Tag Archives: web hosting

Step by step guide to transfer your domain to Bluehost

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One of the most exciting steps when signing up for a new website is choosing a domain. Conducting a domain name search to find the perfect name and registering it makes everything feel official. However, over time you may find yourself unhappy with your hosting providers’ service or realize that your needs have expanded. You might opt to transfer your existing domain name to another provider.

Can You Transfer a Domain Instantly?

A domain transfer is a process of changing your domain registration. You can transfer your domain instantly if it satisfies the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) transfer conditions, which require you to have had your domain for at least 60 days.

What Is the Average Domain Name Transfer Time?

A domain transfer can take anywhere between five to 14 days to complete. The amount of time it takes depends on how fast you meet the requirements and how quickly your current domain name registrar and the web host you’re switching to authorize the transfer.

To have a better idea of the domain transfer process, keep reading for a step-by-step guide on how to transfer a domain.

Step by step Guide

  • Choose a new web host and create an account with the host you want to transfer your domain to. 
  • Review your contact information When you register for a domain, the registrar will ask for your contact information because your new web host will be notifying the administrative contact during the transfer.

If you’re using your domain-associated email, you need to change it to a general or public email address such as Gmail.

  • Update privacy settings with the current registrar – Disabling domain privacy allows the current registrar to view your contact information. You will then need to wait for the WHOIS database to update its records with your details.
  • Update your name servers – Name servers direct the traffic from your domain to the host server. 

If you already moved your website to your new host, it’s best to update the name servers now as you cannot make DNS changes when the domain transfer is in progress.

  • Unlock your domain name – Upon purchase, most domain registrars “lock” your domain to ensure it’s safe from unauthorized changes or transfer attempts. 

Unlocking your domain name is relatively simple — some registrars will let you do so manually, while others will do it for you.

  • Request your authorization code – The last thing you need before initiating the domain transfer process is the EPP (or authorization code). Most registrars send this code via email. 

This step often takes the longest — it can take up to five days before you receive your code.

  • Initiate the transfer – Once you’ve received your EPP code, you’re ready to initiate the transfer. Your new web host will guide you through the process.
  • Pay for the transfer – An important thing to note about the domain transfer process is that some web hosts will charge transfer fees on top of annual renewal costs. Consult the web host you’re transferring to for any related charges.
  • Cancel your previous domain registrar – Make sure the domain transfer is completed, and your new account is up and running before canceling your prior service.

If you’re moving to Bluehost, you can check out this guide on transferring your domain.

Why Your Domain Transfer May Be Taking Long

If your domain transfer is taking longer than the recommended amount of time, you may have encountered some issues, such as:

  • Your new web host hasn’t received the EPP code – It can take anywhere from five to 14 days to receive the EPP code in your email. 

If you haven’t received the code yet, check your domain’s registered email address. If it shows the domain-associated email address, you’ll have to file a Change of Registrant request.

Otherwise, if you’ve changed your email address, check your spam or trash folders. 

  • Invalid EPP code – The EPP code is case-sensitive, so if you encounter any errors, simply copy-paste the code again and make sure to remove any spaces before or after it. 

If it still doesn’t work, the EPP code may have expired, so you will need to request a new one.

  • Domain privacy is enabled – If you’ve already received an EPP code but still experience delays in domain transfer, check whether your domain privacy is disabled.

If your privacy settings haven’t been updated, the registrar will send the domain transfer emails to a Privacy Protection inbox that isn’t easily accessible.

Once domain privacy is disabled, it will take up to 24 hours for the WHOIS database to be updated. Only then can the new administrator receive the domain transfer email.

If you’ve tried the fixes here but cannot find the solution to your problem, visit Bluehost’s domain transfer troubleshooting guide. If you’re not satisfied with your current domain registrar, it’s easy to transfer your domain.

Bottom line

If you’re searching for a domain registrar or a new hosting provider, look no further than Bluehost. Because Bluehost is a trusted global hosting provider that offers a large selection of domain names, including geo-location domains. Bluehost domains offer domain privacy, 24/7 support, and the ability to create a fully customizable website. Sign up for a Bluehost domain today.

Secure Cloud Hosting And Storage For Your Business

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When an organization decides to start using secure cloud hosting storage solutions, one of the first questions that usually comes up is how to secure data that is loaded to the cloud. In this post, you’ll know about secure cloud storage for business, and what you should be looking for to keep your data safe.

Secure Cloud Hosting – What To Look For

At a minimum, when shopping for secure cloud storage for business, you should be looking at:

1. How much support the cloud service provider (CSP) can/will provide
2. Levels of encryption
3. Speed (both in terms of accessibility and in upload/download times)
4. Their experience working with companies like yours
5. The cost for the services and support offered

Types Of Secure Cloud Hosting Environments

There are three basic environment types of secure cloud hosting:

1. Private: in-house
2. Public: built and managed via a third-party, and
3. Hybrid: a combination of public and private

The type of secure cloud storage for the business you choose will depend largely on time and resources and the availability of space and personnel to build and maintain storage servers. Because of these factors, many companies choose to partner with third parties to help them with their secure cloud hosting solutions.

Common business models that provide secure cloud hosting include, but aren’t limited to, software as a service (SaaS), platform as a service (PaaS), and infrastructure as a service (IaaS). 

Additional Ways For Keeping Cloud Data Secure

How to secure data is not just about the CSP you’re using, but also how you use it. For example, if you have a single login for everyone on your team to use, that’s not very secure. But, if all of your team members have their credentials, and each person is given only the access they need to specific files, it’s significantly more secure. When using secure cloud hosting it’s a good idea to:

1. Require strong passwords and multi-factor authentication
2. Only give the users that need access the clearance to view the data most relevant to them
3. Utilize a web application firewall (WAF) when accessing your secure cloud hosting to block malicious traffic
4. Encrypt data before you load it
5. Backup data off-site regularly
6. Use website scanning tools

It’s often said that the best defense is a good offense. And, when you have security top of mind, you’re miles ahead of companies who don’t proactively take steps to secure their data.

How to create an E-commerce website using WordPress in 2021?

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WordPress has devoted plenty of blog space to helping small business owners rapidly set up their sites and create engaging content to push them to the top of the search engine page. But for those who want to create an e-commerce site, the process can be a bit more intimidating — especially for those who are new to the realm of online retail.

Even if you don’t have extensive coding skills or fully understand all the jargon associated with selling your products or services online, you can still build a great e-store and connect with consumers everywhere in just a few simple steps.

Steps on How to Set Up an E-Commerce Store on WordPress

Step 1: Choose Your Web Hosting Service

If you don’t already have a reliable web hosting partner, that is an excellent place to start. With a full-service host, like Bluehost, you can get your domain name and choose the ideal package for your business goals.

When you choose your web service, you’ll also need to decide whether to use a standard extension — like .com or .net — or a new Top Level Domain (TDL), such as .coffee or.NYC. Keep in mind that your domain name is more than just an online name — it can impact your credibility and competitive status for years in the future.

Step 2: Choose Your E-Commerce Platform for Your WordPress Store

Magento, Shopify, and WooCommerce are some of the top e-commerce platforms recommended by tech experts. If you decide to use a hosted online business solution like WooCommerce, you can simplify your setup process and get your domain name from the same vendor. Look for options that are intuitive, adaptable, and scalable so that your software will accommodate your growing business rather than having to switch platforms as your customer base expands or you add new items to your product portfolio.

Since 39 percent of all online stores use WooCommerce (more than any other platform), it’s obvious that they know what they’re doing when it comes to helping e-retailers manage their inventory. WooCommerce already comes with PayPal, Bankers’ Automated Clearing Services (BACS) for direct debit and credit, and cash on delivery. And if you want another payment gateway, they offer several extensions. It’s easy to adjust your shipping methods too.

Step 3: Build Your New E-Commerce Site in WordPress

Because you don’t need any coding skills or a lot of time to build an online retail store with WooCommerce, we recommend this software to our small business owners. WooCommerce is a WordPress plugin, and we offer special services and pricing for our customers.

1.Install WordPress Plugin

Here’s how to install it:

  • Log in to WordPress and navigate your way to the Administration panel.
  • Select “Plugins” then “Add New.”
  • Search for WooCommerce — just type the full name and hit enter. You can view specs such as the ratings and description if you want more information before installing the software.
  • If you are sure this is the software solution for you after reviewing the details, click the “Install Now” button.
  • Answer the pop-up “Yes.”
  • Wait. WordPress will complete the installation. You’ll receive an on-screen notice when the install is complete.
  • It’s just that simple. The built-in wizard walks you through the process step-by-step so you don’t miss any vital pages, like product pages and shipping and taxes info.
  • After you’ve installed the plugin, you’ll have the option to set up and create the necessary pages.

Other WordPress E-Commerce Plugins

  • Shopify
  • BigCommerce
  • WP Easycare

2.Create Your Pages

This is as easy as clicking on the “Continue” button.

3.Configure Shop Locale

After you create pages, define your locality so the system can display info in the proper terms. In this step, you answer basic questions about currency and measurement language (i.e. kilos or pounds, dollars or euros, plus package dimension guidelines for domestic and international shoppers).

4.Set Up Shipping and Taxes

The shipping and tax screens let you define tax rates and shipping and handling policies, including any domestic/foreign limitations related to product sales. If you haven’t got a clue what tax rate to charge, don’t stress. WC has an intuitive feature that offers suggestions on your locality, and you can always go back and tweak the details later.

5.Configure Payment Gateways

Here you’ll establish which payment gateways to offer your customers. You can select from standard options like C.O.D., ACH (bank transfer), and Paypal, or non-traditional payment options by installing add-ons immediately or later. And that’s it! At this point, you can either tell WooCommerce to set product data and generate your first product pages or add individual products manually. We recommend that you review this Torque article if you are planning to build out your product pages or you want to get a peek at the wizard screenshots before you start the onboarding process.

Step 4: Customize Your E-Commerce Store

Installing the software means you have officially “built” a new online store, but don’t stop now. It’s time to customize your store to deliver high-quality content and a stellar user experience to drive sales. Check out the following resources for tips and suggestions to help you build out your store to attract — and convert — a steady stream of customers.

  1. Test all links — pretty bells and whistles are pointless if site users cannot navigate smoothly to the checkout page.
  2. Consider using site-promoting products, like the WC Showcase that help you get your site noticed in a sea of competitors.
  3. Leverage tools like LiketoKnow. that drive Instagram users to your site. Not familiar with this marketing tool? Watch this short video that covers the basics in less than 2 minutes.
  4. More than 8 out of 10 consumers trust online reviews as much as referrals and recommendations from friends and family. Make it easy for consumers to leave reviews on your site and share your content.
  5. Add social media buttons to your site. Pew Research found that nearly 75 percent of all online adults use social media daily. Twitter has more active users than the entire population of Indonesia. Facebook has almost as many users as the population of China (about 1.37 billion people).

Don’t forget to add Google Analytics to track user behavior & create a blog for your WordPress Online Store to help drive traffic to your store.

Why You Should Use GoDaddy to Host Your Business Website?

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Is GoDaddy the apt website host for your business?

Choosing a website builder and hosting service is one of the first major decisions for any business owner. If you’re not entirely sold on the benefits of Godaddy, or just overwhelmed by the choices available, you’re not alone.

GoDaddy is a globally recognized brand, with SuperBowl Ads and top positioning in search results. Their authority with search engines and popularity with users is well established. That being said, negative press and mixed GoDaddy reviews from users can easily be found with a little searching on Google. How do you sort out fact from fiction?

We’ve broken down the essential criteria you should be considering, compared reviews, researched other website hosting services, and here’s what we were able to discover:

GoDaddy Domain Hosting: Highly Competitive

Hands down, GoDaddy is one of the most affordable domain hosting services out there. Registering a domain is super easy and there are frequent deals available. Top-tier domains (.com/.ca) can be purchased for as little as $0.99/month for the first year. Dedicated servers are provided to give users the assurance of reliable hosting, security, and efficient load times.

GoDaddy Website Builder: Highly Competitive

GoDaddy has one of the most user-friendly interfaces for building a website. Their cPanel hosting provides users with an intuitive graphical interface, suited for beginners or experts. You won’t need a high level of expertise to create, publish, and manage your website.

GoDaddy Design Features: Fairly Competitive

GoDaddy’s website builder is fairly robust. Over 300 professional design templates are available, which can be easily customized using their drag and drop tool. You can upload your images (logo, trademark, etc) straight from your desktop or phone. Music and video can also be embedded.

Data Access: Restrictive

Restrictions on email addresses, databases, and memory can be problematic for web administrators seeking more control. Web forms, wikis, and auto-generated content will take more effort as you try and navigate GoDaddy policies. Other hosting services are less restrictive.

Backup and Restore features are included in most of their hosting plans. Save and backup as many versions of your website as you want, which other services do not offer. GoDaddy also makes it easy to import third-party MySQL files.

$4.99* .COM Domains! Get going with GoDaddy!

Pricing: Highly Competitive

There are four basic plans: personal, business, business plus, and Online Store for eCommerce enterprises. Cost ranges from approximately $100 – $500 annually, which works out to somewhere between $8 – $40 monthly. All of them include 24/7 support, but the features and customization vary with each tier.

Uptime: Needs Improvement

One of the most important criteria for evaluating the quality of a domain hosting service is uptime or the amount of time a server is functioning. A server fulfills millions of requests each day, transmitting billions of bytes to IPs around the world. While Godaddy boasts dedicated servers for your website, the feedback from users has been generally poor when it comes to uptime. Loading issues with mobile and desktop have been experienced widely and continue to be a major source of dissatisfaction for unhappy customers.

GoDaddy Security: Highly Competitive

Your data is in good hands with GoDaddy. They use the latest technology and invest heavily in security to reduce spam and hacker attacks. With the addition of SiteLock and Sucuri, GoDaddy’s web security is a definite plus.

GoDaddy Support: Adequate

Perhaps the most troubling aspect of GoDaddy’s service is its customer service, which many users rate poorly. They offer 24/7 live, phone, and email support, but help desk attendees are often criticized for their lack of expertise in addressing technical issues (i.e. downtime, re-directs, hosting, WP, SQL databases). Web administrators seeking HTML access to their server will run into problems. SSH access is limited. There is SFTP access but you won’t be able to overwrite files.

GoDaddy WordPress Hosting: Competitive

GoDaddy has partnered with WordPress to provide users with three hosting plans for building an affordable WordPress website or blog. Domains are free with an annual subscription. A free image library exists, along with an auto-install Quick Start Wizard to help you launch your website quickly. You won’t find a better deal.

If you have an existing WordPress site, migrating to GoDaddy requires some technical expertise. Some WordPress plug-ins and themes require a tutorial to be integrated smoothly. While there are step-by-step directions for moving your WordPress site to GoDaddy, following the steps can be a challenge even for experts. Correcting errors down the road will cost you around $150 to repair. Small websites with no plug-ins are relatively easier to migrate.

Summary:

GoDaddy has been under fire for unusual marketing tactics, aggressive upselling, and poor customer service, but their affordability, brand recognition, and comprehensive tools make them a popular choice for many start-ups.

If your business is fairly established, involves a lot of eCommerce, and you’re looking to expand, there are better options. Small business owners with little technical expertise can register a domain and launch a website with relative ease, but getting the help and guidance you need from a customer service representative may leave you frustrated and annoyed.

Creatives and professionals working with a hyper-local focus will find GoDaddy is a great bargain, but if you plan on expanding into eCommerce, you might want to look around for a provider with more knowledgeable and responsive customer support.

Bluehost – Hosting Features and Affordable Results

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Bluehost is dedicated to getting your idea online. Whether you’re a blogger, a small business, web designer, or developer, Bluehost has something for you. Bluehost enables small businesses to create an online identity by equipping them with the right tools – domain hosting, marketing tools, recommended SEO keywords, analytics dashboards, and more, all at affordable prices, appropriate for small business budgets.

There are lots of hosting providers on the market today. But what makes Bluehost stands out?

More Than Shared Hosting

Bluehost provides nearly every web hosting service that you could need including advanced hosting like VPS, dedicated server, and managed WordPress hosting. They handle the technical details, like updating plugins, updating the core, handling security, and optimizing performance.

Hosting Features

Bluehost provides you with more than what you can normally expect from hosting plans.

Here are the top Bluehost features:

  1. Easy-to-use
  2. Dozens of site tool add-ons
  3. Free site builders
  4. Free domain-specific email addresses
  5. 99.99% uptime
  6. Technology to support fast page load times
  7. Cloudflare integration 
  8. Free SSL certificate.
Affordable Results

The good news is that some critical digital marketing services can be commoditized and delivered at valuable costs. That’s a core part of Bluehost’s strategy.

These are some of their services:

  • Websites: You can use their easy Do it Yourself(DIY) site builder to create your own or you can get their design pros to build a site for you.
  • SEO, advertising, social media marketing, and local business visibility: Bluehost provides professional marketing services, including creating content for your site. You can get monthly consultations with a marketing professional. And they measure progress so you can see your Return on Investment(ROI).
  • Technical support: In-house professional experts for 24/7 help and support includes video tutorials, guides, and more.

So, if you have a business website, or need one, Bluehost is a solid web host that’s worth checking out. 

What is web hosting? Everything you need to know

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What is Web Hosting? 

Web hosting is an online service that enables you to publish your website or web application on the internet. When you sign up for a web hosting service, you rent some space on a physical server where you can store all the files and data needed for your website to work correctly. 

A server is a physical computer that operates without any interference so that your website is open all the time for anyone who wants to see it. Your web host is accountable for maintaining that server up and running, protecting it from malicious attacks, and transferring your content such as text, images, files, etc from the server to your visitors’ browsers.

When you determine to begin a new website, you need to find a web hosting provider that will provide you with that server space. Your web host stores all your files, assets, and databases on the server. Whenever someone types your domain name into the address bar of their browser, your host transfers all the files required to serve that request.

You don’t even need any programming knowledge to perform regular site management tasks. For instance, you can upload HTML and other files to the server, install content management systems such as WordPress or Drupal, access your database, and create backups for your site with ease.

Here we’re going to explain web hosting in greater detail. So, let’s dive right in.

Types of Web Hosting

Most web hosts offer various types of hosting so that they can assist the needs of different clients — whether you want to build a simple personal blog or own a huge online business and are in desperate need of an intricate company website. Here are the most popular choices available:

  • Shared hosting
  • VPS hosting
  • Cloud hosting
  • WordPress hosting
  • Dedicated hosting

It’s best to start small and when your site touches higher traffic numbers, upgrade to a more advanced type of plan.

Shared Hosting

Web hosting providers normally offer more than one plan for every type of hosting. This type of hosting is the most common answer for most web hosting requirements and it’s a great solution for most small businesses and personal blogs. With this type of hosting, you’re sharing one server with other clients. Websites hosted on the same server share all their resources, such as memory, computing power, disk space, and others.

VPS Hosting

When you’re using a Virtual Private Server — or VPS for short — you’re still sharing a server with other users. However, your web host allots an entirely separate partition for you on that server. This means you get a dedicated server space and a reserved amount of resources and memory.

VPS hosting can be excellent for medium-sized businesses with a quickly growing number of websites and traffic.

Cloud Hosting

Cloud hosting is currently the most reliable solution on the market. With cloud hosting, your host provides you with a cluster of servers — your files and resources are replicated on each server.

When one of the cloud servers is busy or encounters a problem, your traffic is automatically routed to another server in the cluster. This results in little to no downtime, which is great if you own a very busy website.

WordPress Hosting

WordPress hosting is particularly created for WordPress site owners. Your server is configured specially for WordPress and the site comes with pre-installed plugins for essential tasks, such as caching and security. Your site loads much faster because of the highly optimized configuration. WordPress hosting plans often incorporate additional WordPress-related features, such as pre-designed WordPress themes, drag-and-drop page builders, and precise developer tools.

Dedicated Hosting

Dedicated hosting provides the highest level of resource allocation, privacy, and control. So that you have unbelievable flexibility over how you want to maintain your website. You can configure your server as you prefer, choose the operating system and software you want to use, and set up the whole hosting environment according to your personal needs.

Normally, this is more oriented towards extensive online businesses that deal with heavy traffic.

Difference Between Web Hosting and a Domain Name

Before going to signup for a web hosting service, you also need to purchase a domain name. Because web hosting allows you to rent server space for your site, but the domain name works as an address of your site. When some users want to check out your site, they type the domain name into their browser’s address bar, and your server transfers the requested content. You need to purchase your domain name separately for most of the web host. If you already have a domain, you can transfer it to your current hosting provider. Alike to web hosting plans, you need to pay for your domain name annually to keep ownership of the domain.

If you want to publish a website and build an online presence then Web hosting is the type of service you need. Having a website gives additional advantages to easily reach millions of users worldwide.

How to prefer a reliable web hosting provider?

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Web hosting is an online service that helps you to proclaim your website on the internet. It’s like rent a space on the server that stores your website data. Your web host is accountable for your website running 24/7 properly without any interference. To run a website without having any concerns even your sleep, web hosting is an appropriate choice. It stores all of your files, media, and asset on the server. When somebody types your domain name on the address bar the web hosting help to transfer the data from the server as per the necessity.

Types of web hosting are:

  • Shared Hosting
  • VPS Hosting
  • Dedicated Hosting
  • Cloud Hosting
  • Managed WordPress hosting 

When it comes to thriving online your website’s performance involves a lot. You only have a few seconds to catch your visitor’s contemplation before they exit your website. When you employ a quality host service provider you will have the capability to build your domain-specific email address. Some hosts confine you to one, while others will permit you to generate an endless number of domain-specific email addresses. The base of your website’s protection starts with your host service provider. After all, this is where all of your website’s files are going to be saved. A quality host will have many levels of security in place.

The main comforts of web hosting services are:

  • Enhanced site performance
  • Domain-associated email address
  • High reliability and uptime
  • Advanced website security
  • Prominent technical support

Beyond the main advantage of aiding you to get your website live on the internet, web hosting offers a lot of other gains as well. Keep in mind that the sort of hosting you decide should be what is fittest for your current website demands. You can periodically shift packages, or renew your hosting in time.