However, if you know how to incorporate video into your website, you can use it to maximize engagement and drive conversions. With the right approach, video can act as a powerful Call To Action (CTA).

In this article, we’ll talk about some of the latest video content trends, and then go over three tips to incorporate videos into your website. Let’s get to it!

What the Latest Video Content Trends Are

It’s likely that many of your users spend a significant part of their day watching videos on one platform or another. On average, users consume around 100 minutes of video per day. If you can seize even a fraction of that time through your content, it can help increase conversions.

If the primary goal of your videos is to drive sales or conversions, shorter is usually better. Despite the massive amounts of video content that customers consume, it’s safe to say that attention spans are getting shorter. At the end of 2019, up to 66 percent of video ads were approximately 30 seconds long. Although that might sound short, there’s a lot that you can say about a product or service in half a minute.

Thanks to the rise of social media stories and platforms such as TikTok, users are getting increasingly comfortable with shorter video ads as a part of their online experience. Moreover, there’s massive interest in User-Generated Content (UGC). If you can get consumers to share their experiences with your products or services in video format, that’s a huge marketing win.

There’s also a growing interest in educational videos. If your website focuses on online learning, video is a channel that you can tap into to expand your audience.

3 Tips for Incorporating Video into Your Website

If you’re ready to start incorporating videos into your website, there are several factors that can help you maximize their effectiveness. Let’s look at three tips you can use to make the most of your video strategy.

1. Add an Intro that Highlights Your Brand

If you go to your favorite YouTube channel right now and open a random video, we’re willing to bet it has an intro:

The goal of intros isn’t to pad video length, but to take the opportunity to reinforce brand awareness. An intro can accomplish that in several ways, including:

• Reminding you of the brand’s name
• Showcasing the brand’s logo
• Reinforcing the brand’s style and the type of content it focuses on

In this case, your website or business is the brand. Even if your videos are only 30 seconds long, adding a short intro that includes your name and the site’s logo can only benefit you. This is particularly the case when users end up watching those videos outside of your website.

Depending on which video marketing tools you use, adding intros to your content might be easier than you think. A lot of tools provide you with templates that you can use and edit, as well as the ability to upload your logo and incorporate it into the video.

2. Choose a Performance-Oriented Hosting Provider

If you plan on uploading videos directly to your server, you should use a performance-oriented web host. A lot of websites choose the cheapest hosting provider they can find, which often translates to slow loading times and a frustrating User Experience (UX).

If visitors have to spend minutes waiting for a video to load, and then wait for it to buffer every two seconds, they are much less likely to watch it in full. Even worse, that poor user experience can reflect badly on the rest of your website.

To ensure the best video experience, we recommend avoiding shared web hosting. At the very least, you’ll want to use a Virtual Private Server (VPS) hosting plan, which in most cases provides better performance as well as dedicated resources for your website.

3. Create Videos that Target Your Website’s Audience

You probably have a pretty good idea of who your website’s target audience is, such as:

• Where your users are visiting from
• The average age of your audience
• What their interests are and what content they want to see or read about

This information is critical for video creation. You can have an amazing idea for a marketing video, but if it doesn’t speak to your website’s audience, it won’t get the results you want. In other words, the video won’t get you conversions.

When you’re working on video content for your website, it’s important to consider whether it’s something your audience will be interested in. If the video provides or promises solutions and answers to questions they might have, it will likely succeed in its goal.

Conclusion

Knowing what the latest video content trends are is a solid starting point for creating your own media. Your website is the perfect channel to deliver those videos because it already has a built-in audience, some of whom may appreciate a different kind of content.

If you’re not sure how to approach video creation, you can start off on the right foot by keeping the following three tips in mind:

1. Add an intro that highlights your brand.
2. Choose a performance-oriented web hosting provider.
3. Create videos that target your website’s audience.

Do you have any questions about how to incorporate video into your website? Let’s talk about them in the comments section below!

Image credit: Pixabay.

The post 3 Tips for Embedding & Adding Video into Your Website appeared first on The A2 Posting.

What is an Email Blacklist? 

The email blacklist is an extensive database of public domains and IP addresses marked as suspicious for sending spam emails through the internet. It’s also known as DNSBL (Domain Name System-based Blackhole List) or RBL Real-time Blackhole List. Organizations like Email Service Providers (ESP), Internet Service Providers (ISP), and anti-spam agencies (ASA) use this list to detect, monitor and block any spam emails entering their network. 

Am I Blacklisted? What Are the Signs?

There are many signs to alert you of your IP’s status. When you’re blacklisted, you can’t send emails to the recipient’s mailbox properly. Now, this doesn’t mean you’re going to be blacklisted from every mail server in the world. If you’re blacklisted with one DNSBL service, there are hundreds more that may not have blacklisted you. A few key signs:

1. There are an increased number of emails lost. 
2. You experience deteriorating delivery rates.
3. You find a high number of email bounce rates. 

These don’t confirm you’re blacklisted but are some warning signs. If you check a few of the boxes for delivery issues, you can now check to confirm the blacklisting of the domain or IP address. 

Checking Your IP address and Domain in an Email Blacklist Directory

There are various email blacklist services on the internet. It’s not practical to check every single one of them, but some applications maintain a list of live RBL (real-time blackhole list) directories to save your time. They provide a page dedicated to that RBL service and also offer a service to delist your domain or IP address. 

Here are a couple of popular RBL applications:

• MXToolBox: This checks for domain blacklisting across multiple RBL lists. It provides detailed information and suggestions on your domain’s current status. 
• MultiRBL: This is a free DNSBL lookup site that can scan 100+ DNSBL lists to check for domain blacklisting. It also details the steps to remove your domain from the blacklist. 

Malicious sites can be blacklisted by Google Safe Browsing, which will warn visitors of potentially unsafe pages. Dropmysite includes a feature that sends you alerts if your site is listed on this blacklist monitoring program – so take immediate corrective actions before it gets too late! A2 Hosting offers Dropmysite as an add-on cPanel plugin so that you can back up your data and monitor your websites. These services can help you actively monitor your IP address so that you can ensure swift delivery of all of your emails. 

Blacklists are an important tool for email deliverability. They help protect email users from spam and phishing emails and improve the deliverability of your legitimate email campaigns. If you’re not familiar with blacklists or aren’t sure if your IP address is on one, we encourage you to use a blacklist checking tool. Use this information to clean up your email practices and improve your chances of getting delivered to the inbox. If you have any more questions or concerns feel free to contact our support team 24/7/365!

Related Articles:

• How to stop unwanted e-mail using Spam Filters
• How To Prevent Outgoing Email From Being Marked As Spam
• How to monitor blacklisted sites using Dropmysite

The post What Is An Email Blacklist? appeared first on The A2 Posting.

What is a Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN)? 

A Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN) is a domain name consisting of three parts: the hostname, the domain name, and the top-level domain. The hostname is the specific computer or device on the network that you want to use the FQDN for. The domain name is the section of the FQDN that uniquely identifies your network. The top-level domain is the highest level of classification for domains and is assigned by ICANN. For example, when you type “www.google.com” into your web browser, “www” is the hostname, “google” is the domain name, and “.com” is the top-level domain. 

Different computer types use different terminology for FQDNs like network names or full computer names. 

Why should I use an FQDN? 

FQDNs indicate unique addresses on the internet. If you don’t have an FQDN, you don’t have an accessible website. They’re required for installing SSL certificates, imperative to the security of your website. 

Apart from having an accessible website, FQDNs are also useful to have a discoverable computer on an internet network, like when you need to access a computer remotely. This is common in an office to track a computer’s activity. 

Also, FQDNs help you access domain services like FTP (File Transfer Protocol) and email. For example, if you want to connect your domain name’s email to an email app on your phone like Gmail or Apple Mail, you need to know the FQDN for the mail server, which is typically something like “mail.yourdomainname.com.” 

Here is an example of an FQDN:

1. www.a2hosting.com
2. mail.a2hosting.com
3. ftp.a2hosting.com

How to find your FQDN

If you’re not sure how to find your FQDN, please review the following links: 

Find your FQDN for Windows OS (operating systems).

Find your FQDN for macOS.

When you generate a domain name, it should contain three parts. The first part is the hostname which identifies the specific computer or device on your network that will be using this FQDN. The second part of an FQDN is the domain name and it uniquely identifies your company’s network. Finally, there is the top-level domain (TLD) which classifies domains as either generic or country-code TLDs such as .com for commercial purposes. If you need help viewing any of these components within your own FQDN contact our support team today!  

Related Articles:

• How to manage cPanel Mail Exchanger (MX) records
• How to use the DNS Zone Editor in cPanel
• How to verify site ownership with Google
• How to determine your account’s server name

The post What Is a Fully Qualified Domain Name? appeared first on The A2 Posting.

When you have an eCommerce site, ensuring a smooth payment process is critical to gaining conversions from leads that visit your site. WooCommerce allows you to configure various payment methods such as direct bank transfer, checks, cash on delivery, and Paypal to provide your customers with additional options for completing order transactions.

The WooCommerce PayPal Checkout extension allows your WordPress store to accept PayPal payments and makes use of customizable Smart Payment ButtonsTM. Customers who use PayPal Checkout can pay with PayPal or any major credit or debit card without ever leaving your website. Using this extension visitors can buy directly from your product pages and pay in 26 different currencies. This blog will walk you through the process of configuring and adding the WooCommerce PayPal Checkout for WordPress sites.

Installing the WooCommerce PayPal Checkout Plugin in WordPress

Note: Paypal Checkout Plugin is no longer available in the WooCommerce marketplace. You may use PayPal payments as it’s the upgraded option to this extension.

Follow these steps to install the WooCommerce PayPal Checkout in WordPress:

1. Log in to WordPress as an administrator.

2. In the search plugins, type “WordPress PayPal Checkout.” Install and activate the plugin pictured below:

3. After you’ve successfully installed the plugin, you’ll need to configure the PayPal checkout in WooCommerce.

Configuring the PayPal Checkout Process in WooCommerce

Follow these steps to set up the PayPal checkout process in WooCommerce.

On the WordPress Dashboard, in the left sidebar, click WooCommerce, and then click Settings. This will take you to the WooCommerce settings page, which has multiple tabs for various settings. To enable the payment method, navigate to the Payments tab.

Enable the toggle button next to the PayPal checkout option on the Payment Methods page. To configure the PayPal Checkout settings, click Set up or Manage.

.

You will then be directed to the PayPal Checkout page, where you can begin configuring various checkout settings. The process will begin with basic store information, then help you link your PayPal account, and finally assist you in configuring the checkout page’s look and feel, including payment and billing details.  

To begin configuring the PayPal checkout process, fill in the basic information about your store before moving on to linking the store to a PayPal account.

• Title – Choose the title shown to customers during checkout
• Description – Add a description shown to customers if they use PayPal Checkout
• Account Settings – Environment  – Select Live to accept payments and Sandbox to test payments.

Linking Paypal Account in WooCommerce

In WooCommerce, you can use the API settings to create or link an existing PayPal Account. To link it to your PayPal account, use the API credentials sections on the PayPal Checkout setup page, under the payment tape.

When you click the Setup or link an existing PayPal account button, you will be taken to the PayPal account login page.

Log in to your PayPal account, then click Activity on the top menu bar and select API Access.

Next, scroll to NVP/SOAP API Integration (Classic) and click Manage API Credentials. Ensure Request an API Signature is checked and click Agree and Submit.

 Click Show to reveal API Username, password, and signature.

Copy the API Username, Password, and Signature into your WooCommerce PayPal Checkout settings.

In the PayPal-hosted Checkout Settings section, enter details such as your Brand Name,  your site or product name, images for logo and header, and so on to ensure the PayPal checkout page has the same look and feel as your website. The landing page is the URL that all customers see when they check out.

Additional payment confirmation details can be set in the Advanced Settings for further advanced settings of the checkout pages, such as shipping details.

Once you’ve finished filling out all of the settings, click Save Changes at the bottom of the page to finish the PayPal Checkout configuration in WooCommerce.

Smart Payment Buttons™ PayPal Checkout Advanced Options

Smart Payment Buttons™ is an added benefit for US customers, as the feature provides relevant payment options such as PayPal and both Pay in 4 and PayPal Credit*, allowing your customers to buy now and pay later while you get paid upfront. Fill out the sections after the advance settings if you want to further customize the look and feel of the buttons or configure PayPal checkout pages. Please see the PayPal Checkout page for more information.

Have any questions or concerns? Contact our sales team today! Looking for a new Managed WordPress Hosting plan? We have you covered with our new Managed WordPress plans that simplify speed, security, and stability.

The post How to Add Paypal to Your WordPress Website Using WooCommerce appeared first on The A2 Posting.

Although this may seem overwhelming at first, there’s a WordPress plugin that provides you with all of these aspects under one roof. With the Jetpack WordPress plugin, you don’t need to install several plugins to get the features you want, since it offers nearly everything you need for your starter website.

What are the key features of Jetpack that make it unique?

Key Features of Jetpack

One of the best things about using Jetpack is that you can seamlessly integrate Jetpack to meet your needs. These are the main features of the Jetpack plugin:

• Content Delivery Network (CDN): A slow site could be cause for search engines to penalize your rankings. With a CDN, you can help your website load faster while saving on your server’s resources. The great thing about this Jetpack feature is that it’s free and provides users with unlimited CDN bandwidth.
• Social media sharing: Using Jetpack for WordPress can provide you with social media features such as share buttons that let your visitors share your content in just a few clicks.
• Lazy loading images: Jetpack has a lazy loading image feature that displays photos while a person scrolls rather than presenting them with a blank div. The feature is beneficial for websites that use a lot of images but don’t want to compress them, which can lower photo quality. This can solve many image loading problems.
• Shortcode embeds: The Jetpack shortcode lets you embed content from your social media straight to your website. With this feature, you can embed these components by copying and pasting URLs within the visual editor.
• Automated spam blocking: With the Jetpack WordPress plugin, you can save time by automatically setting it to block and remove spam. This feature allows your site visitors to browse without being distracted.

How Can Jetpack Benefit WordPress Users?

Are you still asking the question, “Do I need Jetpack for my WordPress site?” If so, then let us share with you a few benefits that the plugin has to offer for WordPress users.

It Enhances Website Functionality

One of the best things about the Jetpack WordPress plugin is that it offers many features in one place. This means that you don’t have to install a new plugin every time you want to add functionality to your website.

It Increases Website Traffic

A website that doesn’t drive traffic is useless with today’s standards. Using Jetpack for WordPress is great because it helps improve traffic to your site once it recognizes that it’s lacking in that department.

Through its Publicize feature, you can automatically have it push out new blogs that you publish to your social media pages such as on Tumblr, Facebook, and Twitter. This will help drive traffic from your social channels to your website.

It Provides Excellent Security

Nothing is more important for users than the security a website offers and this is exactly what the Jetpack plugin provides.

Its Protect feature offers fortified security by identifying and blocking any suspicious IP addresses from potentially harming a website. It also stops repeated login attempts that have failed to stave off cyberattacks.

It Offers Centralized Site Management

Running and managing several WordPress websites can be extremely time-consuming. Fortunately, the Jetpack WordPress plugin lets you streamline the site management process through a feature that lets administrators manage several sites from one interface.

Specifically, users can update all of the themes and plugins they have in each WordPress website simultaneously with just a click of a button.

Conclusion

The WordPress plugin known as Jetpack is one of the top add-ons users can get if they want to make managing their WordPress websites easier. Not only does the plugin offer better site functionality, centralized management, and improved security, but it also helps drive much-needed traffic.

At A2 Hosting, we offer the services of our experts to handle the administration aspect of your WordPress website. Getting a Managed WordPress account from us means that you can leverage numerous features, one of which is having a free Jetpack profile.

Talk to our sales team today if you would like to learn more.

The post The Key Benefits of Using Jetpack for Your WordPress appeared first on The A2 Posting.

So, What is URL Masking? 

Masking a URL means disguising its true destination, making it harder for someone to track where you are going. This can be an important tool for privacy and security, but there are also some potential downsides to consider. Developers mask URLs to obscure the true destination of a link. In order to understand URL masking, it’s important to understand what URL redirects are. 

URL redirections send a domain to an alternative URL. The HTTP protocol categorizes the URL redirects. 

There are three major types of URL redirects:

• 301 (permanent) 
• 302 (found/moved temporarily)
• URL frame (masked)

301 redirects are used when the destination URL of any website’s page changes. It’s commonly used when a website needs to be migrated to a new domain. 

302 redirects direct traffic to a new URL for a brief period. This is common for A/B testing. 

When migrating your website to a new domain name, the new domain doesn’t have a search engine optimization (SEO) authority. However, a 301 permanent redirect eventually gives 90% of the old website’s authority to the new domain. 

Google, a search engine, must verify the new website, which can cause a delay as it ranks the new domain. Some developers use 302 redirects for migration to avoid Google’s aging delay, but the 301 redirect is the proper method to use in this instance. 

Both 301 and 302 redirects display the new destination URL in the address bar in URL masking. Masked redirects allow you to use content from another domain while maintaining the address bar’s original name. 

This way, you use your homepage as the URL for every page of your website. Masked redirects are also called URL cloaking or domain masking. 

In other words, the mask refers to how the URL displays in the address bar. So your user thinks they’re on one domain when, in fact, they’re on another. 

When to Mask URLs

There are specific instances when website owners might want to mask links, including: 

• Masking affiliate links: Some users prefer to link cloaking to hide their affiliate links so that users won’t see they’re making money off of a purchase.
• Link shortening: long links aren’t visually appealing. Some users choose to shorten their links instead of changing their domain names.
• Hiding free web hosting URLs: Some users use free subdomains provided by their host, like store.a2hosting.com. So, you can use domain masking to make it appear as though the website has its domain. 
• Tracking: Some link tracking software use URL masking to hide tracking tags in the original URL. 

If you are looking for a way to improve your website’s security, or if you are trying to keep your website visitors from seeing where your website is hosted, domain masking may be the solution for you. Our support team would be happy to help set up domain masking for your website. Contact us today and let us know how to help make sure your website is as secure as possible.

Related Articles:

• How to set up URL frame forwarding
• How to rewrite URLs in Apache with the mod_rewrite module
• How to configure redirects in cPanel
• What Is A Parked Domain (And How to Use It)

The post What Is URL Masking? appeared first on The A2 Posting.

What if we told you that WooCommerce can do all that for you? With the free and open-source plugin, maintaining your website instantly becomes so much easier.

Keep reading to find out exactly what WooCommerce is and how it can help your WordPress website.

What Is WooCommerce?

WooCommerce is an e-Commerce plugin used by over 3 million online stores. It was developed to be used as an extension to WordPress, which is why it integrates perfectly into any WordPress site. A simple but powerful platform chock full of features, it is a fantastic solution for anyone looking to sell their products online.

We highly recommend that you use WooCommerce as an extension for your shop, as it contains everything that you need for your business to run smoothly.

What Are the Benefits of WooCommerce?

WooCommerce exists to make managing your online shop simpler. It is incredibly user-friendly and offers dozens of helpful features right at your fingertips. If you’re about to open your own online shop or just want to upgrade an existing site, we’re certain that you’ll find all of the features of WooCommerce to be extremely helpful.

Customization Options

You can make changes to your store page any time you like with no additional costs, thanks to WooCommerce. You can either customize everything yourself or choose from a wide array of stylish, functional themes.

Built-In Analytics

Even if you have no experience in tracking implementation, WooCommerce comes with a built-in data analysis tool that will give you more insight into your growing business.

Integrated Payment Gateways

An efficient payment process is essential for any store. With WooCommerce, you can give your customers the option to choose from several platforms, such as Stripe, PayPal, debit or credit cards, bank transfer, or even cash on delivery.

Various Shipping Options

WooCommerce allows you to provide any variety of shipping options for your customers’ orders, like a pickup from nearby stores, local delivery, or international shipping. You can even restrict shipping options as you see fit.

Automatic Tax Calculation

WooCommerce makes it easy for anyone to calculate taxes for their online shops. All you need to do is configure the settings to automatically compute taxes on every order.

Order and Inventory Management

The built-in inventory management system of WooCommerce allows shop owners to handle and track everything in their supply. Plus, you can oversee the entire order process, from tracking orders to shipping them out.

All these amazing WooCommerce advantages will pair perfectly when used with a Managed WordPress platform, which is another worthwhile investment for any WordPress user.

What Is Managed WordPress?

Managed WordPress is a hosting platform that is fully streamlined and optimized for easy creation and management of your website. As its name implies, the web host manages your WordPress for you, taking over all the server responsibilities.

Our platform, A2 Hosting, revolves around making your site run as fast and secure as possible. We will handle all the administrative tasks, from installing WordPress, to security checks and updates, and even caching your web page. If you have any questions you can speak with our sales team for more information on our new and improved Managed WordPress plans!

WooCommerce is an incredibly powerful tool for WordPress users. When paired with our efficient Managed WordPress platform, managing your online shop will be fast and hassle-free. For an optimized eCommerce shop, get started on managed WordPress today with A2 Hosting!

The post What Is WooCommerce? Explaining the Features and Benefits appeared first on The A2 Posting.

Looking to learn more in-depth about the security included with all these plans? Below is an explanation of the different security tools and features included and how this can help you make sure your website is safe and secure.

The Importance of Security on Websites Using WordPress

When there’s a huge demand for a script or CMS, there’s a good chance that hackers and attackers will be keeping an eye on websites using it. At any one time, there could be hundreds or thousands of attacks happening on the internet. This makes WordPress websites a target.

As such, hackers will always be scanning WordPress websites for vulnerable areas. This means website owners who don’t properly prepare and secure their WordPress sites may be at risk. This is why you need to keep the security on your website in tip-top shape! Below are the features we offer at A2 Hosting on our Managed WordPress plans to help ensure your security success.

Managed WordPress Security Features

A2 Hosting’s new Managed WordPress plans now come with a selection of enhanced security features that have been designed to support our users such as HackScan Protection, Reinforced DDoS Protection, and KernelCare. We’re including a complete breakdown below of three of the main tools we will be including in the plans and the different security features they provide our users:

WordPress Toolkit

We include different levels of cPanel’s WordPress Toolkit on all of our WordPress plans. Below are some of the main security perks:

• 1-Click Hardening: Used to scan existing and new sites for settings that may be potentially vulnerable.
• Automatic Hardening: This can keep your site safe through the auto-application of the industry’s best practices in security.
• Mass Hardening: Scans all your sites for vulnerable settings while securing every site with just a click.
• Security Rollback: In rare cases, security updates may create compatibility issues on your website. This feature will allow you to quickly revert the changes made.
• Mass Updates: This allows you to execute updates for all of your website’s WordPress themes, core, and plugins.

Jetpack Security

We will also be including the popular Jetpack Plugin. This plugin comes with a multitude of security features including:

• Automated Spam Filtering: Protects your site by keeping spam content away.
• Brute Force Attack Protection: Works to keep your website safe by blocking unsafe login attempts from distributed attacks and malicious botnets.
• Free Daily Malware Scans (Included with our Fly & Sell Plans): This feature automatically checks your site for vulnerabilities such as malware. You’ll also receive immediate alerts if Jetpack finds problems to be addressed quickly.

A2 Optimized

All of our plans also come with our plugin, A2 Optimized. We’ve focused on various security measures with A2 Optimized, which include the following:

• Deny Direct Access to Configuration Files and Comment Form: This allows you to protect your configuration files by creating a Forbidden error to bots and web users who try to access WP configuration files.
• Lock Editing of Plugins and Themes from the WP Admin: This prevents exploits to use the built-in editing capabilities of the WP Admin.
• Login URL Change: With this, you can hide your wp-login and wp-admin pages, blocking off hackers from entry through brute force attacks.
• Regenerate wp-config salts: WP salts and security keys help to secure the site’s login process along with the cookies that WordPress implements to authenticate users.
• ReCAPTCHA on Comments and Login: Used to increase site security while decreasing spam by adding a CAPTCHA to the login screen and comment forms.
• Unused Themes & Inactive Plugin Notifications: Themes and plugins with security flaws can still have an impact on the site. Having these notifications can help you better manage other features on your site for improved security.

cPanel Security Features

There is also a wide range of improvements to cPanel’s Security. This includes:

• Directory Privacy: Blocks users who want to open a folder that you’ve designated for protection. They will first need to enter a username and password for access.
• Free SSL Certificate (Free RapidSSL On Sell plans): This allows you to secure pages on your website so that details such as credit card numbers, logins, and more are sent encrypted instead of plain text.
• Hotlink Protection: Stops your images from being used on other sites.
• Imunify360: A comprehensive security suite for real-time and proactive website protection. It provides an all-in-one security solution that features a Web Application Firewall, an Intrusion Prevention and Detection system, a Network Firewall, Patch Management, and Real-time Antivirus protection.
• IP Blocker: Blocks a range of IP addresses to stop hackers from getting access to your site.
• Leech Protection: Stops users from publicly posting or sharing passwords to restricted areas of your site.
• ModSecurity: Provides real-time monitoring for incoming threats and blocks malicious connections before reaching your WordPress website and applications.
• Patchman: This scans your account for any outdated WP malware scripts, vulnerabilities, and applications. It will then fix any vulnerabilities without doing damage to the site.
• SSH: Provides more secure file transfers.
• Two-Factor Authentication (2FA): If turned on, it will require the app on your smartphone to provide a unique security code that you must input apart from your password when trying to log into your account.
• Virus Scanner: Configurable scan of your account to identify any security threats.

Need Help? Ask Our Guru Crew

If you need support or just have a few WordPress Hosting questions, you can count on our expert Sales team! Working 24/7/365, our friendly and knowledgeable staff are more than happy to address any concerns or issues. You may also reach them via email, phone, or live chat, so you can get the answers you need when you need them.

The post New Managed WordPress Enhanced Security Features with A2 Hosting appeared first on The A2 Posting.

What does it mean to “optimize” your website?

Optimizing your website is the process of using tools, strategies, experiments, and analyses to improve your website’s performance with the end goal to drive more traffic to your website, increase conversions, and grow revenue. 

You may have heard of SEO or search engine optimization. SEO is only one aspect of optimization (albeit the most critical). 

Optimization combines a variety of dimensions for optimal website performance like

• SEO
• Your website’s content and landing pages
• Analytics
• UX (frontend)
• Web development (backend)

What is A2 Optimized?

A2 Optimized is a WordPress optimizer. It combines various ideal WordPress configurations to enhance website performance and increase security.

Performance-enhancing

A2’s motto is “our speed, your success” and A2 Optimized is no exception. Our plugin enhances speed with:

• Page caching – storing copies of your web pages in a temporary storage location for quicker access.
• Object caching – storing database query results in a temporary storage location for quicker access.
• Minifying (minimizing code) for HTML, CSS, and Javascript) in your web pages and script files.
• GZip data compression – takes chunks of data and makes it smaller.

Secure

Secondly, A2 Optimized is secure by:

• Denying direct access to configuration files.
• Preventing bots from submitting to comment forms.
• Cutting off the file editor in wp-admin.
• Preventing plugins and themes from wp-admin tampering.
• Disabling other bot-targeted services like XML-RPC.

A2 Optimized configures difficult settings so you don’t have to. If you’re not technically savvy, installing the W3 Total Cache plugin may prove challenging. But when Memcached is enabled for WordPress, A2 Optimized automatically installs the plugin for you. 

A2 Optimized combines the best caching features and enhanced security configurations making it the ideal WordPress plugin. And an extra bonus, it’s free and just as easy to install as it is to uninstall, so give it a try today to see if it’s right for you! 

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Is A2 Optimized free?

Yes, it is! 

Can I use A2 Optimized with any host?

Absolutely! A2 Optimized works with any WordPress-supporting host. However, A2 Hosting provides some of the fastest servers in the business, and also includes additional tools to speed up your site on our servers. 

Will A2 Optimized make all of my sites faster? That’s a guarantee?

A2 Optimized does speed up sites the majority of the time, but not all plugins and themes are created equal. 

If your site is slower after enabling caching in A2 Optimized, ensure you’re using the best plugins for your website by speaking with a developer.

Can I use A2 Optimized with WordFence?

A2 Optimized is compatible with the majority of features in WordFence, but we recommend disabling caching and logging in WordFence. Otherwise, if page caching in A2 Optimized is enabled, some WordFence features may not respond.

Related Links:

• Everything You Need to Know About the WordPress 5.7 Esperanza Update
• An Introduction to WordPress Toolkit Deluxe
• How to Install a WordPress Theme on Your Website
• WordPress.org vs. WordPress.com | What’s The Difference?

The post What is A2 Optimized (and how does it help your WordPress site)? appeared first on The A2 Posting.

This year, our new WordPress plans are getting a makeover with new features to boost it above and beyond our other Shared Hosting packages. Keep reading to learn what sets them apart. 

What’s the difference between Managed WordPress vs Shared Web Hosting?

To boil it down, Managed WordPress plans offer services and performance tweaks specific to WordPress whereas Shared Web Hosting plans are generalist plans that host anything from WordPress to Drupal. But Shared Web Hosting and Managed WordPress hosting are more similar than they are different. 

You see, both plans are managed and come with 24/7/365 support on phones, tickets, and LiveChats and both plans are on shared servers. 

To summarize, 

• Shared Web Hosting plans share resources with other sites on the same server.
• Managed WordPress plans offer additional WordPress-specific services and tweaks to performance in a shared environment.

Why Use Managed WordPress Plans?

Managed WordPress Hosting offers WordPress-specific services, performance optimizations, customizations, and other valuable add-ons and performance tweaks including:

• Jetpack: Jetpack is an all-in-one WordPress plugin. Even the free version of Jetpack is powerful. They have 1-click site speed optimizations to increase your SEO, brute force protection by blocking unwanted login attempts from malicious botnets, and automated spam filtering. 
• Less users per server.
• Faster plans (with 4x more physical memory than our Shared Hosting packages)
• A2 Optimized and LSCache settings to speed up your website. 
• WordPress Toolkit for easier site management.

Why Use Shared Hosting Plans?

Shared Web Hosting is an affordable option to hosting your website. It’s especially beneficial for new or lower traffic websites. With a typical shared hosting plan, to keep the costs low you’re sharing the server with other users. This means if something happens to one site on the server, your site may be affected. Luckily here at A2 Hosting, we don’t overload our servers with thousands of users on one server. This mitigates that risk. 

The Pros and Cons of Managed WordPress Hosting

Pros of Managed WordPress Hosting

• Server architecture finely tuned specifically for WordPress 
• Auto-testing any new updates to find potential issues before the updates go live.
• Automatic updates for WordPress. 
• Built-in server-level caching
• Free Jetpack license for your primary domain
• Site staging 
• cPanel
• LsCache, one of the fastest caching agents on the market
• A great in-between plan if you aren’t ready to upgrade to a VPS yet

Cons of Managed WordPress Hosting

• Managed WordPress plans are inherently more expensive due to more features
• Stricter limits/caps on resource usage
• Limited to hosting only WordPress sites 

The Pros and Cons of Shared Hosting

With everything, there’s a pros and cons list. Here are a few for Shared hosting:

Pros of Shared Hosting

• Less expensive way to host WordPress
• The ability to host unlimited websites
• Still has significant performance perks like our Turbo Boost and Turbo Max plans
• Easy to seamlessly upgrade within the Shared ecosystem
• Site staging
• cPanel

Cons of Shared Hosting

• Can be slower than their Managed WordPress counterparts 
• Jetpack isn’t included
• Lack other performance-tweaking WordPress customizations

Which plan is better for WordPress?

There isn’t a single answer for this question. Only you know what’s best for your website and your needs. The best way to decide is to analyze what you need. Which plans will help you get to where you need?

To help you decide, consider the following:

• Are you going to host websites other than WordPress? If so, the decision is easy–stick with Shared Web Hosting packages. 

• Do you need all of the WordPress-specific customizations or is your site simple enough to get by on a Shared Web Hosting plan?

• What is your budget? Shared hosting plans are less expensive, but Managed WordPress plans have additional power and features that may be worth the investment. If the features sound nice enough to pay a little extra every month, consider it.
• Do you need automatic updates? WordPress updates automatically on our plans. Installing the latest versions of software means your site is as secure as possible. If you don’t need automatic updates, Shared hosting packages may be the better choice.
• How much traffic do you have? If your website is small and discreet, starting out on a Shared server is probably the best option, at least for a while. You can always upgrade to a Managed WordPress plan at any time. Smaller is always better to start. Then, scale up your needs as your business grows.

Also, consider this: the Managed WordPress plans are the best in-between plan if you need more resources than a Shared hosting package, but less than a VPS. If you’re unsure, as always, contact our sales team today to find out which plan is best for your needs. 

Whatever plan you decide is best for you, it’s a personal decision and we support you either way.

Related Articles: 

• How to Find the Right WordPress Plan (and Why It Should Be with A2 Hosting)
• How to Get Started with WordPress
• How to Install WordPress on Managed WordPress Hosting
• A Complete Guide on Navigating Your WordPress Dashboard
• How to Become an Expert WordPress Site Owner (3 Key Tips)

The post Managed WordPress vs Shared Web Hosting: What’s the Difference? appeared first on The A2 Posting.