The Josh.biz Blog

How we use 100% renewable power for your web hosting

Sustainable Web HostingThe internet uses a lot of electricity, contributing to climate change. It’s estimated that it uses over 400 terawatt-hours a year*. That’s more than the whole of the UK, for example. That’s why we’re committed to using 100% renewable energy in our web hosting, as well as ensuring that our data centres are as efficient as possible.* *www.websitecarbon.com

Powered by 100% renewable energy

Our hosting data centres run on 100% renewable energy: wind and solar power.
As such, their supply is carbon-neutral.

Operating efficiency

PUE is a measure of power usage efficiency. Our hosting data centres have a PUE as low as 1.12 (a lower score ratio is better). A ‘perfect’ efficiency ratio would be 1.0, but our data centres stand amongst the most efficient around. Others tend to have a PUE of 1.2 or higher.

This is achieved through the latest power-saving technologies in servers and uninterruptible power supplies. The same goes for our cooling, which also uses low global warming impact refrigerants.

The power saved through operating efficiency can be added to the grid, allowing more renewable energy to be supplied and reducing the reliance for fossil fuels.

Autoscaling technology

Our hosting platform contributes to our efficiency, too. While a busy website is given all the resources it needs from our multi-server platform, the same applies in reverse. So if a website isn’t busy, it will only make use of the small amount of resource it needs – saving energy.

Of course, if there’s a sudden spike in traffic, our servers will ramp-up instantly, guaranteeing a fast website, however busy it gets.

Josh.biz celebrates 15 years in business: 2005-2020

Birthday cake - 15 years

During the past 15 years we’ve helped over 300 businesses to represent themselves in the best way possible online and we’re continuing to strive forward, embracing new trends and technologies, as they appear.

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What business information does your website legally need to display?

UK law includes a range of legislation which requires websites to display specific information about their business (or organisation). Rules also apply to other areas of your business such as signs, stationery, invoices, emails and promotional material. Entities such as registered charities and voluntary organisations have other requirements.

If you’re running a business, the requirements vary according to the legal entity of your business (for example, whether it’s a limited company, partnership or a sole trader). If in doubt, seek professional advice from a legal expert about the precise requirements for your website. In addition to seeking advice from a legal expert, relevant information is often also available online at websites such as the UK Government website.

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Hints and tips when choosing a domain name

Choosing a domain nameWhen starting a new web design project, one of the first, most important decisions is choosing a domain name.

This will be your website address, and often, will be used in email addresses too. Here are a few essential points to always consider:

1. Does it reflect what your business does?

Your domain name should closely match your brand, product or service. Choosing the right domain name will create a good first impression. Think about how your domain name will be perceived when presented in search engine results pages.

2. Will people easily remember it?

People will type your domain name to go directly to your website or when composing an email. It needs to be easy to type, to spell and to communicate verbally. Avoid numbers, long words, more than 3 words, words which are difficult to spell – and hyphens.

3. Is it future-proof?

Your domain name should be able to stand the test of time and not limit your business scope in the future. Prepare for any possible diversification your business may later take. It is possible to switch domains in the future but this can often require significant work, time and expense.

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Recovering disk space in WordPress by deleting unused media

Nearly all website hosting packages impose a maximum disk space capacity. This capacity can usually be increased by upgrading the hosting package, for an additional cost.

If operating a WordPress powered website, as time passes, the website content will build up gradually, as new pages and blog posts are added; this causes extra disk space to be consumed. The rate of consumption is higher where new media (images and PDFs) are frequently added.

Note that any updates involving just text usually have a comparatively negligible impact on disk space; it’s images and PDFs which use up space.

The WordPress Media Library

It’s wise to review media, delete any unused media permanently and free up disk space.

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Google Business Profile

Google Business Profile

If you search Google for services and include geographical words, you’ll often find that Google shows you a map with local businesses pinpointed and with their details displayed prominently underneath the map or in the sidebar. These businesses will all have listed themselves with the ‘Google Business Profile’ service.

Google Business Profile was known as Google Places, Google Local and more recently as Google My Business. So you may be already familiar with this service by one of it’s previous names.

We have published reminders before about the value of listing your business here and importantly, keeping your listing/account up to date and as enticing as possible. It costs nothing but your time. It’s completely free and can make a big difference to your visibility and perception by customers.

To find out more please visit the Google Business Profile website.

And, of course, if you have any questions, clients are welcome to get in touch with us.

Google rewards responsive websites

Google Search Engine on mobileEvery now and again Google launches a major update to its famous search engine algorithm. This is the formula which analyses every web page and determines the search results we’re offered upon searching the web.

Major updates to this algorithm always affect search results significantly.

Google’s Panda Update of 2011 targeted websites with poor quality content. The Penguin Update arrived in 2012 and amongst many other measures, targeted websites with poor quality, bad or artificially created links.

These (and many other updates) continue to be tweaked all the time.

The mobile-friendly ranking algorithm

Now Google is turning its attention towards a new factor: mobile-friendliness. This new update to the algorithm will be introduced on 21 April 2015.

This time, Google will be analysing how mobile friendly a web page is when deciding the order of its search results. Logically, this is only likely to affect searches on mobile devices initially but exactly how it pans out, nobody knows.

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Shellshock (Bash) Vulnerability

Website SecurityYou may have read in the news that a new Shellshock (bash) vulnerability has been discovered on the 24 September. Please be assured that all our servers were patched within hours of the vulnerability being discovered; and that the latest patch released today has also been applied to all our servers including all dedicated boxes.

We have seen no evidence that our servers have been attacked and are confident that the prompt application of the patches has prevented any exploit.

You don’t need to take any action, but if you do have any concerns, clients are welcome to contact us.

See also: Shellshock: ‘Deadly serious’ new vulnerability found (BBC website)

Beware of Email Spoofing

Email SecurityUnfortunately, phishing emails continue to blight our lives and we advise you to be constantly on your guard about clicking links or opening attachments in unsolicited emails.

We now offer free server-side spam filtering with all our hosting packages and this can be very effective at keeping malicious emails at bay. If you would like to activate spam filtering for your hosting account, get in touch. And of course, do not use any computer devices, without up-to-date virus protection in place.

We’ve also encountered instances where client businesses have been spoofed. Email spoofing is the creation and sending of email messages with a forged sender address. Typically, these look like an unpaid invoice (usually an attached zip file) from a legitimate company who know nothing about it.

Clients soon become aware of the problem when emails and telephone calls begin flooding in about supposedly unpaid invoices (or similar). The attached zip file will usually unleash malicious software and viruses if opened.

Email Spoofing

If your business becomes victim to email spoofing, i.e. emails are sent out supposedly from yourself, please contact us immediately and report the matter to the police. It usually means adding an announcement to your homepage, warning recipients to ignore any such emails. Also, we can deploy a technique known as SPF (Sender Policy Framework) which should alleviate the ensuing problems.

Josh.biz comes to Cromer!

Cromer, Norfolk

We’re pleased to announce that our move to Cromer, Norfolk is complete.

Our new location in the Gem of the Norfolk Coast puts us at the centre of tourism and leisure in Norfolk. And of course… we can’t wait to get down to the beach!