Why a website is so important to your small business
It can be hard to understand why it is important to invest the time and money on a website when you’ve either never had one before or are just getting your business off the ground.
A few questions you might ask are: Is having a website really that important? Is it worth the time and money?
To be straight forward… yes, a website is essential to your business and your wallet will be thanking you in the long run.
An online presence creates a ton of opportunity. Users are searching for you and your products/services online more than ever and it is only going to become more intense. Through providing current and potential customers an easy way to access your offerings, you will benefit substantially.
Below are a few of the key points that I feel best-highlight the benefits of operating a website for your business/brand:
A website provides a customer business credibility
Much like you would look for a business in a business directory years ago, reputable businesses are found today through their website. If someone is looking for your business and they can’t find a website, they may raise questions in regard to credibility. When the competition has an online presence and you do not, it becomes an immediate disadvantage to your business in the mind of the consumer.
Provide 24/7 access
Don’t think it’s possible to have an employee working for you 24 hours a day, 7 days a week? Think again. Whether you operate an E-commerce website that can make you money while your sleeping, or host a simple brochure website that can provide answers to your customers’ common questions, your website is working for you 24/7.
Develop a reputation and build awareness.
With a website, you can easily to create connections between your own business and other existing companies that also have websites. This not only builds a stronger connection between your business and the consumer, but also establishes your authority within algorithms across the web. Build informative pages, write blogs and use them as a stage to market yourself across other platforms such as social media.
With proper implementation, the growth of your small business can be accelerated by a website. Without one, you will never understand the potential market share that could be gained.
The uploaded file exceeds the upload_max_filesize directive in php.ini
So, you’ve been working on your WordPress website and are now receiving an error: the uploaded file exceeds the upload_max_filesize directive in php.ini. when attempting to add new media. Don’t worry, this can happen to any type of website, large or small.
The reason for this is simple – Your default server settings have an uploadable file size limit. The only thing left for you to do now is jump in and change that default setting to allow you to upload larger files. Follow these next few simple steps to make the change:
1. Edit the .htaccess file
The easiest way to fix the uploaded file exceeds the upload_max_filesize directive in php.ini. error is increasing your PHP resource limits with the .htaccess file. You can access this .htaccess file through your file manager or through an FTP client. The .htaccess file can be found inside the public_html directory. Once you find it, either edit the file in the file in the file manager or download the file and open with Notepad.
cPanel
Now locate the .htaccess file withing the file manager.
.htaccess before:
Simply add this line of code to the bottom of your .htaccess file to initiate the changes:
php_value upload_max_filesize 256M
.htaccess after:
Now save the changes. If you downloaded the file, save the changes and upload your file back into the public_html directory where your found it.
Please note: You can set the PHP limits to any preferred values if your server supports it. If you aren’t uploading unusually large files, your best bet is to increase the php_value upload_max_filesize to 256M.
Now check to make sure the changes are initialized. Upload the media file that was once too large to upload.
2. Edit the wp-config.php file
What makes the Wp-config.php so important is that it contains the base configuration details for your WordPress installation. This can be found in the root of your file directory.
First you need to to edit the memory limit and upload limit. Find the line:
define(‘WP_MEMORY_LIMIT’, ’32M’);
Now increase the memory limit to 128M.
define(‘WP_MEMORY_LIMIT’, ‘128M’);
3. Edit PHP variable options
If none of the options above were effective, the problem is likely within your server settings. If you are facing php upload limit issues and the error reads: (…. exceeds the maximum upload size for this site), you can fix them at your end as follows:
- Login to your cPanel account
- Find and click on Select PHP version
- Select Switch to PHP options
- You can see several PHP variable options listed. Search for “upload_max_filesize” and “post_max_size” option and increase the value to a higher one, for example 2M to be increased to 16M and so on.
- Ensure that the changes are saved.
Contact your hosting provider if you are still experiencing issues.
Stage a WordPress Website
How to effectively stage a WordPress website for development
You’ve already registered your domain, setup hosting, and built a website for your existing business. But now you’re ready to update… and want a better, more professional looking website. So, what do you do?
Look no further for the steps you can take to effectively stage your new WordPress to turn live when complete.
Register a new domain or transfer an existing domain
A few things you need to think about when choosing your name:
- Keep it relevant
- Concise
- Easy to remember
If you plan on using the same URL in the same hosting account, you can simply create a sub-directory under your main domain name
Setup hosting
Now you need a place for your website to live. If your plan is to work with a new hosting provider, you will be able to setup and create a new database with them under your domain name. Be sure to either transfer the domain here or plan on pointing your domain name servers here one the new site is complete. If you are planning on staying with the same hosting provider, you will simply be able to create a sub-directory within your cPanel > File Manager to create your new website.
Shared hosting is a great way to start since you are likely looking for the most affordable option to get your site up and running. Unless your website is attracting hundreds of visitors per day, a shared hosting package should suffice.
Connect your domain and hosting
Whether you decided to stay with your existing hosting provider and create a new website in a sub-directory, or decided to work with a new hosting provider, you need to make sure you update your nameservers.
Wherever your domain is registered, you will have access to decide where your nameservers are pointing. Typically, once you’ve finished creating an updated website, you will then point the new nameservers to your domain to make the website officially live.
cPanel & Softaculous WordPress Installation
Now that you’ve established a domain name and hosting, it’s time to access your New or existing cPanel to install WordPress. Installing WordPress is completed using Softaculous app installer. After setting up a username, password and input other required information Your new WordPress dashboard for website development is ready to rock and roll.
To access your new dashboard, the URL will something like http://yourdomain.com/wp-admin. If you decided to install WordPress in a sub-directory of your current domain, accessing the new WordPress dashboard will follow the order of the file structure in addition to wp-admin/ to effectively access the login page
Wait… Why does my development site point to my old site?
In this case it is beyond just pointing to the right nameservers… because the main idea is to develop your new website behind the scenes and then go live, right? So if you have decided to setup a new hosting package and create a new database under the same domain name as your current website that’s already live, anything you do is going to be directed there, unless you perform a work around.
A popular option is to edit your htaccess file on your computer, locally. This is possible by configuring “A” record for yourdomain.com in your local machine hosts file (htaccess). That way whenever you access yoursite.com, you will be accessing it from the new hosts server
On a Windows operating system, you need to perform the following:
Using the File -> Open feature:
c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts
For more detailed information on how to edit the htaccess file, refer here:
https://www.hostinger.com/tutorials/dns/how-to-emulate-edit-windows-hosts-file
3 Principles of Good Web Design
The Big 3
Let’s first talk about what people typically consider important aspects of web design. Things like typography, color and imagery. These are all very important to remember when creating your website but shouldn’t be taking up a large portion of your time. The following are what I consider the 3 most important principles to good web design:
Functionality
Give yourself the proper time to analyze your website from top to bottom. Visualize your concept then form a structure of what you think will be your website’s most important pages. In technical terms this is called a sitemap; a diagram of every page on your website. Operating without a sitemap is like swinging with your eyes closed. Using it as a guide will ensure you are staying within established boundaries while maintaining efficient production.
Now that you’ve laid the structure, the ongoing process of functionality begins. Prepare yourself to treat functionality as a focal point in everything you do. From content/image optimization, to technical SEO – Your website needs to be a well-rounded operation. The structure and functionality of your website play a large role in user experience and customer conversion. This goes beyond design principles and extends into the back end to involve your site speed. A well put together website communicates your commitment to your business and providing customers with a good experience. They will reward you for it.
Consistency
Consistency is a core principle of good design and does a lot more for a visitor than you might think. In support of user experience (UX) and user interface (UI) design, consistency in a website will promote familiarity, heighten the perception of the user and establish a connection with brand identity. As a developer or designer, its your job to promote consistency in everything you do to support your ability to reuse components, patterns and generate new landscapes.
A website without consistency will feel unprofessional and could have some harmful side effects on your user. An immediate effect might be the loss of trust in your brand. After all, first impressions are lasting impressions and your website is a direct representation of your business.
Communication
When a visitor comes to your website they are searching for some form of information or content. The information you are providing needs to be clear and concise with as little fluff or unnecessary information possible. Think about your experience when you visit a website – you’re there for a reason and want to retrieve the information you are looking for fast and easy. Communication is also about making use of media such as images, videos and infographics. In the end, if you aren’t able to communicate quickly and efficiently to your visitor, they will simply go somewhere else.
Bootstrap 4
An Easy To Use Mobile First Front-End Framework Solution
With so many different languages to write code in these days, how do you know which is best for you? It’s simple… you choose the most efficient and compatible framework. Insert bootstrap; an open source front end framework for fast web development.
Bootstrap provides tons of tools to create websites and application UI’s and gives all types of classes for margin and padding, typography, and component classes – which are basically like pre-made templates for things like alerts, progress bars etc. Also included are built-in Javascript widgets and plugins supported by an easy to use ‘mobile first’ responsive grid system. Now here’s catch… to do what you can with Bootstrap from scratch with pure HTML and CSS you are looking at a significant time investment. Bootstrap makes it easy.
The undisputed advantages of Bootstrap are what set the language apart as one of the most efficient front-end frameworks on the web.
- Browser Compatibility, this is a huge one. Your own custom CSS may not look right in all browsers, but Bootstrap has basically been tailored to be completely compatible on all modern browsers.
- Good for devs that lack design/UI skills. Maybe your a back-end server side programmer and not the best with creating user interfaces and design, stuff like that. Bootstrap is the perfect fit for that.
- Responsive layouts. Responsive by nature so you don’t have to write a bunch of media queries. you can simply use the grid and you have a responsive website.
Grid System
One of the most important parts of bootstrap framework is the grid system. The grid system really allows us to really align things easily on an application or website and allow it to be automatically responsive. We can set different column sizes for different screen sizes or widths. The grid system is particularly effective because it allows you to create a grid inside of a grid to format a layout of any size.
Bootstrap 4 Evolution
The entire architecture of Bootstrap 4 has been changed as it now uses flexbox (grid system) and has now implemented the XL class for extra large screen sizes which are sizes 1,200 px and up. Since wide screen monitors are becoming popular this is a nice addition to the framework. Bootstrap 4 has also introduced cards which have basically replaced panels and wells in version 3. they can be formatted in all kinds of ways so that you can display your content inside of cards.