Our rebrand from Red Hippo to Web Assist has been a long time coming and we've finally completed the process that started in 2016. That's when we changed from a Closed Corporation to a Pty Ltd called Web Assist (Pty) Ltd.
Our old brand, Red Hippo was a lovable character and a fun brand, but not descriptive of what we do. We wanted tight integration with our name and brand indicative of what we do. That's when Web Assist was born.
The rebrand to Web Assist was a complete brand makeover, even our corporate colours changed from red to a deep blue.
1) Our Name, from Red Hippo to Web Assist
2) The website url changed from www.redhippo.co.za to www.webassist.africa
3) Our Logo:
Unmatched service to our valued clients is at the forefront of our mindset. With this in mind I endeavoured to match our logo to what we do, help people with their web presence...
The new logo is a life preserver and four people interlocked helping one another. A simple yet effective representation of our values and philosophy. We are here to help you with your website and online presence.
We've changed our name but the essentials are here to stay. The same people are still involved, providing the same outstanding support, class leading products and services.
We help businesses with their websites and online presence. Services include affordable turnkey websites, we build custom websites, we manage websites with our website care plans and offer premium hosting for people who are serious about their websites.
I'd love to hear your thoughts on the rebrand and our new logo, please post a comment below and I'll be sure to read it.
Need help with your website? Get in touch and I'll be happy to help.
A business website need not cost a fortune or take forever to get started. And here's why. We've combined world class tools with our user-friendly web hosting into our Create a Website package.
It is possible to get a business website in under 10 minutes, using these tools I'll show you how.
Our website will include four pages:
I won't be adding actual content but there will be placeholders for the image and text. You'll then simply replace the images and text with your own images and text. It truly is possible to get a business website in record time. And the bonus, it will be responsive, SEO friendly and beautiful. It won't be some patch job that you'll be ashamed to show off. Your website will be stunning, you can proudly showcase your business to the world.
The tools we'll be using:
You can do these very same things with WordPress and BeaverBuilder on your own hosting account with any other hosting company. We've just baked everything together with our awesome hosting to make it as easy as possible. So let's start.
If you've signed up for our Create a Website package you can skip this part. Our Create a Website package automatically pre-installs WordPress for you during your order process. That means it's installed and waiting for you.
If not, here is an article explaining how to 1-click install WordPress with one of our other hosting plans.
If you've signed up for our Create a Website package you can skip this part as we install it for you. If not let's install BeaverBuilder theme and page builder.
2.1 In the WordPress dashboard go to Plugins > Add New > Upload Plugin > Choose File. This will open the file browser on your computer, find the BeaverBuilder plugin, click it and click Install Now.
2.2 Once BeaverBuilder plugin is installed click Activate to activate the plugin.
2.3 Now we'll install BeaverBuilder Theme.
Note: If you have a theme you want to use you can install that instead as BeaverBuilder pagebuilder plugin works with practically any theme.
2.3.1 To install the BeaverBuilder theme from the WordPress dashboard click Appearance > Themes > Add New > Upload Theme > Choose File > Install Now. Don't activate the theme as we are going to install the themes child theme and activate that instead. (see below for short explanation). Instead click the Return to Themes Page link.
Note: There will be two theme files to install. The Beaver Builder Theme and Beaver Builder Child Theme. It's good practice to ALWAYS install a theme's child theme along with the theme and then activate the child theme and NOT the actual theme. This way all your custom changes will be preserved when updates to the theme are released. In other words, your hard work will never get overwritten when you update the theme. And you want to update any theme when updates are available).
2.3.2 Now to install the Beaver Builder Child Theme, the process is the same as installing the parent theme above. From the WordPress dashboard click Appearance > Themes > Add New > Upload Theme > Choose File > Install Now. Now you can click Activate to activate the BeaverBuilder theme.
If this is a new site your site will look bare bones now, most likely something like the site below. That's normal, but we'll soon be filling it it with loveliness.
Now we start with the really fun stuff!
3.1 From the WordPress dashboard go to Pages > Add New. Then in the text box type "Front Page" and click "Publish" to publish this page.
3.2 From that same page go to Settings > Reading. At the "Front page displays" option select "A Static Page" and then in the Front Page dropdown select "Front Page". You are now setting the Front Page you just created as the front page of your website. Then click "Save Changes".
3.3 Now go to Pages > All Pages and click on your "Front Page". We are not going to use the BeaverBuilder plugin to create the page layout.
Once the page editor opens click the "Pagebuilder" tab. This will load the page into the BeaverBuilder pagebuilder. This is where the magic happens! 🙂
Note: If this is the first time you are using the pagebuilder you may get a popup screen welcoming you and asking you if you want to take a tour. I recommend you take the tour as it's really informative and helps you get started with BeaverBuilder's pagebuider. For our purposes I'm choosing not to take the tour.
3.4 Now you'll see a screen showing you all the various options you have for page layouts. There are lots of lovely options to choose from. Take your time and choose the one you like. I'm selecting the beautiful "Deluxe" template, you can select anything you like.
The page template you selected will now be loaded into the page. For now we're done. Click "Done" and "Publish Changes" to save your page.
Your new Front Page with the new layout will be loaded. It already looks stunning.
3.5 If you scroll down to the bottom of your new Front Page or Home Page you'll see that there is a section for comments. You most likely don't want that there as this is not a blog post but a page. Let's remove that.
3.5.1 Go back to your WordPress dashboard by hovering over your site name in the top left corner and clicking "Dashboard".
3.5.2 Then in the WordPress dashboard click Pages > All Pages. You'll then see your Front Page listed there, hover over it to see the additional options appear. Click the "Quick Edit" link.
3.5.3 Deselect the checkbox (untick it) and click "Update" to save your changes.
That comment box has now been removed and our page looks stunning.
The process is exactly the same as creating our Front page except we skip the second step (3.2). The reason we skip step 3.2 is that we only assign one page as our Home Page.
Note: For the contact page there is a special template you can use for a contact page with forms already created. For the other pages there are many templates for products, services, about pages and a whole lot more. You can view them all right from inside the BeaverBuilde page (See the image below).
Once you've completed creating the rest of the page templates, view your front page, somethings missing but what? The navigation menu and a logo is missing, let's take care of those.
5.1 Click the "Choose Menu" link as seen in the above image.
5.2 Type in the name of your menu in the name box e.g. Main Menu and click "Create Menu".
5.3 This part has three quick steps.
5.3.1 Select the pages you want to display in your Main Menu and click "Add to Menu".
5.3.2 Select the location for this menu. In this case it's the "Header Menu", go ahead and click it.
5.3.3 Click "Save Menu" to save your brand new menu.
Let's view our site to see if everything looks good. Ok there's a bit of a problem, first the menu order is not what I like and second the homepage is called "Front Page. Let's fix this.
5.3.4 In the WordPress dashboard click Appearance > Menus. Then simply drag and drop the menu items in the order you like.
5.3.5 To change the "Front Page" menu name to something more descriptive like "Home" click the drop-down arrow on the side menu item and type in the name you want. I'm changing it from Front Page to Home. Then click "Save Menu" to save your changes.
From the WordPress dashboard go to Appearance > Customize. The WordPress Customizer will now open.
Click Header > Header Logo and on the "Logo Type" drop-down select "Image". Then click "Select Image" and browse for the image on your computer you would like to use as your logo. Click "Save and Publish" to save your changes.
Voila! Your new business website is up and running in under 10 minutes! All you need to do now is swap out the placeholder images and text for your own text. You'll also need to check the settings in your contact form to make sure they send to the correct email address.
Checkout our Create a Website package to get all these tools neatly packaged and get a business website in under 10 minutes .
This is by far the quickest way I've found to build a beautiful SEO friendly and responsive website, if you know of anything quick, let me know in the comments below?
This past weekend we were overjoyed to welcome The River Club into the Web Assist family. The Riverclub is a landmark Cape Town conference centre and golfing hub.
Along with the launch of their brand new website The Riverclub needed a new hosting partner. Web Assist already hosts a number of other business in the groups portfolio. Add to this our superb service and legendary support, moving The River Club to Web Assist made sense.
The River Club is golf club, conference and events destination in Cape Town. The River Club caters to families to business and networks. This superb destination caters to work and a lot of play. 🙂
Here's what the new River Club website's about page puts it:
The River Club has fast become a magnet for families and friends, networks and businesses. It’s also a favourite with event and conference organisers who love its fold-out functionality and seamless style. Of course, it’s also all about golf. Come and learn the game, practice your putting and perfect your swing, then share in all the fun going on around it.
The River Club's new website is hosted on our cloud web hosting platform. The River Club will enjoy unlimited bandwidth, this comes standard with all our hosting. Other standard features include unlimited web space, unlimited email accounts and advanced security and management features.
The website is hosted on powerful Dell web server with RAIDÂ disk arrays. In the unlikely event that anything in the hardware should fail, there are mulitiple hard drives which compensate seamlessly and transparently. You won't even know there was a problem.
The complete server specs include:
Everything runs on super-fast SSD drives on Intel and AMD hardware to keep the site performing at peak levels. We run either cPanel or konsoleH web hosting control panel to enable easy maintenance of your hosting account. Both are feature rich including advanced DNS management built right in.
Other hosting control panel features include:
Should the River Club in future want to start selling online, their account is already Ecommerce ready. And when it comes to security, there are a myriad of features baked in to keep their website safe and secure.
The River Club benefits from quality web hosting, shouldn't your business benefit too?
This is a continuation of our website security series. Today we learn how to add SSL to your WordPress website.
Security is the foremost reason, an SSL certficate encrypts data between your website and the website visitors browser. This means that even if the data is intercepted, it cannot be read because it's encrypted.
An SSL certificate also authenticates your website confirming to your web browser that the website is actually who it claims to be.
SSL Certficates are crucial to ecommerce websites, banks and any website where securing data is important. Even a regular website with users passwords and personal data needs to be protected. Imagine your website being compromised and your users personal data and passwords being stolen? Stolen data is often used for fraud and identify theft. This kind of breach can be devastating to both to your website's reputation and to the people whose data was hijacked.
Adding SSL to WordPress is easy, you need to purchase an SSL certificate and usually you'll need a dedicated IP number. Both can be supplied to you by your web hosting company. Once you have an SSL certficate you can ask your web hosting provider to install it for you. They should be more than happy to do that for you.
On our shared hosting we install all SSL certifcates for our clients.
Some people prefer to use SSL on only selected pages or areas e.g. the login page or the checkout page etc. We recommend you add SSL to your entire site as there is a small SEO benefit according to an announcement by Google. The choice of course is entire yours.
If you want to add SSL to your entire website then we'll start as follows:
1) Update your URL in WordPress to to use HTTPS in the WordPress admin. Go to Settings » General Settings, then update your site address URL and WordPress URL fields to HTTPS.
2) Force SSL on WordPress by redirecting all traffic to use HTTPS. This is done by adding a line of code to your .htaccess file.
You want to make sure that you force SSL on WordPress. This means that when someone visits your website from e.g. www.yourwebsite.com (a non-encrypted link) they are forced to view the encrypted page which in this case would be https://www.yourwebsite.com.
For more in-depth info on how to force SSL on WordPress read this Help Centre article but the code below is what you'll need to add:
Please note: If you already have existing code in your .htaccess file then add this code above the code with a similar starting prefix.
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{SERVER_PORT} 80
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ https://www.yourname.com/$1 [R,L]
</IfModule>
Please make sure to replace www.yourname.com with your domain name.
Add this line of code will also avoid your SSL breaking and causing errors. What essentially happens is some items like images or other content are not called securely (via HTTPS) but insecurely (via HTTP) and this will cause browsers to give various errors.
Once you've done all the above, it's time to test your website to make sure the SSL is working correctly. You can visit your site in your browser to start with and some of the results in Chrome will give you browser icons as follows:
For more in-depth information on Chrome's browser icons and their meanings visit this page.
We also recommend using a tool like https://whynopadlock.com to test your site for errors.
Why No Padlock will test your page and make sure all items are called securely. If not it will highlight each item that's called insecurely and you can fix each one.
There are also WordPress plugins that can help when changing from HTTP to HTTPS. One such plugin is WordPress HTTPS. WordPress HTTPS can be really helpful with you have a big site with lots of content that needs to be fixed because it's being called insecurely.
After suffering a disaster, people will often ask me how to secure their website. Securing your website is not difficult with a few steps, and anyone is capable of mastering these with a little effort.
This post is a follow-on to a previous article about automated website backups with CodeGuard, you can read that article here.
This article will assume you're using a content management system or CMS like WordPress or Joomla or or Drupal. Â We'll further assume that CMS is WordPress, arguably the easiest to use and definitely the most popular CMS in the world today.
Yes, there are people who still do this even today. Even websites developed by some major companies, I've worked on some of these websites and lo and behold the username is "admin".
It's simply good practice to use a non-generic username when selecting a username for any account. Use just about anything non-generic when setting up your WordPress admin username.
Yes, there are lots and lots of people still using passwords of that ilk. This practice is extremely risky and you're asking for trouble. Your site WILL get hacked, it's just a matter of time. No matter how many passwords you need to remember, there are good practices. An article I wrote will help you to setup strong secure passwords and never forget them, read that article here.
Anyone who's used Windows will know exactly what I'm referring to. There have been some notably serious security breaches and they always seem to be on the rise. The way to keep ahead with Windows and any software is to keep it updated regularly. CMS's and WordPress in particular are no exception. Make sure your WordPress core is updated, this can be done easily by logging into your WordPress Admin and clicking a button to check for updates.
As soon as security breaches are discovered, fixes are created and included in the latest updates. This is a point I can't overstate, make sure your WordPress is always up to date.
This point goes hand-in-hand with the previous one. A prime example would be the recent Yoast WordPress SEO plugin security flaw. This is potentially extremely serious and affects millions of users across the internet.
An SSL certificate encrypts communication between your website visitor and your website. In essence even if the data is somehow intercepted, as it's encrypted it cannot be read. The benefits of this are huge, think visitor passwords, credit card numbers, personal information etc.
An SSL certificate is always a good idea on any website, but on Ecommerce sites or any sites with user or other sensitive data I believe it's mandatory.
Each CMS has specific things you can do to harden it and make sure it's as secure as possible. For WordPress websites a good practice is to password protect your WordPress Admin directory. Find out how to password protect your WordPress Admin and harden your WordPress website in this article in the WordPress Codex.
To sum it all up, no single item listed above is good enough on it's own. A total and effective solution is a combination of each of these points above. Protect your valuable website, your visitors and your valuable data by practicing these simple steps. You and your visitors won't regret your diligence.
If you've had a website for longer than a few weeks, website security has likely crossed your mind. You need the best SSL certificates at the best prices, but where to get them?
We've got you covered. Now get the best SSL certificates from the World's top CA's (Certificate Authorities) right here at Red Hippo.
Choose SSL certificates from world leaders Comodo, GeoTrust and Symantec.
Comodo SSL certificates offer great value for small business to large organisations. Extra's include free unlimited reissues should things change. You can even use your certificate on unlimited servers.
Try our Comodo SSL certifcates today risk-free with the Comodo 30 day money-back guarantee.
GeoTrust SSL certificates are trusted the world over. As the world's second largest CA GeoTrust is trusted by tens of millions of visitors each day. GeoTrust secures millions of pageviews and transactions everyday. GeoTrust also includes a 7-day money-back guarantee which means zero risk.
Give GeoTrust SSL certificates a try today.
Symantec is the most trusted name in security the world over. Instantly recognised by 90% of visitors worldwide, Symantec SSL certificates give your visitors peace of mind knowing their data is protected by the world's leader.
Try a Symantec SSL certificate risk free today with the Symantec 30-day money-back guarantee.
From a simple blog to business websites to eCommerce websites to large corporate websites, an SSL certificate will protect your website data like passwords, credit card numbers and visitor information. Securing your website with an SSL certificate will gain your customers trust. This will lead to increase visitors, increased conversions and sales and ultimately increased bottom line. A website secured by SSL also indicates to visitors that you are concerned about protecting them and signifies a more professional organisation.
SSL certificates provide a secure encrypted connection between your visitors browser and your website. This encrypted data cannot be read by third parties. This means things like credit card numbers, financial information, customer data etc. are all safe and secure from prying eyes.
So you have a website, maybe it's a WordPress website or perhaps Joomla and you're wondering about website maintenance.
It's not all that difficult and time consuming, and as the old saying goes "a stitch in time saves nine". It's all about preventative maintenance, we prepare for the worst but hope for the best.
If you have a CMS (content management system) based website like WordPress or Joomla or Drupal or Concrete5 etc. you must backup both. Your website requires both to work, without either you're dead in the water.
To find out how to backup your website and database read this Help Center article.
To find out how to backup only your database read this Help Center article.
This is very important and is an important step in keeping your website secure. Let's take WordPress as an example. There are continuous upgrades to the WordPress core that include bug fixes and security updates. Not to mention the added functionality and improvements that come from the latest version of WordPress or whatever CMS you are using.
This goes hand in hand with the previous topic. It's not just for added functionality but also security considerations. You are far less likely to suffer a website breach from an attacker if all your website files are up to date.
This is another security precaution, and well worth practicing. The following passwords should be changed periodically to help avoid your accounts being hacked in one way or another.
If you struggle with thinking up good passwords, read this article to help you get on top of passwords once and for all! 🙂
Here's a new year's gift, we've just launched our new web hosting help centre, just for you.
Web hosting can be daunting to new users, that's why our help centre was created. We are committed to making it as easy and painless as possible for our clients. To this end we already offer the most user friendly web hosting control panel in the world. Add to this our new web hosting help centre and you have the perfect way to get instant help 24/7.
Anyone can visit our Help Centre at anytime to get help with their web hosting. There's a simple interface with categories ranging from Getting Started, Email, Web Hosting, Domains and many more. We will also be adding new web hosting help articles regularly to assist you with new products when launched.
The Help Centre will be a one stop shop similar to our Knowledebase but with expanded and more in-depth help. It's also fully search engine friendly which means it will be fully indexed by all search engines.
We've made it as easy as possible to navigate. All categories are listed covering every product we offer.
The search function is one we're particularly proud of. A search box is conveniently situated on the Help Centre home page or any page in the Help Centre. The search box searches only help centre articles with the keywords you input. Try it out and see how effective it is.
Our Getting Started section is perfect for anyone new to web hosting. And the Web Hosting Getting Started Guide has everything you need to quickly and easily make them most of your new web hosting account.
Our Featured Articles will contain articles we deem important especially for new users.
The most popular articles contains the most view and most voted articles. See what others are reading to help them.
Check this section for the most recent articles and always stay up to date. When we release a new product we'll update this section with articles to help get you started.
Just one more way we at Red Hippo try harder and go further to help you get the most from your web hosting.
We are committed to making your website a roaring success!
And if you're hosted elsewhere, we'll even transfer your website and hosting free of charge. Contact us today.
My wife emailed me from work this week to share a shocking story doing the rounds. The story involved the physical abuse of a toddler by the baby's nanny. The abuse came to light thanks to a baby monitor. The toddler's father strategically placed a baby monitor and recorded the abuse.
My wife was shaken by the incident, she couldn't even watch the entire video clip of the incident. Some people in her office were in tears while watching the clip. Shocking incidents like this are hopefully few and far between, but a little extra care is always a good thing.
This past week I received an email about D-Link's wifi baby monitor and felt compelled to share it with you.
This device turns your mobile phone or tablet or any mobile device for that matter into a versatile baby monitor. The D-Link baby monitor connects to your home wifi. Then you install the free app on your mobile device will allow you to monitor you baby from anywhere in the world. there is even two way communication so you can hear and talk to your baby.
The D-Link baby monitor has been featured in Oprah and Good Housekeeping magazine. Setup is relatively simple and pain free and yo should be up and running keeping an eye on baby through your cellphone or other mobile device.
I'm quite impressed with this baby monitor, it's well thought out and an good example of technology helping to improve our lives.
Take a look at the baby monitor in action in this video:
For full specs and more info view the product on the manufacturers site.
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A client called me today about changing passwords for their business hosting accounts and business email accounts. There was a security concern in the office and all the passwords would need to be changed. I advised on some best practice when it comes to web hosting and email security. One of the bits of information was some ideas on how to create a secure password. Here is some of that information which can hopefully help you too.
If you're like me you have a multitude of passwords you need to remember. Like mine, your long and distinguished password list includes passwords for websites, email accounts, your computer, your phone etc. But how do you create a secure password? And even more important - how do you create a secure password that you'll actually remember?
Just this past few months there have been major security concerns on the internet. The Heartbleed bug was most notable. It was interesting to note that at about that time Google announced that it was giving higher search engine rankings to websites that were secure (HTTPS). That was a huge consideration for anyone concerned about website rankings and security. If you've ever suffered a security breach like having a website hacked or perhaps an email account invaded you'll know how important maintaining security is. More often than not good security starts with a secure password.
Anyone can quickly create a secure password that will be next to impossible to break. Trying to remember that awfully secure password is another matter entirely. Try remember a password that looks like this: AKs*_382/.#$@3 <--- Good luck with that. The trick is as follows.
By sorting I simply mean look at all the instances you are using passwords and lump them together. A example group could be:
Make sure they're sentences or phrases you are familiar with and having meaning to you. That way you'll never forget them. Let me explain via an illustration. Let's assume you're a runner training for the Comrades Marathon. You want to complete the Comrades Marathon because for the last 2 years you have participated but have not completed it. Using that, a really cool phrase could be "complete the comrades". But as it, that is awfully insecure. This is where the fun starts, let's play with that phrase as follows:
You can mix it up any way you wish and come up with a very secure set of passwords.
After you've created your secure passwords, assign one to each group. And voila, you're done. Instead of having to remember hordes of passwords, you only have to remember a handful, perhaps four or five at most.
The beauty of this system is how easy it is to update. Let's say you wanted to change all your passwords in a month, you only have those few to update. Each time you log in to a specific website you can update each websites password to your new one for that group.
Now you know how to create a secure password you'll never forget!
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3) Unlimited web space
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