Category: Website

The Day I Learned DNS Has Feelings (and My MacBook Needed Therapy)

Posted on by Alma Vujasinovic

A WordPress Migration Story About DNS Propagation, Missing Images, and Database/File Mismatches

WordPress migrations look simple – until they aren’t.

If you’re a web designer, developer, agency owner, or business owner dealing with a broken website, this story will feel uncomfortably familiar.

Every web professional has that migration story.

This one involved DNS propagation, WordPress media files, partial restores, and a MacBook that sounded like it was preparing for liftoff.

It Started as a “Simple” WordPress Migration

The task was routine:

  • Database export and import
  • WordPress files moved
  • Admin access confirmed
  • Local preview tested

The site loaded. Images appeared. Confidence was dangerously high. This is usually the exact moment the internet decides to humble you.

The Website That Only Worked Sometimes

Once the site went live, it existed in two parallel realities:

  • In one version, everything worked perfectly
  • In the other, every image had vanished

Same database. Same URLs. Same WordPress install. Completely different results.

This is where browser tabs multiply, terminal windows reopen, and you start wondering whether DNS is a technical system or an emotional one.

The Hosts File Lie (Also Known as False Hope)

Eventually, I did what developers do when logic fails: I edited my hosts file. Instant success.

  • Images were back
  • Pages rendered perfectly
  • Everything looked fixed

Except for one small detail:

It only worked on my computer.

The rest of the world was still staring at broken images. At this point, my MacBook was at peak memory usage and quietly drafting a resignation letter.

The Part No One Explains Well About WordPress

Here’s the detail that causes most WordPress migration disasters:

WordPress stores content in two separate places:

  1. Image references live in the database
  2. Actual image files live on the server filesystem

If you restore:

  • the database from one point in time, and
  • the uploads directory from another point in time

You get a site that:

  • Remembers images perfectly
  • Cannot physically find them

No fatal errors. No warnings. Just empty image containers and quiet judgment.

Why Were NO Errors Showing?

This is what makes these issues so brutal:

  • WordPress does not verify file existence on load
  • Browsers don’t throw errors for missing media paths
  • Hosting dashboards often show everything as “healthy”

To a business owner, it looks random. To junior developers, it looks cursed. To experienced developers, it smells like a partial restore.

The Fix Wasn’t Code (And That’s the Point)

The solution was not:

  • Installing another plugin
  • Reinstalling WordPress
  • Clearing cache for the 30th time
  • Touching a single line of PHP

The fix was restoring the correct filesystem snapshot that matched the database. Sometimes the problem isn’t development.

It’s infrastructure alignment.

Lessons Learned the Hard Way

  • DNS is not instant and never will be
  • “It worked locally” proves nothing
  • Multisite history lingers longer than expected
  • WordPress will happily run without media files
  • If your laptop slows down, close tabs… or buy a new one

Why This Matters for Clients and Agencies

Most website disasters aren’t caused by bad code – sometimes.

They’re caused by:

  • Partial backups
  • Mismatched restores
  • Invisible hosting layers
  • Assumptions made under time pressure

This is exactly how:

  • Business owners lose trust in their site
  • Agencies inherit “mystery problems”
  • Developers burn hours chasing ghosts

My Takeaway Here

These problems are fixable.

But they require:

  • Experience with WordPress internals
  • Understanding of hosting infrastructure
  • Patience
  • And occasionally, a very calm support ticket

Need Help With a WordPress Migration or Cleanup?

If you’re:

  • Planning a WordPress migration
  • Moving hosting providers
  • Dealing with broken images or missing files
  • Inheriting a site that someone else partially restored

This is exactly the kind of issue that experienced planning prevents.

If you want it done cleanly, without surprises, downtime, or laptop trauma, feel free to reach out.

Your website (and your future self) will thank you.

Does my website need HTTPS?

Posted on by Alma Vujasinovic

YES, your website needs HTTPS .

“But my website doesn’t have any forms and it doesn’t collect information from users.”

It does not matter what kind of information is being collected. HTTPS protects more than just form data! HTTPS keeps the headers, URLs, and contents of all transferred pages confidential.

“There’s nothing sensitive on my site anyway.”

Just because your website is hosted safely in your account doesn’t mean it won’t travel through boxes and cables controlled by who knows how many corporate and state owned entities. Do you really want someone injecting images, scripts, or ad content onto your page so that it looks like you put them there? Or changing the words on your pages? Or using your website to attack other sites?  HTTPS prevents all of it. It guarantees content integrity and the ability to detect tampering. If we encrypt only secret content, then we automatically paint a target on those transmissions. Keep which of your transmissions contain secrets secret by encrypting everything.

“The site is HTTP, but our forms are submitted over HTTPS.”

This is as bad as not using any HTTPS at all! All the attacker has to do is change the link or form action to a URL on his/her own server. There’s no way to detect this because it happens over the wire with plain HTTP. Encrypt the WHOLE site and redirect HTTP to HTTPS.

“I can’t afford a certificate.”

They’re free.

“HTTPS is difficult to set up and maintain.”

It just works if Caddy is your web server. Yes, including certificate renewals. No thought required. For everyone else, HTTPS can still be automated by using a Let’s Encrypt client of your choice.

“Attackers can still impersonate my site, even if I use HTTPS.”

As long as your private key stays private, browsers will show warnings if attackers present a mismatched or invalid TLS certificate. And if the attacker does not use HTTPS at all, browsers should mark the impostor page as insecure. To this end, HTTPS guarantees authenticity.

“It works over HTTP just fine.”

Until browsers start flagging HTTP pages as insecure. Effective July 2018, Google’s Chrome browser marks non-HTTPS sites as ‘not secure’.

“HTTPS impacts SEO.”

You’re right—HTTPS improves it! Switching site URLs improperly may impact your search rankings, but HTTPS actually improves them. Just do the switch properly according to the search engine you’re optimizing for, and everything will be fine.

— HOW TO GET ON HTTPS —

The easiest way is through Let’s Encrypt and the Caddy web server, which enables HTTPS for all your sites automatically. There are plenty of other ways to get your site on HTTPS without much trouble.

Click here if you’re still stuck and need help with HTTPS or any other website related problems.

The Role of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in SEO in 2023

Posted on by Alma Vujasinovic

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been a game-changer in many industries, and SEO is no exception. As we approach the year 2023, it’s clear that AI will continue to play a crucial role in optimizing websites for search engines.

What is Artificial Intelligence (AI)?

AI refers to the use of computer systems to perform tasks that typically require human intelligence, such as learning, reasoning, and problem-solving. In the context of SEO, AI is used to analyze data, identify patterns, and make predictions to help websites rank higher on search engines.

How AI is Changing SEO

  1. Personalization AI technology can be used to personalize search results based on a user’s search history, location, and other relevant factors. This means that users are more likely to see content that is relevant to them, and businesses can target specific audiences more effectively.
  2. Natural Language Processing (NLP) NLP is a branch of AI that deals with the interaction between computers and human language. With NLP, search engines can better understand the meaning behind queries and provide more accurate results.
  3. Image and Video Recognition AI-powered algorithms can analyze images and videos to understand their content and context. This allows search engines to provide more relevant results for visual searches.
  4. Voice Search As voice search continues to grow in popularity, AI-powered virtual assistants like Siri and Alexa are becoming more sophisticated in understanding natural language. Websites that optimize for voice search will have a better chance of appearing in voice search results.
  5. Content Creation AI technology can be used to generate content, such as product descriptions and blog posts. While this technology is not yet perfect, it has the potential to save time and resources for businesses that need to produce a large amount of content.
  6. Predictive Analytics AI can be used to analyze user data and predict future behavior. This information can be used to optimize websites and improve user experience, which can ultimately lead to higher search engine rankings.

Conclusion

As we approach the year 2023, it’s clear that AI will continue to play a significant role in SEO. From personalization to predictive analytics, AI technology is transforming the way we optimize websites for search engines. Businesses that embrace these changes and incorporate AI into their SEO strategy will be better positioned to succeed in the ever-changing digital landscape.

Checklist: Preparing for a Website Redesign

Posted on by Alma Vujasinovic

If a website redesign is in your future or you’re thinking about revamping your current website, this checklist will help pull together all of the important information to maximize your budget and have a website that is optimized to meet your goals.

Decide Between a Full Website Redesign or Website Update and Optimization

REASONS FOR A REDESIGN

  • Your website hasn’t received a full redesign in 2-or-more years
  • You’re using outdated or limiting technology and/or coding standards
  • Your design needs a full overhaul
  • Navigation & content need to be revamped

Reasons to Optimize

  • Your website was recently redesigned
  • Your website isn’t performing at the level you’d like
  • The overall design is up to modern standard
If you checked more boxes in the redesign column, it might be time to consider a redesign. If more boxes are checked in the column for optimization, look for ways to improve upon what you have!

Determine your Timeframe and Budget

What is your Timeframe?  What is your Budget?
Your timeframe and budget may dictate between a complete redesign and a optimization.

Identify Benchmarks from your Current Website

Determine what is working on your current website: What do you like? What do you want to stay the same?

● Determine what is not working on your current website: Where are the problem areas? Have you gotten any negative feedback?

● Look at your analytics tools to get a baseline of the following statistics: Visits, Time on Site, Bounce Rate, Most Visited Pages, & Page Views.

Use the Free Analytics Tool: Google Analytics

● Keywords: Which keywords are you currently getting impressions for?

Use this Free Keywords Tool: Google Webmaster Tools

● Form submissions: How many form submissions are you currently receiving?

Now that you know a little bit about what you need and what you want, get to work on the content of your website.

Develop Personas

❏ Have you developed your personas? Establish details about your target

audience and personas to ensure your marketing efforts hit your target by

completing this Persona Toolkit.

Gather Your Company Branding

❏ Do you have your logo handy?

❏ Are you confident with your branding/style guidelines?

Build Website Navigation

A typical website includes the following pages: Home | About | Services/Products | Blog | Contact

● Review all the pages of your website and determine:

Are there any pages you’d like to add?

Are there any pages you’d like to remove?

Which pages are good, but could use some updating?

❏ Complete a URL mapping worksheet

❏ Complete a website navigation worksheet

Create Content

● Target Keywords

Do some keyword research and list which keywords or phrases you want to focus on.

● What is your Unique Selling Proposition (USP)?

Your USP is what sets you apart from everyone else. Write it down!

This is the first thing people see when coming to your website. It should include:

❏ The need/pain that the visitor has
❏ Why you’re uniquely qualified to solve their problem
❏ How you can solve their problem
❏ What action they should take next

● Do you have things that can show trustworthiness and authority?

❏ Certifications
❏ Awards
❏ Press
❏ Testimonials
❏ Customer reviews
❏ Case studies

Callouts & User Experience

● What action would you like the user to take?

❏ Call your Office
❏ Fill out out a contact form
❏ Sign up for an account
❏ Other

These will be your calls-to-action. There may be 2-4 things that are called out or promoted throughout the site. Each page should have a specific purpose and specific action that you want to the user to take.

Tools & Assets & Inbound Marketing Strategy

These strategies will draw people to your website:

● Have you defined which subjects you are the expert? Y/N

● Will you have a blog? Y/N

● Will you have a newsletter signup? Y/N

● Will you have a social media strategy? Y/N

● Will you create marketing offers and lead magnets? Y/N

❏ eBooks
❏ Toolkits
❏ Checklist
❏ Webinars
❏ Other

Determine the Goals for your Website

● As part of your sales and marketing goals, establish some specific goals for your website. Examples are: Number of Leads, Products Sold, Website Sales, Website Traffic, Form Submissions, Lead Conversions,

Determine the Technical Details

● Domain

What is the login/access to your current website domain?

● Hosting

Where is your current site hosted?

Where will your new site be hosted?

This may be based on: the content management system, the development company, your budget, among other details.

● SSL

❏ Have you switched your website from HTTP to HTTPS?

Google Chrome is rolling out updates for all websites that aren’t HTTPS to mark the page as “Not Secure”.

● Content Management System

❏ Have you received training for your content management system?

A content management system is how you’ll make updates to your website and manage your digital content. A few examples are: Hubspot, WordPress, or eCMS.

Ideas For Your New or Optimized Website

Now that you have a good understanding of what content your website needs to have, it’s time to start the design. Think about design and layout, color scheme, photography vs. graphics, messaging, and event different tools and marketing assets different websites have. Here are a few guidelines for determining what your site will look like:

● Find 3-5 examples of website you like:

a. Some from your industry

b. Some outside of your industry

c. It could be the whole site or parts

● Find 3-5 examples of website you don’t like:

a. This helps your Web Designer know what to stay away from unless there

is a compelling reason not to

● Look at your competitor’s websites:

a. They may be doing some things well

b. See what they aren’t doing as well at and how your website can do better

● Find marketing assets you like:

a. Tools or resources that your visitors want and would provide info for

b. Brainstorm a wishlist of potential ideas and prioritize from there

Website redesign conveys a great deal of technical intrepidity. You need to be on top of evolving trends, and revamp your website in a way that will transpose into weighable outcomes for your business. 

There are many advantages to working with a professional website designer. A good professional website designer should propose a wide variety of services scalable to your needs. If you want your business to reach new heights, contact us for the professional website redesign.

SEO Trends of 2019: Schema, Search Engines, & Speed

Posted on by Alma Vujasinovic

The most meaningful changes we saw in 2018 were the final implementation of Google’s mobile-first indexing and the quality of page speed.

What will happen in 2019?

Here are the topmost golden nuggets to hold in mind for 2019:

Continue reading “SEO Trends of 2019: Schema, Search Engines, & Speed”

Three TOP WordPress Premium Themes for 2017

Posted on by Alma Vujasinovic

WordPress has the distinct honor of being a highly configurable Content Management … (CMS), which was originally designed to address the needs of bloggers but eventually evolved into a platform that accommodates plugins and design widgets – adding not only aesthetic value, but also functionality.

There are a lot of premium WP Themes available on the Web designers’ market, including what ThemeForest offers, and it can be extremly difficult to pinpoint the optimum one – especially when people’s needs and business demands are constantly evolving. In addition, technology continues to develop, creating additional themes which better respond to changing user needs.

Here are my 3 TOP picks for the best premium WordPress themes for 2017, categorized and tagged according to their specific and relative fields and yours for grabs! This latest collection of the best WordPress themes will be updated to include some exciting new additions or if I come across some other awesome theme I think belongs to this list.

Continue reading “Three TOP WordPress Premium Themes for 2017”

10 Best WordPress Plugins

Posted on by Alma Vujasinovic

Content marketing is an important aspect of almost all new-age marketing campaigns. With the help of digital content, companies & organizations have been promoting their businesses across the globe and making lots of money.

In fact, content marketing is a process of developing & distributing relevant content consistently to attract the targeted audience and generate leads. Whether you operate a small business or handle big brands, you need to have a proper content marketing strategy.

WordPress is perhaps the best CMS when it comes to the creation and distribution of contents all over the World Wide Web. Content marketing experts use this platform to implement their marketing strategy primarily because of the availability of various Plugins (for content marketing).

Here is a collection of 10 best WordPress plugins that can help you to perform the various tasks of content marketing easily and boost your site’s productivity. Let’s have a look. Continue reading “10 Best WordPress Plugins”

What Questions to Ask Before Getting a Website Redesign

Posted on by Alma Vujasinovic

business-growth-the-next-step-website-redesignBusinesses continue to grow and it’s essential for a website and online presence to advance. Patterns change after some time, and in order for your business to stay ahead, your website design requires constant updates to keep up that trend.

However, often sites require full overhauls. Your website design may be outdated, it could perform ineffectively, or preventing your guests from getting to be clients. So how would you know when a site redesign is what your business needs?
Continue reading “What Questions to Ask Before Getting a Website Redesign”

How Websites Hurt or Help Marketing?

Posted on by Alma Vujasinovic

Most business owners don’t build their own building, they go and lease a space for their office, and they go to Staples for example and buy office furniture, they don’t try to build furniture. It always surprises me that business owners try to build their own website, especially when it’s the first most important and most used marketing tool for most businesses in this day and age.

A website has four to nine seconds to capture someone’s attention. The three main criteria website designers should follow: overall design, structure of content and the functionality of the website.

Do I need a website?

This shouldn’t even be a question. It’s 2016, you need to be where your customers are, and that is online – mobile, tablet and desktop.  Continue reading “How Websites Hurt or Help Marketing?”