netpyxAdmin, Author at Netpyx

The Crucial Role of Regular WordPress and Plugin Updates

Posted on August 18, 2023August 21, 2023 by netpyxAdmin

Introduction

In today’s digital landscape, having a dynamic and secure website is paramount for businesses and individuals alike. WordPress, a popular content management system (CMS), is favoured by millions for its versatility, ease of use, and extensive plugin ecosystem. However, maintaining the security and functionality of your WordPress website requires consistent updates, both for the core software and its plugins. In this article, we delve into the reasons why updating your WordPress version and plugins regularly is of utmost importance.

1. Enhanced Security: One of the most compelling reasons to keep your WordPress version and plugins up to date is to ensure the security of your website. Hackers and malicious actors are constantly seeking vulnerabilities in outdated software. By updating regularly, you can patch security vulnerabilities and protect your website from potential breaches. WordPress developers continually identify and address security concerns, releasing updates to fortify your website’s defenses.

2. Bug Fixes and Improvements: Software, no matter how well-designed, can have bugs or glitches. WordPress and plugin developers actively work to identify and rectify these issues with each new release. Regular updates provide you with bug fixes, performance enhancements, and overall improvements to the user experience. Ignoring updates may lead to frustrating technical problems and hinder the optimal functioning of your website.

3. Compatibility with New Features: WordPress is an evolving platform that introduces new features and functionalities with each version release. Plugins, too, are updated to integrate with the latest WordPress features. By keeping your WordPress version and plugins current, you can take advantage of these new capabilities, ensuring your website remains competitive and relevant.

4. Optimized Speed and Performance: Slow-loading websites can drive away visitors and negatively impact your search engine rankings. Regular updates often include performance optimizations that can significantly improve your website’s speed and responsiveness. Faster loading times contribute to a better user experience, keeping visitors engaged and encouraging them to explore your content further.

5. Search Engine Ranking Boost: Search engines, like Google, prioritize websites that provide a secure and user-friendly experience. By consistently updating your WordPress version and plugins, you enhance your website’s chances of ranking higher in search engine results pages (SERPs). Improved security and performance directly contribute to a better search engine ranking.

6. Avoiding Plugin Incompatibility :As the WordPress ecosystem evolves, plugins can become incompatible with older versions of the CMS. Using outdated plugins can lead to errors, crashes, or even a complete website breakdown. Regular updates ensure that your plugins remain compatible with the latest version of WordPress, preventing any compatibility issues.

7. Minimizing Downtime and Disruptions : Delaying updates can lead to a situation where multiple updates need to be applied at once. This increases the risk of unexpected errors or disruptions that can cause downtime. By updating regularly, you distribute changes incrementally, reducing the chances of prolonged periods of inaccessibility.

Conclusion

Updating your WordPress version and plugins might seem like a minor task, but its implications are far-reaching. The importance of security, enhanced performance, compatibility, and user experience cannot be overstated. By embracing regular updates, you ensure your website remains a resilient, engaging, and secure platform that effectively serves both your business goals and the expectations of your visitors. Neglecting updates might save time momentarily, but the long-term consequences can be detrimental. Stay current, stay secure, and stay ahead in the ever-evolving digital landscape.

4 Reasons to Remodel Your Website

Posted on July 12, 2015 by netpyxAdmin

Redesigning a website is always a complex and time taking task but if you read the points below you will understand it is never a waste of time to remodel your website and update it as per the latest design and technology. This is not only an intelligent investment which you will be making but also a big bold step in your marketing strategy with your best marketing tool.

Here are implausible reasons to remodel website design

Your website looks outdated : Website is a major marketing tool which helps in engaging users by various methods and information present on the website. Your website has all the information which your potential consumer is seeking but it is not rightly placed and is not easily accessible then users are tend to move to another option. As per the various researches it takes few seconds for a user to get engaged with the website and the main reason for user interaction is if he see the thing he is looking for easily, otherwise they tend to move to other sites which provide theme better information. Your website is the face of your business online and it is important to keep it updated with new and fresh content and better placements.

To incorporate Social Media : When you had got your website designed, the facebook and twitter were still small and pintrest and instagram was not born and that is why they are not there on your website. But now more and more users are associating with companies through these social media sites and it is important to incorporate them in your new and updated website.

To instill new functionality : With time you may have added few more options in your business but they are still not updated on your website. By remodeling your website you will be able to incorporate new features in your website which will help you in earning more revenues from the remodeled website.

To boost usability : Compose an SEO related site so that your client reaches upto you. Gratify your customer and compose your website in a user-friendly manner. Planning precise and perfect and think of ways to redesign the site and turn it appealing.

Website redesigning is a tricky task but if wisely done may result in the high productivity of your business. Constant enhancements are imperative, henceforth involve a professional for the same if required because he will know exactly how to go about things. Those experts are affordable so don’t hesitate to reach up to them and redesign your website as it is the most effective marketing tool.

Make it easy for the searchers to spot you. Get a Free quote from the Best Web Development company.

7 Common Mistakes on Local Websites and How to Avoid Them

Posted on February 4, 2015 by netpyxAdmin

Avoid tiny mistakes and make your SEO strategies a big hit!

Having a good website for your business is like a must have as it helps in spreading the word about your products and services. As everyone is now turning to the Internet, a sophisticated looking website has become a necessity even for a small business. But what about those mistakes on local websites that may hamper your SEO plans or promotional strategies?

Well! The best strategies won’t work if the basic foundation of your website is not up-to-the-mark. So, I have compiled a list of 7 common mistakes most business people make with their website and hopefully this will help you sort out a few issues. Lets have a look at the list:-

1. Over Keyword Concentrations – To attract a larger audience, over stuffing the main keywords is not at all good for your website. You can combine some product-specific keywords with main keywords, but you shouldn’t make repetitions. Over stuffing may make your web page an obvious SEO content, which will prevent search engines from counting your landing pages for high rankings.

2. Focusing Just on Your Brand – Many business owners feel like concentrating more on their brand will make them acquire a better position in the World Wide Web. If you too think that way, just give a thought that your competitors are also selling the similar product or service. Give more emphasize to what differentiate you from others and this will help you offer more than just a brand.

3. Focusing Just on Your Product – You have a website and selling some products or services, and your competitors are also doing the same thing. Concentrating just on your product is another common mistake that may narrow your website’s reach. It’s better to talk about your business, your vision, your mission and what sets you apart. This way you can have an edge over your competitors and your website will be more SEO friendly.

4. Underestimating Local Search Ranking Factors – As the complexity of search search results has increased, following the same traditional SEO path may not let you enjoy all the benefits of your website. It is important to set your local optimization elements appropriately and having a good knowledge of overall ranking factors.

5. Not Making a Mobile Friendly Site – Whether you are a small business owner or run an entire chain, it is important to give a better thought to your website. Today, the convenience of smartphones is leading to rise in the mobile phone usage and most people prefer using their phones for an online search. As discussed on a site, having a not mobile friendly site means that you may loose your potential customers. Creating a site that adjusts itself according to the size of the smartphone or tablet could be a perfect solution.

6. Not Measuring Statistics – It is not necessary that web users always use the same keywords or key phrases to search a particular product. So it is crucial to check your statistics and make required changes. Have a close look at clickthroughs for your PPC ads and measure how long your users are staying on each landing page. A well-designed SEO campaign will help you watch statistics, create high-quality content and choose the appropriate keywords.

7. Not Having Unique Meta Tags and Descriptions – Having just your company name as the title for every page could lead to low search rankings. Make sure that the meta tags and meta descriptions are unique and descriptive. The web pages could focus on more specific keywords like your product and services that are popular queries. Meta description should be relevant and should include significant keywords.

Give your business a boost by avoiding the above mentioned common mistakes…

Image Source:

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Intel Unveils Hybrid Xeon-FPGA Chip for Betterment of Cloud Services

Posted on January 13, 2015 by netpyxAdmin

Intel announced one of the biggest ever changes to its chip lineup, it develops a new Xeon CPU with an integrated FPGA. It is a move to address the needs of cloud service providers and offer better performance to the users.

The giant said its next-gen Xeon chip deliver up to 80% more performance and will fir in the standard E5 LGA2011 socket. The integrated FPGA will allow each chip to be customized to specific workloads. The move is to make a better all-round platform for a huge variety of workloads in enterprise. The company is expanding on its promise of customizable solutions, by combining its Xeon processor with a customizable logic block and that too inside a single-chip package.

Let’s discuss a little about FPGA…

FPGA is a blank chip that can be again and again reprogrammed after manufacturing and its stands for Field-programmable Gate Arrays. In simple words you can take an FPGA to program it to perform one set of function, and then reprogram it to handle different or another type of workload. With some exemptions, every chip inside a computer is hard-coded to perform just one set of functions. Your CPU can only perform exactly what AMD or Intel designed it to do.

As far as the benefits of FPGA are concerned, the main advantage is that its customizable and has monstrously high performance. Over the last few years, more and more processing has moved to the cloud and Intel’s server market dominance has also been attacked on a few fronts. As far as Xeon chips are concerned, they are fast, efficient and all-round chips.

To address more specific workloads, Intel has paired its Xeon CPU with an FPGA. According to Intel, it has delivered around 15 custom products to big customers like Ebay and Facebook and will do over 30 custom designs this year. The aim is to provide a high performance, programmable capability to perform critical algorithms.

There’s no word on availability or pricing, but it’s quite clear that it’s not going to be cheap.

Yahoo Attempting to Replace Google for Search Dominance

Posted on November 20, 2014 by netpyxAdmin

Yahoo and Mozilla just announced a partnership where Yahoo will succeed Google’s search engine on Firefox’s web browser in the United States.

Yahoo Inc hit a deal with Mozilla Corp, the maker of Firefox, to replace Google as the default search engine on the Firefox Web Browser in the US. According to Yahoo, the move aims to boost its flagging search market share. Starting in December, Firefox will use Yahoo as its default search engine in the US on desktop and mobile. The partnership is set to last five years and based on a revenue sharing agreement and includes some ‘guarantees’.

The new search experience is going to feature “a modern, clean and immersive design that reflects the hard work from the Mozilla team. No financial terms has been disclosed and it is not clear how the deal will affect the existing arrangement of Yahoo with Microsoft Corp. Microsoft’s Bing search engine currently powered Yahoo’s web search capabilities. The partnership will generate a ‘share gain’ for Yahoo, as disclosed by chief executive Marissa Mayer.

Mayer said, “It is one of largest independently-directed search share opportunities available in the market.” It means that users of the Firefox browser in the United States will automatically be routed to search results on Yahoo’s website at the time they type a query. The Mozilla Foundation has long made most of its revenue through its search partnership with Google. That contract is going with Google is going to expire this year. Looks like Yahoo made an interesting offer that Mozilla couldn’t trash or perhaps Google decided to walk away from the deal.

Yahoo said it has refurbished the look of its search engine, making more use of photos and graphics, for the new partnership. The Web search results will go on to be powered by Microsoft. This partnership will definitely give Yahoo and Microsoft a stronger online presence. While Firefox usage has declined over the last few years, the platform still accounts for at least 15% of the United States browser market.

We’ll have to wait to watch whether this partnership will be a boon for Firefox users or not.

Have something to add to the story? Feel free to give your opinion…

Mozilla Coming up With Firefox Developer Edition

Posted on November 11, 2014 by netpyxAdmin

The Firefox team is all set to bring together all the essential tools at one place for developers to keep them productive across a multi-platform environment.

Developers are valuable to the continued success of the web as they are people behind the apps and content we regularly find on the World Wide Web. They provide us with everything on a computer or mobile phone that we need to make our lives simple. Be it information, products or services, they make everything available to us.

But what about them? Who’s going to take care of them? To provide them necessary tools, Mozilla released ‘Firefox Developer Edition’. It’s a web browser with an IDE (Integrated Development Environment) in built. In simple words, Firefox again became compatible in the web development business.

The new version is intended to help developers as well as users control their privacy online. The main feature of the version is a ‘forget’ button on the tool-bar that can instantaneously wipe the last five minutes, cookies, tabs and two to one day browsing history. It also launched the Polaris Privacy Initiative to develop technology to complement browser privacy.

What’s in the new developer edition? The first thing is the dark default theme which keeps the fullness of the Firefox user interface nice and snug. There’s more space on screen to view and tweak your projects. The attention to the detail is really appreciable, even if it’s minimalist. The latest edition has the ‘Firefox Tools Adapter’ right in.

The new feature ‘Valence’ allow users to test their websites using different rendering engines. It will work with both desktop-class and mobile browsers. This tool is going to help users in a way that they can even test their code against Chrome on Android and Safari on iOS. Other big addition is ‘WebIDE’ and this suite of tools helps people create, test and launch web apps right from their browser.

From the company’s point of view, it’s just a small step forward and the team really believes that the project is going to kill many difficulties of developers. Experienced developers can focus more on developing their content and apps as soon as they open the browser.

Have something to add to the story? Do share your opinion….

Microsoft Officially Stopped Retail Sales of Windows 7

Posted on November 4, 2014 by netpyxAdmin

Its the farewell of Window 7 as Microsoft ends retail sales of the consumer versions of its Home Basic, Premium and Ultimate to computer manufacturers.

As of late last week, Microsoft put an end over selling retail copies of some versions of Windows 7 and 8. The move is to help and encourage people on to more recent versions of the operating system. Once the supply runs out, people won’t be able to get a new computer with that old software installed.

If you are into business, you need not to worry as Windows 7 professional was spared at least till next year. The changes are primarily going to affect PC manufacturers as the tech giant already stopped selling Windows 7 software package to the general public in 2013, but now even Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) cannot license it.

There will be retail box sales of Windows 8.1 while consumers and businesses will still be able to buy Windows 7 Professional licenses. However, it will be available at an extra cost and have limited availability. It is unclear how many PCs with old version are still in stock but it might take some time to see its brush off.

The Windows 8 version was largely a failure for the tech giant as it was given a very cold response by businesses and regular customers. The absence of the Start Menu was one of the big complaints by users. Mainstream support for Windows 7 will end in January 2015 and the retail sales of Windows 8 on Friday.

The next big upgrade will be Windows 10 for its Windows Operating System and it is expected to launch in late 2015. A preview version of the software was available to download and was checked by 1 million users in the first two weeks.

The recent shift will take some time as many PC makers have large stocks of older versions and will continue to sell PCs running the software. However, market analysis reveals a sharp decline in the number of people using the Windows XP operating system.

The tech giant believes that it can bridge the gap for people to migrate to mobile devices running Microsoft software.

Looks like the tech giant is clearing the path for the launch of Windows 10….

Microsoft to Come with Apple-like Trackpad Gestures for Windows 10

Posted on October 29, 2014 by netpyxAdmin

Microsoft is making the next version of Windows better for users by introducing new trackpad gestures. The tech giant has just announced that trackpad gestures are getting a makeover in coming Windows 10.

It is a good news for Windows laptop users that more advanced gestures are now making their way into the popular operating system. Microsoft is borrowing new features from Apple, but that doesn’t mean they’ll be same. This is of course a big jump and worth investing in the improvement of such a popular operating system.

Microsoft corporate VP Joe Belfiore said in a speech at the TechEd Europe conference on Tuesday, “In the past, touchpads on Windows have really been done very differently because OEMs do them. With Windows 10 operating system we’re adding support for power users in a touchpad, where multiple finger gestures, which all of your power users learn, can make you really efficient.”

A number of useful gestures have been added like a three-finger swipe downward brings you to your desktop. A three-finger horizontal swipe and three-finger swipe up displays multi desktop ‘task view’ lets you quickly switch between different applications. Both Microsoft and Apple have borrowed desktop features from each other as the companies don’t hesitate making great ideas its own.

Microsoft is also working on window snapping on multiple monitors, something users have been calling for. The feature drifts apps in the center of the monitor split, and then steadily drags them in the direction of the transparent snap window that appears. The tech giant is planning to bring more advanced and useful features to an upcoming Windows 10 Technical Preview build.

It looks like the company is focusing on smoothing out the power user experience by bringing new features to the upcoming operating system.

If you have something to add to the story, do share your opinion.

Google Updated Webmaster Guidelines: Know What Can Harm Your Rankings

Posted on October 28, 2014 by netpyxAdmin

Google have updated Webmaster guidelines and following them will help Google find, index and rank your website. It is specifically pointed that blocking JavaScript and CSS files may have a negative impact on your indexing and search rankings in Google.

Google strongly stimulate people to pay very close attention to the updated Webmaster guidelines. The tech giant has updated its indexing system which will function more like a modern browser. It gave precise advice on allowing Googlebot to access the CSS, JavaScript and image files that a website uses. According to the giant, disallowing crawling of JavaScript or CSS files in your website’s robots.txt have a negative impact on your search rankings.

The technical Webmaster guidelines specifies that low quality guest blogging may be considered no or little original content by Google. The tech giant has restricted some guest blog networks in order to make their search results more accurate. Some webmasters attempts to attract more visitors to their site by creating pages with too many words but no authentic content. Google will penalize such domains that try to rank highly by displaying scraped pages that don’t add required value to users.

Design & Content Guidelines

The design and content guidelines emphasize to make a website with a clear hierarchy and text links where every page should be accessible from at least one static text link. A website should include a site map and if it has a very large number of links, breaking it into multiple pages can be a good idea. Create a well-designed, useful and information-rich website that clearly and accurately describes your product.

Try to use more text instead of images to describe important content, names, or links. This is because the Google crawler does not recognize text contained in images. Your title elements and ALT attributes should be accurate and descriptive.

Technical Guidelines

If you want your website to be on the top of search results, allow all of its assents, like CSS and JavaScript files, to be crawled. Your web server should support the If-Modified-Since HTTP header as it allows your server to tell Google if the content has changed since your site was last crawled. Supporting this features also saves you overhead and bandwidth.

Using the robots.txt file on your web server tells crawlers which directories can be crawled and which cannot be. The advertisements on your site should not affect search engine rankings. The pages and links created by content management system should be easy to crawl. It is important to test your website to make sure that it appears accurately in different browsers.

Monitor the performance of your site and optimize load times. Fast websites are more liked and visited by users and improve the quality of the web. The tech giant strongly recommends you to monitor site performance using different tools on a regular basis.

The quality guidelines are all about deceptive and manipulative behavior. It specifies that make your site keeping users in mind, not the search engines. Do not trick search engine to improve the ranking if your site.

The rule of thumb is make your website valuable, unique and more engaging. If your site stands out from others in the same field, half the work is done.