The Power of Backups Backups can be a site-saver. Site infected by malware? You can use a backup to roll back to before the malware set up shop. Made an irreversible mistake when redesigning? Roll back to your backup to save yourself the trouble of troubleshooting.  When done properly, backups are a fabulous way to ensure your site bounces back from numerous site problems.  But how about when you’re doing routine maintenance on your site or refreshing its design? What backups do you need for that? Some of the answer will depend on your site, but we’ll walk you through…

Malware – short for malicious software – is a widespread problem. There’s many ways that malware can infect your hosting account. Common ones include clicking suspicious email links, downloading software or plugins that have already been infected with it, and viewing sites showing malware ads.  Malware can inflict a range of damage to your computer or hosting account, from site defacement to stealing your passwords and sensitive information.  Pair Helps Protect You Here at Pair Networks, we’re dedicated to giving you a secure, protected web hosting experience. That’s why we have a team dedicated to security solutions. They not only…

What’s the Point of a Contact Page? As its name indicates, a contact page is a website page dedicated to helping people get into contact with you. Many contact pages give business contact information, like business numbers or email. They also sometimes offer a form that visitors can fill out. This form is called a “contact form.” Contact pages can bring invaluable business inquiries, so it’s a page you see on many business sites.  When setting up a contact page, it’s essential to figure out whether you want to list your business contact details or use a contact form. Of…

What’s New with WordPress 5.7 WordPress 5.7 is 2021’s first big WordPress update, and it’s bringing some big changes. WordPress 5.7 is introducing new Gutenberg blocks, some changes to the auto updates and iframe features, as well as a big jQuery update.  If you haven’t been paying attention to the recent WordPress core updates, then jQuery is the one aspect of this update you should be investigating. That’s because these jQuery changes in 5.7 can cause site-breaking incompatibilities with plugins and themes. What exactly is happening with jQuery? So what exactly is happening with jQuery in WordPress 5.7? Well, WordPress…

Are You Parting Ways with Your Web Designer?  Are you parting ways with your web designer? If so, make sure you ask them all the important questions before they leave. Unless you’ve been incredibly involved in the process (and even then), there are likely things you don’t know about your website that you may need in the future.  Why do you need to go through this extra work now? Well, you may not be able to get into contact with your web designer later on. It’s better to be on the safe side and ask your web designer about your…

What Are Backups? Server backups play an important role in protecting your site. At a glance, server backups are a collection of everything on your server. You save them in case anything goes wrong on your server or site. That way, in the case of an emergency, you can overwrite your current server files with a clean version from before.  This makes a server backup invaluable. You never know when a site emergency might take place. Your site could get hacked. Your site maintenance could go terribly awry.  A server backup not only gives you peace of mind, but also…

Why is Site Speed Important Website speed is an important facet of the web design process. If you don’t factor in your site load time, you could be missing a critical piece of your visitor’s journey.  Are we being overdramatic? Well, we don’t think so. Here’s why: Google uses site speed as a search ranking factor, and there’s research supporting that fast sites have better conversion rates.  Better search engine rankings and conversion rates mean more meaningful traffic to your site. So your site speed is something to consider when building and maintaining a website.  Assess Your Site Speed Not…

Warning: This is a tutorial for advanced users. If you are not comfortable with file permissions, we recommend contacting our support team for help.  File Permissions File permissions are what they sound like: a set of permissions that determine who can and cannot access your files. These permissions not only affect who can view the file but also who can edit and execute it. It’s imperative to take the time to set up your file permissions correctly. Badly set file permissions can be a security risk, allowing anyone to access or execute items on your server.  WordPress is no exception….

What is 24/7 Support? 24/7 Support means that you can contact our support team at any hour of the day, any day of the week. Pair Networks support is 24/7 and 365 days a year. That means that they’re even available to assist you on holidays.  You can call in, email, or submit a ticket through our account control center. Since our support staff works around the clock, you can rest assured that someone’s online and working towards your ticket.   Why You Need 24/7 Support for Web Hosting 24/7 support may not seem like a big deal. But when your…

What You’ll Need: A Pair ShopSite Hosting Account A Doba Account What is a Dropship Store? A dropship store is a business that doesn’t need to keep the products they sell in stock. Instead, they take the orders they receive and pass them onto a third-party supplier. The supplier then takes care of the handling and shipping.  Dropshipping is predominantly done online, so you need to set up your e-commerce storefront. This storefront is where people will place orders for the products, then you’ll let the supplier know where to ship.  There are benefits to running a dropshipping store. For…

Your website serves as an ambassador to your brand and podcast. It’s natural to include a way for visitors to access your podcast on various podcasting platforms. Even if you have your podcasts available for listening directly on your website, some people prefer a certain platform.  So if you want to add your podcast to your website, how do you do so? We’ve put together this guide to help you do just that.  The first step is to find your podcast’s link on the different platforms. We’ve included steps on how to do this on popular platforms below. Once you…

Payment is an integral part of an e-commerce site. After all, you don’t want to give your products away for free. You want to make money! So every e-commerce site needs to consider what payment system works best for them. Some CMS make the choices easy, like Weebly, while others give you more options.  So how do you know what payment processor is best for you? We’ll walk you through the basics and give you the information you need to help you make the best choice.  What is a Payment Processor? But first, we want to make sure we’re all…

Marketing has a lot of industry-specific terms and acronyms. If you’re new to the marketing scene, it can look intimidating. But we’re here to tell you that you don’t have to be afraid. Marketing terms are usually very straightforward when you find out their background. In this article we’ll be covering what a “landing page” is. While it sounds similar to a website, they are not quite the same. After reading this article, you’ll be able to confidently distinguish between the two (and be able to build your own awesome landing pages).  What is a Website? You’re likely already familiar…

Content marketing is a common staple in many marketing plans. Not only is it a great way to establish your business as a thought leader, it also can greatly help your site’s SEO. After all, a lot of the things SEO requires can be accomplished through your content.  So content is important. However, many business owners get so caught up in churning out new content, they neglect a valuable resource: old content.  Why You Should Update Your Content Updating your content can give you access to an untapped content resource. You’ve already put in the work to create it, so…

Why Would You Need to Change Your Business Information? Like all things, businesses change over time. As you grow your business, you may find yourself making changes for its betterment. You might move to a new business address, change your core hours, or maybe just tweak your business contact details.  Whatever the case, changes to your business is a natural occurrence. Just be sure to update the internet when you make a change!  We understand this can seem a bit overwhelming if you don’t know where to start. After all, the internet is a big place! But don’t worry –…

Why You Need to Adjust Your Website for the Amount of Traffic Having a lot of traffic is a goal for many websites. More visitors means more ad revenue or eyes on your blog pages. As your traffic increases, you still want a fast website that can handle whatever your visitors throw at it. In fact, a faster website is not only a better user experience, it has a bundle of positive side effects. That’s why it’s important to take steps to better outfit your website when your traffic increases.  How Traffic Works Before we dive into how to adjust…

What You Need:  Pair Managed WordPress Hosting What is an FAQ and why is it so great? FAQs are pages that contain a list of Frequently Asked Questions. They’re often used as a self-service option to keep you from expending valuable resources answering the same questions over and over. Instead, customers and visitors can easily answer their own questions by visiting the FAQ page! Then you can divert your extra energy to more important pursuits, like tackling your website summer cleaning checklist!  We’ll be going over how to create a fully functional FAQ page in WordPress, a popular site builder. …

Enjoying another year of running a website? We hope so. After all, helping people fulfill their website dreams is one of the reasons Pair Networks started.  But as many of us find out, after a certain amount of time owning a website, some things on our to-do lists slip through the cracks. These forgotten jobs can build up over time and eventually may affect your site’s SEO and security.  That’s why we’re bringing you this article to help you shore up any loose ends on your website and ensure you’re running the best version possible.  We’ll be going over some…

What You’ll Need:  A Pair Hosting Account One-Click Wiki Creation with PairSIM Wikis are a great way to gather knowledge and information in one place. Whether internal or external, you can harness the power of a wiki to gather information on a topic (or range of topics). One of wikis greatest strengths is that others can easily contribute, so you can crowdsource the knowledge for a subject.  So wikis are great tools. But how do you set one up? Well, we have good news for you. Wiki installation is easy, especially with tools like our very own PairSIM.  What is…

What You’ll Need: Pair Shopsite Hosting Account Custom Domain What is Shopsite®? Shopsite is an e-commerce solution that helps shops of all sizes get started with e-commerce. We’ve been partnered with Shopsite for over 15 years, so we’ve been in the unique position to watch numerous online stores get started and flourish with their Shopsite website.  But what is Shopsite exactly? It’s a robust e-commerce site builder with a wide selection of tools designed to make e-commerce creation easy. No coding is required – you can set up everything with their easy-to-use interface.  But if you prefer to work in…

What You’ll Need: A Pair WordPress Hosting Account The Free Popup Maker Plugin (Learn How to Install Popups Here) Optional: Pair Site Staging Enabled to Test Site Changes (Learn How Here) Procedure Overview: We’ll use Popup Maker, a free, easy-to-use WordPress plugin, to add a banner without needing to code. We’ll simply edit the text, choose a few settings, and deploy the new banner. Why a Banner? A banner is less intrusive than an overlay popup or a slide-in style popup. It can be used to display time-sensitive information like: Sales or promotions Important site changes Direct people to specific…

Want to learn more about the free Malware Scanning Tool offered by Pair? Check out a replay of our recent webinar hosted by Pair security experts Charlie and Jaime! You’ll learn about:-How to find and activate the free scanning tool in the ACC-How the malware scanning tool searches all of your sites for suspicious files-What to do if suspicious files are found Check it out here: https://www.crowdcast.io/e/malware-scanning-tool

Why Blog? Blogs can be used to express yourself, market your brand, establish yourself as an expert, and so much more. It’s little wonder that the internet has over 152 million blogs on the internet, according to these statistics by 99 Firms.  Creating a blog has never been easier. With the popularity of blogs growing exponentially, a variety of tools were designed to make the creation process quick and painless. We’ll be covering some of these tools, as well as some steps in the creation process, so that you can get your blog up and running with minimal effort.  What…

Websites are very nuanced. Setting one up and maintaining it can require knowledge on a variety of subjects, from server operating systems to web design. It can be daunting, especially if you’re new to the web hosting scene.  For many, the solution is to hire freelancers or employees who are well-versed in these disciplines. But this adds a new problem: how do you give your new hire the access they need?  Here at Pair Networks, we want to give you everything you need to succeed. So we put together this blog to help you choose the best access option for…

In our digital age, being in touch is important. We make contact through social media, emailing, video chatting, and a vast number of other virtual ways. That’s why it’s important to keep your business contact information up-to-date.  Even more so when you’re about to leave the office for a while. Whether moving to work from home or taking some time off, having your contact details in order makes for smooth sailing. Having out-of-date contact details could set you up for an overflowing mailbox, answer machine, or angry customers.  Do yourself a favor and make sure everything is in order before…

Since its founding, Pair has prided itself on using local, never-outsourced staff, most of whom work in the same facilities as our datacenters. To continue to honor this commitment while also doing our part in helping keep our staff and community safe, we have had to make some changes in order to continue to provide the same excellent support and service our customers are used to. We’ve created an FAQ to help answer your questions concerning the COVID-19 and Pair Networks.

Stand-alone WordPress sites are pretty distinct. So how do you get away from the mold? By using plugins! Plugins are modules that you can add to your WordPress site. These plugins add functionality, from new design elements to new actions. There are over fifty thousand WordPress plugins available to date, meaning that there are thousands of ways for you to customize your website.  With so many plugins out there, how do you know which ones to use? There is no right answer, really, except to exercise caution and make sure the plugins are secure before installing.  If you’re looking for…