Website Hosting. That ambiguous, mysterious thing that you need to pay for when you have a website. You know it’s important, but you’re not entirely certain why, or what it’s even doing for you. And you definitely don’t know why some companies are paying $22 a month for it and others are paying $500.
Today we’re going to lay it all out in the open. We’re explaining what hosting is, what the different categories of hosting are, why the distinctions between them are important, and how IFC’s hosting is a little different. (And by different, we of course mean better.)
Imagine you just checked into the cutest little B&B. You loved the hosts so much, you never wanted to leave. They always had the perfect room set aside just for you. If you ran out of toothpaste, they would replace it right away. The Wi-Fi was never down. And they just took really good care of you.*
Website hosting is basically like that! Even though it seems like your website gets magically pulled from the aether to appear in peoples’ browsers, it actually resides on a physical server somewhere on the planet. In fact, we say, it is “hosted” on that server. This is website hosting.
(Psst! If you’d prefer to watch Tony’s video explanation of website hosting–complete with explosions–you can do thathere.)
So if hosting is like having an idyllic little B&B for your website where it gets to live and be taken care of…you're probably still wondering why the price seems to vary so much from company to company?
Not all website hosting is created equal. There are not only different types of server options, but there are also different service options. Some hosting situations are less like high-class B&Bs are more like cheap youth hostels (or worse). Choosing one over the other depends on your budget, your goals, and the experience you want for both you and your customers.
Shared hosting is like the youth hostel I mentioned earlier. A lot of people are packed in. No one there is looking for bells and whistles. Security is fine, bordering on downright terrible.
With Shared Hosting, multiple customers rely on the resources from a single server, sharing those resources across the server. It’s more affordable, but this method is also more prone to performance problems and security issues as you have no control over how other customers will use your server. When one website is using a lot of resources, it can slow or crash the other sites on the server, leading to all sorts of problems for you and your customers.
Here we’re back to more of a B&B situation with “quality over quantity” reigning supreme. A place where each guest feels truly secure and cared for.
With Dedicated Hosting, you have an entire server to yourself. It’s more expensive than Shared Hosting, but it offers the best in performance and security standards because you (or in the case of IFC clients, we) are in control of everything.
Not only are there shared vs. dedicated servers–there are also hosting service options. Let’s take a look at those.
Unmanaged (or self-managed) hosting means the customer is responsible for managing and maintaining the speed, performance, and security updates of their own website platform and server. This is both time-consuming and overwhelming if you don’t have a dedicated IT person on staff.
With managed hosting, the hosting provider takes care of server management, website platform updates, plugin updates, and maintenance. An expert who understands websites and hosting going in everyday and making sure everything is working in your favor? It’s worth the investment for peace of mind.
At IFC, we exclusively offer dedicated servers and fully managed hosting for our clients. As an advanced agency partner of WP Engine (the industry leader in WordPress hosting), we currently own 5 dedicated servers housed at the state-of-the-art Google Data Center in Council Bluffs, IA. This means that as a hosting client of IFC, you get the benefit of the fastest page speeds in the industry-backed up by the highest security standards in the business. We also provide a CDN (content delivery network) by default, something most other hosting providers do not, which means your website is even snappier on our servers.
Plus–high quality hosting isn’t just about having a faster, more secure site. A faster, more secure site comes with dividends of its own. (You may remember our post about the 5 Hidden Costs of Website Downtime?)
In addition to fully managed hosting on dedicated servers, we also include…
Conclusion
Congratulations! You are now website hosting experts! You now know your hosting options, the benefits of certain types of hosting, and how investing in them are good for both your own peace of mind, and your customer’s experience with your company.
If you weren’t hosting with us before you read this and super secure, fast, managed-for-you hosting sounds like a win-win, get in touch today.
Dear IFC clients, friends, and community,
Another year gone, another year-end letter. How do they each go by so fast? As I look back on this year, I’m constantly reminded of the two things that keep IFC up and running, our customers and our team. We couldn’t do it without either of you, and I am super grateful for you.
To our customers, thank you for being a part of the IFC family! If you are a new customer in 2023 or you’ve been with us for years, you are the best 🙂 Without you, there is no IFC. I am incredibly thankful for you. Thank you for trusting us with your projects and your businesses!
And to my team… where do I even start? The projects we deliver are of the highest quality. This is not meant to be a brag, but a testament to your hard work and expertise. I am so thankful for each and every one of you. 2023 saw some of the most amazing projects that this company has ever produced and it’s all thanks to you. I appreciate each and every one of you.
So what’s coming up in 2024, you ask? We have some exciting projects already lined up, but perhaps most importantly, we are revealing a brand new service to our existing hosting customer base. It’s called Content Club, and it’s going to be awesome. Over the last year or two we’ve worked to address a gap in our services that occurs between delivering a final project and our ongoing hosting. Content Club is a way for us to help YOU - our clients - continue delivering fresh and uniquely tailored content every month. It’s not easy to stay on top of content creation, and we’re going to jump all in with you. Plus, we have a cool logo and stickers for Content Club members 🙂 Stay tuned to learn more in January!
As we end the year, I want to briefly reflect on all we’ve accomplished. As a business owner I often get stuck thinking, “What’s next?”. While that can be a good approach, the truth is that you can miss out on some stuff, like celebrating what you’ve achieved. We achieved so much (92 total projects to be exact) as a company and I want to celebrate that. If you are a business owner, employee, etc… take time this holiday season to reflect on your accomplishments. You deserve it. And if you were a part of one of those 92 projects, we are so proud to be your partner.
Enjoy the holiday season everyone! Thank you for a project-filled 2023 and we’ll see you all in 2024. Cheers!
Sincerely,
In part 2 of our Democratizing series, we discuss the ways we are democratizing websites for our clients.
As we mentioned last week in our Democratizing Messaging post, our two driving principles are:
One of the ways we do this is by continuing our own education and experimentation. We always strive to be the cutting-edge experts our clients need and deserve.
But another is building our clients’ assets out to set them up for their own success on their own terms. And we originally started this process with our websites.
All of our current clients will have heard us talk about how we use WordPress (and specifically Oxygen) to build out our websites. The reason is that we firmly believe it is best for them:
We require all of our clients to host their websites with us. Which doesn’t sound like “democratizing” at all, does it? But this allows them to take their minds off of security and plugin updates. As much as we want to do what we’re good at, we want you to do the same. By taking this responsibility away from the client, it frees you to do more of what you’re good at, running your business.
We often tell our clients that there are two ways to build a website. The first is fast and easy. This may sound great–especially for those who want a website like…yesterday. But “fast and easy” for the developer almost always means “a nearly impossible pain-in-the-butt” for the client.
So we take a little more time to build our websites. We want to be able to “pass the keys” off to our clients in a way that gives them autonomy with their own content. We also provide a training session (or sometimes two) so that they have at least a basic understanding of how to do anything they might want to do on their own.
We are, of course, here for our clients who want us to make all their updates. But we’ve had so many conversations that start with “we have no idea how to update our website.” That kind of thing–where you can’t even make changes to a sales asset that you own breaks our hearts. So we’ll always be on the lookout for ways to make things more accessible and easier for you.
One of the most confusing concepts in the history of web design (for non-web designers) is the difference between a homepage and a landing page. Because, as we are often asked, “Don’t customers ‘land’ on our homepage?”
Yes. Yes, they do. So let’s dive into why they are different.
The homepage is what appears when someone types in your url (your website’s address). Think of it a bit like your shop’s front window (if it were a brick & mortar store) When you peek through a store’s window–do you get every detail about every product, a sense of how friendly the staff is, and immediate knowledge of the entire history of the company? No! But you do get a general sense of whether or not you might want to go in.
The purpose of your homepage is similar. It exists to give new visitors a snapshot of why they might like to work with your business or organization. It should include things like a shortlist of product/service highlights, a mini bio, a testimonial, and the steps it takes to get the ball rolling on your working relationship. Navigation to interior pages should also be clear to both new and returning visitors.
A landing page is almost exactly the same as a homepage. But instead of it existing as the front window for the entire business–it’s more like a front window for one particular product, service, or initiative.
For example, say you own a boutique skincare company, and you’ve just created a makeup line. If all you do is add those products to your current shop, you are dividing the attention of your prospective customers. And customers who feel divided and overwhelmed are less likely to make a purchase. You don’t want that under normal circumstances, but you definitely don’t want that with a new product launch.
If you create a landing page for that new makeup line, you can talk about the benefits specific to those products. Because it is its own page, you can send people directly there from your ads about the make up. If they’ve clicked through from your ad to the page and all they find is what they saw in the ad–they are more likely to make a focused purchase.
Then, when they check out, they’ll provide you with an email address. And through your ongoing email campaigns, you can let them know about your other products, creating life-long customers.
While you “land” on both homepages and landing pages, and they can have similar types of information–their overall purposes are a little different. Keep your homepage high level and engaging for your entire business. Keep your landing pages more specific to certain products, initiatives, and campaigns.
(Hey. Psst! Want to get a little deeper into how landing pages can help your business? We wrote a post about that, too.)
Need help developing a more effective homepage or landing page? Contact us today.
Photo by Fabian Irsara on Unsplash
Up until July 1, 2023, when you said your website had “Google Analytics” what you really meant was that your website had Google’s “Universal Analytics.” Whether or not you used it–this allowed you to track a lot of different types of website data over time including bounce rates, demographics, and even sales funnel effectiveness. However, between GDPR and moving toward a cookieless future, Google decided to revamp its analytics system to make privacy more central to its collection methods.
Enter Google Analytics 4 (GA4). GA4 is Google’s next-generation measurement solution which has replaced Universal Analytics. In fact, as of July 1 of this year, Universal Analytics is no longer processing new data. In order to continue tracking visitor behavior, you’ll need a GA4 property. (Or, you could move away from Google’s analytics system entirely and try something else.)
If you are a client of IFC Studios AND we were responsible for creating your original Google Analytics (Universal Analytics) account, we have automatically migrated you over to Google Analytics 4. You’re all set and have nothing to worry about.
If you are a client of IFC but we installed an analytics snippet from a previous account you already managed, you will be responsible for ensuring that your account is migrated to Google Analytics 4. Instructions can be found here.
While we can all appreciate the fact that privacy has (finally) entered the data collection conversation, businesses still rely on data analytics to make decisions about product/service effectiveness. To be sure you’re still able to use website data to make informed decisions, remember to switch to GA4 and to grab your UA data, if you want it, before it’s no longer available.
And if you’re feeling stuck, or need help making the switch, contact us today! We’d love to help however we can.
Over the last few weeks, we have shared how messaging, visuals, and media play an important role in giving your branding more impact.
This week, we're going to wrap up this series and discuss your website. In today's digital age, a strong online presence is crucial for any business looking to make an impact. One of the most effective ways to enhance your company brand is through a well-designed website.
In this blog post, we will explore some best practices for web design that can help you create a more impactful brand and leave a lasting impression on your audience. Ready to dive in? Let's do this!
When it comes to web design, consistency is super important. Your website's layout, color scheme, fonts, and overall style should align with your brand identity. Consistency across all web pages creates a sense of professionalism and helps users recognize and remember your brand easily. When I visit a website that isn’t consistent, I’m left with an overall sense that this company is unorganized and doesn’t care enough about their customers to invest in a pleasant website experience.
To achieve consistency in web design, it is important to establish a clear set of guidelines and standards for your brand's visual elements. This includes defining a consistent color palette, selecting fonts that reflect your brand's personality, and creating a cohesive layout that is easy to navigate. By sticking to these guidelines across your website, you can enhance the professionalism of your business and make it easier for users to identify and remember your brand.
A user-friendly navigation menu is another super important factor for a positive user experience. It is important to strike a balance between creativity and functionality when designing your website's menu. Make sure it is intuitive and easy to navigate, allowing visitors to find the information they need quickly. Avoid cluttering your navigation bar with too many options, as simplicity is key. Too often we’re asked to add links in the main navigation that are a better fit for the footer or other areas. Less options in your navigation means your website visitors are less likely to be overwhelmed and can more easily be directed where you want them to go.
Listen, folks. It's 2023. We've been saying this for over a decade, but it’s time to build a responsive website. Responsiveness means your website is built to adapt seamlessly, or “respond” accordingly, to various screen sizes, ensuring a consistent and enjoyable browsing experience for all users. If you don't, expect to see higher bounce rates —users that click out of your site right away— in your traffic analytics. At IFC, we often kick off the web design phase with a mobile-first framework. In certain industries we are consistently seeing over 50% of website traffic coming from mobile devices, making it the primary interface for visitors.
Visual elements play a significant role in capturing your audience's attention and conveying your brand message effectively. Use high-quality images, videos, and graphics that align with your brand's tone and values. You’d be amazed at what high-quality media can do to a website. Do not skimp on your photos and video. Be mindful of loading times, though, as slow-loading visuals can negatively impact user experience.
Guide your website visitors towards desired actions by incorporating clear and prominent call-to-action buttons (or CTAs for short). Whether it's signing up for a newsletter, making a purchase, or contacting your team, strategically place these buttons throughout your website to encourage user engagement and conversions. Just try not to overwhelm your customers; try to stick with three or four CTAs at most.
In today's fast-paced world, users expect websites to load quickly. Slow-loading websites can lead to high bounce rates and a negative perception of your brand. Optimize your web design by compressing images, minifying code, and leveraging caching techniques to ensure speedy loading times.
Leverage the power of social media by integrating your website with popular platforms. Add social sharing buttons to encourage visitors to share your content, and display social media feeds to showcase your active presence. This integration helps expand your brand's reach and fosters engagement with your audience.
By implementing these best practices for web design, you can create a visually appealing and user-friendly website that enhances your company's brand impact. Remember: consistency, mobile responsiveness, engaging visuals, clear call-to-actions, optimized loading speed, and social media integration are all key elements to consider.
With an impactful website, you'll be on your way to leaving a lasting impression on your target audience and driving business success. By differentiating yourself from others in the market, you can attract more customers and build a strong reputation for your brand. Setting your brand apart from your competitors not only helps you stand out in a crowded marketplace but also establishes your brand as a leader and builds customer loyalty.
Want some help making your website more impactful? Contact us today! We'd love to hear from you.
In today's digital age, having a functional and reliable website is critical for businesses of all sizes. Your website is often the first point of contact for potential customers, and it serves as a 24/7 storefront for your online presence. However, website downtime—the period when your website is inaccessible or not functioning properly—can have severe consequences for your business, beyond just the inconvenience of a temporary outage. In fact, website downtime can result in hidden costs that can impact your business's bottom line. Let's take a closer look why this matters for your business.
One of the most significant, hidden costs of website downtime is the loss of revenue and sales. When your website is down, customers cannot access information about your products and services, or make purchases. This can lead to missed sales opportunities, especially if your business relies heavily on online sales or e-commerce. According to a report by Uptime Institute, “over 60% of failures in 2022 resulted in at least $100,000 in total losses, up substantially from 39% in 2019.” Ouch.
Your website serves as a crucial touchpoint for your brand. When it is “down” or not functioning correctly, it can damage your brand’s reputation. Customers who experience website downtime may perceive your business as unprofessional, unreliable, or even incompetent. They may lose trust in your ability to help them—a negative perception that can be hard to course correct. Additionally, dissatisfied customers may share their sub-optimal experiences with others, leading to a loss of potential customers and a tarnished brand image.
Website downtime can also impact customer satisfaction. Customers who are unable to access your website or encounter errors while trying to make a purchase or find information may become frustrated and dissatisfied. This can result in lost customers, decreased customer loyalty, and negative reviews or feedback. A decrease in customer satisfaction can have long-term consequences for your business, as satisfied customers are more likely to become repeat customers and recommend your business to others.
When your website is down, your customer support team may be inundated with inquiries and complaints from frustrated customers. This can result in increased customer support costs, as well as additional time and resources spent on resolving the issues caused by website downtime. In some cases, you may need to invest in external technical support or hire IT professionals to identify and fix the issue, resulting in additional recovery costs.
Website downtime can also impact your search engine optimization (SEO) efforts and search rankings. When your website is down, search engines may not be able to crawl and index your website, resulting in a drop in search rankings. This can lead to a decrease in organic traffic, which can have a long-term impact on your website's visibility and discoverability online. Recovering lost search rankings and SEO efforts can be time-consuming and costly, further adding to the hidden costs of website downtime.
Website downtime is not just a minor inconvenience; it can have severe consequences for your business. The hidden costs of website downtime include: loss of revenue and sales, damage to brand reputation, decreased customer satisfaction, increased customer support and recovery costs, and impact on SEO and search rankings. It's crucial for businesses to understand the true cost of website downtime and take proactive measures to prevent and mitigate its impact. This includes investing in reliable hosting and website monitoring solutions, regularly backing up your website, having a plan in place for handling downtime emergencies, and communicating transparently with customers during periods of downtime.
At IFC, we are an official agency partner of WP Engine. As an agency partner we benefit from a 99.99% website uptime guarantee for our clients’ websites. With multiple dedicated servers under our umbrella, we receive up-to-the-second reports on website performance, uptime/downtime, and security vulnerabilities, along with daily backups for handling any emergencies. Keeping our clients' websites up and running is a job we take very seriously, and we have invested in the best technologies to make that a priority.
If you’re looking for a partner who puts your website security first, contact us today.
Three years ago I began developing all of our WordPress websites using a page builder called Oxygen. In the 10 years prior, I had developed and maintained websites with other builders - Elementor, Divi, Beaver Builder, WPBakery - to name a few. I was always jumping from builder to builder, feeling like something was missing. Each builder shined in a few areas, but felt limiting in others. Then I found Oxygen… and I haven’t looked back since.
Oxygen Builder is a special breed of WordPress plugin. It’s a tool with extremely powerful functionalities, miles ahead when compared to what other page builders can do. Oxygen’s code output is clean, lean, and free of bloat. This is why pages built with Oxygen load lightning fast and get excellent Google PageSpeed and Lighthouse scores. This, in turn, keeps visitors and search engine bots happy. There are so many reasons we rely on Oxygen for our client’s websites, but here are the three most important ones:
The undeniable truth is that website loading speeds are one of the most important factors in visitor retention, customer satisfaction, bounce rates, conversion rates, search engine rankings, etc. This needs its own blog post, honestly. The benefits to your business from fast page load speeds are vast. If you don’t have a fast-loading website, you're losing out on potential business, period.
In comes Oxygen. As the leanest page builder on the market (up to 50x leaner than most popular page builders) there is less code that needs to be loaded on each page, resulting in ultra-fast load times. Oxygen also deactivates your WordPress theme. That’s right, it doesn’t need a theme. For those of you who know, you know. WordPress themes are difficult to maintain, get outdated easily, and ultimately limit what you are capable of in WordPress.
Want more proof? Check out these videos:
2X as fast as Elementor: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-cH4htVcPrs
Divi vs Elementor vs Beaver Builder vs Oxygen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RmIrqJ9Wd0U
There is simply no compromise when it comes to page load speeds. Your website either loads fast, or it doesn’t. With the sheer number of benefits that come with fast-loading websites, we can’t rely on anything slower to build our client’s websites.
Remember how I mentioned themes earlier? With Oxygen, you can forget about themes. The first thing that happens when you install Oxygen is your current theme gets deactivated. When we build with Oxygen, you’re getting a 100% custom website from scratch. No reliance on an existing theme or framework means no limitations when it comes to what we can do. Every site we build on Oxygen is 100% different from any other site we’ve built. No cookie-cutter templates here.
As a visual page builder with drag-and-drop functionality, anyone can learn how to build with it. We have clients who’ve had to learn how to program HTML in order to update their previous websites. So frustrating. It is ultra-important to us, and to me personally, that when we build websites, ease-of-use for the client is of paramount importance.
How easy will this website be to maintain once we pass it off? Can the client easily make updates on their own? How can we build this in an elegant way so our clients can manage the most important parts of their website from day one? These are the questions we ask with each of the websites we build, and Oxygen allows us to build our websites in a way that makes it easy for clients to manage and maintain. A win-win for everyone.
At IFC, we make decisions based on what is best for our customers. After 12+ years of building WordPress websites with all the builders on the market (trust me, all of them) we simply haven’t found a faster or more customizable builder than Oxygen. Hands down, it wins in every category against the competition. All these things result in more business for our customers, and that’s why we build our websites with Oxygen.
Dear IFC clients, friends, and community,
This is my first official year-end letter, but as we continue to grow our client base and community reach, I want to make it a priority to write to you all as each year comes to a close. I’ll start by addressing the two groups that make IFC a success.
First, to our customers, thank you from the bottom of my heart. How can I even begin to express my appreciation for trusting your businesses to us? You are the reason we exist and the reason I get to wake up every day and do what I love. I am so thankful for each and every one of you.
Second, to my team. You are like family to me. We’ve been through so much together and I’m incredibly proud to lead you all. I couldn’t think of a better group to write, design, capture, and create with. I am so thankful for all of you.
This coming year is an especially exciting one. We have some very exciting client projects lined up along with some big IFC updates. Stay tuned for a fresh IFC branding update and a killer new website in early 2023! YAY!
When I founded this company over 10 years ago, I built it on the foundation of customer service. At the time I was far from an expert in web design or development, but I thought that if I could give each of my clients the personalized experience they deserved, I could start something special. As a testament to that approach, and a thank you to your continued business, we continue to serve Midwest businesses with that creative spirit and hope to continue for many years to come.
I hope you all have a wonderful holiday season! Thank you for an amazing 2022 and we’ll see you all in 2023!
Sincerely,
