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Is Your eCommerce Website Ready for Back to School?

Posted on August 1, 2019 by Hosting

The post Is Your eCommerce Website Ready for Back to School? appeared first on HostGator Blog . Winter holidays may be peak money-making time for online stores, but don’t overlook the back to school season. Parents and students spent more than $82 billion on back to school purchases in 2018. That’s more than shoppers spent on Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, and Father’s Day combined. Today’s back-to-school must-haves include much more than jeans and school supplies, which means your eCommerce site may have a bigger audience than you think for back-to-school offers. And just about any business can offer a back-to-school themed deal. The National Retail Federation says that back to school (defined as shopping for K-12 students) and back to college spending will hit record highs this year. The average household with K-12 kids will spend $696 on back to school. The average household with kids in college will spend $976.  Want your online store to capture some of that spending? Here’s how you can get your eCommerce site ready and for back to school and back to college shoppers. Do You Have What Back-to-School Shoppers Need? If your store sells kids’ clothes, shoes, backpacks, or school supplies, you’re probably already on top of your back to school marketing game. However, electronics are also hot sellers for back to school. More than half of shoppers for K-12 kids said they’ll buy at least one new electronic device for back to school this year. The top electronics items for K-12 kids are computers, cellphones, and calculators.  The back to college market includes even more categories. School supplies, clothes, and shoes are all big categories for these young adults. So are personal care products and food—more than 70% of students surveyed said they’ll be stocking up on these items when they do their back to school shopping.  More than half of back to college shoppers also plan to pick up some college-branded gear (which can be anything from shirts and hats to décor and gifts), electronics, and furnishings. More than a third of back to college shoppers—presumably parents—plan to stock up on gift cards, too. Can You Offer What Back-to-School Shoppers Want? Let’s say your store doesn’t sell any of the items mentioned above. You can still ace back to school season. Here are a few ideas to help you brainstorm your own offers: Gardening supply stores can offer deals on seeds and tools for teachers who want to plant school gardens. Online travel agencies can offer weekend packages for parents who need a little kid-free time after summer full of family togetherness. Pet supply shops can run deals on treats and toys for companion animals whose pals are at school all day. Board game, sporting goods, and toy sellers can promote deals on items that families can enjoy together on the weekends. Stores that sell any sort of cleaning products have a perfect tie-in. Back to school is the perfect time for a deep cleaning of the house and car. Understand the Back to School Shopping Timeline School shopping season starts sooner than you think and lasts longer than you may realize. About half the households surveyed in early July by the NRF said they’d already started shopping. And the big sale event that budget-conscious back to school shoppers wait for has already passed this year. Amazon Prime Day and its competitors’ sales draw a lot of attention from parents, teens, and college students.  However, the other half of households surveyed at the beginning of July hadn’t started shopping yet, because they’re waiting for the best sales. If you want their back-to-school business, you’ll need to serve up a great sale. What Makes a Great Back to School Sale for eCommerce Sites? Price. Now’s the time to offer coupon codes and flash sales on your site to appeal to parents and teens—and to stay competitive with your competitors’ deals. Most back to school shoppers are price sensitive, a trend that’s persisted for years. However, tweens and teens are spending more of their own money on back to school purchases. That may translate into a few more splurge items (the average teen is kicking in about $36).  Show some deal love to the teachers who shop with you, too. Teachers often spend out of their own pockets for classroom supplies—a big expense on a typical educator’s salary. Most major retailers offer special back to school deals like coupons, freebies, and extra rewards program points for educators. Your store will be more competitive if it does the same. And you don’t have to sell school supplies to make a teacher deal work. You can give them a deal on whatever you sell. Free shipping . There’s no way around this one. The NRF survey found that “90 percent of K-12 and 85 percent of college shoppers plan to take advantage of free shipping.” Already offer free shipping? You’re good to go.  If you don’t, now might be a good time to start. One popular approach is to offer paid shipping for your fastest delivery option and free shipping for slower delivery. These budget-conscious shoppers generally won’t mind waiting a couple of extra days in exchange for free shipping.  Before you add free shipping to your store, you may need to adjust your product prices. Factor in your expected shipping expenses, so you don’t lose money on those orders. Now is also a good time to review your online store’s shipping guidelines to see if they need updating before the holiday rush. Promotion. Create a campaign for the parent and young adult segments of your store’s email list that shows off your best back to school offers. Update your store’s blog with news about new back to school items or upcoming flash sales, and then share those posts on social media. You can create coupon codes for your email list and social media followers , too. Nearly 20% of internet users say they always use coupons when they shop , and another 26% use them “very often.” Give them what they’re looking for. Post Back-to-School Steps Review your site traffic and sales numbers to fill out your back to school season report card. Make notes and put back to school prep on next year’s marketing calendar. Then take a breath and start getting your online store ready for the holidays . Good luck! Find the post on the HostGator Blog Continue reading →

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I need to use a secure server for a day

Posted on May 5, 2019 by Hosting

Every device I have in my house has been hacked. I need to find somewhere close to Tacoma Washington where I can use a secure server for a d… | Read the rest of http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?t=1763379&goto=newpost Continue reading →

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Web Hosting With a Dedicated IP

Posted on March 4, 2019 by Hosting

The post Web Hosting With a Dedicated IP appeared first on HostGator Blog . When you’re exploring your options for dedicated hosting there are a lot of terms and technologies you’re probably not familiar with. One of those being a dedicated IP address. A dedicated IP is different than dedicated server hosting , but often the two are linked together. You can get a dedicated IP address without having to upgrade to dedicated hosting , but usually, a dedicated IP address will be paired with a dedicated hosting environment. If that sounds a little confusing, don’t worry. Below we’ll break down what a dedicated IP address actually is, how it differs from a standard shared IP address, and finally how web hosting with a dedicated IP works, and why you might want it. What is a Dedicated IP Address? First, we’ll look at what an IP address is. IP stands for Internet Protocol, so your IP address is your Internet Protocol Address. Essentially an IP address is a locator or identifier for any computer that’s connected to the internet. Your web host’s server is technically a computer, so this computer will have an address that identifies and defines their location on the internet.   These IP addresses are mapped to certain domain names. So, you can technically type an IP address in place of a domain name and actually land on the same website. A dedicated IP address is an IP address that’s assigned to your website and your website alone. Sometimes this can be paired to your server environment too, but usually, it’s connected directly to your site. On most hosting accounts the IP address that comes with your account will be a shared IP address. This IP address will be used by any website who’s sharing the server environment. So, in the case of shared hosting, this could be hundreds or thousands of other websites.   Dedicated vs Shared IP Address The discussion about the advantages and disadvantages of dedicated and shared IP addresses is actually quite a lively debate. Part of this is due to the natural evolution of certain technologies. A lot of the big advantages that used to be attributed to using a dedicated IP address have disappeared. Now, using a dedicated IP can still be beneficial for certain users, but it just doesn’t carry the weight it once did. The difference between a dedicated IP address and a shared IP address is pretty straightforward. Their names alone suggest the biggest difference. A shared IP address will be used by multiple websites who are also sharing the same server environment. While a dedicated IP address will be used by a single website. You can think of a dedicated IP address like your cell phone. Chances are you have a unique number that you don’t share with anyone else. While a shared IP address could be like an old-school landline or home phone. When people call that number they could be looking for a certain person in your house, but anyone can answer the phone. Here’s are the biggest ways that shared and dedicated IP addresses differ: Email sending. Although not always the case, if you’re sending a ton of emails through your web host you could run into email deliverability issues. In some cases, your shared IP could be blacklisted. With a dedicated IP, you’ll have higher deliverability rates, and the chances of a blacklist are almost zero, unless you’re spamming people yourself. SSL and site security. Dedicated IP addresses used to be completely necessary in order to do things like improve the security on your site. Simply put, you would need a dedicated IP for SSL certificates, which may be a necessity for some site owners. However, with new technology like SNI, this is no longer the case. Still, some hosting providers will require a dedicated IP for SSL. Software requirements. This is also pretty niche, but some server software and scripts actually require that you utilize a dedicated IP address. This is usually related to processes that take a while to run or initiate. If you’re using a shared server, then this might terminate before the process is complete, making a dedicated IP address necessity.   How About Dedicated IP Addresses and SEO? It’s still hotly debated whether or not using a dedicated IP address will give you an SEO boost. Like most things SEO-related there is no strict yes or no answer. If you’re using a low-quality host you can run into issues that could negatively impact your site, such as IP and DDoS attacks, association with spammy websites, and more. These will have a greater impact on your rankings than your IP address choice alone. But, if you’re using a high-quality host you probably won’t run into these issues, even if you’re using a shared IP address. Overall, there’s no real correlation between using a dedicated IP address and improved rankings. According to Google , using a shared IP address won’t negatively impact your rankings.   The Benefits of a Dedicated IP Address There are still many benefits of dedicated IP addresses. Overall, it depends upon your unique needs and the type of site you run. Depending on your provider you might be able to add a dedicated IP address to your shared hosting plan, but usually, if you can benefit from a dedicated IP address, then you can also benefit from a dedicated host. Here are the main benefits your site will receive by adding a dedicated IP address to your current hosting:   1. View Your Site By IP Address Alone One of the biggest advantages of using a dedicated IP address is that you can access your website without a domain name. So, if your domain is taking a while to propagate, you don’t have to sit around and wait for the process to complete. Or, maybe you want to start building a website , but you haven’t done your domain name registration yet. With a dedicated IP you’ll be able to access your site and start building, then once you’ve settled on a domain name you can complete the process. Accessing your site via FTP and building without a domain isn’t a common practice. But for some users, this will be an absolute necessity.   2. Reduce the Risk of IP Blacklisting One thing that could happen to your IP, if you’re using a shared IP, is something called IP blacklisting. IP addresses can become blacklisted if there’s activity that can be classified as spam from that IP. If you’re using a shared IP the chances are higher that this could occur. With a dedicated IP address, the chances of this are basically zero. This occurs most frequently with users who are sending emails through the host. All it takes is a single user to send spam emails from their domain and your website could be affected.   3. Run Your Own FTP Server Some users might want to use FTP to share files with clients, friends, and family. With a dedicated IP, it’s much easier to run your own FTP server. FTP isn’t used very frequently when you’re running a small website. But, it can be a very effective way to transfer and give access to files within an organization. With a dedicated IP, you’ll have easy access to your own FTP server. You can even implement things like anonymous FTP, which allows users to access files that are publicly available. This lets you give people access without having to identify themselves to the server.   4. Avoid SSL Compatibility Issues Like we mentioned above, a dedicated IP address is no longer completely necessary to install an SSL certificate on your site. For complete functionality, it’s recommended, but it’s not 100% necessary. Today, you can install multiple SSL certificates on a single server with Server Name Indication (SNI) technology. This allows the web hosting company to issue multiple certificates under a single shared IP address. However, there are still some issues with SNI, it’s not a perfect solution. The biggest issue is an incompatibility with older browsers and operating systems like: Windows XP and older versions of Internet Explorer Safari running on Windows XP Blackberry mobile, Windows mobile, and Opera mobile browsers This isn’t the biggest issue in the world, but for those who want to ensure all their bases are covered, it’s a good idea to upgrade to a dedicated IP address. There’s a chance your visitors might not even be using these browsers. If you want to know for sure you can fire up your Google Analytics account , and filter visitors by browser type. This will give you a better picture of what devices and browsers your users are using to access your site. This is useful knowledge to have unrelated to your choice of IP address.   5. Create Your Own Gaming Server If you want to run your own gaming server for an online game, like making a Minecraft server , then you’ll need your own dedicated IP address. You’ll also need a dedicated server for games if you want to create your own or share with friends. Some of the biggest issues with online gaming revolve around lag and lack of bandwidth. With a dedicated IP server and address, you can offer the highest level of gaming possible. It is possible to run a gaming server on a shared IP, but generally, it’s frowned upon. It will be much more difficult to configure your server and you’ll probably run into performance issues.   What is Dedicated IP Address Web Hosting? By now you’re probably wondering how web hosting and dedicated IP addresses fit together? Dedicated IP addresses aren’t synonymous with dedicated hosting, but they are typically offered together. To define dedicated hosting , you can assume that dedicated hosting packages will have dedicated IP addresses included as part of your package. Sometimes you’ll even have the ability to use multiple dedicated IPs from a single dedicated server. This can be useful if you want to migrate multiple sites you own to a single dedicated server. If you truly want to unlock the potential of using a dedicated IP address, then you’ll use it in tandem with a dedicated server. This will give you the benefits of using a dedicated server, on top of the benefits of a dedicated IP address. Think of this as not only owning your own house but also owning an entire street, with no other properties around for miles. Think of everything you could do with all that freedom in a single service.   How a Dedicated Server and Dedicated IP Address Work Together Using a dedicated server will provide your site with a lot of benefits. If you’ve been thinking about making the jump to a dedicated IP, then you’ll also want to consider if dedicated hosting is right for you as well: You’ll get access to features like: Incredible server performance with the ability to choose between HDD and SSD hard drives (depending on your website needs) Improved data center protection protocols to keep your physical and digital server components safe. Multiple server management options, such as cPanel or WHM, for easy server management and configuration. A dedicated support team who’s there to help sort through technical issues, or answer your questions 24/7. Typically, hosting providers will prioritize those using dedicated hosting, or even have a separate support team entirely. The ability to have single or multiple dedicated IP addresses. For almost every dedicated server a dedicated IP address is a common industry standard. Basically, with a dedicated IP web host, you can get a lot more freedom with your hosting environment. Plus, you’ll get unparalleled levels of security, performance, reliability, and more.   Closing Thoughts Overall, you can add a dedicated IP address to most hosting plans. But, usually dedicated hosting and a dedicated IP address work together. Not 100% of the time, but sites that need the added benefits of a dedicated IP will probably also require more advanced forms of web hosting. Using a dedicated IP address doesn’t pack as many benefits as it used to, but for some types of website owners,  this service still might be a necessity. Hopefully, you have a better understanding of why you might want a dedicated IP address, and how web hosting with a dedicated IP can benefit your website. To compare cheap dedicated server hosting plans or to learn more about our web hosting services, check out our website or talk to a Hostgator representative today. Find the post on the HostGator Blog Continue reading →

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Top Tech Trends to Watch in March 2018

Posted on March 5, 2018 by Hosting

The post Top Tech Trends to Watch in March 2018 appeared first on HostGator Blog . 2018 March Tech News You Need To Know Each new month inevitably brings all new tech news and trends. For busy business owners that can’t stay on top of it all alone, we’ve once again created a monthly roundup of tech stories to have on your radar this month. Tech Platforms Ban Nazis Now and then, we see tech companies taking a political stand. This month, two notable instances of it involve companies kicking Nazis off their platform. YouTube banned two channels run by a neo-nazi group after media scrutiny and outrage over the hate speech expressed on the channels. And chat platform Discord shut down several neo-nazi servers as well. While taking a stand against nazis isn’t the boldest of moves, in YouTube’s case it still took outside media and users drawing attention to the channel for them to take that step.   New Releases from Mobile World Congress Tech companies used the Mobile World Congress last month to announce new device models and feature updates. The new devices demonstrated a real trend toward increasing screen size without adding to the phone size by reducing the bezels (the part of the phone around the screen) and a growing tendency to drop headphone jacks from phone designs, suggesting tech companies think Bluetooth headphones are dominant enough in the market to replace any need for plug-in headphones.   Parkland Survivors Use Social Media to Seek Change One of the biggest stories of February was the mass shooting at a high school in Parkland, Florida. Sadly, mass shootings and even school shootings are common enough that this one could have been another case where it gets mentioned on the news for a day or two before the country moves on to other stories. But because the survivors of this one are social media savvy teens, they’ve turned their experience into a movement to demand gun control .  They’ve successfully commanded the attention of the media and politicians (and are way better with a social media burn than any of the politicians that try to go toe to toe with them), showing in the process how social media skills can be used to really make a difference. So far, Parkland is *not* fading from the news the way that mass shootings usually do. (The graph shows Google searches for the term “gun control”.) The students speaking out makes a pretty big difference. pic.twitter.com/8IcJuJ6yTS — Nate Silver (@NateSilver538) February 18, 2018 Dropbox Files for IPO The cloud storage and file syncing company that’s used by millions filed for IPO with plans to go public in the coming month with hopes of raising $500 million. With more than 11 million paying customers, the company has been gaining in popularity over the past few years, although still on the whole losing money in that time. Nonetheless, a strong brand and recent growth should work in the company’s favor once it hits the market.   Spotify IPO Launches The other big tech IPO making news this month is the popular streaming music service Spotify . The company filed on the last day of February and experts predict the company is worth $23 billion. In spite of having over 70 million customers though, the company struggles to be profitable due to the high cost of royalty fees for the music they provide.   Google Assistant Adding Functionality While smart assistants are popular, there are still some real limitations on how well they work and what they can do. Google is hard at work trying to add to the uses people can turn to their Google Assistant for though. Just this last month, they announced adding a routines feature, which lets people create custom commands that tie multiple types of requests together. So you could say “OK Google, morning routine” and have the music and lighting of your choice come on together, for instance. They have also added location-based reminders, so you can tell your smart assistant to remind you to get gas on your way to work and have your phone give you an alert once it senses you’ve left the house. And they’re teaching the assistant new languages, expecting it to support over 30 languages by the end of the year.   SXSW Interactive With March upon us, that means loads of people in the tech world are about to head to Austin for SXSW Interactive . From March 9 through 13, experts from around the world will give presentations on topics ranging from how AI will transform fashion to the emotional life of autonomous cars. For anyone wanting to hear about both quirky and serious ideas on the forefront of tech and culture, the conference is a must.   Google Launches New AR Functionality In addition to the work they’re doing with their smart assistant, Google is also working to provide AR features to a range of compatible phones. Google Lens will make it possible for people to point their phone at something and learn about it – whether landmarks, plants, or art. In addition, their ARCore augmented reality platform lets people see an overlay of AR stickers on the world in front of them through their phone. AR has been getting a lot of traction in the tech world lately and these moves by Google take us one step further in a direction we can expect to see them and other tech companies continue down.   Snap Has a Rocky Month Snapchat is one of the biggest social media platforms out there, but they hit some snags in the past few weeks. For one, they released a new design and instead of hearing great feedback on the hard work they presumably put into those changes, they got a petition signed by over a million people asking them to change it back. Yikes. To make matters worse, a negative Tweet from Kylie Jenner basically saying the platform is over may have contributed to a $1.3 billion drop in the company’s value on the stock market. sooo does anyone else not open Snapchat anymore? Or is it just me… ugh this is so sad. — Kylie Jenner (@KylieJenner) February 21, 2018 That’s a lot of bad PR in a short amount of time. The company clearly has its work out for them if they want to win back some of the popularity they just lost.   March is looking to be a big month in tech and we can only imagine what to expect from April. Check back next month for a new update on tech news and trends to be aware of. Find the post on the HostGator Blog Continue reading →

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Set Up House For Your Home Business Workspace

Posted on January 12, 2017 by Hosting

The post Set Up House For Your Home Business Workspace appeared first on HostGator Blog . If you’re planning to start your own business, you’re in the right place. This is the second of 11 posts in the HostGator Home Business Guide series. Last time we covered questions to ask yourself about running a business. Now, we’ll talk about getting your home ready for your new business. Get the FREE eBook: […] Find the post on the HostGator Blog Continue reading →

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