those who require an extra level of support, and have little-to-no budget to work with. On the other hand, site owners who require a greater level of freedom, and who want to choose their own hosting plan and domain, are better off opting for Joomla.org.

Image credit: Max Pixel.

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