DNS, A Records, CNAME Records, and MX Records explained You're Reading: DNS, A Records, CNAME Records, and MX Records explained In Resources Contact us Subscribe DNS, A Records, MX Records, and CNAME Records are common tech acronyms but what do they mean, and why are they important? When moving a client onto our hosting package we often have to adjust their A records and MX records before the transfer is complete. Most of our clients are unaware these records exist but they are an integral part of your website, and the internet itself! Today we are giving you some background into what DNS records are and how they influence your experience on the internet. Hannah Raeside Office Manager, Pod Creative What is DNS? DNS or the Domain Name System is an integral part of the internet, allowing users to easily navigate to various websites. Every device that’s connected to the internet has its own unique IP address, and this includes websites. However, IP addresses are made up of long strings of numbers, so typing one into your browser every time you want to visit Facebook or Instagram isn’t feasible. That’s where the DNS comes in. The Domain Name System assigns websites an easy to remember domain name, such as podcreative.ca and ties them to corresponding IP addresses so visitors can access your site! What are DNS records?DNS records tell the DNS which URLS are associated with what IP address. This way, your browser knows where to send requests when you type in a domain address. DNS Records include A Records, AA Records, CNAME Records, MX Records, NS Records, PTR Records, SOA Records, SRV...
How to add a Gravity Form to your Divi WordPress site! You're Reading: How to add a Gravity Form to your Divi WordPress site! In Resources & Tutorials Contact us Subscribe We love Gravity Forms! It is an excellent contact form plugin with lots of features. Having an easy to use, and more importantly, a reliable contact form is extremely important for your website. You want people to contact you! We’ve covered the differences between the Divi Contact Form and Gravity Forms in the past, so today we will focus on adding a Gravity Form contact form to your website. Hannah Raeside Office Manager, Pod Creative Customize the form! Your basic, main contact form should be simple with little more than Name, Email Address, and a space for the visitor to leave their message. And that’s it! Specialized or customized forms can be longer and more complex, but your basic contact form should be that, basic. The simpler the form, the easier it is for visitors to reach out to you! Creating a new formOn the dashboard of your website click on Forms on the left-hand black sidebar. Then click on “Add New” to create a new form. Title your Form appropriately, such as Contact Form, and give it a description. This will make it easier to differentiate if you have multiple contact forms for different pages. Adding a new form The fantastic thing about Gravity Forms is they tell you how to create a new form! Follow these straightforward instructions to create your new form. We have summarized the steps below for you. Select a Field Type from...
Why your hosting service provider matters! You're Reading: Why your hosting service provider matters! In Resources Contact us Subscribe Your hosting service provider matters more than you think, especially for the security of your site! We’ve briefly talked about the three main types of hosting in the past, outlining their pros and cons. In our minds, dedicated hosting is the way to go! Pod Creative offers dedicated, managed, Canadian based hosting for your website at $30 CAD per month. Choosing the right kind of hosting is crucial, but even more important is choosing the right hosting provider! Hannah Raeside Office Manager, Pod Creative Quick hosting type recap There are three main types of hosting: Shared, Dedicated, and Virtual Private Server hosting. Shared hosting is the most common type of hosting and is preferred by individuals and small businesses. Shared hosting means many different sites, thousands, all on the same server (computer). This entry on Wikipedia gives more information on shared hosting. Dedicated hosting is just as it sounds, a single server hosting a single website. Dedicated hosting is more expensive, but you’re getting a lot more for that money; all the resources of a single computer powering your website. This entry on Wikipedia gives more information on dedicated hosting. VPS hosting is more complex. What you’re paying for is the cumulative resources of many computers networked together, acting as a single server. One advantage to VPS is you can scale from small to large websites without the need to switch servers. Typically VPS hosting rates are hourly rather than monthly. This entry on Wikipedia gives more information on VPS hosting. Hosting and website load...
Tips and tricks for speeding up your Divi WordPress site! You're Reading: Tips and tricks for speeding up your Divi WordPress site! In Pod Creative Divi Tips & Resources & WordPress Contact us Subscribe Is your site slow? Not for long! Slow loading websites are frustrating for everyone! The average load speed of a website is expected to be under 5 seconds nowadays. 5 seconds! That is pretty darn fast. There are many factors that influence a website’s load speed, so today we will focus on the factors we CAN influence! Hannah Raeside Office Manager, Pod Creative What is measurable load speed? Measurable load speed is the speed at which a website loads that we are able to quantify and measure using specified programs online. Because there are so many factors that we are unable to control, such as device speed, internet speed, connection issues, and more, we focus on the measurable load speed time. By using programs such as Google’s PageSpeed Insights, GTmetrix, and Pingdom we can gain insight into the effectiveness of the strategy and find areas to improve. GZIP compression codingEnabling Gzip compression on your Divi Site can give you a big boost in speed. If you are familiar with creating compressed (or zipped) files on your computer, you already have a basic understanding of how Gzip compression works. Utilizing Gzip compression can reduce your page size by up to 70%! The Gzip compression code tells the server to compress all the files it can into smaller versions so that it can be served to the client much faster. To enter the below code in your website: You...
What is an SSL Certificate? You're Reading: What is an SSL Certificate? In Resources Contact us Subscribe SSL Certificates are extremely important for the security and trustworthiness of your site. At one point or another, you’ve probably heard the term SSL Certificate and may have a vague understanding that your site needs one, but you aren’t sure why. Today we are going to get into the nitty-gritty of what an SSL Certificate is, who should have them, and why they are important. Hannah Raeside Office Manager, Pod Creative What does SSL mean SSL stands for Secure Sockets Layer which is a global standard security technology that enables encrypted communication between a web browser and a web server, or a web server and a web server. This means your information is safely transmitted between your web browser and a websites’ server. SSL Certificates make sure that any data transferred between users and sites, or between two systems remain impossible to read. Encryption algorithms are used to scramble data in transit, preventing hackers from reading it as it is sent over the connection. SSL/TLS works by binding the identities of entities such as websites and companies to cryptographic key pairs via digital documents known as X.509 certificates. Each key pair consists of a private key and a public key. The private key is kept secure, and the public key can be widely distributed via a certificate. Think of it as a secret handshake! Who needs an ssl certificate? In our opinion, everyone should have an SSL certificate! However, any individual or organization that uses their website to require, receive, process, collect, store, or display confidential or sensitive information should...
De-mystifying Search Engine Rankings You're Reading: De-mystifying Search Engine Rankings In Resources Resources & Tutorials Divi Tips & Layout examples Subscribe How are websites ranked in Search Engine results and what determines your website's rank or position? One of the most common questions clients ask is how to raise their website in search engine rankings. But before asking how to do something, we first should explore what a search engine is and how it works! Hannah Raeside Office Manager, Pod Creative Here are a few reminders about making a successful post: Make sure your content is relevant. Make sure you have a good Featured Image. Make sure your post has a strong, engaging title. Make sure you have an Excerpt. Categorize your post. Choose or create appropriate tags. Check if you can link anything in the text. myths about search engines Let’s dispel a few myths and clear up some misconceptions. 1. First off, you can’t hack the algorithm. Years ago there was a practice of putting white words on a white background on a page of your website to try and make it more searchable. This no longer works and trying to hack Google’s algorithm will get your site penalized by the search engine’s algorithm. The algorithms’ ‘spiders’ that crawl your website will recognize the attempt at circumventing the search engine algorithm and penalize your site by lowering it in the rankings. Your site can even be bumped to the second page or further in the search results depending on the severity of the penalization. 2. Secondly, search engine rankings are determined by an algorithm, not a person...
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