Drupal 8: What Is the New for Us?
Many long years had passed away before we got Drupal 8. But now it is an amazingly powerful technology for everyone who trusts Drupal development. It was improved, got the necessary functionality in core, and became the future of website development.
Learn the greatest changes in our guest post on Ekipa’s blog.
Visual Composer for WordPress: Yes or No?
You are looking at this colorful picture and think that Visual Composer is something easy-going, powerful, and just great. It is one of the best WordPress page builders. Now we are going to make an excursion around this tool and try to decide, whether it’s as good as it seems.
What Is a Page Builder?
Let’s start from scratch. Page builders are the plugins, which help to build web pages using drag-and-drop interface. It means that if you don’t have any coding skills, this is not a problem. With its help, you can create beautiful and user-friendly web pages without any programming knowledge. Just open your editor and build the website like a puzzle:). You see any change you make and can add new elements and blocks by selecting them in special spreadsheets and dragging them into the right places.
Visual Composer: Pros and Cons
Visual Composer is a great tool for WordPress, which helps people to use WordPress completely and create amazing websites according to their wishes and requirements. It has a lot of advantages and features. But also, like any other page builder, it limits your opportunities.So there are enough words, let’s go into details.
Pros of WordPress Visual Composer
Simplicity. It simplifies the life and process of page building for inexperienced users, and people without coding skills. It’s intuitive and well-understandable. Everything there is created to save your time and build the page without great efforts. Also, you can use the way you like: backend or frontend editor.
Flexibility and extensibility. It has many great features and allows you to integrate your plugin with any WordPress theme. It’s compatible with WooCommarce, Yoast, and Translate, and extendable with API.
Many amazing layouts and elements. Yes, if you are not a designer, but have some wishes and inspiration, you can create a really wonderful look of your website, and the choice of elements is large.
Responsive design. Here is the great news: if your theme is responsive, the pages built with Visual Composer will be responsive too.
Independence of the theme. If you create some pages using the specific theme, you are able to switch this theme, but all components of your page will be saved.
History saving. Another good ability of Visual Composer is that it saves the history. And if you even remove this module, it will save all your applied changes.
Google fonts compatibility. Google creates the Internet fashion and style. It’s true. Google fonts are in trend and are most used on the modern websites. So this is a great feature for everyone who wants to be up to date.
Cons of WordPress Visual Composer
A limit of opportunities. You can create wonderful layouts and user-friendly web pages. They will be responsive and include most of the necessary components, but you will be still limited. If you would like to get something custom, something that will be unique and has specific widgets, integrations, and functionality, page builder is not enough.
Don’t expect pixel-perfect design. It means that sometimes, while creating your beautiful web page, you’ll face one, not a pleasant moment – too much white space between the page elements.
Slow page loading. Why? – it’s all because the shortcodes that are used in the page builders. Such codes are usually buggy and dirty, so they slow down your website and create complexity for the web developers when they should change something on your web pages.
Sometimes it’s unpredictable. For example, when you need to save changes. Yes, it saves history, but when it comes to the design, sometimes the changes could be lost after reinstallation.
Only three services and types of prices. Exactly. You can set up only 3 services that you provide and 3 price packages, not more.
A lack of functionalities. You won’t be able to create responsive tables there, integrate your website with CRM, Google calendar or Outlook. So, if you need such things, a page builder is not the best solution.
It doesn’t come for free. You can buy Visual Composer regular license for $34 and extendable license for $170.
Conclusion
As we can see, Visual Composer for WordPress is a great tool for everyone who wants to build pages by himself, using frontend or backend editor, and do it quickly. And our Web4Pro team has already developed a project based on WordPress with a use of Visual Composer: EquityX. The cons are that it still has limits, as any page builder. If you want to create something custom and unique, you should hire a web developer and designer, who will make a really amazing web solution on a professional level. And it will have a clean code. This gives a point to custom WordPress development. But, it’s up to you. In any case, you can make something that meets your goals.
Wish you a great mood and inspiration for wonderful web pages!
Ubercart vs Drupal Commerce
Hi, guys! If you are interested in Drupal and eCommerce, this post can be helpful for you. Today we are going to talk about two powerful Drupal tools, which allow building complex and simple online shops. And, of course, we’ll compare them.
Meet: in the right corner of the ring is our well-known Ubercart, and in the left corner is the revolutionary Drupal Commerce. Let’s start!
Easiness in Use
Ubercart
It is a stable and well-tried solution with almost 47,000 installations. Ubercart is a free open source shopping cart, which is easy to install, easy to manage, and easy to use. It becomes more and more user-friendly over the years. That’s why, if you are acquainted with Drupal, you’ll have no problems with operating it.
Drupal Commerce
Well, Drupal Commerce is more complex and has a very high level of customization. It is a framework, which allows creating online stores of any difficulty, so the number of almost 68,000 installations speaks for itself. It has more features than Ubercart and is a bit more difficult for understanding. But these facts are just nothings compared to its advantages.
Functionalities
Both of these solutions have powerful functionality. The difference is in contributed modules, and also the size of your eCommerce project.
Ubercart
In Ubercart, the default configuration settings are ready to run. You’ll need just to make some simple adjustments. The customer accounts are created via their emails, and this option is included into functionality. XML export/import plays well and helps everyone transfer the product information from the old Ubercart version to a new one. Also, it has a useful Activity Loggin feature for finding an order status at any point of purchasing.
Drupal Commerce
This high-level solution is much more complicated and has more advanced features. This framework allows customizing the website according to any required design and structure. The documentation of Commerce is related to Drupal API, and it’s a complete package. Cart and checkout processes are stable and well-thought-out. Also, it allows adding such useful options, as tax calculation, discounts, promo code implementation and more other.
Product Management
And here we come to the most interesting part. One of the main things of any eCommerce website is product management. In this matter, the two solutions are completely different.
Ubercart
It stores each product with all its attributes and options as a content node. This way is perfect for simple products with no variations, like books. So, if you deal with multi-sized and multi-colored products (different clothes sizes and colors modifications), all these data will be stored in one node, like one product. It works great for the small stores, where the products have up to three variations (1-3 different sizes and colors).
Drupal Commerce
As for Drupal Commerce, here the situation is quite different. It stores each variation as its own entry and SKU. This tool is extremely flexible and powerful when it comes to managing products with multiple variations. It is similar to the real-life product management. The products or the set of products are displayed via relationship field. Each size, color, or model is a separate node. This fact helps to keep shipping and payments on a high level.
Shipping and Payment
Ubercart
It has built-in payment and shipping modules. And the user can choose necessary modules or a full package. This process is easy to launch and manage. It works pretty well with not large online stores without the huge number of product variations.
Drupal Commerce
It does not include any payment gateways and shipping modules. You’ll need to install some necessary of them to carry out these operations. But when it’s done, everything will run like clockwork, no matter what size of project you have.
For Whom
Finally, we are on the step of making up our mind. Which of these tools to choose? As said before, it depends on your goals and the size of the Ecommerce store.
Ubercart
Say, it suits simple online shops, where the products have only one or several modifications. If you don’t want to go deep into product management, try Ubercart.
Drupal Commerce
If you are good at Drupal, highly customized Commerce will impress you with its advanced functionalities. It’s great for large and complicated online stores, where the product attributes and modifications are critical. With its help, you’ll have no problems with shipping and billing process. Like a powerful framework, it’ll allow you to build the robust online shop with the particular design, structure, and all needed features.
The Final Choice for Drupal 8
So what about Drupal 8? – The question is still open and has the following solutions:
Ubercart – Alpha2 Release
Ubercart has some improvements in “Shipping” and “Payments” options and compatible with Drupal 8.
Drupal Commerce 2 – Alpha3 Realise
Ubercart is also not production ready. That’s why there are no upgrade methods between the Alphas, and the full reinstallation is required. It’s simplified site management process and is more user-friendly (blog).
As we can see, both of technologies have their pros and cons. If talk about Ubercart, definitely, it stays in hearts of Drupal users who decided to explore eCommerce. Drupal Commerce is much more advanced, highly-customized, and flexible. It is a leader of choice for most website owners who build their eCommerce websites on Drupal. What to choose? – It’s up to you. The great thing is that we always have a choice. And we are here to help you create a great Ecommerce website based on Drupal.
Wish you to make friends with both tools and use them wisely.
If something will go wrong and make irritated, WEB4PRO team is always here to help:)
Make Friends with Google for Perfect SEO
Hi, everybody! Today’s hot topic is SEO, and we continue on. Now we are going to talk about the most useful Google tools that will help us to be in trend and make our websites optimized. Let’s make friends with Google and bring our SEO to the highest level. Let’s Google it!
Set It: Google Search Console
The discovery of Search Console advantages is one of the first things you need to do. Google Search Console is a web tool, which helps the website owners to maintain and observe their websites. It allows you to monitor your website performance and understand how Google Search and users see it.
Here is how it works
You should log in Google Search Console and enter the domain name in the specific field. Then you can discover if Google has your website in the index. There are millions of websites all over the world. That’s why sometimes Google is late in indexation of several pages, or you can have some issues, which don’t meet its requirements. In this case, your web pages can be out of the index. But you can make the query manually. It’s like asking Google to look through your website.
How to learn if your website is in index
Enter the command site: your domain name into the search field and look, if there are some search results. If you see nothing, you have some problems with the indexation and need to solve them manually.
Also, Google Search Console helps to avoid doubles of pages, find the issues on your website, and work with your content by fixing some misunderstandings. To know more about this useful tool, you can read Google’s guidelines here.
Promote It: Google AdWords & AdSense
Google AdWords
If you are going to promote your website using context advertisement, this tool is necessary for you. We can pick the keywords with its help, set our advertising campaign, and monitor progress.
Here is how it works
AdWords has many features inside, such as Keyword Planner, where we can make our keyword research, Display Planner, which helps to get some new ideas and expectations of the most favorable places for business targeting.
How advertisements work
First of all, you create the advertisement with your chosen keywords. It can include the call to action and contact information with a link to your landing page. It should have a powerful title.
Then you set the bid (the pay-per-click). Google places advertisements in order according to the results of the auction. The advertisement with the best relevancy or bid wins the highest position in search results. Ads are those search results, which you see first on the search results page. They have the yellow-colored mark.
Google AdSense
Google AdSense is another tool that allows us to create media advertising. It’s when your ads are shown in different places of the websites related to your topic. These ads can contain images, video, audio, and text. The difference between the context ads and media is that in the first case the ads are shown in Google organic search results, and in the second case they are shown on the websites according to your settings of targeting.
Here is how it works
Using Google AdSense, you can create incredible ads with any type of content. To create your advertisement, work with targeting (choose the criteria of websites for the displaying), and then set a bid. For example, you want to show the ads of the coffee machine on the websites about coffee. So, the users of such websites will see your ads in the chosen place (top, bottom, left, or right).
Analyze It: Google Analytics
Google Analytics is our lawyer, prosecutor, and the judge. It allows everyone to measure results of marketing campaigns, discover a number of website visitors, and learn the information about them. You can even learn the behavior of users on your website, and the main sources of traffic.
Also, Google Analytics includes the opportunities for setting particular goals and measuring them. With its help, you can plan your marketing strategy, discover the interests of your targetted audience, and build the website pages meeting the principles of usability based on this information. Learn more and familiarize yourself with Google Analytics.
Here is how it works
First of all, you need to create an account in Google Analytics and connect it with your website. For this purpose, you’ll generate the code and paste it on your website. Then you’ll get the access to Analytics and will be able to analyze and manage your website data. Be sure that you’ll find many interesting things there.
Share It: Links and Social Networks
You know, if you want your content to be popular, share it. Or no, even more: you should make your visitors and readers share your content. When they do it, Google finds the links to your website and understands, that it’s something interesting, qualitative, and valuable. The more links to your website it finds on the related resources the more popular you become. This fact also increases your chances to get the higher position in search results.
And what about social networks? – Say, it’s one of the closest ways of contact between internet users. And they like to share interesting and useful information. If your content is popular on such networks, like Facebook, Linkedin, and others, it gives the credit to your SEO.
Here is a piece of advice: communicate with your readers, keep contact and be closer to your audience. Try to use all channels to involve more visitors. Comment and share the content of other people and make guest posts. It’s helpful in finding new contacts.
Enjoy The Dessert: Google Digital Workshop
Great news! Google tries to make our lives easier and gives us a bonus. What does it mean? – Now we have a unique possibility to learn more about Google strategy, internet marketing, web analytics, and SEO. They provide us with the free workshop about internet marketing. There you’ll learn many useful features we’ve already discussed and will open quite new horizons. Too many words.
Just look Google Digital Workshop.
Conclusion
It is the end. We’ve already talked about the details of SEO friendly content and keyword research. It was a part of the information you can find on Google. Hope, it’s useful and will help you to create amazing content, which does wonders and boost the popularity of your website, and the main thing – brings the usefulness and pleasure to your visitors.
Inspiration to you and SEO-friendly content of your dream!
How to Make Keyword Research for Websites
Today we continue on our topic about how to write SEO-friendly content and are going to make the keyword research. We have already moved to the most important step of our SEO strategy.
You may ask:”What is keyword research?”. This complex but interesting step can help us to learn more about our visitors, understand their needs, and give them what they are searching for.
How it looks in action
The keyword research or keyword planning is the process of finding the best and most used keywords for writing your content. As we already know, the search engines rank the websites according to their relevancy and quality. When the user enters some words into the Google search field (we call them “keywords”), Google bots scan the website and choose those that contain these words. So the user gets the relevant content he is looking for.
Google ranks the websites depending on their relevancy. So the more exact your keyword is, the more chances to get the higher position in Google search results.
What Kind of Keywords We Can Use
There are 3 types of keywords: generic, broad match, and long-tail keywords. We should use all types to build successful SEO strategy.
Generic Keywords
They are the short words and phrases the users enter into Google search field. They contain the general information that could be relevant for the most web pages, related to this area.
For example, you develop the websites. Here are some best keywords of this type: website development, web development, develop a website. They could be related to the web development company, blog about web development, and web development courses. These keywords start your keyword research, but they can’t make your content high-relevant. We need to add more information.
Broad Match Keywords
This type of keywords builds the base of your SEO strategy. They help us to create high-relevant content and concretize the topic of our website. Using them, we can attract exactly our targeted audience.
For example, you are a web development company. Web development company, web development services keywords tell your potential customers that you develop the websites (not write the articles). Such way you narrow the search area and involve the targeted audience.
Long-Tail Keywords
This funny name can tell us much information. As you understand, they are some long phrases that also narrow the user’s search area. Ask yourself, how many times you typed something like: “How to write SEO-friendly content”, or “How to be a good public speaker”. Be aware that you typed long-tail keywords. They are interesting, and you can find them using different SEO tools.
We already know enough. Let’s learn how to find keywords.
How to Make Keyword Research
Picking SEO Keywords: Think Logically
First of all, look at your content and think what it is about. Then create a list of generic keywords, you think the visitors can use when looking for your content. Write so many variants of words and word combinations, as possible. Try to step into user’s shoes and follow his logics.
For example, if your article is about SEO, you can write down such words, as SEO, search engine optimization, keywords choice, etc.
Picking SEO Keywords: Broaden Your List
Now we are on the step of choosing the more relevant broad match and long tail keywords. Try several ways:
Think about your targeted audience
Let’s imagine that you sell fresh vegetables and deliver them to the USA. So you can’t sell products in Europe, but you are interested in the USA. So, you can make your keywords relevant for the USA users. How? – It’s very simple, just add the USA, to the fresh vegetable delivery keyword , like vegetable delivery in the USA, or vegetable delivery USA. You can also use this method for the other criteria.
Use Google search tips
Here are several tricks that can help you to know some other most used keywords:
- Google search field autocomplete. Look carefully: when we try to find something in Google, we type the first word or even a part of a word, and Google suggests us the popular search requests. It’s a jackpot. Add these requests to your keyword list.
- Searches related to… So, you’ve typed your keyword into Google search field and pressed Enter. You can see the search results. Now let’s look at the last row of the page. You’ll see something like Searches related to …and several blue-colored word combinations below. Take those of them which are relevant to your content and place into your keyword list.
- Competitor analysis. When you get the search results for your keyword, don’t be lazy to open the websites of 5 Top results and read their texts. You may be surprised, but you’ll find many similar word combinations there. Don’t forget to write them out.
- Google Trends. It is a useful Google tool, which helps everybody not only learn the most popular world topics but also understand the users interests. Go to Google Trends web page and choose Trending Searches in the drop-down menu. You’ll see the hottest topics. Type your keyword into the search field. Then you’ll get a list of the most popular related keywords and learn geolocation of the most interested users. It’s valuable information, isn’t it?:)
Picking SEO Keywords: Welcome to Google Adwords
We have almost know how to find keywords, but the most interesting things are saved for last. Logical thinking is a great skill, but Google has already done some work for us. It has a useful tool for picking the keywords and creating the context advertisement. Its name is Google Adwords. We’ll need a part of this service – Keyword Planner.First of all, you should create an account in Google Adwords. Then choose Google Keyword Planner in Tools menu. It’s something like this:
For choosing the best keywords to use, we should press the green-colored paragraph and begin the search, following our content strategy. So, you have the almost ready keyword list. Now it’s time to check it and choose the most relevant and best keywords. Select the way of finding keywords and follow Google guides. You’ll be asked to enter your list. Do it, separating your keywords with commas.
So, you’ll get the most popular search request. Choose those, which are most suitable to your content. Here is how it looks:
As you can see, there is a list of keywords: white shoes, black shoes, red shoes, and others. The Keyword Planner shows us the search requests analytics. A good advice is to use keywords with a high number of average monthly searches, medium level of competition, and, if you are not going to create the advertisement and want to use the keywords for organic search marketing, choose the variants with high suggested bid.
Add the chosen keywords to your plan and try to include them into your content up to 7%. The main thing is to use the keywords naturally and surround them by related information.
So, you have already got acquainted with the most important things of picking SEO keywords. While practicing them, you’ll discover much more interesting ways and tools. But don’t forget the main goal of the content writing – bringing usefulness. Build your marketing strategy on this principle. Next time we are going to make friends with Google.
Wish you fresh ideas and the powerful keyword list!
SEO-Friendly Content: Tags and Structure
Hi! Today we are starting the series of useful articles about SEO-friendly content. Let’s start from scratch and pay attention to the most important step – the formatting. We’ll learn the first secret of writing SEO-friendly content and how to build its structure using HTML tags. And og course, if you need any help with HTML, our frontend developers can do it for you.
SEO Mechanisms
A Bit of History
HTML is a base of any web page. This language consists of tags and builds the page structure. So when you create the content in any kind of editor (it could be a visual editor or you see full HTML code), your texts, images, and other elements are ranged on the page and get special formatting according to the used tags.
What Google Says
Googlebot scans the web pages and ranges them depending on the quality and relevance of your content. Google has specific requirements for the content structure. If we ignore them, we can be ignored by Google and even don’t get into Google index. Nobody wants to be out of the game, so, let’s cope with it!
5 Elements of SEO-Friendly Structure
SEO-Friendly Title
A title is a name of the post, message, or page. It is one of the first factors that influences Google bot’s attitude to your content. The title should be clear and include the keywords. It shouldn’t be long (up to 100 symbols) but represent the idea of your text. Eye-catching, interesting, and powerful titles attract more visitors to your website and help the search engines understand whether your content is relevant and SEO-friendly.
How it looks in action
When the users search something on the Internet, they get the list of relevant websites, which meet their queries. The blue-coloured names of found web pages, which they see in the search results, are the titles. Looking at them, the user decides, if he wants to click the website or not. Also, we can see the titles while opening the websites. They are the names of our tabs in a browser.
How to add it via tags
You can edit your title via HTML tags. Paste the name of you article (post or page) instead of the words between the tags. The title tag is placed inside the pair <head></head> tag, nearly at the beginning of the page HTML code:
<head>
<title>your content title</title>
</head>
SEO-Friendly Meta Tags
Meta tags are responsible for the keywords and description. You should put them into the specific part of HTML code.
Your chosen keywords should be used not only in the post. It’s better to help the search engines indicate them via correct meta tags. The description is another important part of the content structure. It should include the keywords and describe the content of your web page.
How it looks in action
Keywords give search engines the necessary information. The description itself is also visible for Internet users. When they are looking for some content and get the list of search results, they can see not only blue-colored titles of the web pages. The description of each web page appears below the green-colored link to this web page and includes some brief summary of the content (look at the picture above).You can add some powerful call to action to your description and make the users interested in your content. Also, show the truthful content idea. Don’t try to cheat your visitors. In such case, the Googlebot can rate your content like irrelevant.
How to add them via tags
Keywords and the description are added via the meta tags. Place them after the title tag. Paste your keywords instead of the words in quotes (quotes should be saved).
<title>your title</title>
<meta name=”keywords” content=”keyword 1, keyword 2, …”>
<meta name=”description” content=”add here your description”>
SEO-Friendly Headings
There are several levels of headings in content structure: first, second, third, fourth, fifth, and sixth. There could be more levels, but usually 6 levels are enough. You can add them via tags h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6 and should go one by one.
How it looks in action
Headings are usually pointed with the larger font size or in bold. They help you to focus the reader’s attention on the most important key thought in content. Headings are also helpful for the search engines. They should include the keywords.
How to add them via tags
Use the tag of necessary heading level to put headings into your content. Paste the headings instead of the words between the tags:
<h1>you first level heading</h1>
<h2>you first level heading</h2>
SEO-Friendly Paragraphs
Paragraphs are very important for the content writing. They build its structure. If your text is separated into logical parts and has well-readable font type, you win a great chance to gain success.Your visitors will be grateful to you, and the search engines will understand your main idea easily. Paragraphs should include numbered and unnumbered lists to be structured. Don’t use too much bold, italic, and underline font type. They are used only for pointing the most important things. Try to avoid CAPS and text badly-readable colors.
How it looks in action
Your paragraphs should include up to 7% keywords, but not more.The time is running, and Google becomes more clever. Now it values the relevance of the content not only by the keywords. Now the LSI words that surround your keywords are used like the criterium of quality. These are the words related to your keywords. That’s why, first of all, create the content for people, not for robots.
How to add them via tags
HTML includes the specific tag for separating content into paragraphs. It is used in any place of HTML code in “body” part:
<p>your text</p>
SEO-Friendly Images
Google can’t see your images like a man. But! You can help it to understand what on the picture is. How? – It’s very simple. You should name your images using their sense and even the keywords. And that is not all. You should also use the alt-text.
How it looks in action
Look at the funny picture above. Let’s imagine that you are writing the article about dogs. So, you can name your image like “dog” or “pug” in the image title. And what about the alt text? – You can place there something like “ the funny pug” or “a dog wants the cookie”.
Alt-text helps the search engines understand what on the picture is. The alternative text is helpful for the users. When the browser doesn’t load the picture correctly, the alt text appears instead of the image and explains its content.
If you use title attributes, you can say what on the picture is. A title is also helpful for people with reduced capabilities.How to add them via tags
You can use the special HTML tags for placing the images. If you see the self-closing tag <image> and the link to your image, look at the end of this text. You’ll see something like “your image title.png” (.png, .jpg, .gif – are the image formats). So, place your title instead of the text in the place of “your image title”. Alt-text is added after alt= in quotes.
<img src=”your image title.png” alt=”your alt text”>
If you use some visual editor, you can put the title and the alt-text into specific fields while adding the image.
Now you already know some of the most important rules for writing SEO-friendly content. Of course, it’s not all you need, because Google also take a clear website code into consideration. And if you want to have the professional and proper website, we’ll do it for you with great pleasure. Just press, ‘Askt Questions” below and drop us a line.
It’s only the beginning of our excursion. In the next releases, you’ll learn how to make the keyword research and other Google SEO features.
Wish you success and inspiring content!
How to Boost Drupal Performance in 3 Steps
Website performance is one of the critical factors that influences your business results. If it is slow, page loading time grows, and you start losing visitors. It’s not well. That’s why the best way to be ahead of the game is to make a website performance optimization. Today we’ll talk about some tricks that can help you to make Drupal performance optimization.
We’ll need:
These tools will help you to check the website speed.
Our action algorithm:
- first, we check our website performance via these tools;
- then we write down the obtained values;
- then we make some changes to boost the website performance;
- and finally, check the website performance again and compare the new values with those obtained before.
Don’t forget to write down the values after each change to understand whether you are on the right way. So, let’s go!
3 Steps of Drupal Performance Optimization
First of all, we should understand that any moving mechanism has 3 types of things. They are fuel, control devices, and ballast. For example, let’s take an aerostat. What should we do to make our transport go faster? We have to manage our control devices correctly, turn the gas on, and throw off the ballast. Now let’s look at our website. It also has some things we should set up, some of them – to turn on, turn off or delete at all. But before you decide to delete something, turn it off.
Set Necessary Functionalities
Turn on page caching. It entries the whole page to the cash table. So when the new page is created, there is no need to do many queries, and it’s created in the only table.
Turn page caching on the performance settings page: Configuration -> Performance (admin/config/development/performance)
Turn on block caching. It works with individual blocks. It is necessary because it gives the opportunity to cache blocks, even if the page caching is turned off. Also, it always works for unlogged users.
Turn block caching on the performance settings page: Configuration -> Performance (admin/config/development/performance).
Turn on views block caching. It is an important function too. It’s turned off by default, but it’s better to enable it.
Choose the needed view and go to advanced settings. Then set the necessary type in Block Caching option.
Turn on the built-in JS and CSS integration. This option allows you to reduce the number of HTTP requests by transforming a large number of CSS and JS files in several compact files.
Reduce the number of cron launch times. By default, cron is set up to run every three hours. It means that every three hours the user will get a very slow page loading. The best solution is to turn off the cron on the website and enable it on the server.
Reduce the Number of Unnecessary Modules
Maybe, sometimes it could sound strangely, but the modules don’t always help. Sometimes they even detain the website performance. That’s why we should turn off or even delete such components. Try to do it with following modules and don’t forget to note your results:
Statistics module. This module gathers the data of interaction with your content like Google Analytics and stores all this information in your website databases. So, as you can understand, it overloads your system. That’s why it’s better to avoid the use of this module and work with Google Analytics for such purposes.
PHP filter. This module gives an opportunity to use PHP text format. So with its help, the PHP code is stored in your website database. But it’s not good for the website performance. Just turn it off, but don’t remove because it’s a core module.
Update manager. This tool checks the situation on drupal.org and searches for new versions of modules installed on your website. Of course, it’s great, but it also overloads the website. Better turn it off and use only on a stage project.
Unused modules. The words are unnecessary here. Why do we need the modules we don’t use? – Nobody knows:) But the website is not happy to bring such load. So, turn off unnecessary modules you don’t use and let your website run faster and make Drupal performance optimization!
Install Helpful Modules
And now it’s time to add the fuel and install some useful modules, which will help us to ride so fast as a rocket.
Views content cache. Without caching, when the user uploads a web page, the system requests the database. This situation overloads the website. But views caching solves this problem and stores the results in a views cache table. It reduces the number of requests. So, if you install Views content cache, you’ll allow the website to renew the cache in real time when changing content.
Views Litepager. When you use the default pager for views, the COUNT query is needed for all pages. And it adds the time for the operation. But with views Litepager, you avoid the need to use COUNT queries, displaying only ”Next” and ‘Previous” links.
Boost. This module turns all Drupal pages into flat HTML files and stores them in a cache folder on the server. When the user visits the page, the server returns him cached page without using PHP and MySQL. It speeds up the website in several times. But! Boost works only for anonymous visitors. It doesn’t cache pages for logged-in users.
Fast 404. If your website includes many broken links to images and CSS documents, the website performance slows. In this case, Drupal will go the whole hard path of page loading, even if it gets 404 error as a result. Fast 404 solves this problem and gives fast 404 error messages.
Image resize filter. To speed up the website, you should also reduce the images size. Large images require much time for loading, so they slow down your website. Images resize filter allows you to change the images size in WYSIWYG editor. You should set the height and the width of the image, and this module will reduce its size automatically.
ImageAPI Optimise. Any image contains the data that increase the page loading time even if you use Image resize filter and image styles. This module allows you to optimize the image and remove these data.
Entry cache. Entries are the users, content, and taxonomy terms. Most entries have fields. When each entry is loading, the queries are performed for each field. It increases the number of queries to the database. As we know, such situation influences the website performance. Entry cache will help you to avoid a large number of requests. All data will be stored in the cache table.
Advanced CSS/JS Aggregation. This module is much more efficient than built-in CSS/JS Aggregation. So try and decide, whether it useful for you or not.
Now it’s time to go and win the race. If you did everything right, your website would run much faster. But not everything is so simple as it seems, and sometimes everyone needs professional help. If you are among such users, we’ll be glad to make the professional Drupal performance optimization for you.
But hope you’ll make it and get the high-performance result. Now are you ready to try?
Ready – Steady – Go!
5 Drupal Security Modules for Accounts
Meet our friend Drupal! How many people have already chosen this CMS for their websites? Don’t you know? Okay, we’ll tell: Drupal 7 has nearly 101,000 users all over the world and has settled in their hearts for many years. Today, we won’t talk about Drupal 7 advantages, but raise an important question of Drupal based websites security. For these purposes, web developers have created many Drupal security modules that help keep websites safe.
Top 5 Drupal Security Modules for Safe Accounts
1. Login Security
If you are looking for something suitable to protect the login options of your Drupal based website, this module is very useful in this case. Drupal functionalities are not enough to provide a full login security, but this module successfully copes with this issue. It gives a website administrator an ability to control the access to the login forms.
How it works. You limit failed login attempts and also block such IPs. As a result, spammers can’t get the access to your website.
The number of installs: 11,653
2. Password Policy
The main idea of this module is security requirements for the user’s password created for the account access on your website. Hackers use many different ways to crack passwords, but you can complicate them this task by adding some special conditions to a password.
How it works. For example, you make a condition that a password must include 2 or more uppercase letters and 2 digits at least to be accepted. It is a good way to manage passwords security, which is used by numerous modern websites.
The number of installs: 24,307
3. Two-Factor Authentication (TFA)
Two-factor authentication is a useful technology for the website security. As a default, Drupal provides the authentication via some information the user knows or creates by himself, such as a password and a username. But it’s not enough for a strong defense from hackers and bots. And in this case, TFA makes a deal.
How it works. Two-factor authentication provides you with the second level of security via inquiry of something that the user gets. It could be a secret code sent to a user’s phone number, or one-time password, or something other.
The number of installs: 1,793
4. CAPTCHA
CAPTCHA module is one of the best practices of detecting the spambots, which post the spam content everywhere they can. This visual test allows the system to understand if the user is human or a robot.
How it works. Before the user logs in, he has to enter the symbols, which he sees in the image generated by this module randomly. If the user is a robot, he will not pass this test and won’t get the access to an account.
The number of installs: 264,890
5. Automated Logout
Automated logout is a useful security feature. It allows you to protect an account data when the user is not active on the website and out of work. This module provides necessary functionalities for such ability.
How it works. The website administrator gets the ability to log users out after some specified time of inactivity. You can set up a timeout and use “site policies” by roles. A user also can set up the time of inactivity, after which he will log out automatically.
The number of installs: 18,424
It was 5 must-have Drupal 7 security plugins that can help you to protect account data on your Drupal based website. But there is not all. It’s just a part of practices used for website security.
Also here is a piece of advice: keep your computer free of viruses and don’t forget to update modules. It is one of the most important things of website management. For these purposes, use Update manager and always stay up-to-date on the release of the new software versions. If you need to do all these works, contact us. We’ll secure your Drupal and install necessary modules.
Wish you great mood and strong Drupal defense!
5 best WordPress Security Plugins
WordPress security is a very important topic. this CMS is quite good but sometimes it faces some security problems because of its popularity. When we see such things, of course, we feel upset. That’s why the web developers improve it creating useful security plugins. Using them, you’ll protect your website from vulnerabilities and will not worry about its safety.
WordPress Security Plugins
Akismet
Akismet is one of the most downloaded plugins for WordPress security. And it’s not accidental. It allows you to moderate comments to your blog posts. Akismet works like censorship. It helps to detect spam and reject it.
How it works. You’ll see a new comment in your administrator panel and decide if it should be approved or removed. The comments, which were automatically turned off by Akismet, will also be visible there.
Here is one small catch: before using this plugin, get Akismet API Key.
All In One
It is a user-friendly plugin with a complex approach to WordPress security. With its help, you can ensure your login, account, and system file safety.
How it works. This plugin checks your website for vulnerabilities and implements the latest WordPress security practices. You can also see the level of your website security via its points grading system and improve it. All in One doesn’t slow down your website and gives you only pros.
Wordfence
This is the most downloaded WordPress security plugin. It grants protection from hacks and malware. And it’s 100% free.
How it works. It begins to work with the total scan of your website. The goal is to detect whether the website is infected. Then it starts a deep checking of the server-side website code and compares it with the official WordPress sources. The end of this story is optimization of your website. As a result, it becomes 50 times faster and secure.
WP-SpamShield Anti-Spam
It is a great plugin that fights against spam on your website. It detects comment spam, trackback spam, contact form and registration spam.
How it works. WP-SpamShield has no CAPTCHA, works in the background and makes the WordPress spam disappear. It detects both types of spam (human and automated spam) and blocks it. The scanner has 2 layers of blocking: one of them protects your website from the spambots, and another does it with human spam. This plugin also makes your website user-friendly and kills spam very fast.
Anti-Malware Security and Brute-Force Firewall
Anti-malware is a useful plugin that helps you to cope with malware, vulnerabilities, viruses and other harmful things on your server.
How it works. This scanner searches for the harmful existing Viruses and Vulnerabilities and automatically removes security threats and backdoor scripts. For its high-security level regularly update this plugin at GOTMLS.NET
So, there were several useful plugins for your website protection, but to make it safer you can also follow our advice:
- keep your plugins up to date;
- don’t use the “admin” username;
- use a complex strong password;
- make sure that your chosen WordPress hosting is secure;
- use two-factor authentication;
- make sure that your computer free of viruses and malware.
Keep your eyes open and everything will be okay.
Wish you security. WordPress developers take care of this.
5 Main WordPress Advantages for Users
Opinions differ. Anyone who uses WordPress will tell you that it’s one of the best platforms for managing websites. Not everybody agrees. But still, it is a favorite CMS of numerous website owners all over the world with many features and advantages. And we are here to make a well-thought decision and understand if this tool is useful for us. Find out five main reasons why WordPress can be the best solution for your website.
5 Powerful WordPress Advantages
1. Easy and Free Installation
First of all, I should say that WordPress is free. It’s a good argument, especially for the beginners in managing websites and startups. If you have an idea, for example, a new blog, but you don’t want to spend much money, try WordPress and launch your project.
So what about installation? No problems! It’s so easy, as a registration process in an online service. Go to wordpress.com and just follow the instructions on the website.
2. High Usability in Managing Content
With WordPress, you can create a blog or any website with a different kind of content. Text, photos, images, video – you can add there everything you want. It is easy and comfortable, thanks to the user-friendly admin panel, where you can edit your content via the visual editor. Or, if you are good at HTML, you can use the text editor for working with content by tags.
3. Numerous Free Themes and Plugins
Themes are used for a stylish and beautiful look of the website. Plugins give you necessary and useful features for your needs. And if we talk about WordPress, it is the winner here among the other CMSs. A large number of WordPress themes and plugins are free and allow your website to look attractive, even if you don’t use the custom solutions. There are many responsive themes among them, so you can pick the one, which is suitable for your business goals.
4. SEO Friendliness
A real advantage of WordPress is that Google likes it. Google indexes web pages made on WordPress better than the others. It is related to the fact that the structure of content created with WordPress is SEO-friendly. So it influences the website position in Google search results.
WordPress has different SEO plugins that can help you to promote your website in Search Engines. Here is one of the best:
This is the most downloaded WordPress plugin. It allows you to optimize your website for Search Engines by all required criteria.
5. High Speed of Web-Development Process
And finally, the fact that WordPress is chosen by 25% of users makes it the most popular CMS in the world. It’s all because of the reasons, which we have already discussed. Web development on WordPress is high-speed. If you want to order the web development, you’ll get your new website relatively quickly.
WordPress is created for handy website management. And the large community of web developers works on its improvement every day. There you can find the answers to most questions related to this CMS. And our WEB4PRO team can realize any project on WordPress you need. So, if you are ready to try WordPress advantages, just do it. This process can be very engrossing.
Wish you inspiration for your new successful project!