A blog is an incredibly powerful tool required by all online marketers to drive traffic to their business. Publishing well-curated and informative content to your online business blog will help generate quality leads, and in turn, boost sales. 

However, some online business owners don’t see the need to have a functional blog. They only believe in running ads on Facebook, WhatsApp, or Google. The thing is, running ads is not a bad idea but there are more benefits derived from owning a blog. Below are the top 10 benefits of having a blog for your online business.

1. Generation of traffic to your website

There are several means of driving traffic to your website. You can decide to buy an email list or run ads, however, both are relatively costly. If you want your website to gain more visibility, adding a blog page is the best. Because as you publish high-quality content, it makes Google index your content and rank on Google SERP (Search Engine Result Page) if well optimized.

Google algorithm needs content to index, so as you are consistent in publishing your content, it makes google recognize your page and always check in frequently for more content. If you target your keyword very well, your website will rank on Google’s first page, and in turn, drive more leads to your website.

2. It helps to boost your online presence

As an online business owner, a strong online presence is one of the keys for your business to survive. You can boost your social media presence and get more customers by blogging. You write quality and non-plagiarized content about your brand, publish on your blog page, and then share it on your social media network. However, if you suck at writing, you can decide to hire a content writer to help do the job.

The more the number of people your blog post reaches, the more your audience grows. When people perceive value in what you post, they will consider you a go-to person in your industry and become part of your network. Your customers can also help share your blog post with other people which will help build your social media network.

Also Read: Know This Before You Start a Blog in Nigeria

3. It produces long-term results

This is one of the reasons why having a blog is essential for every online business owner. Unlike other marketing strategies that are geared toward short-term results.

Having a blog produces a long-term result. It will continue to get ranked by the Google algorithm so far the content is still on the blog. This means you will continue to get new audiences over time.

4. It helps to generate more leads

A lead simply refers to your target audience. One of the important benefits of having a blog is also the generation of more quality leads.

As you continue publishing your blog post and sharing, it will reach your target audience. If your post is solving some of their problems. They will crave to know more about your business and eventually become your customer.

5. Generation of income

Blogging helps to generate more income for your business. The more traffic that keeps coming to your blog, the more the number of customers you’ll have, and also the more the in-flow of sales. You will keep generating more income and more customers as you are publishing more posts. 

There are several other ways of generating income from a blog too aside from your own business. You can also run an affiliate marketing business with your blog, where you post content based on the product you are affiliating for and then insert a link as a call-to-action for those interested in the product. 

Once people are convinced about your post and buy the product then you make your money. It’s simple, however, it requires patience.

Read: How To Start A Blog And Make Money In School

6. It helps to build your brand credibility

Customers are now researching extensively on a product before making a purchase. Having a blog will help provide your audience with necessary information on your product which will position you as an expert in the industry.

When they feel your business is credible and trustworthy they will patronize you next time.

7. It helps to grow your email list

Having a blog is also one of the ways to grow your email list aside from email marketing. When people read your blog post and gain useful information, they will be moved to sign up for your email newsletter.

You can do this by including a link to sign up for an email newsletter on every of your blog posts.

8. It promotes strong customer relationship

When your customers realize that you know what you are doing because of the kind of content on your blog, they will keep reading your blog, and patronize your business. This will create a medium for you to interact freely with them and also respond to their comments.

On the other hand, they will feel safer and more secure, even though they have never seen you physically. There will be a stronger customer relationship if you keep satisfying their needs.

9. Free publicity 

Blog also provides free publicity for your online product through backlinks or inbound links. Backlink simply means a link on another person’s blog that people can click on to view your blog post. 

Whenever you post new content on your blog, it will be made available for other bloggers to reference on their sites. They will be able to see, discuss, and share it. If they insert the link on a post in their blog and people click on the link, the new audience will be redirected to your blog. This is a good means of generating traffic for your online business and with that, you will be smiling to the bank.

10. It is cost-efficient

The most ideal cost-efficient marketing strategy for businesses is blogging and SEO (Search Engine Optimization).

When applied correctly, you will be spending a low amount of money to run the blog. As long as you are writing a post on your blog and google is indexing it, you will always be getting free leads.

Check Our: Free WordPress Blog Setup

Conclusion

There are many benefits you can derive from having a blog as an online business owner. It helps to build your social media presence and facilitate strong customer relationships. Also, the joy of gaining free leads from your blog without running ads is limitless. If you have been contemplating having a blog for your business, it’s time to clear your doubt and take action.

Google’s search engine is like a sea of information, especially for the millennials and Gen Zs. Many people all around the world today ask various questions on Google and then, the search algorithm tries to provide them with the website that has the best suitable answers to their questions.

Being able to appear frequently on Google’s search engine is a big boost, especially for business owners. It helps bring you or your brand to light. 

So if you have been trying to have your brand or website appear more frequently on Google searches, here are a few tips.

Tips to appear frequently on Google Searches

Here are tips to help you appear on Google search:

1. Target the right keywords

The easiest way for you to appear more frequently on Google searches is to have keywords that people more frequently type when they search for different stuff on Google. 

Google searches are all about relevant keywords. So, to ensure that your website or brand is always at the face of people’s searches, you have to fill them up with words and different topics that are most frequently searched on google. And this will make your website or page appear recurrently on Google searches. 

Also Read: A beginner’s guide to SEO (All you need to know)

2. Have more web pages

This is another way to boost your Google search engine appearance. The more pages you have on your website, the more topics and content you can put out there. And thus, the higher the odds of your website being recognized and listed on Google searches. 

Also, it is not enough to have many web pages with a lot of topics and content. It is also important that the information you put on your website are well-written and highly informative. This will be further discussed in point 4.

3. Get listed on online platforms

There are tons of online platforms where you can get your page listed to get more recognition, such as Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, etc. You can also have your business listed on online directories like Google My Business.

These platforms give opportunities for you to create profiles and add your websites. 

Ensure that you create as many profiles as possible for your business on these platforms because the more the number of popular online platforms you have your business listed, the easier it is to gain recognition. 

4. Post high-quality content

As stated in point 2, it is not just enough for you to have a diverse range of topics, it is also very important that the information you give about those topics are of very good quality. 

This means that you’ll want to ensure that all information you provide is accurate. Also, you’ll ensure that the contents are well-written and unique.

When you have quality content, people are not just drawn to your page, they also get interested and stay to read and see what value you have to offer.

Google’s algorithm can also monitor and track how long people stay on your page. So, it is important to get people hooked on your web pages and even willingly share with their connections. If your content is good, it will help your website appear often in Google searches based on the related keywords.

Also Read: Know This Before You Start a Blog in Nigeria

5. Leverage popular websites and blogs

It’s also a great idea to have your brand or website listed on other websites that are already popular. You can also have prominent bloggers feature your website or brand on their blogs.

This way, you’ll get more traffic to your website and Google’s search algorithm will rank your website higher.

6. Quality visuals

To appear on Google searches, you should have quality and attractive images and videos on your pages. The essence of this is to draw attention.  Nothing attracts the attention of Millennials and Generation Z folks like quality videos and images. 

So, ensure that your images are clear and of high quality. You must also consider the size of the file. It should be small for easy and fast download. 

It’s not a bad idea to add a very good and popular caption, and also the title of the file should have a popular keyword so that it can easily appear during searches. 

Also Read: 4 Reasons Your Business Needs A Website

7. Utilize Google Ads

There is no better way for you to get recognition on Google than to pay Google to advertise you by themselves. Google Ad is an advertisement platform created by google for the purpose of advertising your brand or website. It may cost some money but it’s also a sure way to always appear on online searches.

Advertising with Google, they will ensure that your ads appear on any search that is even just a bit close to what your brand or webpage is all about. 

8. Get Google verification

Another way for you to appear on Google searches is to get verified on Google. To get this done, you need to submit your business to Google maps using Google My Business. 

Hence, you need t, first of all,l create a page for your business on Google My Business. Then, find and claim your business on Google maps.

During the process, Google will send you a verification code on your email which you must enter on your Google my business profile. And once you’ve done that, your business has been claimed and your business will be verified by Google.

Also Read: Free WordPress Blog Setup

9. Keep your site updated

Another way for you to keep getting recognized on Google searches is to keep updating your site with trending topics and keywords. When this is done frequently, it will be easier for your website to keep popping up during any search related to your niche. 

So, you need to be on the lookout for trending topics, captions, and hashtags in your niche, so you can have content about them on your website. 

Summary

If you are trying to get your website or brand to appear more on Google searches and it has been proving difficult, I hope these points I have listed in this article will give you a better result. And don’t just learn, ensure you take action immediately.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the organic method to rank any website in the Google search results for the potential search terms. SEO is mainly classified in to two core categories as On Page SEO and Off Page SEO. On Page SEO covers all the optimization techniques which is followed on the website to make it perform better on search results. Off Page SEO is the works done outside the website to improve the authority of the website in the Google Search.

On Page SEO includes terminologies like title tag optimization, meta description optimization, adding internal & external links, Image Optimization and many more factors. Whereas the Off Page SEO includes link building, social shares, citation building and many more factors.

In this blog, let’s see in more detail about the On Page & Off Page SEO.

Before we start, Click Here analyze your website SEO for free

On Page Optimization

On Page SEO is all about making the website and the landing pages better to rank well on Google SERP’s. Below are the core On Page SEO factors,

• Title Tag
• Meta Description
• Internal Links
• Image Optimization
• Heading Tags

Title Tag

Title tag is the first thing that the user notices before landing on a web page. In simple words, title tag is the text with the blue link which appears in the Google Search results (as like in the below image). Title tag should contain the target keyword and it can be a maximum of up to 60 characters.

Meta Description

Meta description is the short piece of descriptive content which is appearing in the search results below the title tag (as like in the below image). When writing the meta description, you should make sure that it doesn’t exceed 160 characters. At the same time, you should try to embed the target keywords in the meta description.

Sometimes the meta descriptions will be auto generated by Google as shown in the above image. The common mistake that everyone will make in meta description optimization is adding keyword many times, You can add the keywords but you should not stuff them by repeating more times.

While writing the meta descriptions, you should make sure that it is capable of getting user’s attention. Meta descriptions will have the direct impact in the click through rate (CTR).

Recommended: Know This Before You Start a Blog in Nigeria

Internal Links

If you take a business or blogging website, normally there will be many pages and posts in the website. So you should interlink the relevant posts and pages. Interlinking should be done mainly for two purposes. One is to help the users easily navigate between the relevant pages. Other is to help the Google bots and the web crawlers to navigate to the other pages in the website and index the new web pages. This is how web crawlers will find the new webpages in your website and will index them.

Hence more internal links should be given to the relevant pages to help both the users and the web crawlers to easily navigate between the pages.

Image Optimization

Image Optimization is where the most of the SEO people miss out. Basically images are the media files and Google crawlers will identify the images only with the help of the Alt text. Hence when you add any image to the web page, you should make sure that you have given alt text to the image.

Google bots will read the images only with the help of alternative text (alt text), hence give relevant alt text to the images. You can try to vary the alt text based on the target keywords if you have many images in a web page.

Also Read: Best Image Optimization Plugins

Heading Tags

Heading tags in SEO ranges from H1 to H6. By default, page title will be the H1. If you are publishing a page or post in the website, you should make sure that you have used more headings in the content ranging from H1 to H6.

When adding the heading tags, you can try to add the keywords in the headings with the different variations. This will help Google to spot what exactly the page is all about.

Off Page Optimization

Off Page optimization deals with all the works which is done outside the website to boost the authority of your website. Some of the Off Page SEO factors are listed below,

• Social Sharing
• Citation Building
• Link Building

Social Sharing

If you are a blogger or a business owner, you should have the social media profiles for your website in mediums like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest and in other popular platforms. You should share the blogs and latest news about your website in the social media profiles regularly. Social media profiles is also one of the ranking factors in Google’s ranking algorithm.

Citation Building

Citation Building is the process of submitting the business website in country specific business directories with the proper NAP details. NAP details include name, address, phone number of your business. Directory submission should be done with high NAP accuracy and this will add massive value to boost your sites authority.

Especially if you are starting SEO for a brand new website. It’s always recommended to start with the citation building. For example, if you are planning to target and rank your site in UK, then you can submit your website in UK based business directories to get organic SEO boost.

Recommended: 50 Best Free SEO Tools [100% Effective and Proven]

Link Building

Off Page SEO is mainly about building high authority backlinks to your website from reliable sources. Backlinks will help you rank the websites for highly competitive search terms. When it comes to building backlinks, you need to invest some money if you are planning to build really good links from the premium websites. When it comes to backlinks, its not about quantity, its all about quality. So the number of links doesn’t matter and only the quality of websites where you are getting backlinks matters.

These are the basics of SEO and I personally apply these techniques for our clients at ClickDo. Digital Entrepreneur Fernando Raymond, founder of ClickDo & SeekaHost have guided me in my SEO career and I have learnt many smart SEO techniques from him which helps to handle international clients for SEO.

WE CREATED A BRAND NEW WEBSITE TO HANDLE YOUR SEO ISSUES FOR FREE, CLICK HERE TO VISIT.

In this blog post, we would discuss the reasons why web hosting is important. You will also learn the various types of web hosting.

What is web hosting?

Web hosting is a procedure that involves the storage of files and content that are present on your website. You will have a storage cloud, mostly an allocated space on a large commercial server.

Also Read: How to Start a Blog in Nigeria That Makes N725,000 a Month

Features of a good web host

Backup Of Website Content

To be honest, this is one of the key reasons that led to the idea of web hosting. Website owners needed a convenient way and place to backup their site content. This can be done manually or automatically at periodic intervals.

It’s not something new. Important files sometimes get missing. This might be as a result of the Site Manager’s mistake, or because of an attack when a third party tried to hack into the site.

Either way, it’s always safer and wiser to know that all the contents and files that make up your website are backed somewhere invulnerable. 

Also Read: Know This Before You Start a Blog in Nigeria

Security

While most website owners focus on the content and user interface, they do overlook this vital part. Website security is always viewed as something insignificant until someone (or bots) hack into your site.

Whenever that happens, it’s always too late. This is because your site is no longer within your reach. The third-party would have already gained a higher authority over your files and important settings.

One of the many ways to prevent this issue is to choose a good web hosting company for your site.

Uptime, Reliability And Customer Support

If you use your site for eCommerce or affiliate marketing, then you would know what damage could be done if your site goes offline for 1 hour.

By choosing a good web hosting company in Nigeria, you can rest assured of good uptime. Also, seeing your website stop functioning is not a thing you can bear. At times, you can make a mistake in your HTML CSS coding and break your site.

At times, it can also result from an error made by your web hosting company. Either way, you will be troubled and you will need a team of experts at your beck and call.

Having reliable customer support is a thing of joy. It can help you in tough times and restore your site to its normal state. 

Also Read: 4 Reasons Your Business Needs A Website

Types Of Web Hosting

There are many types of web hosting you can go for. Usually, what determines your type of web hosting is the nature of your site and the cost.

Below are the 6 main types of web hosting.

Shared Hosting

This type of web hosting comprises the cheapest and most basic plans. It’s recommended for beginners and small website owners.

In shared web hosting, a single server is shared by numerous users. When I say numerous, I mean a large number of users connected to a single server. 

VPS Hosting

VPS stands for Virtual Private Server. VPS web hosting is for users who are a little advanced and want more control over their site. 

Most VPS users need higher processor speed and uptime which they couldn’t find in shared hosting.

In VPS hosting, only a few users are connected to a single server, contrary to shared hosting where numerous users share a single server.

Also Read: Free WordPress Blog Setup

WordPress Hosting

This type of web hosting does not need to be over-emphasized. It is primarily for WordPress users. WordPress hosting is not a wise choice for beginners unless it is managed. They don’t need it and they don’t have enough skills to use it.

It’s for users that have enough experience in web hosting, blogging, and WordPress. WordPress hosting plans usually come with a one-click installation feature.

Cloud Hosting

Cloud hosting is recommended for very large and profitable websites having around 50,000 monthly page visitors. It’s for medium and large business sites that have rapid growth.

Cloud hosting is a hybrid version of VPS hosting. Contrary to VPS hosting in which a single server is shared by few users, Cloud hosting has multiple servers and each server has a specific duty. 

If any of the servers is compromised or experiencing failure,  the other servers will adjust and divide its tasks among themselves, pending the time it regains functionality. 

Cloud hosting offers the best uptimes and fastest processor speed (after Dedicated hosting).

Also Read: How To Buy Hosting From Bluehost

Dedicated Hosting

Just as the name implies, a user will have a dedicated server that belongs only to his/her own website.

I know you will say it’s the most expensive. Yes, it is. But it’s also the best of all web hosting plans. 

Dedicated web hosting is not recommended for blogs. It’s recommended for large eCommerce websites, enterprises, and storage clouds.

In Dedicated hosting, you have control over your own world. You can control your uptime, bandwidth, and security.

It’s advised to make use of this web hosting type if your website has over 100,000 monthly visits.

Also Read: How To Buy A Domain At Namecheap

Reseller Hosting

We won’t be explaining much here, since Reseller hosting is meant for commercial purposes rather than personal use.

Reseller web hosting is a hosting plan where anyone can buy and sell to clients as their own web hosting company.

Best Web Hosting Companies In Nigeria 2022

Having realized the importance and the various types of web hosting, we should now look into the best Web hosting companies In Nigeria.

The 5 web hosting companies on our list have SSL, domain registration, cPanel, WordPress hosting and email features included in their plans. Below are the top 5 web hosting companies in Nigeria 2022.

Also Read: How to Improve your WordPress Website Security – 10 Proven Ways

1. Qservers

Qservers was established in December 2004. They have their headquarters at number 14, Allen Avenue, Ikeja in Lagos state.

Qservers offer shared hosting, VPS, and dedicated server hosting. They also provide SSL security and domain registration.

An uptime of 99.9% is one of their achievements. This has continually happened since they started in 2004.

You can visit Qservers here to see their web hosting plans. 

Also Read: How To Start A Blog And Make Money In School

2. Smart Web

Smart Web Nigeria limited is among the largest web hosting service providers in Nigeria. They offer support for more than 100,000 sites and 20,000 website developers.

They specialize in Reseller Hosting, Shared Hosting, Cloud Hosting, Dedicated Server hosting, VPS Hosting, Email Hosting, SSL certificates, and domain name registration.

Their physical address is in Abuja Nigeria. They offer reliable 24/7 customer support and 99.9% uptime.

You can visit smartweb.com.ng to see their various hosting packages. 

3. Domain king

DomainKing.ng is one of the best web hosting companies in Nigeria with domain name registration services.

It was created by Hannu Internet Incorporation in 2014. Domain King now has over 18,000 domains within its management. They provide support for more than 6,000 web designers.

Their uptime is 99.9% and their customer support is okay. You can view their web hosting plans.

Also Read: Factors To Consider Before Paying For Hosting

4. HostNowNow

HostNowNow is one of the innovative and top web hosting providers in Nigeria. Also, they pride themselves to be one of the cheapest web hosting companies in Nigeria.

HostNowNow provides Reseller hosting, SSL security, domain name registration, and many other hosting solutions. You can see their web hosting plans here.

5. Whogohost

Started in 2007, Whogohost is one of the most popular web hosting providers in West Africa.

They have offered services to more than 40,000 websites all over the world. 

They provide all the web hosting plans and also domain name registration and SSL certificates. Their shared hosting plans have free “.Ng”  domains and free SSL in all plans. They also have a one-click installation for WordPress.

Their reseller plans are also good and reliable. They offer full control to clients on any account hosted. They also provide SEO tools to aid bloggers and sites that need to rank high on SERP.
You can see their web hosting plans.

Also Read:30 reasons why students should blog

Conclusion

Choosing a good web hosting plan and company is very important. That is why we have made our listings based on user rating and experience. 

It’s advisable not to always go for the cheapest web hosting plans. You should take your time and compare each web hosting package.

By doing that, you can rest assured that you are getting everything worth your money while having your site up and running.

A good example can be ‘how to make over $10,000 blogging’ or ‘how to make $1000 in your first week of blogging’ etc.

The point here is that they all sound wonderful. Seriously who wouldn’t want to make $1000 in the first week of blogging.

But if it’s true why isn’t everybody blogging already?  Blogging can fetch you serious money, in fact, if you haven’t started blogging I’ll recommend you start now.

But what most people don’t know is that blogging is a business and not a get rich quick scheme.

For you to be successful in any business you much first grow your reputation and brand. Because if the reputation is not there nobody is going to patronize you.

The same thing applies to blogging.

If you want to make money from blogging and be a successful blogger in Nigeria.

You need to forget about making money for the first 6-8 months of blogging that’s just the truth.

And if at all you going to make money, it’s going to be peanuts.

Blogging is a process you just don’t start immediately and start making money immediately.

Think of it as an offline business do you start making money immediately you started a business? Or until people start noticing you?

You start making money when people actually know you are providing values and they see the reason to patronize you.

The same thing goes to blogging, you need to create values, and until you start creating values nobody is going to come back to your blog.

This is why most bloggers don’t make significant money in the first six months of blogging. Because as a newbie, no one knows you.

And with zero online reputation, you simply can’t build trust. Without trust, it’s going to be very hard to make money online.

This is because the trust you build online is in direct proportional to the amount of money you make.

The more people you help the more money you make. It’s as simple as that.

Here are common reasons why bloggers don’t make money and quit early:

• They think blog is an easy way to make money
• They don’t see it as a business
• Never invested in it
• See themselves as a blogger and not a marketer
• Focus on making money and not creating values

My friend if you want to make money by blogging you have to work hard.

There’s no shortcut here it’s just the bitter truth. But the good thing is you don’t need to work as much as depriving yourself sleep as long as you go about it the right way.

Fortunately, this why am writing this post.

Things you should focus on in the first six months of blogging:

• Focus on building a relationship with your audience
• Engage them
• Use your blog as a platform to solve problems
• Make your blog popular by creating a brand and reputation
• Forget about making money in the first six months
• Create values

Once you’ve focused on the right thing which is gaining trust and building your reputation online.

Trust me the traffic will come naturally. Then after this can you start making money from your blog.

Few examples of popular bloggers in Nigeria and how much they are making on a monthly basis

• Linda Ikeji the popular queen bee of Nigeria from  www.lindaikeji.blogspot.com makes around  $15,000 – $20,000 on monthly basis
• Uche Eze Pedro from www.bellaniaja.com  make around 10 – $15,000 monthly

How to make money from your blog in Nigeria:

You can make money blogging by monetizing it in the following ways:

• Google AdSense
• Affiliate marketing
• Freelance writing
• Sponsored post
• Product reviews

#1: Google AdSense-

Google AdSense is one of the most popular ways blogger monetizes their blog. This is done by displaying Google ads on your site. The amount of money that can be made through Google AdSense is proportional to the amount of traffic your blog is generating. This is done in two ways

• Impression: The money earn on impression depends on the page views, for instance, for every 1000 or more page views you get on your blog is going to earn you a certain amount of dollar
• Clicks: you earn a certain amount of money if a visitor clicks on the ad from your site. This can range from anywhere around $0.05 to a few dollars depending on the ad.

Like I said how much you can make from AdSense depends on the traffic your site is generating, however, it’s possible to earn from $100 to $10,000 through Google AdSense on a monthly basis.

#2: Affiliate marketing-

Affiliate marketing is probably the best way to make money as a blogger. This can be done by including links in your post to other business product or services offered through affiliate programs. For everybody that clicks on the links to purchase the product or service is going to earn you a commission.

How much can you make through affiliate marketing? It’s possible to earn from $100- $20,000 on a monthly basis.

To be successful in affiliate marketing through your blog, it will be a good idea if:

•  You promote products relevant to your blog niche
• Promote product you’ve tested yourself and can easily recommend
• You include a disclaimer on your site that you are promoting products and services so as to not mislead your readers.

You can know more about affiliate marketing here.

#3: Freelance writing

Freelance writing is another way to monetize your blog and of course, bloggers are making serious money from this.

Companies all over the world are looking for writers that can write an article about their company and promote their product. They are willing to pay a reasonable about of money for this.

To make money from freelance writing, you can simply add a hire me page awareness on your blog but make sure you make it attractive with a good profile.

There are other ways to make money as a freelance writer other than your blog, there are many freelance writers network you can join and make money from them.

#4: Sponsored post-

A sponsored post is also a good way to monetize your blog in Nigeria. There are companies willing to pay you to sponsor posts for them on your blog once they know your blog is generating reasonable traffic.

To have an effective sponsored post on your blog, the post must be something related to your blog.  Or falls within your niche and it will be wise for you to let your readers know it’s a sponsored post.

#5: Product reviews

Lastly… You can also choose to write a product review on a product that is related to your blog niche.  However, how you choose to do this depends on you. But it’s always good to know the product you are writing a review about.

Most importantly, write all the pros and cons of the product, doing this let your audience trust you.

There are various affiliate networks you can join to do this. Visit amazon and look through their products.

Once you’ve found a product you feel good about, write a genuine review about the product and add a link to the product in your review. On every sale made through your review will get you a cut from the cost of the product.

You can check out one of my review page to learn more.

Finally,  like I said don’t see your blog as a get rich quick scheme but as a business that you are willing to nurture and grow.

Don’t even think of making money for the first 6 months. Just focus on building your brand and reputation. If at all you make some few bucks in the first 6month think of it as a bonus. but let your focus be on building your brand.

Ready to start your blog? You can begin here.

Let me hear your thought on this, having any question use the comment box and i will get back to you ASAP!

Perhaps you’re in the generation that didn’t grow up with computers, you don’t use a computer so you think your customers don’t use computers.

You may also think that since you are not tech-savvy, why bother to get a website since you cannot manage it yourself.

Some already established business owners rely on word of mouth and they think they are doing quite well so they do not need a website.

The fact is, there are several reasons why your business needs a professional website.

Outlined below are 4 reasons your business needs a professional website.

YOU’LL SHOW UP IN GOOGLE SEARCH RESULTS.

Statistics show that 81 percent of customers perform an online search before purchasing a product. They visit search engine websites like Google, type in one or more keywords, like “best hair salon” or, if they want to specify a location, “best hair salon in Lekki, Lagos”.

If you don’t have a website for your business, the chances of showing up on the search engine results page (SERP) are zero. But if you have a site, you can optimize it for search engines, thereby increasing your chances of appearing at the top of Google’s results and getting more visibility with potential customers.

YOUR CUSTOMERS EXPECT IT.

Statistics also show that Six out of ten consumers expect brands to provide online content about their business on some form of digital property, and more than half visit the brand’s website for product information. If you don’t have a business website, today’s digitally inclined (and impatient) customers may look elsewhere.

YOUR BUSINESS WILL GAIN CREDIBILITY

More and more people are searching online for things they want, for solutions to their problems, to compare prices, or just to get some information about a store, restaurant or business before they purchase from them. If you don’t have a website, potential customers will go to your competitors who do, especially if you are a home-based business without an office address.

Having a website will not only provide the information they are looking for, but it will give your business credibility. It says, I am here, I mean business.

Since potential buyers are already looking for you online, including customer testimonials on your site is a great way to impress potential buyers.

SHOWCASE YOUR PRODUCTS AND SERVICES.

Not only can you display your products or outline your services in detail with beautiful images, but you can provide short video tutorials or downloadable PDF instructions to give hesitant customers no reason to go elsewhere to purchase.

So you see, not having a website is not good for you. Need help setting up a website for your business?  AidTheStudent offers professional web design service plus 24/7 support from in-house experts, as well as guides, video tutorials, and more. click here to check out our professional service. We also offers a free website creation, Click here to check out our free blog setup service.

The hassle of dealing with the technical know-how and the lack of knowledge on how to create a blog can be the reason why you are not taking the bold and seemingly difficult stride to pursue your blogging career.

Being an active member of the blogging community myself, I have vast personal experience in setting up one’s blog. I know how hard it can be for a newbie.

Choosing the right choice of website theme, the perfect domain name, or even identifying a hosting company can be difficult and daunting.

What if I told you that all of the above mentioned is possible and more? You will get everything for Free, and you will have a blog ready to use in under five days. Great deal, isn’t it?

I set up, you run it!

Get Started With Free WordPress Blog Set Up By Experts

Free WordPress blog setup services are powered by premium our WordPress experts. We will setup a wordpress blog for you for free or guide you how to make a WordPress blog free of charge.

Did you know you can actually start blogging for free and make money online?

Why offer free wordpress installation service? We are on a mission of simplifying the process of starting a blog for non-techies. Starting a blogging site doesn’t have to be a complicated process! You also don’t need expensive blog hosting services to get started.

A Free Blog Starter will set up a blogging site at no cost to you.

Features of Blog Sites That We Will Set Up For You

1. WordPress

We install self-hosted WordPress software with proper configurations.

2. Design

We work with you to pick the best WordPress theme for YOU!

3. SEO Optimized

We help optimize your site for SEO, so you can rank higher.

4. Blazing Fast

We add caching solutions to make sure that your site is blazing fast.

5. Security

We add security plugins to help protect your site from hackers.

6. Training & Support

You will get access to our free training videos & expert support.

All of that for free? Are you crazy?

Yup, we get this question a lot. See why AidTheStudent offer free blog setups.

When I started blogging few years ago, I had to teach myself everything, from setting up a free blog to the paid version, how to buy a domain, where to buy hosting, how to point a domain to hosting, which plugin to use, or study about SEO, digital marketing, etc. It is time-consuming for a non-technical background person like me. So I hope that I can support new bloggers to set up a complete blog to you save a bunch of your time.

Based on surveys we carried out on several of our successful blogs, we noted the main thing that kill the dreams of many great bloggers is the high costs of blog design plus lack of great resources for bloggers.

AidTheStudent seeks to address these two issues. We are a great resource site for aspiring and starter bloggers especially students. We want to disrupt the blogging profession. We are making it easy to start a blog site and make money blogging from home.

You don’t have keep searching online on how to start a blog for free. You don’t have to worry about getting a free blog site that you don’t have control over. We set up a blog site that will help you succeed online for free. If are looking for how to set up a free WordPress blog, get started with our free WordPress installation service now.

How To Avail This Free Blogging Site Setup Service?

STEP 1: Get Hosting (Click Here),

You will need to purchase a hosting service from our blog hosting partners: BlueHost or CloudWays. 

Note: You will get a free domain name when you host your blog at BlueHost. but if you choose another hosting apart from Bluehost, you will have to pay for the domain. If you already have a domain and just need hosting, then i recommend you use cloudways hosting.

Read how to setup hosting with bluehost or our read review on cloudways hosting.

STEP 2: Fill In The Request Form Below 

Once you have a confirmation from the hosting company, fill in request form below.

Copy and paste the confirmation email and the login to your server. This is essential for us to set up your blog.

Share your blog preferences such as: desired blog color, design, and other preferences. Without these details, we won’t be able to set up your WordPress blog. You can change your login details later, once we have finished setting up your blog and handed it over to you. 

Submit the request form by contacting me on messenger or email me at matthew@aidthestudent.com with a screenshot of the payment and all the details i said earlier.

STEP 3: Blog Creation

We will share available themes for you to choose from Blog set up and delivered in 72 hours. You have 12 hours to request changes.

STEP 4: I Teach You (Learn) How To Monetize Your Blog

Now that you have a blog set up, you will need to start writing or sharing quality content. You will join our community where you will learn how to make money from your free blog.

NOTE: Bluehost is our partner in providing hosting services and it is mandatory for you to use Bluehost, to avail our Free blog setup service. This will guarantee that you will get a free domain name and SSL Certificate provided by Bluehost. You will have to sign up through us as a new user to be able to receive the blog setup service. If you also already have a domain name, then you can sign up with cloudways.

See you on the other side.

Bluehost is one of the largest hosting providers in the world. And currently Bluehost is providing hosting for more than 2 million websites worldwide.

Bluehost is trusted by many users because of its friendly interface, reasonable cost, 24/7 online customer care service and attached add-on package.

In addition, Bluehost is always the preferred choice for many businesses because besides providing hosting services, Bluehost also provides users with many attached services such as cloud site, VPS hosting, WooComerce hosting, etc.

In this article, I will tell the reason why I use Bluehost for most of my sites and my clients’ as well as detailed instructions on how to buy hosting from Bluehost .

What Is Hosting And Domain?

To create a website you need 2 main elements: domain and hosting. Building a website is similar to building a house. You need the following factors:

• Home address – Domain : the digital address of your website.
• A land to build your house – Hosting: site hosting provides web owner a space on a web server to store all of its files.
• In addition, you’ve heard about Theme – it is likely the design your house. You can use free Theme from WP or buy a premium theme from ThemeForest, Astra, Divi, generatepress and Genesis Framework

When someone enters your domain name in a browser, the domain name is translated into the IP address (a combination of numbers separated with dots) of your web hosting.

In the article I will go specifically about Hosting, and the provider I am using currently for most of my websites is Bluehost.

Why You Should Buy Hosting From Bluehost?

• Bluehost is rated as one of the best hosting providers that support WordPress.
• High quality customer service. 24/7 customer care, you can directly chat live with the technical support team or ask them to call you directly. If you don’t know how to install or connect your website to WordPress or even know how to use the admin panel, you can chat with Support Team, they are very helpful and supportive. 
• Free integration of SSL (https) service. As you know, Google currently highly values ​​websites that use https, and website owners should integrate https to create security for your website and for users. When you buy hosting at Bluehost, you will get completely free HTTPS integration for your website.
• Free domain name for the first year.
• Variety of plans ideal for scalability.
• Bluehost interface is user-friendly.
• Most plans include unlimited disk storage, unlimited websites, and bandwidth.

There are plenty of exciting features and free add-ons included in Bluehost package. The majority of customers are quite happy with Bluehost’s services including me.

How To Buy Hosting From Bluehost

Step 1: Choose A Hosting Package

Go to Bluehost ‘s website => select “Get Started” . The hosting package window will appear (as picture below). Please read carefully the information of each package to choose the most suitable option for you.

First you need to decide if you are going to buy package of 12 months, 24 months or 36 months. Normally, when I buy a domain or hosting, I will go for 24-month package, neither too long nor too short. After two years, I will renew if the service is good, otherwise I’ll change to another domain and hosting providers.

After choosing how long your package is, read carefully the information included in each package.

1. Basic package : this package can only host 1 single website (50 GB). Get 1 year free domain and free SSL (https)
2. Plus package : this package can host multiple websites on the same server, unlimited GB, free domain for 1 year, free SSL, trial 1 Microsoft 365 Email for 1 month.
3. Choice Plus package: host multiple websites on the same server, the attached service is similar to the Plus package but with additional domain security, free auto backup for 1 year.
4. Pro plan: the same services as the Choice Plus plan and adds CodeGuard auto backup for long-term websites, free dedicated IP address, providing CPU with stronger and faster processing speed.

After choosing the hosting package, you will be navigated to “setup domain page”

• Select “Create a new domain” to create a new domain you buy directly from Bluehost (free for the 1st year).
• Select “Use a domain you own” if you already have a domain purchased from another provider and want to point it to Bluehost. 
• However, you can skip this step and do it later by selecting “I’ll create my domain later”

Step 2: Create An Account

After skipping the domain setup step, you will be navigated to “Create your account”. Fill in your personal information including: First name, last name, country, address, postal code, phone number and email.

Below, Check the package information and choose the add-on services you want to use.

• Package Information: Check again how long your package is.
• Codeguard Basic : This is free if you buy Choice Plus plan or Pro. CodeGuard allows you to backup your data every day.
• Bluehost SEO Tools: Copyright Tool from Bluehost supports SEO for your website.For beginners, I recommend the free version of Yoast SEO which is quite good.
• Single Domain SSL: your domain will be integrated with free basic SSL. However, if you need more security, you can purchase this SSL.
• SiteLock Security: Sitelock provides protection to your website from malicious attacks, spammers and hackers. It is an automatic monitoring tool that guards your site against landing on search engine blacklists, detects malware and protects you from costly downtime.

Next, fill in your Credit Card information => Tick the box to agree with the terms of Bluehost => Select “Submit “

Step 3: Pay And Login:

After making the payment, check you email inbox. Bluehost will send an email including your payment bill and account information such as: Username, host, name server, etc. and a link to change the password. 

Now log in the Bluehost dashboard as shown below.

On the menu bar on the left you can add a domain in the “My sites” section, you can buy a domain or point the domain from other providers through Bluehost in the “Domains” section.

If you haven’t bought Bluehost’s 1-year free domain yet, you can buy it in “domains‘ section. However, please note, Bluehost’s domain is free for the first year, in the second year when you renew, the cost may be more expensive than other domain providers. To purchase a cheap domain, check out Namecheap, and the detail guide here: how to buy a domain name at Namecheap.

The steps to buy a free domain are as follows:

• Select “Domains”
• Select ‘Purchase Domain‘
• Type in the domain name you want to buy => Select “Check”
• If the domain has not been purchased yet, it will show “Available” for everyone.
• People still put it in the shopping cart as usual, but the cost will be zero, so you don’t have to pay anything.

How To Connect WordPress In Bluehost

Step 1: My Sites => Create Site:

You select “My Sites” on Bluehost dashboard. In this My sites section you can connect your site to WordPress. Select “Create Site” in the upper right corner.

If you have already connected the site to WP, then you will see your website with the “Manage site” button (as shown above) => you select Manage Site and select Log in with WordPress which will lead you to the WP admin panel to Write articles and manage the website.

If you haven’t connected the site to WP, follow step 2 below.

Step 2: You Choose The First Column => Get Started

I will opt for the first column “WordPress”. The second column as I read the instructions, Bluehost will guide you step by step to complete the setup of your website in the admin panel. Since I work with the WP admin panel a lot, I don’t need to use this beta panel. I will select the first column as WordPress and click “get started”

Step 3: Enter Domain And Tagline Tag

You enter your website name and enter the Site Tagline. A tagline is a brief introduction of your website that can include your website’s main keyword. You can edit this tagline section later on the WordPress admin panel.

Step 4: Choose A Domain

You click on the Domain on the left and select the correct domain that you entered in step 3 above. You can leave the directory blank => then select “ Next ” at the bottom to perform the next step.

After installing step 4, the screen will display a message that WordPress has been installed. And yeah, you finally have your first blog.

You can select “Login to WordPress” to go directly to the WordPress admin panel to start your first blog.

If you have not installed it or do not want to install it yourself, you can ask Bluehost support team to install for you which will take only 2-3 minutes.

Bluehost Live Chat Guide

Step 1: Go to Bluehost. Click on the word “Chat” in the upper right corner,

Step 2: Enter your name, select support type (chat, email, phone). Enter your domain name => Select Next

Step 3: Select topic (your issue), choose description, and explain more detail. Just make it quick and short to enter the chat room, in the chat room you have to describe your issue again, so don’t waste to much time in this step.

Step 4: Select Find Help => then continue to select Start Chat

Step 5 : Once you enter the chat room, you only need to wait for 1 -3 second, there will be somebody join the room. You will be asked to share your domain or email. A token code will be sent to you email. Check you inbox and copy that token and paste in the chat box to verify your account. After that, you can describe you issue in detail to get the fastest support.

If you find the article useful, don’t forget to comment and share. Wish you a wonderful blogging journey! 

Namecheap is one of the major domain registrars in the world with over 3 million users. And there are several reasons why I use Namecheap for most of my websites and my clients’.

What Is Domain And Hosting?

To create a website you need 2 main elements: domain and hosting. Building a website is similar to building a house. You need the following factors:

• Home address – Domain : the digital address of your website.
• A land to build your house – Hosting: site hosting provides web owner a space on a web server to store all of its files.
• In addition, you’ve heard about Theme – it is likely the design your house. You can use free Theme from WP or buy a premium theme from ThemeForest, Astra, Divi, generatepress and Genesis Framework

When someone enters your domain name in a browser, the domain name is translated into the IP address (a combination of numbers separated with dots) of your web hosting.

Why I Buy Domain Name At Namecheap?

• Low pricing: The domain price from Namecheap is very affordable compared to many other domain registrars.
• On Sale: Namecheap often has discount campaigns, the domain price can be as low as $0.98/year with extensions like .club .website .fun .me or only $6.48/year with .com extension.
• High quality customer service. 24/7 customer care, you can directly chat live with the technical support team. I have to say that the Live Support of Namecheap and Bluehost are the best.
• Namecheap’s interface is user-friendly.
• Variety of plans ideal for scalability.
• Namecheap domain renewal is also lower than many other providers.
• You will get Lifetime Free domain security WhoisGuard. Domain security helps you hide personal information in the Whois database to secure your data, protect your personal information and avoid spam.

How To Buy A Domain Name At Namecheap

Step 1: Sign Up For An Account

Go to Namecheap’s website, select Sign Up on the top left corner to register if you don’t have an account yet.

After selecting Sign Up, there is a table pop up “ Create an account ” (as picture below).

You fill in all the required information: Username, Password, Confirm Password, First name, Last name. And enter your email address and then tick the box “ Yes ” if you want to receive their marketing newsletter => and “Create Account and Continue”

Step 2: Search For A Domain

After you have filled in your personal information and created an account, you are able to access to Namecheap’s dashboard (as picture below).

You type the domain you want to buy into the search bar. Namecheap will show you if the domain is available or not and its price.

When choosing a domain name, you can consider the following factors:

• Domain name: You want the domain name to include your own name (eg; petertravel.com), or a unique word (eg: yahoo.com, google.com), or include keywords in a specific niche (eg: traveljournal.com). Read tips to choose the best domain name.
• Domain cost: domain can be very cheap $5-$10 or very expensive, thousands of dollars or more. As a beginner, you should opt for the cheap domain name. Spend time on brainstorming domain names and use the search bar as below to check the price,
• Domain extension : the most popular extension is .com. Popular domain extensions will be a bit more expensive than extensions like .me, .club, .website. However, dot-com is always my preferable domain extension as it’s common, trustworthy and memorable.

” Add to Cart” button will be shown when the domain is available. If not, Namecheap will display ” Make Offer “. In case you still buy a domain that domain, Namecheap will contact the owner to negotiate.

Look at the suggested result below, there will be other versions of domain or similar domains are available for you to consider. For example, the domain traveljourney.com has been purchased, but other versions are still available such as traveljourney.blog, traveljourney.website, traveljourney.net.

Ok! After checking the cost of the domain, you proceed further by “Add to Cart” .

Step 3: Recheck The Information In Your Cart

Before checking out, review all the information in the cart:

• Domain registration: Check how long you want to buy (1 year / 2 years / 3 years…). You can turn on “AUTO-RENEW” button. Before the domain expires, Namecheap will email you to remind, but in case you forget to renew, you should turn on this AUTO button.
• ICANN fee (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers):this annual service fee will be automatically added in the total price. This fee is only 0.18 USD.
• Domain Privacy: Lifetime free domain name security. Make it ” ENABLE “.
• PremiumDSN : Advanced domain security for large businesses. PremiumDNS delivers 100% DNS uptime and DDoS protection with ultra-fast DNS responses worldwide. DNSSEC is also included with PremiumDNS. Recommended for business & important domains. This section is not necessary for bloggers.
• Improve your site : Namecheap will list attached services such as SSL, email, hosting, etc. Normally I will not choose any attached services here. For hosting, you can consider using Bluehost.

Step 4: Fill In Contact Information

After checking all the items above, you tick “Confirm Order ” and continue to fill in the contact information in your first time purchase at Namecheap.

• First name (first name), Last name
• Address/Zipcode
• City/Country
• Phone/ Email.

Step 5: Fill In Payment Information

After filling in the contact information, click “ Continue ” to access to payment page. You can pay by Visa, Master card or Paypal. If you pay by card, you need to fill in the following information:

• Name on Card
• Card: 16 numbers shown on the card (not the account number). And on the back, enter the expiration date on the card and 3 security digits.
• Card Billing Address

Under Receipt Details there is a Billing Address section – you can use the current address you entered above or add a new address.

Then tick Save the configuration above to my default payment settings –if you want to save these information as default for future payments. And click “Continue“.

The last step is connecting with you master card and pay.

Yay! Finally you have your very first blog.

I hope the article is useful for you who are looking for a reputable domain registrar. If you find the article useful, don’t forget to comment and share. Wish you a wonderful blogging journey! 

WordPress, being the most popular CMS, and most-used website builder in the world, has become the ideal choice for hacking, and other security-related threats. Hackers target WordPress websites daily and even succeed at times. In fact,

Hackers make 90,000 attacks per minute on WordPress websites.

Does this mean WordPress websites are unsafe in general?

No! Not at all. This case of WordPress websites being the primary target for hackers is mostly because of the users’ actions. Studies suggest that most users fail to update their WordPress plugins and some even fail to update WordPress as a whole. This leads to several security loopholes that are potential entry points for hackers.

So, even though hosting providers come up with basic security features, you need to ensure your WordPress website security. And you can easily do that by following the security measures and using the necessary plugins on your website. But before going into the ways to improve web security, let us have a brief look at why your website security is Important.

Why WordPress Website Security is Important

Well, there is the obvious reason for your website data getting stolen by hackers. Along with that, there are two more important reasons why you need to improve your WordPress website security right away.

• Prevent data from hackers

Pretty obvious, isn’t it? Your website has your data, and you need to make sure it doesn’t get into the wrong hands. In case you are a business owner who has a  website, not only your data is at risk, but also your customers’ data. They trust you with all their information, and it is vital to prevent it from getting stolen by a hacker.

• Avoid website blacklisting

With hackers constantly attempting breaches, your WordPress website security may get compromised, thus getting your website blacklisted. Blacklisted means that your website is marked as ‘not secure’ for visitors by the search engines. So, to not get blacklisted, you need to make the WordPress website secure.

Google quarantines around 10,000 suspicious websites every day and puts them on a “Google blacklist”.

• Gain Trust and Reputation

Your visitors lose trust in your business once your website gets hacked or has any security threats for that matter. This loss of trust gives you a bad reputation, and will eventually result in loss of sales and money. To avoid all that from happening, you need to ensure that your WordPress site security is intact.

So, let’s look at some of the easy (non-techy) ways by which you can improve your WordPress website security.

10 Ways to Improve WordPress Website Security

Strong password

One of the key entry points for hackers to your website is through passwords, weak passwords to be specific. Hackers use a technique called Brute force attack, where they keep on trying various combinations until they figure out the right password.

Source

For that not to happen, you need to ensure your WordPress website has a strong password. There are several ways by which you can create a strong password,

• Avoid anything that is personal information. Don’t make the mistake of using your date of birth or your name in the password.
• Also, avoid following a pattern, like a sequence of alphabets or numbers (1234, abcd), or even a memorable keyboard pattern.
• Use more than 15 characters, and also make sure you mix it up with uppercase, lowercase and numbers.

Source

Limit Login Attempts

Even the strongest of passwords are at risk when a hacker uses brute force attacks, so it is always recommended to limit the number of login attempts to your website. When the password is entered wrongly for a predefined number of times, the login functionality is restricted.

Along with login restrictions, you also have the option to block or permanently ban the IP address of the perpetrators. Limiting the login attempts comes by default with using a Web Application Firewall on your website.

However, if you are not using one, you can use the WordPress plugin WP Limit Login Attempts (more on that in the later section) which is specifically made for this purpose.

Choose the Right Host

Hosting providers play an important role when it comes to your WordPress website security. With factors like firewall, security monitoring, the latest versions of PHP and MySQL, choosing the right hosting provider will provide maximum WordPress website security.

Initially, it may sound good to opt for a plan with less cost, but it may not be effective in the long run. And obviously, the more premium the plan, the more security features it has. So, Instead of settling for the cheapest plan, you can opt for a higher-end plan that comes with ample security features by default.

While cost is one way of getting a premium and safe hosting provider, it’s not the only factor that decides the quality of a host. You also need to take into consideration the updates, backups and other such factors before choosing a hosting provider.

HTTPS – SSL Certificate

Ever saw the two variations, HTTP and HTTPS in a URL? That ‘S’ stands for Secure. When you get an SSL certificate, HTTP on your URL becomes HTTPS, meaning that the connection is secure. This is also indicated by a lock icon next to your website URL.

Source

SSL stands for Secure Sockets Layer, and it means that the data transferred from your visitors’ browser to your website is protected and secure. Usually, the data is transferred as plain text. But with SSL, the entire data is encrypted and thus hackers can’t easily process the sensitive information.

Moreover, search engines like Google are inclining towards giving higher rankings for SSL certified websites, compared to the ones that don’t. So, over time, SSL has not only become essential for security, but also for SEO and Search engine rankings.

So, it is high time you activate SSL for your website and make the entire connection secure. Check our video tutorial on how to get a Free SSL for your WordPress website.

Keep it Updated

One of the easiest and effective ways of protecting your WordPress website is by keeping the files updated. Generally, a software update includes patches to the security bugs on the product. So, it is recommended to always have the software updated to protect it from any sorts of vulnerabilities.

In the case of your WordPress website, it can be your WordPress plugin or even WordPress as a whole. WordPress, the open-source software rolls out regular updates that come up with various features including security patches. Failing to do such updates may result in WordPress website security loopholes.

From the 40,000+ WordPress Websites in Alexa Top 1 Million websites, 73% of them still use the vulnerable version of WordPress 3.6.

So, it is advisable to always keep WordPress updated to its latest versions, along with the latest updates on the plugins on your website.

Regular Scans & Tests

Hosting providers by default provide free security scans either daily or weekly for your WordPress website security. Apart from that, you can also make use of WordPress security plugins in the directory for the regular scanning and monitoring of your website.

Source

You can make use of plugins like Wordfence security to run penetration tests on your website. Penetration test ensures that there are no vulnerabilities by letting you see your website from an attacker’s perspective.

These tools can also scan your website for any malicious software and ensure there are no security breaches. You can also make use of an external malware scanner, where you need to enter your website URL and the crawlers go through your website checking for viruses.

Use a Web Application Firewall (WAF)

One of the easiest and hassle-free ways to secure your website is by using a Web Application Firewall (WAF). A web application firewall protects your website by monitoring your website traffic and eliminating the malicious ones before entering your website.

Basically,  there are two types of website firewalls,

• DNS Level Firewall

In the DNS level firewall, your website traffic is redirected to a separate network for monitoring. Once the malicious traffic is eliminated, only the safe traffic reaches your server.

• Application Level Firewall

In the Application-level firewall, the entire traffic reaches your server where the monitoring is done. Before loading the website, the malicious ones are discarded. This may not be as efficient as a DNS level firewall as the entire process takes place on your server, thus increasing the load on it.

Be it DNS level or Application level, a Web Application Firewall is necessary to monitor the incoming traffic, and you can choose one from the WordPress security plugins.

Log out Idle Users

It is quite usual for logged in users to take a quick break, thus leaving their screens idle. This way of leaving the logged in screens idle may become a potential threat to your WordPress website security. There are chances for anyone to access and even modify your website’s sensitive information.

You can avoid this by making the website log out automatically when the screen becomes idle. It is a quite common practice in financial websites, and will definitely help to secure your WordPress website too.

You can achieve this by making use of the Inactive Logout plugin, made specifically for this purpose. With this plugin, you can set the idle timeout duration, and even have a countdown before logging out of the website.

Move the wp-config.php file

Wp-config.php is one of the core WordPress files that contain sensitive information including your database username, password. So, you certainly don’t want the hackers to access the file. You can prevent that by moving the wp-config.php file to a higher directory than the usual root directory.

To access the file, you need to connect via FTP, which allows you to access the website’s files on the server. You can see the list of folders that contain your website’s files. Here, you can find the wp-config.php file in the root folder.

Now, all you need to do is move the file to a higher level directory than the root directory. This way, it’s not possible for anyone to easily access the file.

Disable File Editing

WordPress has this amazing code editor that an admin can access right within the WordPress dashboard. This editor is capable of making changes to all the files including WordPress themes and plugins. Though it is a useful feature, it may end up bad for you, when it gets to the wrong hands.

So, it is recommended you disable the file editing feature in your WordPress dashboard. By disabling the edit access, none will be able to modify the code, even if someone breaches your admin area. And it is quite easy to disable the editing access, you can do that by adding this line to the wp-config.php file,

define(‘DISALLOW_FILE_EDIT’, true);

As the command says, this disables anyone from editing the files from the WordPress dashboard.

Best Security Plugins for your WordPress Website

Anything and everything on WordPress can be achieved using the plugins. That includes security too! WordPress security plugins include both, feature-specific plugins like Limit Login Attempts, and general security plugins like Wordfence Security.

Of the several security plugins available in the directory, here are the four best WordPress security plugins we believe will level up your WordPress website security. These plugins will help you with every single way we have mentioned on improving your WordPress website security.

Wordfence Security

Wordfence Security is one of the best WordPress security plugins in the WordPress directory, and that’s for a reason! Wordfence security protects your WordPress website by regularly monitoring for malware, brute force or any type of security attacks.

Wordfence Security also has a built-in Web Application Firewall (WAF) that works on the application level, meaning it monitors your website traffic once it reaches the server, and then discards the malicious ones of the lot.

Sucuri Security

Sucuri Security is yet another leading WordPress security plugin in the market. Sucuri security is suitable for all sorts of security features, starting from a basic malware scan to having a Web application firewall.

With a DNS level firewall, all your website traffic goes through their network before entering your server, thus filtering out the malicious traffic from entering your website. By monitoring for malicious traffic on a separate server, Sucuri security decreases the load on your server.

Though both of the WordPress security plugins, Wordfence Security and Sucuri security offer the essential security features, the major difference between them is the type of firewall. While Wordfence uses an Application-level firewall, Sucuri uses a DNS level firewall.

WP Limit Login Attempts    

WP Limit Login Attempts is the right plugin for hackers who employ the brute force method of trying multiple password combinations. This plugin limits the number of times for the user to get the password correct.

So, if an attacker tries a brute force method of hacking, and exceeds the number of specified times, he/she will be restricted from login activity, and you even have the option to permanently ban the hacker’s IP address.

Google Authenticator – WordPress Two factor authentication

While logging in, two-factor authentication is another important aspect. Additional to the Email and password provided, two-factor authentication creates an additional layer of security to your WordPress website.

The authentication methods can be as simple as One Time Password (OTP) where, without the password you receive on your mobile or Email, one can’t access your WordPress website. Authentication can also be done by scanning a QR code or by answering a security question during the login activity.

Website Backup

Even though there are several ways you can protect your WordPress website, there may be some unfortunate events at times. It is always recommended to be prepared, and be a step ahead of the hackers. So, you should always have a backup of your entire WordPress website.

This way, you need not worry about losing the data to hackers. Even in case of data loss, you can easily retrieve everything from the backup you have created.

It is advisable to backup your data either daily or weekly, whichever works for your WordPress website. And what better way to backup your website than use the best backup plugin, UpdraftPlus.

UpdraftPlus

UpdraftPlus is the most popular and widely used backup plugin for WordPress websites. With more than 3 million WordPress websites using Updraft, it is the ideal WordPress plugin to restore your website content in case of any unfortunate events.

UpdraftPlus plugin downloads all your website’s files and thus creates a backup of your entire website. It goes on to store the backup either in one of the local storages, or cloud storage like Google Drive and Dropbox. UpdraftPlus plugin has both a free and a paid version as well, with added features like Database encryption.

Conclusion:

With the advent of technology and everything becoming online, data has become precious and more valuable now than ever. So, securing your website data online has become as important as protecting data in the physical world.

WordPress, being the most popular website builder, is the obvious choice for hackers and cybercriminals out there. What we have discussed here are some of the easy ways to protect your WordPress website. Over time, you can also employ more security mechanisms like relocating and securing specific core WordPress files.

Though WordPress in itself is secure and is monitored regularly by the hundreds of its developers, you can do your part by following these security measures and installing the necessary plugins. So, be it casual blogging, or an expanding online store, you can work on your website without worrying about security.

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