lonnie-lsh

Are You Prepared for Google Chrome's Phase II of HTTP Non-Secure tagging?

February 15, 2018 by lonnie-lsh Leave a Comment

Google has started phase two of its plan to label all HTTP pages as “non-secure.”

On Google’s official blog, they wrote the following:
“Any information that any user type into websites should not be accessible to others individuals on the network. So, beginning in version 62 Chrome will show the “Not secure” warning notification whenever users type data into HTTP sites.
Any data would include the following:

Search fields;
All comment boxes: including Name, website, email address, and comment;
All other forms, such as contact forms, forms that capture details for mailing lists, forms to enter giveaways
Anywhere else that you can imagine, where a user can key in something on your website. Moreover, that information transmits data to your server or any other server that collects the information.
If your page has any of the above, visitors will see a “Not secure” warning.”

Last September 2016, Google first stated the “Not secure” notification would come in January 2017. It had been applied to any site that required passwords or collect credit card information. We have also known for some time that Google would extend this warning. Google has been very clear about the desire to make the internet a more private and secure place.
October 2017 marked stage two of Google’s plan to label all HTTP pages as ‘Not secure’ in Chrome. Last January 2017, Google began to tag some web pages in HTTP as ‘non-secure.’ It all transpired simultaneously with the release of Chrome 56. This phase impacted numerous pages that transmit sensitive information such as login and payment-card data on the internet.
The not-secure label meant that data exchange happens on an unencrypted and unsecured connection. HTTPS, on the other hand, is the secure version of HTTP. It offers better protection against individuals on the same network viewing or changing the traffic. More commonly recognized as a man-in-the-middle attack.
Google Chrome now tags HTTP pages as insecure if users can enter any information. Google highlights this will take effect to any page with a search box.
Emily Schechter, a Chrome Security Team product manager, stated that “any data that users key in into sites should not be accessible to others on the network. So, beginning in Chrome’s version 62, it will show the ‘Not secure’ notice whenever users type data into HTTP sites.”
The heightened warnings for HTTP pages added pressure to site owners to obtain the required SSL/TLS certificates and setup HTTPS on their web servers. Additionally, Notifications for any user-input field casted a wider net than log-in and payment pages. It is with the number of sites with a search box.

Mozilla Firefox makers did not comment on whether or not it will follow Chrome’s move. However, Firefox also began displaying ‘in-context’ notifications for payment and login pages. One site owner discovered the consequences of not enabling HTTPS on payment and login pages. Moreover, amusingly, filed a bug report to Mozilla asking to remove the warnings.

Chrome 62 includes warnings for all HTTP pages even when the user opts for Chrome’s Incognito mode.

Whenever users browse using Chrome with Incognito mode, they likely have high expectations of privacy. However, HTTP browsing is not private to other individuals on the network. An SSL certificate provides security by creating a secret handshake between the visitor and the server. Even now, your ISP will still be able to tell which domains you visit. So, in version 62, Google Chrome would also notify users when visiting an HTTP page in Incognito mode. With it, once you go and visit a secured website, your ISP cannot get information on specific pages you visit. It is because your digital footprint is now encrypted.
Chrome now displays ‘Not secure’ in red. The other reason why Google is pulling the web towards HTTPS is for our own good too. It is to promote its push for developers to embrace progressive web apps through JavaScript ‘service workers’.
Additionally, according to Google’s HTTP Transparency Report, people view more than half of all websites over HTTPS on the desktop. For Chrome iOS, 71% of pages are loaded over HTTPS, while 58% are for Chrome on Windows. While it’s more common for sites to enable HTTPS, dozens of the world’s most popular sites still have not.

Ways to Avoid the Not-Secure Notification in Chrome for WordPress

Presumably, the first step to aid you to circumvent the Not-Secure notification in Chrome is to have your website migrated to HTTPS.
Migrating all your web pages over HTTPS will not trigger any Not-Secure notification, it will ensure that it is future proof. Versus the Red Flag notifications evidently coming for all non-HTTPs websites on the internet.
To move your websites to HTTPS, you will need to obtain an SSL certificate for your website.
There are three different levels of SSL certificates you can choose from, depending on your needs. They are:

Domain Validation
Organization Validation
Extended Validation

The most affordable, and often, the free option is to obtain Domain-level validation via Let’s Encrypt (discussed below). For other types of validation, you will need to invest in a paid-SSL certificate for your website.
Let’s Encrypt is an automated, open, and free Certificate Authority. It makes it painless to obtain an SSL certificate for your website. Numerous companies, including Automattic (WordPress.com), Facebook, Google (Chrome), and Mozilla (Firefox), have all sponsored the project.
Furthermore, there are several WordPress hosting companies who have already enabled support for Let’s Encrypt. Making it possible for people, including you, to acquire an SSL certificate immediately for your website.
Some of the known and popular WordPress hosts which offer Free SSL from Let’s Encrypt include:

Additionally, CloudFlare also grants free Shared SSL on its free plan. Numerous WordPress users utilize CloudFlare for the free CDN. It is crucial that pages served over CDN are also HTTPS.
Before, SSL certificates used to be really expensive. However, with the introduction and extensive adoption of free options such as Let’s Encrypt, paid SSL certificates have significantly reduced their price.
If you have an ecommerce website, or receive payments on your site, then it might be worth investing in paid SSL solutions. It is because it comes with additional validation levels like
Extended Validation or Organization Validation. Moreover, it is, in fact, vital that you have a secure HTTPS site for e-commerce purposes. Payment processing firms like PayPal and Stripe rigorously require you to have a tight-secure SSL connection.
If you need assistance with implementing the necessary steps to avoid the impending Google Security, we are here to help.
Our dedicated professional specialist will assist you, and your business gets your website ready for it. That way, you and your site are fully prepared to face whatever Google throws at you.

9 Things Our Most Successful Clients Do to Get Maximum Benefit From Social Media Marketing

September 1, 2017 by lonnie-lsh Leave a Comment

Imagine spending as little as 6 hours a week to increase your business’s recognition, traffic, and sales with little to no cost.

That’s right! About 90% of all marketers insisted that social media generate extensive exposure for their company.
Furthermore, it is only one of its numerous advantages. Social networks are now a crucial part of every marketing strategy. Moreover, the benefits of using social media are significant that almost anyone not implementing this cost-efficient resource is missing out on a remarkable marketing opportunity.
Any great marketing strategy is a collaborative venture between a client and the marketing specialists they hire. Both strive and work to create and execute their winning marketing strategy. Once you engage us for your social media marketing needs, we will get started immediately!
We aim to build and deliver a quality community encompassing your brand. While we work with our piece of the puzzle, we ask our clients to provide a helping hand.

Here are some factors our most successful clients do to optimize our efforts:

Send an email to your list (email subscribers, client list, and the like.) Ask them to visit and like or grasp your new/updated Facebook page, Twitter profile, Google+ page, and the like.
Add links to your social media accounts to all company email signatures.
Add icons to every page of your website, preferably in the header or sidebar. Read more…
Add share buttons to all blog posts. As it allow readers to ‘follow,’ ‘like,’ ‘tweet,’ and ‘+1′ the post. Read more…
Install a Facebook Like Box on your website. Read more…
Suggest your Facebook page to your friends and connections on your personal profile. Have others in your company do the same.
Post a link to your social media platforms on your accounts (FB page, Instagram, Google+, LinkedIn, and Twitter). Have others in your business do the same.
Ask your friends and contacts to suggest your social media accounts to their friends and contacts. Have others in your organization do the same thing.
Add FB, Instagram Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, and any other relevant icons and links to all existing and future marketing materials.

No one can deny the power social media hold right now. For business owners and entrepreneurs alike, now is the best time to build your social media presence. The longer you wait, the more you have to lose. Social media marketing, when done correctly, can lead to more customers, more digital traffic, and more conversions, and it is here to stay.

Why Social Media?

August 30, 2017 by lonnie-lsh Leave a Comment

Nowadays, social media is where people spend the majority of their time on the internet.

It is where people obtain their daily dose of news and entertainment. Social media is where many consumers go to get their preferred goods, merchandises, services, and brands. Additionally, It is also where customers can share their experiences with one another. More importantly, social media is where the world meets, and the people connect with everyone across the globe.
With more than 1 BILLION active and current users on Facebook, 700 million on Instagram, and 400 million on Twitter, it is indisputable that social media has the spotlight.
Moreover, it is not going anywhere anytime soon.
In short, social media provides a direct, seamless way to engage and connect with your target audience. Moreover, it is a golden opportunity you cannot allow to miss out.

The Opportunities

If you still doubt how you can effectively leverage social media for your business, here are the various opportunities it offers:

- Brand awareness
- Community Involvement
- Consumer Engagement
- Customer Support
- Expertise Building
- Lead Generation
- News and Content Distribution
- Polling and feedback
- Product launch and publicity
- Public relations
- Reputation Management
- Strategic alliances

The Numbers

The various opportunities still did not convince you? Well, then, here are the most recent statistics about the prime social media sites. We think you will agree – these data and facts are notably compelling:

Roughly 90% of all active U.S. internet users utilize social media in one form or another. It means your target audience is undoubtedly exposed to it.
70% of marketers implement a type of social media strategy, or will in the next year. It means your competition is presumably already there too!
About 63% of all marketers are either vaguely aware or not aware how their consumers view their companies online. Do you know your business’s online reputation?
In today’s global economic landscape, many large companies consider Facebook, Google+, Instagram, and Twitter as foundations of their social media tactics and strategies.

Facebook

Has roughly over 1 billion active users
On any given day, over 60% of active users log on to it
An average Facebook user has about 130 friends
People consume over 700 billion minutes per month on it
An Average user has a connection to roughly 80 pages
65% of consumers stated that they are more likely to promote a brand to a friend after becoming a fan on Facebook.
An average Facebook user creates roughly 90 pieces of content each month
Brands miss the opportunity to answer 95% of all Facebook Timeline comments and posts. This data represents a huge missed opportunity. Moreover, a way for your brand to stand out apart from your competition!

Instagram

Roughly 700 million active Instagram users
To date, Instagram users shared around 40 billion photos.
Instagram users share an average of 95 million photos and videos per day.
Instagram users “like” approximately 4.2 billion posts each day
48.8% of brands today, use Instagram in one form or another—a number expected to increase in the coming years
Roughly all top brands post on Instagram an estimated 4.9 times per day.

Twitter

Over 400 million active Twitter users.
The number of new Twitter users grows by 300,000 each day
Over 54% of marketers have generated leads using Twitter.
Roughly 30% of marketers successfully closed deals using Twitter
More than 3 billion Twitter requests per day, produced by more than 250 million unique visitors
Twitter users send out almost 200 million tweets each day
Twitter’s search engine gets 800 million queries per day.

So what’s the Bottom Line?

Social media: It is simple, convenient, affordable, scalable, and efficient. It is everything a business could want in a marketing solution. Find out more about Social Media Marketing.

Why Do Small Businesses Need Local SEO?

April 17, 2013 by lonnie-lsh Leave a Comment

It’s a dog eat dog world out there on the internet.

As much as 50% of all businesses fail within their first year of existence, and that statistic climbs to a staggering 90% once you factor in the businesses that are solely online. This includes the teenager hawking their silk-screen shirts over Multiply, and that middle-aged housewife working a local cleaning service off her Facebook page.
While you might think that these businesses are too small to count; you have to remember that small businesses make up a majority of all businesses online. And whether you’re working from your basement or from a small boutique in your local town, everyone needs to start somewhere.
The internet has been a boon for entrepreneurs. It has given them the resources to reach out to more people and more markets without the support of deep pockets and heavy bank loans. But as more businesses migrate online, the internet has become a crowded collection of online startups that are vying for everyone’s attention.
This is where local search engine optimization (SEO) becomes particularly helpful (if not downright essential). As small businesses struggle to make it out of their first year alive, local SEO could be the key ingredient in making them not only feasible, but profitable.

LOCAL SEO VS. TRADITIONAL SEO

Search engine optimization should be pretty familiar to anyone with any stake in online business. But the main difference between traditional SEO and local SEO is that the latter focuses on hitting localized users.
Search engines have managed to adapt in a way that geo-targets search engine users. Results on cellphone repair services from a user in Massachusetts will yield cell phone repair stores in and around the Massachusetts area. The same goes if you were in Beijing or Berlin.
But just because your site is optimized for conventional SEO doesn’t mean it’s necessarily prepped for local SEO. On top of the usual social links, backlinks, inbound links, keywords and meta tags, local SEO leverages more on:

Local Business Directories
Local Citations
Customer Reviews
Localized On-Page Data
Contextual Geographic Data
Local Social Profiles

While traditional SEO looks at sites on a national and international level, local SEO goes into the specifics by combing businesses that are much closer, and often, much more relevant to users.

BUT WHY USE LOCAL SEO?

A lot of small business owners think that investing in SEO is an exercise in futility, especially when they believe they can’t outspend bigger nationwide businesses.

But local SEO actually gives small businesses a leg up over their bigger competitors. Just take a look at the numbers:

Over 95% of all consumers search for local businesses online.

Because of the increased reliability of search engines, consumers are no longer looking at the yellow pages for local businesses. Instead, they’re heading online for everything from hair salons to car repair shops. You actually have better chances of reaching your market, the closer you are to them.

More than 65% of all searches are influenced by geographic location.

Whether you like it or not, search engines take your business location into account. Since it’s in the interest of search engines to give more relevant information to their users, they’re more likely to overlook your website if it doesn’t know where you are.

Local business search has jumped 67% in the last three years.

Geo-targeted search hasn’t been around for very long, even if it feels that way in the context of the internet. Because of this, local business search has experienced exponential growth since 2010.

Two-thirds of search users don’t look past the second page.

Third place may get you on the podium of the Olympics, but it will get you absolutely nowhere on the internet. Only a third of users go past the second page of search results, and even then you’re not guaranteed a click.

THE ADVANTAGES OF LOCAL SEO

Increased Visibility

Local SEO works best when coupled with traditional SEO techniques. But even on its own, local SEO gives small businesses a fighting chance at being seen online. Local SEO can be far more effective than releasing a full-page ad in your local newspaper, as well as being cheaper and longer-lasting.

Competitive Lock-Out

Even if you’re not doing it, your competitors surely are. Search engines need to fill up their search results with something, and if you’re not on top of it, your competitors sure will be. It also works the other way around. If your business is on top of the search engine rankings, then that means that your competition isn’t.

Targeted Marketing

While bigger businesses fight over the national market, local SEO can give your business a piece of the pie, honing in on more targeted consumers. This is why local SEO is particularly helpful for businesses with smaller budgets. It gives you maximum impact, while targeting web users who are more likely to convert into paying customers.

Outrank Bigger Brands

One of the unique advantages of Local SEO is that it gives smaller local businesses a leg up against national competitors. Search engines like Google tend to prefer results that are localized or have “local intent”. Even when stacked up against major online retailers like Amazon or eBay, a small local business can still reach the first page ranking of local customers by simply establishing itself as a local entity.

Less Competition, Better Brand Differentiation

If you own a car rental business, your website will be competing with all car rental businesses online. But by leveraging on local SEO, you’ll be able to muscle yourself into a market with less competition and better brand differentiation. Local SEO helps small businesses stand out.

Higher and Faster ROI

Local SEO and most other online marketing techniques are significantly cheaper than conventional marketing methods. On top of that, more targeted marketing makes it more likely for visitors to turn into customers, making it easier to raise your bottom line and get you out of the red.

Search engines aren’t going away, that much is true. And as they continue to deliver more relevant results to their users, local data is going to play a bigger role than ever before. For smaller businesses, every advantage is a good advantage.