Starting Gate Websites is a part of the Starting Gate Internet Media Group that offers traditional website design services for our clients but our main focus is Website Architectural Consulting. Our primary consulting service … ”Website architecture” is a term used for the intellectual discipline of organizing website content. “Web design” describes the practical tasks, part-graphic and part-technical, of designing and publishing a website. An analogy would be the task of editing a newspaper or magazine and its graphic design and printing. We make existing websites work and discover methods to make them better and ever evolving with current trends and standards. Following is a brief description of our areas of service and how we might be able to help your company or eCommerce business. Continue reading “What We Offer”
Why Did I Lose My Google Rankings?
Google has released a few major updates to its search algorithm over the last 12 months or so, taking many websites by surprise. There have already been multiple updates in 2019; the most recent one occurred on March 12th, 2019.
More than 50% of companies saw their rankings dip after any given update; most have never recovered. A similar drop in ratings was witnessed starting from the summer of 2018.
In this article, we will explore the biggest and most influential changes over the last year; EVERY single update is not included.
Even though not all updates are covered, we encourage you to use this article as a checklist for your business.
Our hope is that you, the business owner, will go through this list and:
- Check to see if you have aligned your website with the Google updates released over the last year
- Figure out what you’re not doing (or not doing right)
- Define your own plan of attack based on the updates
All Starting Gate Websites Include SSL Certification
What is an SSL Certificate?
An SSL Certificate (Secure Sockets Layer), also called a Digital Certificate, creates a secure link between a website and a visitor’s browser. By ensuring that all data passed between the two remains private and secure, SSL encryption prevents hackers from stealing private information such as credit card numbers, names and addresses.
If you sell products or services on your website and accept credit cards online, you need an SSL Certificate for website security. If you don’t sell online but want to add credibility to your website, a Site Confirm Seal may be sufficient.
How Can an SSL Certificate Help My Online Business?
As part of the process of issuing an SSL Certificate, a Certificate Authority (CA), such as Network Solutions, authenticates the purchasing company’s identity. The CA verifies the purchaser’s credentials using WHOIS database information, Dun & Bradstreet data, articles of incorporation, government-issued photo ID’s and/or other credible sources. This comprehensive approach to identity validation ensures that an SSL Certificate is a reliable symbol of your company’s trust worthiness. In turn, your SSL certificate shows customers that your business is legitimate and that it’s safe to conduct business with you online.
How Can Starting Gate Websites (SGW) Help Me with Website Security?
We help you determine which SSL Certificate is best for your website security needs, based on the services you’re looking for and the volume of online transactions your website handles. SGW offers many different SSL Certificates and we will recommend which SSL Certificate will offer the best level of website security services for your company.
Types of Certificates:
Extended Validation (EV) SSL Certificates: For e-commerce applications and sites where sensitive information is exchanged, EV SSL certificates deliver the highest level of trust to website visitors. With EV SSL certificates, a visitor’s address bar will turn green and display the organization’s name and location confirming the site’s identity along with the Certificate Authority (CA) doing the verification according to standardized industry guidelines established by the CA/Browser Forum.
Multi-Domain EV SSL Certificates: For enterprises and organizations looking to cost-effectively secure multiple websites with EV SSL, the highest levels of security. Multi-domain certificates expand the value of EV by allowing businesses to secure up to 100 distinct domains on a single certificate – greatly simplifying SSL management processes and delivering substantial cost savings versus individual EV certificate purchases.
Wildcard SSL Certificates: For organizations hosting a single domain name but with different subdomains (e.g., secure sgw.com, www.sgw.com, accounts.sgw.com), the Wildcard Certificate is cost effective and efficient means of securing all subdomains without the need to manage multiple certificates.
General Purpose SSL Certificates: For securing web sites, these standard SSL certificates provide SSL encryption plus traditional validation/vetting. These organizationally validated (OV) certificates include an organization’s name and location on the certificate.
Please contact us if you want more information and a price quote based on your needs. As we mention above, if you sell products or services on your website and accept credit cards online, you need an SSL Certificate for website security. We would recommend encrypted security at a level necessary to protect all transactions or database entries that might take place at any time of day. If you don’t sell online but want to add credibility to your website, a Site Confirm Seal may be sufficient and will eliminate search engines claiming that your site is not safe. The SSL Certificate for these site hosted through SGW are free.
If you were direction to this site from one of our hosted websites you are now assured of the safety of that site.