PSPINC Official Company Blog

The Difference Between Building a Site from Scratch Versus Using a CMS

Jan

31

As of November 2022, there are nearly two billion websites on the internet, according to How to Geek. Before content management systems (CMS) existed, users created sites from scratch, which took a considerable amount of time. But it gave web developers a lot more control over all elements of a website, and that continues to be the case today. But creating websites with a CMS is even more popular today. In fact, more than 84 million websites are built with a CMS. The reason why is simple: it lets anyone create a website easily. Web developers have knowledge of coding languages like HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, among others. With a CMS, users can create websites without the need for a web developer or designer.

While using a CMS can be easier and faster, there are still reasons why some may prefer to build a site from scratch. A CMS will generally offer a free plan, but they’re relatively limited feature- and storage-space-wise unless users upgrade to a paid account. Building a website without one gives developers more control over the hosting environment, giving them more freedom to add unique features to their site. Templates featured on a CMS are attractive, but it also results in multiple sites with the same or very similar site designs. Starting from scratch results in a much more unique site design as well as the ability to add other features that may not be available through a CMS.

Building a Website from Scratch

To create a website from scratch:

Add text, images, navigation bars, and other site building blocks with HTML

Add styling elements with CSS to design your site. A business site should match the look and feel of your brand.

Add more advanced functionality to your site by writing some JavaScript.

Upload the HTML file to your server to be filed away in your database.

From there, you can update the content or make other changes by downloading the files from the server and changing the HTML code by hand. Then upload the files back to the server after checking to make sure the code changes you made don’t result in an unexpected or undesirable result, like breaking a link.

Building a Website with a CMS

A CMS, or content management system, allows users to create, edit, and publish content online without any coding knowledge or experience. To build a site using a CMS:

Create an account on a CMS platform. We recommend WordPress or WebdeXpress, which is free with our Dreamersi web hosting.

Open the content editor to create and edit the content on your site. Without needing to write out any code, you can bold text, add links, and insert images among other things by dragging and dropping blocks or clicking a few buttons.

When you’re done creating or editing content, click on the Publish button and the CMS will display it for your website visitors.

To customize your website even further with unique features or design elements, invest in custom development or custom design services. For more informational videos, check out our "What Is" series on our YouTube channel.

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.

1404 140th Place N.E., Bellevue, WA 98007

PSPINC Creates Tools For Your Business

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc. is headquartered in Bellevue, Washington and provides domain, web, and email hosting to more than 40,000 companies of all sizes around the world. We design and develop our own software and are committed to helping businesses of all sizes grow and thrive online. For more information you can contact us at 800-232-3989, by email at info@pspinc.com or visit us online at https://www.pspinc.com.

#blog #business #businesstips #businesstools #cms #contentmanagementsystem #dreamersi #hosting #seo #smallbusiness #tech #technology #web #webdesign #webdevelopment #webdexpress #webhosting #website #websitebuilder #websites #webtools #wordpress

Why Your Images Need to be Optimized for the Web

Jan

17

One of the most important aspects of Google’s algorithm when showing websites is page loading speed. Users today won’t wait more than two seconds for a site to load before moving on to another if it’s not fast enough. So, if you want your site to show up higher in Google’s organic search results, you should prioritize making sure the images you add to your website are well-optimized.

Lossy Versus Lossless Image Compression

Turned on Screen Silver Macbook Air on Wooden Desk

When creating or even saving images, the image size will be relatively larger, and larger image files inadvertently slow down your site. So, the best solution is to compress those image files. But there are two ways to compress data in relation to images: lossy and lossless compression. Lossy compression reduces some of the information in an image to reduce the file size while maintaining as much of the image quality as possible (Ex: JPEG image types). Lossless compression reduces the image file size without compromising the image’s overall quality (Ex: PNG image types).

When comparing the two image compression types, it might seem obvious to just use PNGs or lossless compressions, but it’s important to remember that PNGs are larger file sizes when compared to JPEGs. So, even if you compress all the images on your site to PNG images, you might still be slowing your site down more than you need to. While you may want to keep some of those images as PNG image types, you can, more than likely, reduce your image file sizes even further to speed up your site’s overall loading speeds.

How to Optimize Your Images for the Web

What Types of Image Files to Use

JPEG, or Joint Photographic Experts Group, image files are best used on images shot with a camera because JPEGs can combine some of those millions of colors by using lossy compression. While it reduces an image’s overall color palette, it’ll still produce an acceptable image for the web.

PNG, or Portable Network Graphics, image files are generally recommended for images that utilize a limited number of colors. PNGs are also great for images with transparent backgrounds, so they’re generally used for logo and icon images.

SVG, or Scalable Vector Graphics, image files, like the name suggests, allow developers to use vector-based images. SVG image files, unlike PNGs and JPEGs, won’t lose any clarity when resizing them. While this file type works great for images that don’t use a lot of colors, they’re generally just used site logos or backgrounds. We should also mention that some older browsers don’t support SVGs. But all the latest versions of major browsers have basic SVG support.

WebP, or Web Picture format, image files were created by Google in 2010 to provide superior lossless and lossy compression. They’re much smaller file sizes compared to the rest, but there’s one catch: Safari doesn’t fully support this file type, which means some iPhone users may not be able to view them.

For more informational videos, check out our "What Is" series on our YouTube channel.

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.

1404 140th Place N.E., Bellevue, WA 98007

PSPINC Creates Tools For Your Business

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc. is headquartered in Bellevue, Washington and provides domain, web, and email hosting to more than 40,000 companies of all sizes around the world. We design and develop our own software and are committed to helping businesses of all sizes grow and thrive online. For more information you can contact us at 800-232-3989, by email at info@pspinc.com or visit us online at https://www.pspinc.com.

#blog #business #businesstips #image #images #imagetype #jpg #photoshop #picture #pictures #png #seo #smallbusiness #svg #tech #technology #tutorial #web #webdesign #webp #website #websites #webtools

Why Your Website Needs an SSL Certificate

Jan

10

If you don't already know, SSL stands for Secure Sockets Layer and protects your privacy when you surf the internet. Especially when you're entering sensitive data. So, if you’re shopping online, an SSL certificate is designed to protect you from hackers getting your credit card number as you’re entering your payment information. SSL certificates do this in a matter of milliseconds in a process that’s sometimes referred to as an SSL handshake.

The process consists of a browser asking for a site to identify itself only for the site to send back a copy of the SSL certificate. After confirming that the site is trustworthy, only then can the server start sharing encrypted data with the website. To check if a website has an SSL certificate and will therefore protect your sensitive data, just check the URL for “HTTPS” at the start of the link. For sites that don’t have an SSL certificate, you’ll see a red padlock symbol or a warning triangle, signaling that this site isn’t safe for you to use.

Different Types of SSL Certificates

Extended validation (EV SSL) certificates: the most secure, but also the most expensive certificate typically reserved for high-profile websites that collect data and payment information.

Organization validation (OV SSL) certificates: similar to EV SSL certificates, but cheaper and less secure. These are generally used for commercial or public-facing websites to ensure customer information will remain confidential.

Domain validation (DV SSL) certificates: the cheapest certificate choice with minimal encryption, which results in a simplified validation process. Despite its low-security assurance, they’re still used largely for blogs and information sites, which don’t require users’ private information.

How to Get an SSL Certificate

Most web hosting services offer SSL certificates in addition to their web hosting, much like PSPINC. We offer all three types of SSL certificates and make them available for purchase in addition to our web hosting or our VPS plans on our website.

For more informational videos, check out our "What Is" series on our YouTube channel.

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.

1404 140th Place N.E., Bellevue, WA 98007

PSPINC Creates Tools For Your Business

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc. is headquartered in Bellevue, Washington and provides domain, web, and email hosting to more than 40,000 companies of all sizes around the world. We design and develop our own software and are committed to helping businesses of all sizes grow and thrive online. For more information you can contact us at 800-232-3989, by email at info@pspinc.com or visit us online at https://www.pspinc.com.

#blog #business #businesstips #businesstools #cybersecurity #domainvalidation #dvssl #evssl #extendedvalidation #hosting #organizationvalidation #ovssl #smallbusiness #tech #technology #web #webdevelopment #webhosting #website #websites #webtools

How to Add a Website to Your Mac iOS Desktop

Jan

3

If there’s a site that you go to frequently and want a quicker way to get to them, the best way to do that is create a shortcut on your desktop home screen. Or, on your iPhone home screen. Doing so will allow you to gain instant access to the page without having to open a browser and enter the website URL. Let’s use the site for our password manager, Pass Wizard, as an example.

For Mac iOS Users Using Safari

Go to the website on Safari on your Mac desktop. For this example, we’re going to PassWizard.com/login. Then, highlight the URL in the web address bar.

passwizard.com/login URL highlighted in safari

Drag and drop the highlighted URL to your desktop.

pass wizard URL dragged onto desktop from safari

Right-click the new icon and select 'Get Info'.

pass wizard icon from safari on desktop right click get info shown

Under 'Name & Extension', change to 'Pass Wizard.webloc'. Note: you need to keep ".webloc" at the end. Then, hit 'Enter'.

Change the icon by copying the image you want to use to your clipboard. For this example, we'll be using the vault icon from our Pass Wizard Pro plans. Then, go back to the 'Get Info' screen with the desktop shortcut details and click on the small icon at the top of the Info window.

At the top of your Mac desktop's menu bar, click on 'Edit' and then click 'Paste'. Then, you'll see the icon image change, and you'll see the new custom icon after closing the Info window.

For Mac iOS Users Using Google Chrome

Go to the website using Chrome on your Mac desktop. Again, we’re going to PassWizard.com/login as an example.

Click the three dots in the top right corner. Select ‘More Tools’ and then select ‘Create Shortcut’.

pass wizard chrome create shortcut option

Rename the shortcut to 'Pass Wizard' and click 'Create'.

Drag and drop the new ‘Pass Wizard’ icon from ‘Chrome Apps’ to your desktop and see the new icon on your desktop home screen.

Change the icon by following the same instructions from #5 from the Safari instructions.

custom desktop shortcut copy paste chrome

See the new icon on your desktop home screen.

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.

1404 140th Place N.E., Bellevue, WA 98007

PSPINC Creates Tools For Your Business

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc. is headquartered in Bellevue, Washington and provides domain, web, and email hosting to more than 40,000 companies of all sizes around the world. We design and develop our own software and are committed to helping businesses of all sizes grow and thrive online. For more information you can contact us at 800-232-3989, by email at info@pspinc.com or visit us online at https://www.pspinc.com.

#app #apple #blog #business #businesstools #chrome #google #googlechrome #ios #mac #macdesktop #passwizard #passwordmanager #pspinc #safari #smallbusiness #tech #technology #web #webdevelopment #website #websites #webtools

What’s New Newsletter Vol. 148 “Custom Web Development”

Dec

29

With so many web builders out there today, you may be asking yourself, why do people pay for web development? Well, the biggest difference between using the available web tools out there today versus paying a developer to create your site is simple: customization. When using popular web builders, you’re stuck with whatever themes and templates they offer. And they may be nicely designed and easy to use, but it might not be enough. Over the years, we’ve learned that every small business is different. And that means their needs are different, too. While there are a lot of intuitive tools and resources out there, they can’t meet every business’s needs.

Sometimes, businesses want unique features that aren’t readily available or easily created by generic web builders. That’s where custom web development comes in. And that’s why we offer it as a service. PSPINC’s web development services have a long and successful history creating unique features for small businesses that need them. To see some examples, head over to our custom development page on our website. And if you’re looking for custom web development services, look no further!

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.

1404 140th Place N.E., Bellevue, WA 98007

PSPINC Creates Tools For Your Business

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc. is headquartered in Bellevue, Washington and provides domain, web, and email hosting to more than 40,000 companies of all sizes around the world. We design and develop our own software and are committed to helping businesses of all sizes grow and thrive online. For more information you can contact us at 800-232-3989, by email at info@pspinc.com or visit us online at https://www.pspinc.com.

#b2b #blog #business #businesstips #businesstools #customersupport #digitalmarketing #marketing #marketingtips #pspinc #pspincwhatsnewnewsletter #searchengineoptimization #smallbusiness #tech #technology #webdevelopment #websitebuilder #websites

What’s New Newsletter Vol. 147 “Search Engine Optimization”

Dec

22

One of the best ways to get potential customers to see your business website is through search engines like Google. With so many websites out there, it can be hard to rank higher in search results. But that’s why it’s important to optimize your site for search engines. The way search engines work is they’ll scour the web for content and rank them based on relevancy according to their algorithm. The more relevant the algorithm deems your site, the higher it’ll appear in the search engine results.

If you’re unsure if your site’s well-optimized, there are plenty of free search engine optimization (SEO) tools available online. And most of them will even give you tips on how to improve your overall SEO score, as it’s usually called. If your score is low, it may have to do with your website’s content or how long it takes site pages to load. But fixing these problems will not only help you rank your site higher in search engine results pages, but also more website traffic, and hopefully revenue. PSPINC also provides support for SEO. Please feel free to contact us.

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.

1404 140th Place N.E., Bellevue, WA 98007

PSPINC Creates Tools For Your Business

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc. is headquartered in Bellevue, Washington and provides domain, web, and email hosting to more than 40,000 companies of all sizes around the world. We design and develop our own software and are committed to helping businesses of all sizes grow and thrive online. For more information you can contact us at 800-232-3989, by email at info@pspinc.com or visit us online at https://www.pspinc.com.

#blog #business #businesstips #businesstools #ecommerce #google #marketing #marketingtips #pacificsoftwarepublishing #pspinc #pspincwhatsnewnewsletter #searchengineoptimization #seo #smallbusiness #tech #technology #webdevelopment #websites #webtools

How to Add a Website to Your iPhone Home Screen

Dec

20

While there are many apps out there, if there’s a site you frequent when you’re on your iPhone, you may want a way to get to it faster. The best way to do that is by adding the website to your phone’s home screen. Let’s use the site for our password manager, Pass Wizard, as an example

Go to the website on your iPhone. For this example, we’re going to PassWizard.com/login.
Tap on the share icon.

pass wizard site screenshot on mobile with share icon circled

Scroll down until you find the “Add to Home Screen” option.

add to home screen on iPhone screenshot option circled

Rename icon, if needed. For this example, we’ve named it Pass Wizard.

add to home screen rename icon screenshot

See the new icon on your home screen.

pass wizard icon on iphone home screen screenshot

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.

1404 140th Place N.E., Bellevue, WA 98007

PSPINC Creates Tools For Your Business

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc. is headquartered in Bellevue, Washington and provides domain, web, and email hosting to more than 40,000 companies of all sizes around the world. We design and develop our own software and are committed to helping businesses of all sizes grow and thrive online. For more information you can contact us at 800-232-3989, by email at info@pspinc.com or visit us online at https://www.pspinc.com.

#app #apple #blog #business #businesstips #businesstools #homescreen #icon #ios #iphone #passwizard #smallbusiness #tech #technology #web #webdesign #webdevelopment #website #websites #webtools

What’s New Newsletter Vol. 145 “Holiday Sales”

Dec

8

It’s officially holiday season, which means it’s also the sale season for small businesses. Generally, it’s best to prepare in advance so that your team has plenty of time to get everything ready. Especially since holiday sales seem to start earlier and earlier as the years go by. While big companies have a large budget to spend on marketing and promotions, a small business has the benefit of being a small business. With there being so much content and product out there today, many customers like knowing their money will support a small and independent business. And it’s largely why Small Business Saturday (the day after Black Friday) is so successful.

While we’re on the topic of holiday sales, you should know that our company’s currently running some. For starters, our password manager, Pass Wizard, is currently 50% off your first year when using the code PRO50! Plus, we’re now offering our web hosting service, Parcom Neo, for free! And our Parcom Plus and Parcom Deluxe plans are currently on sale for 25% off for your first two years to celebrate Parcom's 25th anniversary! So, if you want to support your fellow small business, we hope you’ll consider supporting ours.

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.

1404 140th Place N.E., Bellevue, WA 98007

PSPINC Creates Tools For Your Business

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc. is headquartered in Bellevue, Washington and provides domain, web, and email hosting to more than 40,000 companies of all sizes around the world. We design and develop our own software and are committed to helping businesses of all sizes grow and thrive online. For more information you can contact us at 800-232-3989, by email at info@pspinc.com or visit us online at https://www.pspinc.com.

#b2b #blog #business #businesstips #businesstools #hosting #marketing #marketingdigital #marketingtips #newsletter #passwizard #passwordmanager #pspinc #pspincwhatsnewnewsletter #smallbusiness #technology #webdevelopment #webhosting #websites

What’s New Newsletter Vol. 144 “Advertising on Google”

Dec

1

For a small company, it can be hard to justify spending money on marketing. Especially when there are ways to promote your business for free through social media, email, and your own website. But there’s a reason why most small businesses use Google Ads. Organic posts will only get you so far. The biggest benefit that Google has to offer is brand awareness and reach. Sure, you can tell your family and friends all about your business. And share your website on social media. But it’s not enough.

There are billions of internet users out there, millions of which could be potential customers looking for what you have to offer. But they can’t purchase from you if you don’t know you exist. The best way to make sure that doesn’t happen is by advertising on Google. And it’s great for small businesses because it’s not super expensive like some other advertising avenues. So, even though you can market your business for free, it doesn’t mean you should.

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.

1404 140th Place N.E., Bellevue, WA 98007

PSPINC Creates Tools For Your Business

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc. is headquartered in Bellevue, Washington and provides domain, web, and email hosting to more than 40,000 companies of all sizes around the world. We design and develop our own software and are committed to helping businesses of all sizes grow and thrive online. For more information you can contact us at 800-232-3989, by email at info@pspinc.com or visit us online at https://www.pspinc.com.

#advertising #blog #businesstips #businesstools #digitalmarketing #facebook #google #marketing #marketingdigital #marketingtips #newsletter #pacificsoftwarepublishing #pspinc #pspincwhatsnewnewsletter #socialmedia #tech #technology #web #websites

How Personalized Marketing Can Benefit Your Business

Nov

22

With so many small businesses out there, it’s hard to convince customers to choose yours. Not only that, but you want those customers to stay with you long term. Customers want to feel special rather than just another customer. One way to do that is to personalize marketing messages to customers. Personalized marketing is when a business tailors marketing efforts based on collected customer data such as purchase history, interests, and demographic data.

According to Slideshare, 90% of customers find personalization very or somewhat appealing. And 80% of customers are more inclined to buy from companies that offer personalized experiences. Personalized marketing is, however, more than simply addressing customers by name in marketing emails. It can also include product recommendations based on purchase history, cart abandonment emails, birthday emails, and even personalized web pages or pop-ups for first-time or returning customers.

Benefits of Personalized Marketing

With so much content and advertisements out there, businesses won’t attract customers with irrelevant marketing messages. Personalized messages, however, will help retain customers and bring them back repeatedly. With personalized marketing messages, potential customers are more likely to convert into actual customers and purchase from you. It results in a better customer experience, one that may even be good enough to share online or with close friends. In turn, it simplifies the lead nurturing process, as personalizing improves the overall experience, increasing the likelihood that users will convert. And it’ll result in more customer engagement and feedback in the end.

As a business, you can also get valuable insight into your customers. By personalizing marketing efforts, you can see how customers shop, what they like, and what they don’t like. You can then use all this additional knowledge to see how effective your efforts are. More importantly, you can also improve in areas that could use an upgrade. With all this combined, it will ultimately lead to increased revenue.

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.

1404 140th Place N.E., Bellevue, WA 98007

PSPINC Creates Tools For Your Business

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc. is headquartered in Bellevue, Washington and provides domain, web, and email hosting to more than 40,000 companies of all sizes around the world. We design and develop our own software and are committed to helping businesses of all sizes grow and thrive online. For more information you can contact us at 800-232-3989, by email at info@pspinc.com or visit us online at https://www.pspinc.com.

#advertising #blog #branding #business #businesstips #businesstools #customerfeedback #digitalmarketing #ecommerce #marketing #marketingdigital #marketingtips #sales #seo #smallbusiness #socialmedia #tech #web #webdesign #websites

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PSPINC Official Company Blog

freespace

The Difference Between Building a Site from Scratch Versus Using a CMS

Building a Website from Scratch

Building a Website with a CMS

Why Your Images Need to be Optimized for the Web

Lossy Versus Lossless Image Compression

How to Optimize Your Images for the Web

What Types of Image Files to Use

Why Your Website Needs an SSL Certificate

Different Types of SSL Certificates

How to Get an SSL Certificate

How to Add a Website to Your Mac iOS Desktop

For Mac iOS Users Using Safari

For Mac iOS Users Using Google Chrome

What’s New Newsletter Vol. 148 “Custom Web Development”

What’s New Newsletter Vol. 147 “Search Engine Optimization”

How to Add a Website to Your iPhone Home Screen

What’s New Newsletter Vol. 145 “Holiday Sales”

What’s New Newsletter Vol. 144 “Advertising on Google”

How Personalized Marketing Can Benefit Your Business

Benefits of Personalized Marketing

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Building a Website from Scratch

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Different Types of SSL Certificates

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