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Easiest Way to Use HTTPS with WordPress

Easiest Way to Use HTTPS with WordPress

We’re a fan of easy. As one of our clients says about legal issues, the toughest problems will yield to the simplest solutions. SSL, which encrypts traffic on a website, has a reputation for being a tough problem.

It used to be, and in some applications it still is judging from the unanswered question this author had back in June 2017. With WordPress, it’s quickly becoming very easy.

This article discusses what we feel is the (second) easiest way to use HTTPS with WordPress. We have found this approach to be easiest, second only to buying a hosting plan that already includes SSL, like WP Engine. If you don’t feel like switching hosts, or are like us and sometimes have to work in the confines of other hosting companies, this approach will allow you to use HTTPS with WordPress in a snap.

  1. Step One: Sign up for a Cloudflare account. It’s free. Cloudflare has a few paid plans for the bold (or for those with extensive security or traffic concerns). For the rest of us, the free website plan works just fine.
  2. Step Two: Cloudflare will prompt you to add a site. Go ahead and enter the address of the website you want to use HTTPS with. Cloudflare will perform a scan on the domain name settings (DNS).
  3. Step Three: Check to make sure the DNS records match those found with your registrar. If they do, follow the next prompt.
  4. Step Four: Cloudflare will provide you with two nameservers and will tell you which two existing nameservers need to be replaced with these new ones. It’s important to replace the corresponding existing nameserver with the exact one provided by Cloudflare.
  5. Step Five: Relax while Cloudflare picks up the nameserver change.
  6. Step Six: Once the nameserver change has been picked up by Cloudflare, you’ll receive an email informing you that the site has been added to your Cloudflare account. Be excited! We’re almost done.
  7. Step Seven: Visit the Cloudflare dashboard for the website and click the “Crypto” button near the top of the page. You’ll want to update two settings. First, make sure SSL is set to “Flexible”. Second, make sure that “Always Use HTTPS” is checked to “On”.
  8. Step Eight: Wait a few minutes, then visit the website. You should automatically be taken to an HTTPS version of the site. Your browser has information that it’s secure.

 

For most people, this should be enough to establish secure connections to a website. Some industries may require additional security measures outside of simply enabling SSL.

If you’ve followed these instructions and are having issues with your website breaking or not loading properly, uncheck “Always Use HTTPS” and give us a call at (408) 429-0585.

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How to Claim Your Business on Yelp

How to Claim Your Business on Yelp

A couple months ago, a prospective client met with us because she was concerned about her company’s visibility online. The business is in the health and wellness vertical, so time was of the essence if we were going to help before New Year’s.

After doing a quick review, we found that the client wasn’t appearing on major search engines for even their own name. Typically this would raise concern that the client was under penalty from a search engine, but the answer was much simpler: the client wasn’t showing up because she hadn’t told any of the search engines to make her show up.

In many cases, direct submission to a search engine isn’t necessary. Google, for instance, is very good at discovering websites all on its own without manual submission. Yelp, though, is less quick to identify new businesses. When we discussed Yelp with the client, we found that she didn’t add her business to the directory both because she thought it cost money and because she wasn’t sure the process. This article will provide an overview of the online directory space, whether becoming part of that space costs money, and how to claim your business on Yelp specifically.

Overview of Online Directories

Our staff has experience working for a major online directory and building a minor online directory for a different company. We can distinguish three levels to online directories: the data, the application, and the ordering of results.

The Data

The data used for online directories like Yelp is brokered by a shady cartel of companies that safeguard their proprietary databases with intrigue, murder, and sabotage. The high stakes world of local data brokerages is not for the faint of heart.

Of course, it’s not that dramatic. There are a handful of companies (approximately five) that control the largest and most reputable local business databases. A few include Factual, Localeze, and Dun & Bradstreet. Companies like Yelp and YP build off of these raw datastores either by combining data from other sources or performing updates using information they source from customers.

When our staff had to work with Localeze, a nice man named Fred walked through how the database was structured and the subscription price which sometimes varies from customer to customer and based on how much data you’re purchasing.

The key fact is that there’s no single database of local business information. Adding a business to one often will result in a business appearing in others over time, but this isn’t guaranteed. Further, if your business moves to a different address or changes its name, the data can fall out of sync online. Some older versions of the database will show the old information even if the same database reflects the new after your change. We had a client who was appearing online for an address they’d vacated in the 1990s.

The Application

Once an online directory company has a database, they have to build an application around it. The application is just the interface for you to view listings from the database. For our purposes in this article, the application isn’t relevant; just understand that the application usually allows you to add or edit a business listing. Less mature applications do not and might require you to call a phone number or email a representative. Yelp is a more mature application and when you claim your business on Yelp you can do so quickly and easily.

The Ordering of Results

Each directory has its own rules for how listings are displayed to users. Yelp and other directories have methods to order and rank listings based on category, relevance to the search, ratings, times of operation, and more. While ranking on Yelp (or any other directory) is worth additional articles, one of the best things you can do for visibility in an online directory is to claim your business listing. Local data companies prioritize information sourced directly from a business over information they gather from other places. Sometimes this happens imperfectly, but you improve your odds by claiming your business.

How Much Does it Cost to Claim Your Business on Yelp?

It’s free. There are a couple things to watch out for though.

First, once you claim your business on Yelp, sales representatives will begin calling and emailing you. What they want to discuss with you is decidedly not free.

Second, when you access the management section of Yelp to update your listing, they may have options and upgrades that also cost money.

Third, remember how information can sometimes appear inconsistent across databases and even within databases? For a brand new business this often isn’t a concern, but if you’ve been open for more than a year it might make sense to have someone run a check on your information. Software exists to help standardize and correct inconsistent information, which helps with your overall visibility online. (We can help!)

How to Claim Your Business on Yelp

Now that we have some context out of the way – either because you’ve read up to this point or because you’ve skipped down here, we can look at how easy it is to claim your business on Yelp.

  1. Visit Yelp online.
  2. Scroll all the way to the bottom of the page where and click the link that says, “Claim your business page” – or you can click here.
  3. Fill out the form to search for your business by name and address.
  4. If your business appears, you will be presented with ways to claim the existing listing.
  5. If your business does not appear, click the prompt to add it. Fill out the form and follow the instructions Yelp gives you. Sometimes it can take a day or two for them to verify the information and add your listing.
  6. Drink a celebration tea, like our prospective client did when she followed these steps.

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Google’s Covert Deal with MasterCard

Google’s Covert Deal with MasterCard

The need to track offline activities from online advertising has driven MasterCard and Google to sign a private deal. According to sources familiar with the arrangement, the two companies spent more than four years working out the details to a data sharing agreement.

In the agreement, MasterCard agreed to provide Google with information on users’ credit card transactions. This allowed Google to tie online advertising to offline transactions in brick and mortar stores.

Both companies deny that data can be used to identify individual purchases. Google claims that users can opt out of being tracked and that the collected data is anonymized. The internet search engine, which reportedly paid millions of dollars for access to the data, is trialing a program to allow advertisers to see whether or not a click from an ad results in an in-store purchase within 30 days.

But as the BBC reports, some rights groups are concerned that the arrangement risks misuse of private consumer financial data. We’ve been predicting and preparing for the rise of this kind of activity. Visa already runs an advertising agency, knowing that transaction data is the secret sauce to tracking the effectiveness of online advertising. Last year, the Royal Bank of Canada signed an agreement with Acquisio, online advertising software, to better help small businesses track the effectiveness of their advertising.

This kind of agreement is not new, but is still very fragmented. For instance, Google’s agreement with MasterCard only gives them access to MasterCard data, not Visa or American Express. And any agreement Google signs will only allow advertisers to see whether their Google advertising is effective — and not all their advertising efforts. In the following years, we predict that firms will begin unifying this data in order to provide better results to advertisers. However, consumers won’t tolerate abuses of their personal data.

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Google Chrome & SSL (HTTPS)

Google Chrome & SSL (HTTPS)

The Challenge: One of the largest browsers will begin marking websites as “not secure” if they don’t have SSL / HTTPS.

What We’re Doing for Clients: Any and all websites hosted and maintained by Boomajoom have SSL / HTTPS included by default.

 

Google Chrome enjoys an approximate 58% marketshare in the United States (source). This means that more than one in two users go online with Chrome. In addition, the underlying engine of Chrome, called Chromium, powers many other browsers with smaller marketshare including Opera. Beginning with the July 2018 update to Chrome (called Chrome 68), Google Chrome will begin displaying warning messages to users who access websites that don’t include SSL / HTTPS. The warnings look as follows:

You may be wondering a few things. Let’s go through the basics.

What is HTTP vs HTTPS?

Your browser (Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari, Microsoft Internet Explorer, etc.) all make requests to other computers connected to the internet that host websites. The protocol of this request allows any client (browser, program, other website) to make a similar request and read the response received from the website. This protocol is called “Hyper-Text Transfer Protocol” or abbreviated as “HTTP”. When your browser makes an HTTP request to a computer hosting a website, an HTTP response is sent giving you the website page you’re requesting – or an error message if something goes wrong. This occurs in “plain text” which means that my browser might say “give me example.com” and the responding computer says, “here is example.com”.

HTTPS is an added layer of security. Instead of “give me example.com”, your browser sends a scrambled code to the other computer that has the key to unscramble the code. Then it sends a scrambled code back to the user and the browser unscrambles everything to show you the web page you wanted to see. This is a very simplified way to explain it.

Why is SSL?

SSL is just an acronym standing for “Secure Socket Layer”. It’s the line of communication between the client (browser, program, other website) and the website the client is requesting information from. When SSL exists, HTTPS communication can happen.

Why Do I Want HTTPS / SSL?

First because browsers are beginning to flag websites as “not secure” that use standard HTTP. We’ve met with clients who have customers who refuse to fill out forms on websites because they don’t support HTTP / SSL. If a hacker attacks the user or the computer hosting the website, they can intercept all the plain-text information sent between the two. Encrypting the information in code makes that harder.

Second, some professions almost always require it by law. For example, banks and online stores handle sensitive financial information. If they didn’t have HTTPS / SSL, they risk exposing bank logins and credit card numbers to attackers. As another example, attorneys and medical professionals handle sensitive information belonging to the people they meet with. Not protecting that information can mean their customers could be blackmailed or prosecuted wrongfully, and could mean fines and punishment for the professional that didn’t protect that information.

 

In summary, HTTPS / SSL is the future of much of the web. Not all websites require it, particularly if the website doesn’t have any forms to fill out or otherwise collect sensitive information. But most business owners should consider insisting on a secure website. HTTPS / SSL is becoming easier than ever to set up thanks to the work of outstanding non-profits like the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

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482 Pendragon St.
Manteca, CA 95337

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