Based on your app's features, which scaling strategy should you go for: scale up vs scale out?
How do you figure out which one's best for you?
What are each scaling model's use cases, benefits, and tradeoffs?
What specific needs — more memory, high availability, accessibility, more processor capacity, cost efficiency, long-term viability, etc. — does each solution respond to?
And what key factors should you keep in mind when choosing to scale your app out or up?
Now, let's get you some answers:
1. Scale Up vs Scale Out: What's the Difference?
The challenge you're facing now:
Your web app's under heavier traffic loads these days. So, you need to expend its presence, accessibility, power, other resources...
So, do you scale up or scale out?
What's the difference between vertical scale up and horizontal scale out?
1.1. What Does Vertical Scaling (or “Scaling Up”) Mean?
The process comes down to adding more power to your current machine so that it should carry more load.
Let's say that your server can no longer handle your app's load of input/output demands. By scaling it up you add more RAM and processing capacity to your existing server.
Or you switch to a new, more powerful server.
1.2. What Does Horizontal Scaling (or “Scaling Out”) Mean?
“What does scale out mean?”
It means adding more power by bringing in more lower-performance machines to the mix.
In short, the key difference between the scale up and the scale out process is the specific approach to the way that you're adding computing resources to your system:
Adding more processor capacity to your existing server vs adding more simple servers to your infrastructure, that share the memory workload and the processing effort.
2. Why Would You Scale Out?
Faced with a “scale up vs scale out” dilemma you ask yourself:
“What are the benefits of horizontal scaling?”
2.1. Higher availability for your app
Or, better said: higher, instant, and continuous availability for your application.
No matter how heavy the workload gets, each system component remains bounded over time.
2.2. You're not limited to your existing hardware capacity
You can bring in new and new machines to your infrastructure to expend its capacity.
2.3. You're not constrained to dig deep into your wallet each time traffic is on the rise
No need to pay for your server's upgrade each and every time you're dealing with peak demand.
2.4. You can tie your costs to use
2.5. You don't need to take your server offline at every traffic spike
Instead, you can keep the existing resources online all while adding some more, so that your app can cope with the workload and remain available. All the time...
2.6 You can make the most out of this scaling model's elasticity
Add as many computing services as needed so that your app withstands the peak demand.
2.7. You can adjust it to your needs
Size and... resize your network of machines to serve your app's fluctuating needs of memory and processor capacity.
2.8. You get to tap into the latest server technologies
Why keep expanding the same old hardware when you can get the most out of the newest server technologies for system monitoring and fault tolerance and keep downtime to a minimum?
2.9. You're free to upgrade your system
Unlike with the scaling-up model, where some upgrades might be limited by vendor lock-in, when you scale your app horizontally you're free to level up to the latest:
storage
processor
memory
… technology.
3. Why Would You Scale Up?
What are the key benefits of scaling your app vertically?
3.1. It's easier to manage
… and to address specific data quality issues.
Here, the “scale up vs scale out” dilemma comes down to:
Having one storage system management vs having to manage a whole cluster of different elements.
3.2. It's (more) cost-effective
You'll pay less for your network equipment and licensing since you only have one larger server to manage.
4. What Are the Tradeoffs of Horizontal Scaling?
For there are some power-performance trade-offs to be aware of when you opt for this scaling model:
your servers have to be stateless: they can't contain any user-related data such as profile pictures or sessions
scaling up your app leads to more complexity (cloning servers is needed)
your downstream servers (e.g. databases and caches) are challenged to withstand more connections simultaneously while upstream servers are scaling out
5. What Are the Trade-Offs of Vertical Scaling?
As you're trying to solve your “scale up vs scale out” dilemma, you'll ask yourself:
What are the challenges of vertical scaling?
Well, here are the main aspects that could discourage you from choosing it:
it's less viable: you're locked-in to a specific hardware piece on the market
you need to go over the same server upgrading process at every spike of traffic
you're constrained to taking your existing server offline while replacing it with a new, more powerful one: during this time, your app is non-available
6. When Would It Be Appropriate to Scale Vertically?
When should you scale up your deployment?
when you're dealing with repeatedly increasing workloads
if you haven't reached the full potential of your current infrastructure and you can still add on storage, CPUs, memory resources
if you don't anticipate growth of your dataset over the next 3-5 years
when you need to store large files that you can't split and distribute across multiple nodes
when dealing with a small data set
7. And In Which Cases Does It Make Sense to Scale Horizontally?
Here are some of the best scenarios where “out” is the answer to your “scale up vs scale out” dilemma:
you've already structured your app so that it should scale up, but it didn't reach the level of performance that you expected
you've reached the limit of your current infrastructure's potential so... there's no other option but to scale out
you expect huge and steady growth in data over a long period of time
you need to distribute an overstrained storage workload across several storage nodes
8. Final Word: When to Scale Up vs Scale Out
Here are the 2 key factors to consider when you're trying to figure out which strategy is best for you:
Your expansion needs: are they long-term or short-term? Are you dealing with a temporary traffic peak or do you predict a constant traffic overload in the long term?
The type of workload that you're dealing with: how large is your dataset?
If you're still not sure which approach — scale-up or scale-out — would best suit your app project, let us help you find your answer:
Just drop us a line, let us know what your app features are, and we'll structure your app so that it meets your specific expansion needs.
Image by Clker-Free-Vector-Images from Pixabay
Adriana Cacoveanu / Jun 12'2020
Quick and easy access to the content they're after is more important for your website users than a... visually-stunning design. Simple, straightforward navigation is what they expect to find. But what makes a website easy to navigate?
What are some good practices to follow to make your website easier to navigate?
Here's a top 11:
1. Put Your Navigation Right Where Users Expect to Find It
Don't compromise good user experience for the sake of "wowing" visitors with your innovative navigation system.
Do users expect to see a navigation bar at the top of the page? Or a navigation menu in the top right corner? Give them that.
This way, they get faster access to the information on your website that they're interested in.
Tip! Do you feel particularly creative and you want to add multimedia content to your navigation? Make it obvious to your site visitors that those are clickable elements.
2. Tailor the Navigation Bar To Your Own Audience and Business
A navigation bar optimized to meet the needs of a particular audience is what makes a website easy to navigate.
So, ask yourself this:
What do visitors do on your website? What are they're looking for?
More information on some of the services that you provide? Or maybe they want to have a look at the projects in your portfolio and at your previous clients' testimonials?
Are they on your website for your blog posts?
Once you're done with this empathy exercise and you have all the data, you'll know how many links are "too many" or "too few" for your navigation menu.
Source: Clutch.co
3. Make Your Sidebars Stand Out from the Rest of the Page
"How do I organize my website navigation?"
You make sure your sidebars don't blend in with the content on the page.
And there are many simple and effective ways that you can set it apart from the body copy. Here are just 2 of them:
use a different background color for your sidebars
use white space strategically to make it stand out from the other elements on the page
4. Make It Legible and Easy to Read on Any Screen
How easy is your website to navigate?
Before you rush in to answer that, make sure you test it for legibility on smaller screen devices, as well.
Here 2 of the best practices to follow for legible navigation in all usage contexts:
use a font that's at least 12 pixels
avoid narrow scripts and fonts
break out your navigation into clear categories with up to 7 items
use main menu, second, and third-level dropdown menu, as well, to organize your navigation if your website holds a lot of pages
5. What Makes a Website Easy to Navigate? A Fairly Straightforward Navigation Menu
Keep your navigation titles clear, accurate, and easily recognizable: stay away from witty or riddle-like titles.
Why would you want to change already familiar title phrases like "About Us" or "Contact Us" and risk to confuse the user? To make him/her lose valuable time trying to figure out "what the poet meant by..."?
Just keep it simple and predictable.
6. Make Your Hypertext Stand Out from the Body Copy
"How do I make my website easier to navigate?"
You make sure that users can tell hyperlinks from the rest of the page content.
How?
make them bold
use another color
underline them
...
Just make sure your navigation links are 100% usable.
Make it obvious to the users that that is a hypertext and they can click on it.
Source: Clutch.co
7. Make Sure Your Navigation Is Fully Responsive
This is, by far, one of the website navigation best practices.
And the adjustments to consider for your mobile navigation menu range from:
making the links large enough for mobile phone users to tap on with no effort
to tightening the menu so that it fits smaller screen sizes
to using a hamburger menu on mobile devices
8. Mind the Footer
Too often overlooked, the footer navigation has a big impact on the user experience (positive or negative, depending on whether you "forget" about it or not).
Just put yourself into the shoes of a user who's just landed on your website:
You've scrolled all the way to the bottom of the homepage and you now want to go to a specific service page or product page. Wouldn't it be great if you could access it via a hyperlink placed right there, in the footer? That, instead of going back to the header menu...
"But what should I put in my footer?" you ask yourself.
You can either:
mirror the links included in your header navigation menu
or put links to other key pages on your website: contact page, target blog posts, email newsletter sign up, etc.
9. Include Internal Search Functionality
What makes a website easy to navigate? Effective on-site search functionality...
Especially if you have an eCommerce website, where users look for specific products/services.
Once you've implemented it, follow these tips for making your search bar stand out:
use an icon of a magnifying glass
insert a "Search Here" text inside the search box
use a different color to make it pop out
And don't stop there:
Merely adding internal search functionality is just the first step. Make sure that the entire search experience meets the user's expectations.
And in 2020 users expect much more than just the basic product filters like color, size, and style.
They want to narrow down their selection to products that are on sale or to products that have been recently added to the website or...
10. Use Text Links Instead of Buttons for Your CTAs
Here's why you don't want to use buttons in your header navigation:
it's bad for your SEO: search rankings can't read buttons (but they can read text)
they make your navigation look clunky
you can't make a specific link stand out from the rest
buttons load slower, affecting the overall page loading speed
In short, use text for your menu items for both usability and SEO. It's one of the website navigation best practices in 2020.
11. Create a Sitemap for Your Website's Visitors
Provide them with a map before you expect them to explore your website.
This way, you:
make your website more usable for its visitors
help search engines crawl in and index your web pages
A win-win.
The END!
With these best practices on what makes a website easy to navigate at hand... what next?
How do you implement them on your own website?
We're ready to help you create that intuitive and effective navigation system. Just drop us a line.
Image by OpenClipart-Vectors from Pixabay
Silviu Serdaru / Jun 10'2020
What's the best approach? The foolproof methods to keep your SEO when redesigning a website?
And the chances that things go wrong are high:
indexing issues
traffic drop after the redesign
ranking going down
...
You need something like a... checklist. One that includes all the key elements to monitor during and after revamping your website, right?
This is precisely what you'll get in this post:
A 12-point list to check off along the way, so you can redesign your website without losing SEO rankings and traffic.
But Does a Website Redesign (Really) Affect SEO?
"If I change my website, will I lose my Google ranking?"
Yes, you stand all the chances.
Here are just some of the changes applied to your website that pose the biggest "threats" for your Google ranking:
you remove/change content
you change the current on-page optimization process
you change your URL structure
you change your domain/subdomain
you move content around, to suit your website's new sitemap or navigation structure
From the:
updates that you make for improving the user experience on your website
to those aimed at rebranding
to those changes that you apply to your backend
... it all bubbles up to your SEO ranking, traffic, and overall long-term growth of your website.
Step 1: Audit Your Current Website
This first step on your website redesign SEO checklist will help you gain a bird's eye view of:
what needs to be improved/fixed about your existing website
what are the high ranking areas that you shouldn't touch
Use Screaming Frog data to inspect your website and put together an inventory of all the:
duplicate page titles
missing, multiple, or duplicate H1 tags
missing Image ALT texts
broken internal/external links
missing or duplicate meta descriptions
page titles over 512 pixels
meta descriptions over 923 pixels
Furthermore, manually scan key elements like:
sitemap
URL structure
page loading speed (use Google’s PageSpeed Tools)
duplicate content
Google-indexed pages
robots.txt
Tip: download and back up the URL structure of your "old" website; you can use a plugin like Yoast SEO to download the updated sitemap of your website.
Step 2: Make Sure Your Test Website Is Not Being Indexed
For you don't want the risk of Google indexing your test website to add to the pile of... other things that could go wrong during the redesign process.
How do you prevent your test site from being indexed?
you either block it in the robots.txt file
or you click the noindex box in your CMS
Step 3: Match Up The Old and the New Pages to Keep Your SEO When Redesigning a Website
"How do I preserve rankings and traffic during a website redesign and rebuild?"
By making sure that the data on your current website — meta descriptions, word counts, canonical tags, etc. — remain as such on the new site, as well.
For this, crawl your test website and put it against the "old" website to identify all the "missing parts" and the areas that need improvement.
This is a foolproof method to ensure that the updates that you're about to make are truly needed.
Step 4: Check Your New Website for Broken Links
Another critical step to put on your website redesign SEO checklist is crawling your new website for broken links.
Use Google Webmaster Tools for this.
Step 5: Address The 404 Error Pages
One of the major website redesign considerations to keep in mind is that you'll need to handle the 404 issues popping up on your new website.
There are 2 ways that you can address a 404 URL:
redirect the old URL to the new URL of your test server
set up this URL on your test server
Step 6: See that Your Live URLs Are Optimized, As Well
A foolproof method for keeping your SEO when redesigning a website is to make sure that those live URLs, that aren't yet on your current website (the most recently added ones) are properly optimized.
Just use the following on-page optimization checklist, which includes all the key areas where you should add your focus keywords (or semantic keywords):
page title tag
H1 tag
page URL
H2, H3, H4 tags
meta description
body content
image ALT tag
Step 7: Keep the URL Architecture Identical
Since the SEO impact of changing URL is huge.
Do you remember that you've downloaded the URL structure while auditing the old website (see Step 1)?
Make sure to back it up and stick to it after the redesign process, as well.
Step 8: If Some of Them Do Change, Set Up 301 Redirects
If the unwanted scenario does happen and some of your URLs do change, keep in mind to map out 301s to their corresponding new URLs.
That, if you do want to preserve your rankings and traffic, of course...
How?
by manually updating your .htaccess file: Redirect301/old/oldsite.html http://www.yoursite.com/newurl.html
by using a redirect plugin: the process is no more complicated than filling in a form
Step 9: Leave the Content Unchanged on Your High Ranking Pages
One of the things to watch out for in order to keep your SEO when redesigning a website is the "temptation" of changing content on your high ranking pages.
Tip! A safe way to redesign your website without losing SEO is to make changes to the pages' design elements only. Once you've launched the new website, monitor your rankings for a while and, unless you notice some alarming drops, go ahead and apply (some) changes to the written content, as well (if absolutely necessary).
Step 10: Check Your Robots.txt File
Make sure that your robots.txt file didn't get corrupted during the website redesign and rebuild process.
Just click on the “robots.txt” option under the crawl section.
Step 11: Resubmit Your Sitemap to Google
A key step to take for avoiding new website Google ranking issues.
Submit your new website's XML to Google (and Bing) so that its new structure gets crawled and indexed in due time.
Step 12: Check and Monitor Your Ranking Position
So, you've finally launched the improved version of your old website. Your team's hard work over the last few months is now live.
Still, you'd better remain vigilant and monitor your new website for 2-3 more months.
During this time:
keep track of how your top keywords are ranking
make sure Google's not indexing the wrong pages for those keywords
be ready to detect any sudden drop or... boost in your website's Google ranking
Take this monitoring time as a way of... futureproofing all the efforts you've done to keep your SEO when redesigning a website.
But maybe you are, indeed, planning to give your website a facelift and a performance boost. And yes: you do worry that this might affect your SEO rankings and traffic.
Yet, you want some professionals — a team of experienced web designers, web developers, and SEO experts — to handle your website redesign process.
We're ready to help you.
Just drop us a line and let's plan an SEO-oriented redesign process for your website.
Image by k-images from Pixabay
Adriana Cacoveanu / Jun 08'2020
Ready to dig up some more (all too) common SEO mistakes to avoid in 2020?
As promised, in this post I'll be exposing to you another 6 bad habits that are costing you your website's ranking and traffic.
They range from neglecting serious issues, that you consider "minor", to highly damaging practices that you're probably still doing.
So, let's dive right in:
8. You're Ignoring Site Structure Issues That Are Affecting the UX
And this is one of the biggest SEO mistakes that you could make.
Here's how you can identify a poor website structure:
users don't get directed to your homepage once they click on the logo
your service pages don't automatically load in new tabs
your website feels cramped and cluttered; users need to work hard to navigate through
And since user experience is a huge SEO factor, you might want to consider scheduling a declutter and reorganizing process for your site.
Aim for a clean, fluid, and intuitive navigation on your website.
9. You're Not Optimizing Your Web Presence for Local Search
A bad practice that you'll find in any "top 10 SEO mistakes".
And which seems to be still so "popular" in 2020, as well (but you'll be bucking this trend, won't you?).
Here are the opportunities that you miss when you don't optimize your website for local search:
you could have stepped ahead of your competitors, who may not have a region-specific strategy set in place
you could have turned it into a huge advantage when competing against larger, national brands (with huge budgets to invest in SEO), that might be targetting broader keywords
you could have turned all those potential local visitors into more traffic and... loyal customers
Source: moz.com
10. You've Updated Your Website But... Kept the Old URLs
Another rookie and still so common SEO mistakes to avoid in 2020.
So, you've updated your website. It's optimized for the best-fitting keywords, it has well written, SEO-friendly meta descriptions... but all these efforts are pointless if your URLs:
include underscores
open HTTP pages and you've just enabled HTTPS on your website
See my point?
Updating your website, but forgetting to update the URLs, as well, is like... changing your oil, but forgetting to fill up your gas tank.
It won't get you too far.
11. You're Using H1 Tags the Wrong Way: One of the Most Common SEO Mistakes to Avoid in 2020
Are you "guilty" of any of these 2 bad habits when it comes to using H1 tags?
there are no H1 tags, at all, on your web pages
you're using multiple H1 tags on the same page (for aesthetic purposes)
you're turning all the headings on a page into H1 tags
It's the H1 tags that let the search engines know what the topic of a page is.
By using none or multiple H1 tags, you're just confusing them and lowering your website's chances to rank high on the results page.
12. You Have No Link Building Strategy
Or you have a totally ineffective one, based on:
a too low number of backlinks
low-quality backlinks
Start building more backlinks to your website, from relevant authority websites.
13. You've Overlooked to Add Your Sitemap to Your Robots.txt File
And so you've left search engines with no clue on what URLs you have on your website.
This is the surest way of sabotaging their own work — indexing your website's pages — and, implicitly, your website's SEO performance.
Source: semrush.com
But you can still fix it: just go ahead and add a sitemap.xml file to your robots.txt file.
Key Takeaway
The common mistakes to avoid in 2020 are the... basic ones. Those issues that you might find too trivial to fix or to avoid.
And these apparently insignificant SEO mistakes fall into 3 major categories that you should focus on:
content: too thin or duplicate content (stuffed with keywords) won't add any value to the user experience delivered on your website
internal links: let your common sense tell you how many is enough; make sure they're relevant and useful to the readers
website architecture: avoid poorly written, unoptimized descriptions and title tags, use H1 and H2 tags the proper way, add ALT tags to your images, look for broken or unoptimized URLs...
In short: don't underestimate the basic stuff, that's still being ignored or considered "acceptable" on too many websites.
Now, have you decided to break your bad SEO habits, but you just don't know how to fix the mistakes?
We're ready to help you with that.
Just drop us a line! Let's identify all the SEO errors lowering your website's potential and get them fixed.
Image by xiaoxinghai from Pixabay
Adriana Cacoveanu / Jun 03'2020
Have you seen a downfall in your website's ranking (and traffic)? What if you're to blame? What if you're making the all-too-common SEO mistakes to avoid in 2020?
Or at least some of them...
"But which are they?" you ask yourself.
This is precisely what I'll be pinpointing in this post:
The 13 all-too-frequent bad SEO habits that you, too, might be guilty of. And which are harming your website's SEO potential.
You're Optimizing for All the Wrong Keywords
You're Leaving Broken Images and Broken Links Lingering in There
You're Ignoring The Simplest Fixes to Your Site's Performance Issues
You're Not Including the Target Keywords in Your URLs
You're Using Automatically-Generated (Duplicate) Page Titles
You're Not Optimizing Your Site Pages' <Title> Tags
You're OK with Having One Internal Link and Even Orphan Pages
You're Ignoring Site Structure Issues That Are Hurting the User Experience
You're Not Optimizing Your Web Presence for Local Search
You've Updated Your Website But... Kept the Old URLs
One of the Most Common SEO Mistakes to Avoid in 2020: Improper Use of H1 Tags
You Have No Link Building Strategy
You've Overlooked to Add Your Sitemap to Your Robots.txt File
So, let's dive in:
1. You're Optimizing for the Wrong Keywords
And by "wrong keywords" I mean:
short-tail keywords
keywords that are "out of your league" (i.e. high competition keywords)
Instead, target long-tail keywords, that you can realistically rank for.
It's the "2-step" formula to success when optimizing a website for specific keywords.
Pro tip: if you're running an e-commerce website, target transactional keywords (they usually include terms like "subscribe", "for sale", "order", "apply", "reserve", "schedule" + the exact name of your branded product/service or general industry products/services)
2. You're Leaving Broken Images and Broken Links Lingering in There
One of the top SEO mistakes (since it's still so "popular") that you, too, might be making on your website:
You're being "sloppy" with your website's links and internal images.
In other words, you leave behind "residues" like:
misspelled URLs
images with no ALT-text
images with poor file names
image linking to files that no longer exist
3. You're Ignoring The Simple Fixes to Your Site's Performance Issues
Has your website started to... slow down?
How about implementing the quickest fixes at hand to speed up things a bit in there?
Here are 2 simple and effective steps you can take right away:
minify your CSS and JS files
enable a good caching plugin
4. You're Not Including the Target Keywords in Your URLs
"What are some common SEO mistakes?"
Sticking to a poor URL structure is one of them.
And why would you bother including keywords in your URL structure? Since users can still find your website, even if it doesn't have keyword-optimized URLs?
Because keyword-rich URLs make it easier for search engines to locate your website.
5. You're Using Automatically-Generated (Duplicate) Page Titles
Another one of the all-too-common SEO mistakes to avoid in 2020:
Generating your page titles dynamically instead of creating them manually.
Especially if we're talking about key pages on your website.
In this case, the risk of ending up with duplicate page titles, that will only confuse search engines, is very high.
6. You're Not Optimizing Your Title Tags: One of the Most Common SEO Mistakes to Avoid in 2020
And this is one bad habit that's going to cost you your website's high ranking in the search results.
As a rule of thumb, keep in mind to always insert your target keywords in the pages' title tags, as well.
And to stick to the proper length: less than 60 characters.
7. You're OK with Having One Internal Link and Even Orphaned Pages
"What SEO mistakes am I making with my website?"
You're underestimating the power of internal linking.
Or the negative impact that such a bad practice can have on your site's ranking if you want to put it this way.
In other words:
having just one internal link on a page is not enough
having orphaned pages, that are not linked to anywhere on your website, is... unacceptable
Source: searchenginejournal.com
The END of Part 1!
These are the first 7 common SEO mistakes to avoid in 2020 from the list that we've put together for you. So, stay tuned for the second series of SEO bad practices...
Now, how many of them have you identified on your own website?
Are you having trouble getting them fixed? Or maybe just not enough time or enough SEO expertise in your team?
We're ready to land you a hand with that.
Just drop us a line and let's identify and fructify all those missed SEO opportunities on your website.
Image by Andrew Martin from Pixabay
Adriana Cacoveanu / Jun 02'2020
Which tool should you be auditing your website with? In a Google PageSpeed vs Lighthouse “debate”, which score is right?
What's the difference between running a Google PageSpeed test and running Lighthouse Audit in Chrome?
You have all the reasons to be confused about the fact that they use similar technology, yet they deliver you different results.
It's time to shed some light here.
So, keep on reading to get your answers to questions like:
What Is Google Pagespeed Insights?
What Is Google Lighthouse?
What Are the Main Differences Between Them?
When Should You Use Each of Them?
1. What Is Google PageSpeed Insights?
Or:
“What is Google PageSpeed score?”
What does it measure? And what type of data does it use when evaluating your website?
Lab and real-world data...
In other words, Google PageSpeed will use both real-world data available in the Chrome User Experience report and lab data.
Now, if I was to put together a short, yet complete definition, it would be:
Google PageSpeed is a tool that analyzes the performance of your web pages, generating a report of the overall speed of your website. As well as actionable advice on how you can improve its score.
2. What Is Google Lighthouse?
“How does Google Lighthouse work?”
It uses lab data (only) to measure your website's performance, but also its SEO performance, PWA, and other best practices.
And here, you can already identify the first difference that any Google Lighthouse vs PageSpeed comparison reveals:
Lighthouse goes beyond the page speed metric when auditing your website.
3. Google PageSpeed vs Lighthouse: How Are They Different?
What's the difference or, better said, “the differences” between these two audit tools provided by Google?
PageSpeed Insights measures the performance metric only, whereas Lighthouse audits other aspects of a website, as well (SEO, accessibility, progressive web app, etc.)
Google PageSpeed uses a “combo” of lab and real-world data, whereas Lighthouse uses lab data only (under consistent conditions) to build its report
Lighthouse is now incorporated into PageSpeed Insights. It is PageSpeed's integrated analysis engine.
4. When Should You Use Google PageSpeed Insights?
So, you have your answers to your “Google PageSpeed Insights vs Lighthouse” dilemma. You know now how they differ from one another.
But how do you know when to use... PageSpeed, for instance?
Here are the 4 main scenarios:
you need to share a link to your website's audit report
you're only interested in checking your website's page loading speed
you want an accurate report of the loading times experienced by your website's visitors
you're not a big fan of using Chrome developer tools for analyzing your website's performance
5. When Should You Use Lighthouse?
What are the specific scenarios when you should consider turning to Lighthouse for auditing your website's performance?
when you want to run audits programmatically
when you need to evaluate other aspects of your website, in addition to its loading times
when you want to incorporate the Lighthouse API into your own systems
For instance, you can use Lighthouse API to automatically block those releases that don't meet your pre-defined performance and SEO standards.
6. Google PageSpeed vs Lighthouse: Key Takeaway
If there was only one takeaway that you'd take from this post it should be that:
While Google PageSpeed uses the information generated by Lighthouse, enriching it with real-world data, Lighthouse delivers you more than just one score. It goes beyond measuring your website's loading times.
Do you need to know how fast your website loads from its visitors' perspective?
Or do you need to dig deeper? To evaluate more than just its speed, knowing, though, that the results that you'll get are based on lab data only?
Now, let's say that you've already made your decision. You've chosen the website analysis tool that best suits your needs and you've run the test on your site.
With your list of optimization suggestions at hand... what do you do?
You can either put all your current projects “on hold” and ask your own team to implement those recommendations.
Or you can drop us a line and leave it to us.
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Adriana Cacoveanu / May 29'2020
You want it to be easy to use, to provide you with as much automated maintenance as possible and... up to 100% uptime. So, what's the best Drupal managed hosting solution for your needs?
And, let me guess: your “feature wishlist” is a bit longer actually:
autoscaling capability
multi-site support: you want to be able to manage all your Drupal websites from a single dashboard
CDN
backups and easy restores on a daily basis
support for migration
Given your list of requirements, what are your best choices here?
I've done my research and narrowed down your options to 4.
4 fully managed hosting solutions for Drupal that you should consider first.
Here they are:
But First: Why Managed Hosting? What Does It Really Get You?
Why would you want to go for a fully managed hosting solution for your Drupal website(s) instead of a... self-managed one?
Because:
you gain so much time; time that you'd otherwise invest in setting the Drupal infrastructure yourself, from the ground up
you avoid the risk of getting tangled up in software installation, configuration, infrastructure management (which can turn into a time and energy-consuming ordeal even if you have the know-how to set up a scalable VPS on AWS yourself)
you avoid the headache of maintaining a whole infrastructure of Drupal sites
you get remote administration that covers mundane, regular operations such as module updating
In short: you delegate your managed hosting provider with everything outside the codebase.
Why spend time on the ongoing maintenance of your website when you can invest it in... improving it? In growing it?
1. Pantheon Drupal Hosting
Disclaimer: it's the Drupal hosting that we are using here, at OPTASY.
But is Pantheon the best solution for your own use case? For your expectations of a hosting platform?
It is if it's a simplified, easy to use hosting solution that you need for your Drupal website(s). One that provides you with:
great support
solid tooling
almost instant patching
great developer experience
ease of use with Drupal
high availability and scaling
intuitive interface, which makes migrating and cloning your Drupal websites so much easier
lots of integrations
But let's see precisely what services it provides you with.
Pantheon Drupal's Key Features
php7
Git
24/7 Drupal support
Once-click core updates
Built-in stagging environments: dev, test, live
Global CDN
Solr
Developer dashboard
2. Acquia, One of the Best Drupal Managed Hosting Solutions
Acquia Drupal hosting is another great option to consider when you're trying to figure out which is the best service for you.
Why? Because it provides you with:
some of the best tools: both powerful and easy to use
enterprise-level security
cloud hosting specifically tailored to suit Drupal websites
unmatched scalability: Acquia Drupal 8 hosting powers some of the largest Drupal websites in the world
Acquia Drupal Hosting Key Features
Enterprise-grade security and recovery: a whole set of firewall controls and access and authentication controls; Acquia-hosted websites are known to be better equipped to recover from cyber attacks
A hosting platform optimized for Drupal exclusively
A turnkey solution: the built-in Node.js support enables you to develop your Drupal back-end apps, as well as your server-side rendered front-end apps, on the same hosting platform
Robust development tools: APIs, integrations, and command-line tools that help you build and optimize your apps in no time
Real-time monitoring, analyzing, and troubleshooting
Close to 100% uptime: Drupal hosting Acquia makes the best choice for you if your uptime and performance requirements are way beyond basic
Centralized dashboard for all your websites and a unique Drupal codebase
Source: acquia.com
3. SiteGround Drupal Hosting
Another popular hosting option for Drupal websites is Siteground, a platform robust enough to withstand the challenges of user-heavy, high traffic sites.
It's also the most versatile managed hosting solution on this list, for it meets the needs of both small website owners and enterprise and large organizations.
But why would you choose if over other Drupal 8 hosting services?
SiteGround Drupal 8 Hosting Key Features
Daily backups
1-Click Drupal installation
Responsive support from actual Drupal developers by mail, chat, helpdesk ticket
Dynamic NGINX caching (available only on some of the hosting plans)
Website transfer assistance with zero downtime
4. Cloudways Managed Drupal Cloud Hosting
Cloudways is not just one of your best Drupal managed to host options. It's also one of the most... different.
It allows you to choose the cloud hosting provider for your Drupal infrastructure. You're free to go for Amazon AWS or Digital Ocean, Google Cloud or maybe Vultr, you name it.
Why cloud hosting?
Because it's easier to scale, more cost-effective, and faster.
In short: it's top performance hosting that scales that you get with Cloudways.
But there are also other strong reasons why you'd want to choose to host your Drupal website(s) on Cloudways.
Cloudways Managed Drupal Hosting Key Features
Composer support
ease of use: just sift through all the different options that it provides you with through an intuitive UI, select the ones that you prefer via quick one-click access, and set up your Drupal website in no time
HTTP/2 support
PHP migration support
Free migration
SSD-Based Drupal Cloud Hosting
CloudwaysCDN
you get to host multiple Drupal websites on one server
you can add more team members and share server access across your entire team
built-in caching options
auto-scalable kyup servers: they downscale and upscale, depending on the amount of traffic on your website(s), with zero downtime
managed platform: you can spin up servers and deploy your apps in the blink of an eye
Final Word
The key takeaway is that choosing the best hosting services for your Drupal site(s) is crucial.
Imagine that you'd buy yourself a Porsche, but you don't afford a... garage for it. Or its maintenance costs.
See my point? When you run your website on a performance powerhouse like Drupal, you need to look for a hosting platform that can match such a robust setup.
And speaking of keeping your Drupal infrastructure secure and well-maintained, we have an entire team of Drupal experts that you can delegate your time-consuming maintenance tasks to:
updating Drupal modules
running security patches as they get released
monitoring your website's performance
monitoring it for suspicious activities
...
Just drop us a line and let's tailor a Drupal security and maintenance plan to suit your website(s) needs.
Image by kropekk_pl from Pixabay
Adriana Cacoveanu / May 28'2020
So, you need to do a quick risk assessment of your site. How do you perform a security audit?
Are there any quick and easy (and effective) things that you can do to evaluate your website and to detect any security risks lurking in there?
And what are some of the tools that you could use?
Here are the answers to all the dilemmas stemming from your main question:
"Security auditing: what do to?"
1. But First: What Is a Security Audit Report?
What do we mean by "audits" in this context?
pentests
regular security assessments
"security posture" tests
auditing logs
And what is a security audit report, more precisely?
Source: searchcio.techtarget.com
In short: when you run a security audit you evaluate your website's performance in relation to a list of criteria.
And, more often than not, you'd want to include other types of security diagnosis into your workflow, as well:
penetration testing: where you (or an expert in your team) simulate the actions of a potential hacker, performing several attacks on your website to test its resilience
vulnerability assessment: where you try to identify any security weaknesses
2. What Tasks Should You Put Into Your Security Audit Checklist? Top 11
What should you do in your regular security audits?
What security audit procedures to include?
We've put together a list of 11 steps to put on your checklist. So, when conducting a security audit the first step is to:
2.1. Determine the Assets that You'll Be Focusing On
Set the scope of your audit:
Which are the high priority assets that you'll be scanning and monitoring?
For example, your list could include key assets like:
sensitive customer and company data
internal documentation
IT infrastructure
You can't expect to future-proof your website's improved level security if you're going to use the same vulnerable IT equipment, right?
Next, you'll want to set your security perimeter, as well:
What are the things that your audit will cover and those that should be skipped?
2.2. List Out Potential Threats
You can't build a shield around your website against a "no-name" threat, right?
You need to go ahead and name those threats, so you know what to look for and how to adapt your future security measures:
Here are just some examples of security threats that you might want to put on your list:
negligent employees using weak passwords for sensitive company data
malware
phishing attacks
denial of service attacks
malicious insiders
2.3. Assess the Current Level of Security Performance
Another key step to put on your security audit checklist.
Your team could be using the strongest passwords. They could be sticking to rigorous security procedures and best practices.
And yet, they might not be informed about the latest methods that hackers use to infiltrate systems...
A good evaluation of your organization's current security performance will help you identify precisely weak links like that one.
2.4. Set Up Configuration Scans
Using a higher-end scanner will help you:
detect security vulnerabilities
assess the hardening of the PCs
Are there any malware/anti-spyware programs in there? Turned on encryption, settings that are temporarily changed?
Therefore, keep in mind to run some configuration scans, too, when you do a security audit. They make a great "ally" for spotting any config mistakes that people in your team might have made.
2.5. Keep an Eye on Reports (Not Just on the Urgent Alerts)
As you put all your focus on urgent alerts, you might be tempted to underestimate the value of the reports generated by your auditing tools.
Now, that's one risky thing to do.
Instead, you'd want to keep an eye on those reports, for they can be a tremendous source of valuable information.
"Information" that might look non-alarming to you now, but, which — with time, if a suspicious activity becomes a routine — can turn into a major threat.
One that you'd ignore by... overlooking to go through your reports.
2.6. Monitor DNS for any Unexpected Changes
Are there any signs of sloppiness when it comes to the credentials used for your domain?
The quicker you identify them, the lower the security risk.
2.7. Run Daily Scans of Your Internet-facing Network
As you'll security audit your website, you'll want to be alerted (on a daily basis, if possible) about any "surprising" changes.
2.8. Mirror Your Website
Why is this a "must" task to include in your security auditing plan?
Because by mirroring your website you spot some otherwise hard-to-access files and directories.
You'd be surprised at how many valuable:
internal IP addressing schemes
email addresses and phone numbers of people in your team
code-related comments
software versions
server names
... you can find in those comment fields.
2.9. Perform an Internal Vulnerability Scan
How? By opting for an enterprise-level vulnerability scanner.
What it does is install an agent on each computer in your organization, that will monitor their... vulnerability level.
How often should you run this type of scan?
Monthly or quarterly would be great.
2.10. Run Some Phishing Tests
You'll want to set up a routine of sending out fake phishing emails to people in your team.
It's still the most effective type of cybersecurity training that you could give your team:
they get a close-to-real-life experience of a phishing attack
they can assess their own vulnerability to scenarios where they'd give hackers access to sensitive information (by clicking on links or attachments in a phishing email)
2.11. Monitor Your Firewall's Logs
Watch for any inconsistent or unusual behavior in your firewall.
3. What Are Some of the Best Security Auditing Tools You Can Use? Top 5
Now that you have a plan put in place you need some tools to carry it out, right?
We've done our research, put together a list, then narrowed down the options to 5 tools that you should consider evaluating first:
3.1. The OWASP Testing Guide
A step-by-step checklist that'll streamline your manual testing efforts.
Note: running an OWASP top 10 check is one of those "quick and easy" things you that can do for assessing your website's security performance. You'd be testing it for 10 of the most common security risks.
3.2. Burp Suite
What if you wanted to put your security audit on autopilot?
You could go for Burp Suite to manually analyze your website, then run an active scan.
Note: the tool comes in two "flavors", a pro and a free version.
3.3. Nessus
If you're looking for an easy to use tool, Nessus Tenable's the one.
Use it to track down security vulnerabilities on your website. It's effective and it generates some detailed reports.
3.4. Qualys Web App Scans
Its main selling points:
great coverage
accurate reports
3.5. Rapid7
You might want to try their vulnerability scanner.
And 2 honorable mentions: Rapidfiretools.com and Risksense.
4. Final (Wise) Word
The keyword that best describes an effective security audit is "on-going":
It's definitelty not a one-time event, but rather a routine made of several "healthy" habits that you stick to.
A "routine" aimed at helping you formulate a custom set of security solutions:
network monitoring
data backup
employee education awareness
software updates
email protection
What if you don't have the resources — the time and the available people in your team — to run a security audit?
We're here to help.
Just drop us a line and let's tailor a security audit checklist that meets your website's specific challenges.
Image by raphaelsilva from Pixabay
Adriana Cacoveanu / May 22'2020
You've decided to jump on the cross-platform app development “bandwagon” and to build an app that targets both Android and iOS users.
An app that works on multiple frameworks and caters to multiple audiences... at the same time.
Now, the question that arises is:
Why would you go for React Native? Over any other cross-platform app development framework?
Why not... Flutter or Xamarin? Or maybe Ionic?
What are the key benefits that, as a business owner, you'd reap from going for this particular framework?
I've piled together all the reasons why you'd want to use React Native to build your cross-platform app with, then I've narrowed down the long list to... 5 reasons.
The strongest ones.
Here they are:
But First: What Is Cross-Platform App Development More Precisely?
Compared to native app development, cross-platform mobile development refers to:
Building a custom app meant to work on several platforms. And to be compatible to multiple software environments.
In short: a versatile mobile app that works on both iOS and Android.
Having one codebase, one development team and just one app to test (and to maintain) translates into lower costs.
And it bubbles up to the user experience, as well.
Now, getting back to the best possible answers to your legitimate question:
“What are the advantages of React Native for cross-platform app development?”
… here are 5 key reasons why you'd lean towards this framework:
Reason #1: It's Cost-Effective
Why? It's pretty obvious:
React Native allows you to code once and use the same codebase for any operating system; you get to (re)use the same code for both Android and iOS development
it provides you with platform-specific UI elements
there's only one JavaScript codebase to... test; fewer test cases for you to “juggle with” since you only need to fix all bugs and errors once
Reason #2: You Can Quickly Prototype an App
React Native accelerates your prototyping process, so you can:
get a functional cross-platform app up and running in no time
collect valuable user feedback much quicker
If you run a startup betting on a highly innovative app idea or a product company, the speed at which you manage to turn your idea into a prototype and to release it to the market is crucial.
Reason #3: Brand-Aligned and Consistent User Experience
“Why would I choose React Native as my cross-platform app development solution?”
Because it helps you keep consistency in your app's UI design.
Users get to interact with the same UI elements, irrespective of the platform that they use your mobile app on. Which instills a sense of familiarity and delivers them a uniform user experience...
Reason #4: You Expand Your Audience
And this is the first reason that you'd get in any “native app development vs cross-platform” debate.
As a cross-platform mobile app development framework, React Native enables you to widen your app's reach:
You build one app for both Android and iOS users.
Reason #5: You Build Your Mobile App Faster
Why go for React Native over other cross-platform app development frameworks?
Because it speeds up the development process:
Your development team can put together a mobile app faster thanks to the pre-built components that React Native provides them with.
Do they need to implement certain functionality into your cross-platform app? They stand high chances to find it, already coded by other React Native developers, and free to be deployed in your own app.
Reason #6: You'll Only Need One Development Team
A single team, that has hands-on experience working with a set of technologies.
Speaking of cost-effectiveness, right?
Moreover, by having a unique team handling all the stages of your project you avoid a scenario where too many teams risk to... sabotage one another. And to compromise the app project itself.
Final Word: React Native's the Right Cross-Platform App Development Solution for You If...
you're a startup
you're a small-medium company
the time factor is critical for you and you need to prototype a mobile app in no time
... with as little resources as possible
Don't have a React developer in your team?
We've got you covered. There's a whole team of React Native developers here, at OPTASY, ready to help you.
Just drop us a line.
Tell us about that innovative mobile app idea of yours, the functionalities that it should incorporate, and... we'll get back to you with a draft plan.
Image by ijmaki from Pixabay
Silviu Serdaru / May 19'2020