As a beginner, you’ll want a blog hosting platform that’s simple and user-friendly yet powerful enough to grow with you. But with so many options out there, how do you choose the perfect one?

In this article, we’ll cover the top features you need to look for in a blogging platform, compare popular options like WordPress, Squarespace, and Wix, and discuss the benefits of hosting with a dedicated provider. 

Choosing the Right Blogging Platform: What to Consider 

From cost and customization to control and scalability, each of these elements plays an important role in the success and growth of your blog:

Price

Balancing cost with features is crucial when selecting a blogging platform. While there are plenty of free and cheap options available, not all of them offer comprehensive tools or flexibility. 

If you’re a beginner, you’ll want to prioritize your budget, but also keep in mind that you may need to upgrade as your blog grows. Look for platforms that offer scalable pricing options, so you can adjust your plan as needed without breaking the bank.

Themes and Templates

By choosing a responsive and professional-looking theme, you can make a great first impression on your readers. 

Setting up your website is much easier if you have access to pre-built themes and templates. Instead of starting from scratch, you just need to choose a theme that fits your niche and customize it to match your branding. Platforms that offer a wide range of customization options, including the ability to change colors, fonts, and layouts, will be your best bet. 

When your blog grows, you may need to add new pages or sections. Being able to reuse templates simplifies this process, allowing you to maintain a consistent look and feel across your site. 

Content Editor

The content editor is where you’ll spend most of your time creating and formatting your blog posts, so choose a platform with a reliable editing system. 

WordPress is a popular choice for its user-friendly editor that’s perfect for beginners and experienced bloggers. With a wide range of formatting options and customization features, WordPress makes it easy to create engaging and visually appealing content. 

Storage

When you start blogging, you’ll need plenty of storage for all your multimedia content. That’s why it’s important to choose a platform that offers scalable storage options so you can upgrade your blog’s storage capacity without having to switch to a different platform. 

To ensure scalability, opt for a platform that offers Solid-State Drive (SSD) and Non-Volatile Memory Express (NVMe) storage options. These types of storage offer faster performance, which can help your blog load faster and improve the user experience. 

Security Features

To protect your content and your readers’ information from threats like data breaches and malware, you’ll need to adopt some essential security measures. 

For starters, a free Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certificate is a must-have for every blogger. This certificate encrypts the data between your blog and your readers’ devices, ensuring that any sensitive information is protected.

Another essential security feature is protection against DDoS attacks, which can overwhelm your blog with bot traffic, causing it to crash or become unavailable. By having security measures in place to prevent DDoS attacks, your blog remains accessible, even during high-traffic periods. 

Security features also play a crucial role in building trust with your readers. If your blog isn’t secure, it can damage your reputation and discourage readers from visiting your site. 

SEO Features

Once your blog is live, you might find yourself wondering how to attract the right visitors. That’s where Search Engine Optimization (SEO) comes in. 

SEO is all about optimizing your blog to rank higher in search engine results, which can bring you more traffic. But SEO can be a bit tricky to navigate, especially for beginners. 

That’s why you should choose a blogging platform that offers SEO features, such as customizable meta tags, SEO-friendly URLs, and sitemap generation. These features can help you optimize your blog for search engines and improve your visibility online. 

Scalability

When you start a blog, there’s no way to tell how much it’ll grow or how much traffic it might receive. Therefore, it’s crucial to choose blog hosting platforms that prioritize scalability and can easily accommodate more traffic as you grow. 

Opting for scalable hosting solutions means you’ll never have to worry about website downtime or losing visitors due to other technical issues. 

Extensions and Integrations

Extensions and integrations can really take your blog to the next level, as they allow you to add new features and functionality. 

One of the great things about platforms like WordPress is their vast ecosystem of plugins. These plugins cover every functionality you can imagine, from SEO and analytics to eCommerce and social media. Some useful plugins for bloggers include:

• • Rank Math: Optimize your blog for search engines, making it easier for readers to find your content. 
  • Akismet: Protect your blog from spam comments, ensuring a clean and user-friendly experience for your readers.

• • Jetpack: Optimize site speed, bolster security, and enhance your blog’s functionality with features like improved search capabilities, social media sharing, and customizable content delivery. 

Analytics

Analytics offer valuable insights into your audience’s behavior, giving you the power to make data-driven decisions about your content strategy. 

By using analytics to track your blog’s performance, you can identify trends and patterns using real-time data, such as which types of content are most popular and which times of day your audience is most active. 

Many blogging platforms, including WordPress, provide robust analytics support and integrations, allowing you to track your blog’s performance easily. 

Monetization Tools 

Monetizing your blog can be a great way to earn income from your content. For instance, you can display ads on your blog to earn money based on clicks or impressions, or collaborate with brands to create paid posts. 

One of the most straightforward ways of monetizing your website is to set up an eCommerce store. For example, if you’re using WordPress, you’d achieve this by installing the WooCommerce plugin, which integrates with various payment gateways and other extensions.  This way, you can easily sell products and services directly from your website and set up different pricing structures, such as one-time payments and subscriptions.

Exploring the Top Blogging Platforms

To help you find the perfect platform for your blogging needs, we’ve put together a list of the best blogging platforms and highlighted their unique features. 

WordPress

WordPress Homepage

WordPress is a popular platform for bloggers of all skill levels. Its extensive range of themes, plugins, and customization options cater to various blogging needs, making it a versatile choice for building a WordPress site. Additionally, the platform’s large community provides constant support and updates. 

Top features: 

• Extensive Plugin Library: Enhance your blog’s functionality, security, and design with a wide range of plugins. 

• SEO Tools: Boost your blog’s visibility in search engine results. 

• Blogging-Specific Themes: Choose from a variety of professional-looking themes designed specifically for blogging.

• Community Support: Seek help and guidance from a large community of users whenever you need it.

• Easy Content Management: Manage your blog’s content with ease, thanks to WordPress’ user-friendly interface.

Drupal

Drupal Homepage

Drupal is the top choice for bloggers who need advanced customization. Although it may have a steeper learning curve than other platforms, developers favor Drupal for its scalability and adaptability, making it ideal for large projects and growing blogs. 

Top features: 

• Advanced Content Management Capabilities: Use Drupal’s powerful tools to manage your blog’s content with ease. 

• Customizable User Permissions: Collaborate with multiple authors by adjusting user permissions to suit your needs. 

• Scalability for Growing Blogs: As your blog grows, Drupal manages high traffic volumes without affecting performance. 

• Robust Security Features: Protect your blog with advanced security features and enjoy peace of mind. 

Joomla

Joomla Homepage

Joomla strikes a balance between WordPress’s ease of use and Drupal’s complexity. It’s perfect for bloggers wanting more flexibility than what WordPress provides but without diving into Drupal’s intricacies. With its user-friendly interface and strong community support, Joomla is a reliable choice. 

Top features: 

• Flexible Content Management System (CMS): Easily manage your blog’s content, thanks to Joomla’s versatility. 
• Built-In Blogging Features: Enjoy convenient blogging features right out of the box.
• Customizable Templates: Joomla offers thousands of high-quality templates so you can create attractive designs without touching a single line of code. 
• Multilingual Support: Reach a wider audience with built-in multilingual capabilities.
• Powerful User Management Options: Manage multiple users with ease and control.

Wix

Wix Homepage

Wix is famous for its drag-and-drop simplicity, making it perfect for beginners or those who aren’t as familiar with technical aspects. It offers a variety of stunning templates and integrated features, simplifying the process of setting up a blog. However, keep in mind that its customization options are more limited compared to other platforms. 

Top features: 

• Intuitive Drag-and-Drop Editor: Wix’s user-friendly interface makes it a breeze to edit your blog’s layout, fonts, colors, and imagery.
• Integrated Blogging Tools: Use Wix’s built-in tools to share your content on social media and automatically notify your email subscribers when you post.
• SEO Features: Boost your blog’s visibility and reach the right people with advanced SEO tools built directly into your site. 
• Mobile Responsiveness: Ensure your blog looks great on all devices.
• Reliable Hosting Services: Wix offers advanced security monitoring, automatic setup, and a 99.9% uptime guarantee. 

Squarespace 

Squarespace Homepage

Known for its beautiful designs and user-friendly interface, Squarespace is a great choice for bloggers who value aesthetics and want a polished, professional-looking website without having to worry about the technical details. However, you may find its customization options are more limited than other platforms. 

Top features: 

• Stunning Templates: Take your pick from a variety of customizable templates designed specifically for blogging.
• Integrated Analytics: Get insights into who’s visiting your blog and how it’s performing with built-in analytics.
• Social Sharing Features: Share your content on social media with ease.
• eCommerce Functionality: Monetize your blog by offering custom merchandise, creating subscriber-exclusive content, and selling digital services. 
• 24/7 Customer Support: Get help whenever you need it with Squarespace’s reliable customer support.

Weebly

Weebly Homepage

Similar to Wix, Weebly is an easy-to-use platform that offers a drag-and-drop functionality. It’s perfect for beginners and small-scale bloggers who prioritize simplicity and ease of use over advanced features. However, it’s not as flexible or customizable as other platforms. 

Top features: 

• Drag-and-Drop Website Builder: Customize your blog easily by dragging elements like text, images, and videos onto your page and dropping them exactly where you want them.
• Blogging Features: Schedule posts and engage with your audience through commenting options.
• Integrated SEO Tools: Improve your blog’s visibility and reach the right people.
• Mobile-Responsive Designs: Ensure your blog looks great on all devices.
• Reliable Hosting Services: Weebly’s free, dedicated hosting infrastructure ensures that your site loads fast and gives visitors a great experience.

Ghost

Ghost Homepage

Ghost is a minimalist platform designed specifically for bloggers and publishers. Its clean interface and focus on content make it perfect for writers who want to prioritize their writing without getting distracted by complex features. 

Top features: 

• Markdown Support: Write without distractions using Markdown.
• Email Newsletter Features: Grow your email list with built-in newsletter tools.
• Membership and Subscription Options: Monetize your blog with membership and subscription options.
• Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) support: Improve your blog’s loading times. 
• Automatic Content Backups: Keep your content safe with automatic backups.

Substack

Substack Homepage

Compared to other blogging platforms, Substack is a unique choice because it’s mainly designed for newsletter publishing. With its straightforward setup and integrated payment options, Substack is perfect for bloggers who want to monetize their content through email subscriptions. However, it doesn’t let you customize your website like other blog hosting sites. 

Top features: 

• Integrated Payment Processing: Easily monetize your content through subscription-based payments.
• Customizable Email Newsletter Templates: Engage your readers with professional-looking newsletters.
• Audience Engagement Analytics: Track your newsletter’s performance and audience engagement.
• Content Gating: Offer premium content to paying subscribers.
• Social Media Integration: Share your content easily on social media platforms.

Why WordPress is the Recommended Choice for Most Bloggers

While you can’t go wrong with any of the platforms we’ve covered above, WordPress is the ideal choice for most people, especially beginner bloggers. It offers the best balance of features, affordability, and user-friendliness compared to WordPress alternatives like Drupal and Joomla. 

Here are a few reasons why WordPress is the best platform for beginners and experienced bloggers alike: 

• Blog-Specific Themes: A blog’s design is the first thing that captures a reader’s attention, so you’ll want to ensure it looks good. WordPress offers a wide variety of customizable, high-quality themes specifically designed for blogging. You can even design your own theme by selecting patterns to create your homepage layout and pairing it with premium colors and fonts. 
• Vast Plugin Ecosystem: WordPress offers thousands of free plugins to enhance your blog’s functionality and improve the user experience. From anti-spam protection to SEO optimization, there’s a plugin for almost every need. Plus, you have the option to purchase premium plugins for even more advanced features. 
• Native Gutenberg Editor: WordPress’ intuitive Gutenberg block editor makes it easy to create and format your content, even if you don’t have any technical experience. You can personalize every aspect of your blog to suit your preferences. 

WordPress Gutenberg Editor

The Role Your Hosting Provider Plays in Your Blogging Set-Up

While blogging platforms like Wix, Weebly, and Squarespace automatically host your website, others like WordPress, Drupal, and Joomla require a separate hosting solution. This means you’ll need to buy a plan from a hosting provider, which will offer allocated server space to install your preferred blog hosting platform and set up your website. 

Though this might seem like an extra step, it’s actually an advantage, and it’s one of the reasons why we recommend choosing platforms like WordPress. 

Hosting providers specialize in optimizing server performance, ensuring fast page loading times, reliable uptime, and robust security measures. By hosting your blogging site with a reputable provider, you can get effortless integration, automatic updates, and dedicated support, freeing you from technical hassles and allowing you to focus on creating content. 

When you choose a hosting provider, you also get additional features and services tailored to bloggers, such as one-click software installation, domain registration, SSL certificates, automated backups, and advanced analytics tools. These features streamline the blogging process, enhance site functionality, and improve user experience, which contribute to the success and growth of your blog.

Another major consideration is scalability. As your blog grows, you’ll begin to receive more traffic, and your website should be able to handle it. Using a hosting provider with tiered plans ensures that bloggers can scale their resources up or down as required, ensuring that the blog can handle increased traffic without experiencing downtime or slow loading speeds.

“Hosting is a vital aspect of blogging that should not be overlooked. A reliable hosting provider can make a world of difference in terms of site speed, security, and user satisfaction.” 

– Corey Hammond, A2 Hosting

Host Your Blog with A2: Premium Hosting at Beginner-Friendly Prices

A2 Hosting Blog Hosting Page

With A2 Hosting, you can bring your blog to life without worrying about the technical details. 

Whether you’re a beginner or an experienced blogger, our shared web hosting plans are more than powerful enough to meet your needs, and they start at extremely low prices. If you’re set on using WordPress as your CMS, consider our managed WordPress hosting, which includes pre-installed WordPress and various WordPress-specific features such as the A2 Optimized plugin, which offers features such as CAPTCHA, image compression, and caching. 

Take a look at some of our standout features: 

• Blazing-Fast Speed: Our Turbo Server options offer faster loading times, which are crucial for your blog’s success and SEO ranking. While new bloggers may not need a Turbo plan right away, it’s a great upgrade for sites experiencing high traffic.

• Always Reliable: We offer a 99.9% uptime guarantee, so you can count on us to ensure your blog is always accessible to your readers. 

• User-Friendly Dashboards: We make managing your blog a breeze. With cPanel offered on all managed plans, you can easily manage your emails, domains, and software installations. You also get a proprietary dashboard called TurboHub, which allows you to check your site health, get personalized recommendations to optimize your site, and manage plugins.
• Regular Security Updates: We offer free SSL certificates to help you build trust with your readers, and we regularly update our servers with the latest security patches to protect your blog against potential threats and vulnerabilities. 

And, if anything goes wrong, our 24/7/365 in-house Guru Crew will be on hand to support you. 

One of our satisfied customers, Jairo A., said, “The customer service at A2 Hosting is amazing. Whenever I have a question, I can find the answer within minutes. The experience has always been pleasant, and I can’t recall a time when my server was down or had a problem. My website has always been up and running even in the middle of an outage, something none of my other competitors can do.”

Ready to start your blogging journey? Check out A2 Hosting’s blog hosting solutions today! 

Blog Hosting Platforms FAQs

Can you make money as a blogger? 

Absolutely! Many bloggers earn a living through their blogs by monetizing with ads, sponsored posts, affiliate marketing, or selling their own products or services. It takes time and effort to build a successful blog, but with dedication and a clear strategy, it’s possible to make a profit. 

What’s the difference between WordPress.org and WordPress.com?

At their core, both are blogging Content Management Systems (CMS), but there are distinct differences between WordPress.org and WordPress.com. WordPress.org is a self-hosted platform that offers more customization and flexibility, while WordPress.com is a fully-hosted platform that’s easier to get started with but has limited features. With WordPress.org, you have more control over your blog’s design, functionality, and monetization options. 

Which platform is best for blogging?

The best blogging platform will depend on your specific needs and goals. WordPress is a popular choice due to its flexibility, customization options, and a large community of users and developers. Other options include Wix, Squarespace, and Ghost. 

What is the best website to host a blog?

WordPress powers more than 40% of websites, so it’s a highly recommended choice. To host a WordPress blog, you’ll need to choose a hosting provider that offers reliable and secure hosting services.

With A2 Hosting, you can pick between shared web hosting and managed WordPress hosting. Managed WordPress hosting is a great choice if your site receives a lot of traffic and you prefer a hands-off approach to backend management.

Are there free blog hosting sites?

Yes, there are free blog hosting sites like Blogger, Medium, and WordPress.com. However, these platforms have limitations in terms of customization, monetization, and control over your blog’s design and functionality. A2 Hosting offers affordable hosting plans that provide more control and flexibility, as well as the ability to monetize your blog and grow your audience.

What blog platform has the most traffic?

WordPress is the most popular blogging platform and has a large community of users and developers. This means that there are more resources and plugins available to help you optimize your blog for search engines and drive traffic to your site. 

A2 Hosting offers managed WordPress hosting plans that make it easy to set up and manage your self-hosted WordPress blog. Our hosting plans are also optimized for WordPress to ensure fast loading times and reliable performance.

The post Essential Features to Look for in Blogging Platforms appeared first on The A2 Posting.

Our Legacy of Speed and Performance

At A2 Hosting, we have built a strong reputation in the web hosting industry as leaders in speed and performance. Our commitment to providing the fastest, most reliable hosting solutions has always been our top priority. And that is why we developed TurboHub. It not only helps speed up site performance, but it also streamlines managing your WordPress sites.

What is TurboHub?

TurboHub is our state-of-the-art WordPress control panel that makes WordPress sites faster than ever! It’s an essential tool that allows individual site owners to improve performance, site health, and security. And the multi-site dashboard simplifies the workflow for agencies and developers. From a single control panel, you can monitor and maintain all of your sites, creating a seamless and more efficient WordPress experience.

Features of TurboHub

Site Performance Optimizations

TurboHub’s comprehensive metrics help you gain in-depth insights into your site’s performance. It highlights top recommendations and allows for one-click changes to boost performance.

Single-Click Multi-Site Management

Managing multiple WordPress sites has never been easier. With TurboHub, you can see all your sites from a single location, making updates and performance checks a breeze. This is particularly valuable for agencies and developers handling numerous client sites.

Site Health Monitoring

Keep your websites in peak condition with our site health monitoring tool! This is perfect for agencies and site owners with multiple websites and gives you an at-a-glance view of a site’s status to help you maintain smooth and secure operations effortlessly. Monitoring and maintaining multiple sites has never been easier!

Security Vulnerability

Through our partnership with Patchstack, we also alert you to high-priority plugin vulnerabilities so your site is never at risk. With the ability to see site risk at a glance, it helps you keep everything running smoothly and securely.

Other features to enhance your WordPress experience:

• Quick access to all of your WordPress sites.
• Grant access to users managing your account or request access to sites you manage for others.
• Automate plugin updates for each site.
• Site notes to enable easy communication between team members or companies.
• Quick access to databases, files, and email.
• Status information that lets you know your sites are online and running, including SSL, domain, and nameserver status.
• Ability to hide sites from search engines while under construction.
• Ability to place sites in maintenance mode during edits.

How Do I Get TurboHub?

TurboHub is now available free for all WordPress sites on our Managed WordPress, Managed VPS, and Shared plans. By choosing one of our plans, you instantly gain access to TurboHub and can start experiencing the benefits of a faster, more efficient WordPress site. TurboHub can be conveniently accessed through your MyA2 panel.

Don’t have an A2 plan, take advantage of our low prices and get started with TurboHub today!

Stay Tuned for More

TurboHub is constantly growing and evolving. We have an exciting roadmap ahead of us with many new features and improvements planned! At A2 we are dedicated to providing our users with the best tools available, and we encourage you to stay tuned for future updates on how TurboHub can help speed up and secure your website.

What’s Next for TurboHub?

A few items on our TurboHub roadmap that will help us achieve our goal of providing WordPress professionals with fast setup, fast websites, and fast support:

• A2 Intelligent Performance – Leverages advanced AI technology to automatically optimize your site’s performance. Easily monitor load times, uptime, and other critical performance indicators to ensure your site is always performing at its best. This will help you make informed decisions to continuously improve your site’s speed and reliability.
• A2 AI assistant inside WordPress – Helps you write content, generate images, and answer common WordPress questions.
• Enhanced Staging – Records changes to staging or live sites and lets them be pushed live or pulled back to staging.

Get started with an A2 Hosting plan today and get access to this new amazing tool and enhance your WordPress experience!

The post Introducing TurboHub – Transform Your WordPress Experience appeared first on The A2 Posting.

So, you’re eager to start offering reseller hosting services to your clients, but you’re caught in a dilemma. On the one hand, you want to minimize your expenses, but on the other hand, you really don’t want to compromise on quality. 

The good news is that high-quality, affordable reseller web hosting is well within your reach. In this guide, we’ll show you how to spot the signs of the best reseller hosting options so you can make an informed decision that aligns with your clients’ needs and your financial goals. 

Plus, we’ll highlight some of the key benefits of A2’s reseller hosting packages to help you manage and run your hosting company hassle-free. Let’s dive in! 

Exploring the Benefits of Affordable Reseller Hosting

Reseller hosting is more than just a great tool for diversifying your income – it can also serve as a profitable business model for freelancers and web design agencies. 

If you’re a web designer or developer who doesn’t offer reseller hosting, you might encounter a situation where a client has paid for hosting but needs you to build the site from scratch. Alternatively, you might recommend a host to a client but have no involvement in its operations, leaving the client to manage any technical issues with the hosting provider. 

However, by offering hosting alongside your web development and design services, you provide several benefits. Clients won’t need to search for a hosting provider, saving them time and hassle. You can also ensure a high-quality infrastructure for their website, and you’ll be the go-to person for both design and hosting queries. 

If you’re planning to start your own hosting company, reseller hosting can be a cost-effective entry point to entrepreneurship. While you will be the point of contact between the client and hosting provider if technical issues arise, the hosting provider can take care of technical aspects, such as server maintenance and cloud configurations, for you. 

With a white-label hosting service like A2, you gain access to a robust infrastructure, complete with an intuitive user interface, email services powered by Titan, pre-installed WordPress for quick deployments, and 24/7 in-house technical support. All of these features are ideal for building a hosting solution that’s perfectly tailored to your clients’ needs. 

A2 Hosting homepage

Does High-Quality, Affordable Reseller Web Hosting Exist?

It’s a common misconception that if reseller hosting is cheap, it must be subpar or low-quality. In reality, high-quality reseller web hosting that is affordable exists. You need to stick to high-quality hosting for your clients because if you build a website for them and they have a poor hosting experience, they’ll leave. 

With reseller hosting, your goal is to find the sweet spot where profit meets performance. This balance is crucial because you can offer your clients a valuable service that ensures their website is fast and secure and maintains high uptime. 

In most cases, you can deliver a high-quality hosting experience unless your clients have very specific needs. Take, for example, an online store that’s gearing up for Black Friday. It’ll likely experience a spike in traffic and may require higher-tier hosting. However, while some clients might need the high-end specs of a premium hosting solution, most will be satisfied with affordable hosting plans that are well-equipped with essential features. 

Now, let’s talk about how reseller web hosting providers manage to offer high-quality hosting packages at affordable prices. 

Understanding what you’re paying for is key. Typically, reseller packages operate on shared hosting plans, where your clients share servers and resources with other users. But this doesn’t mean the hosting is low-quality; it’s just a smart way for companies to reduce costs since resources are shared. 

If you opt for VPS reseller hosting, which comes with dedicated resources, you can expect to pay premium prices because it’s well-suited for sites that receive high traffic volumes. 

As Aaron Campbell, Director of Product at A2 Hosting says, “When considering the choice between VPS reseller packages and shared hosting, resellers should primarily evaluate their clients’ needs for scalability, control, and resource allocation. VPS reseller hosting is particularly advantageous for those who anticipate a need for increased resource control, enhanced security, and scalability to accommodate growing traffic or more demanding applications. This option allows resellers to provide a more tailored and robust hosting environment, which is crucial for clients with specific performance and security requirements. On the other hand, shared hosting is more suitable for resellers whose clients have smaller, less resource-intensive websites and are looking for a cost-effective solution. Ultimately, the decision should align with the business goals, technical requirements, and budget constraints of the reseller’s client base.”

What to Look for in Solid but Affordable Reseller Hosting

Finding the right balance between cost and quality is undoubtedly key, but here are some must-have features you’ll want to look for in a reseller hosting package:  

WHM and cPanel

The WebHost Manager (WHM) is essential for efficiently managing multiple cPanel accounts. With WHM, resellers can create, modify, and administer individual hosting accounts, ensuring optimal resource allocation and robust security measures. 

Meanwhile, cPanel provides an intuitive interface for end-users, simplifying tasks such as setting up email accounts, managing domains, and installing essential applications like WordPress. For resellers, this means fewer support calls and more time focusing on business growth.

WHMCS and Blesta

Billing and support automation tools like Web Host Manager Complete Solution (WHMCS) and Blesta play a crucial role in helping you manage your reseller hosting business efficiently. 

These platforms automate billing processes, from invoicing to payment tracking, allowing you to manage subscriptions without any hassles. They also offer robust support systems and automate ticketing and customer communication to improve client assistance. 

eNom Domain Reseller Account

Want to offer domains alongside your hosting services? An eNom Domain Reseller Account is your best bet. It lets you buy domain names at discounted rates and sell them to your clients, which can be a great way to boost revenue. 

Ample Client Accounts

A robust reseller package should ideally offer ample client accounts. This will allow you to cater to different markets and offer customized hosting solutions to your clients. With enough client accounts, you’ll have the flexibility to seize growth opportunities and stand out in a competitive market. 

A2 Hosting’s Affordable Reseller Hosting Plans

A2 Hosting reseller hosting page 

As hosting experts, we get how important it is to find the best reseller hosting provider. If you’ve ever held yourself back from starting your own hosting business due to high costs, lack of scalability, low uptime guarantees, or unsatisfactory customer support, you can trust us when we say that we’ve got you covered on all counts.

Let’s dive right into the standout features of our plans so you can see for yourself.

Kickstart Vs. Launch Vs. Grow Vs. Scale

At A2, we offer four reseller hosting plans: Kickstart, Launch, Grow, and Scale. Each plan comes with its own set of perks, including free Blesta or WHMCS, free SSL certificates, cPanel/WHM access, a 30-day money-back guarantee, and 24/7/365 in-house Guru Crew support. Here’s how they stack up: 

Choosing the Right Reseller Hosting Plan

The plan you choose can make or break your reseller hosting experience. You have to find one that suits your budget, aligns with your business goals, meets your clients’ needs, and sets you up for long-term success. Let’s break it down to make your decision easier.

If you’re a smaller agency or startup, sticking to your budget might be your biggest concern. In this case, our Kickstart plan could be the perfect fit, as it offers a balanced combination of storage and transfer limits at an affordable price. 

On the other hand, if you’re a growing agency or have a larger client base, you might find that our advanced plans, like Launch, Grow, or Scale, are better for your needs. These plans come with additional storage, high transfer limits, and value-added features like a free WHMCS license. 

A2’s Reseller Turbo Plans: Unparalleled Performance at a Reasonable Cost

A2 Hosting Turbo web hosting page

If speed and superior performance are your top priorities, you’ll love our Turbo Reseller Hosting plans. These plans offer the same reseller hosting options but with a turbocharged boost, thanks to our LiteSpeed web server, which provides lightning-fast page load performance. 

Significantly better website speed means better SEO rankings, lower bounce rates, and higher conversion rates. Despite its advanced features and benefits, our Turbo plans remain cost-effective, so you can get exceptional performance without breaking the bank. 

When to Opt for Turbo Reseller Hosting

Turbo is the way to go if your clients have intense performance requirements. For example, high-traffic websites can benefit immensely from Turbo’s speed enhancements. Additionally, clients who want to improve their SEO rankings and user interaction metrics may also find our Turbo Reseller Hosting plans highly valuable. 

Before making the switch, consider your current or prospective client base to see if they would significantly benefit from Turbo plans’ enriched performance. Look for signs such as high traffic volumes, slow website loading times, or SEO performance gaps. 

 A2’s VPS Reseller Hosting: When Your Clients Need More Resources

When your clients’ needs extend beyond shared resources, it’s time to consider A2 Hosting’s VPS Reseller Hosting. Unlike traditional reseller hosting, where resources are shared among many users, VPS Reseller Hosting gives each client dedicated resources, including CPU, RAM, and storage. This ensures consistent performance and avoids any downtime that could be caused by resource sharing. 

Although VPS Hosting costs more than shared hosting, the higher price tag can be worth it for clients with websites that require enhanced performance, reliability, and guaranteed uptimes. The extra cost is a reflection of the improved infrastructure and resources each client gets, giving them a stronger hosting solution.

Plus, A2’s VPS plans include Turbo features, making websites even faster. With Turbo-enabled VPS hosting, clients get speedier websites, which means happier visitors and better search engine rankings.

 Why A2’s Reseller Hosting Offers the Most Value

We’re serious about offering blazing-fast speed, affordability, ironclad security, a 99.9% uptime guarantee, 24/7/365 in-house technical support, and a comprehensive suite of additional features. Just take a look at how we compare against other reseller hosting providers: 

Start Your Reseller Journey With A2 Hosting Today

Providing high-quality reseller hosting services to your clients doesn’t require a hefty investment. Affordable reseller web hosting is not only possible but it’s also packed with all the essential qualities and features your clients deserve. 

A common misconception is that lower prices mean compromising on quality. But our plans are proof that you can blend competitive pricing with premium features and exceptional performance. 

With A2 Hosting, you can access a wide range of hosting plans tailored to various needs. This includes shared and VPS options, both of which are enhanced with Turbo capabilities to deliver super-fast site speeds. Get started with A2’s reseller hosting now to start making money as a reseller!  

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In this guide, we’ll walk you through the process of building a WordPress site in three easy steps, so you can share your ideas with the world.

Step 1: Choose a Hosting Plan and Domain Name

The foundation of any successful website is a reliable hosting plan and a memorable domain name. Here’s how to get started:

Selecting a Hosting Plan:

Research Hosting Providers: There are numerous hosting providers available, each offering different plans with various features. All hosting providers are not the same so make sure to do your research to find the best fit for you. Hosting companies should be evaluated on the following criteria:

• Speed and performance
• Ability and track record to keep your site secure.
• Scalability to grow with you as needed
• Cost effective

WordPress is the most extensible and widely used platform on the web, so it’s important to choose a hosting partner for your WordPress site that knows what they’re doing. Both A2 Hosting and WordPress were established 20 years ago and from our inception, our focus has remained the same: providing our customers with the ultimate hosting experience. Renowned for our speed and reliability, we offer plans to fit various budgets and the flexibility to scale as your website grows. By choosing A2 Hosting, you ensure you have reliable and fast hosting to set your website up for success. Don’t just take our word for it– check out what other customers have said on TrustPilot and see why our customers choose us!

Choose a Plan: Hosting plans typically come in different tiers, catering to various levels of website traffic and requirements. If you’re just starting, a shared hosting plan is usually sufficient. As your website grows, you can upgrade to more robust options.

At A2 Hosting, we have plans for all different levels and budgets: from shared, to VPS, to Dedicated Servers. For super easy setup, choose Managed WordPress hosting. These plans are geared towards WordPress users and offer fast and easy setup for WordPress sites.

Register a Domain Name:

• Brainstorm Domain Names: Your domain name is your online identity – make sure to choose one that reflects your website. The best domain names are memorable and would be relevant to your website content.
• Check Domain Availability: Use a domain search tool to ensure that your desired domain name is available. If your first choice is taken, get creative with variations or consider using different domain extensions (.com, .net, .org, etc.).
• Complete the Registration: Once you’ve found an available domain name, complete the registration process.

By the end of this step, you’ll have secured a hosting plan and a unique domain name which will lay the groundwork for building your WordPress site.

Step 2: Building Your WordPress Website

Install WordPress and Create Site:

Before you start building your site you will first need to install WordPress. If you have selected a plan like our Managed WordPress hosting plan, the installation is done for you. Otherwise follow the instructions here to get started.

In addition to installing WordPress, If you want to take the hassle out of setting up a new site, all our managed plans come with a quick site launcher preinstalled. It will guide you through building and launching your site and allow you to get started in minutes! Choose the type of site you want to build, its goals, your design preferences and the pages you want to build. You can even choose from thousands of responsive WordPress templates right in the launcher.

Choosing a Theme: 

Login to your WordPress dashboard and go to the ‘Appearance’ tab and select ‘Themes’ Here, you can browse through a variety of free and premium themes. Make sure to choose a theme that aligns with the purpose, style, and functionality of your website. Once you’ve found the perfect theme, click the “Install” button, followed by the “Activate” button. Your website will now have a new look based on the selected theme.

Select and Install WordPress Plugins:

WordPress plugins are like apps for your website and can add extra features and functionality to your site. To explore the plugin library, navigate to “Plugins” in the dashboard and click “Add New”.  You can also use the search bar to find specific plugins you want to install and activate.

Whether you want to enhance SEO, add a contact form, or integrate social media, there’s likely a plugin for it. Here are some of our favorites:

• Forms – Ninja Forms, Gravity Forms
• SEO – RankMath, All in One
• Page Builder – BeaverBuilder, Guten, Elementor

Once you find the plugins you want to use, you will want to make sure you look over the customization settings as most plugins come with options that allow you to tailor your site and optimize performance.

Step 3: Set Your Website Up for Success!

Elevate your WordPress site with these proactive measures for a seamlessly optimized and secure website. Here are some things to look at and adjust to ensure your WordPress site is operating at its best:

• Performance: Make sure to utilize things like page caching and image optimization, as well as Minify CSS,HTML & Javascript. Optimizing your site is important and will greatly improve your site performance, create the best user experience, and will help improve your search engine rankings.
• Regular Updates: It is important to keep your WordPress core, themes, and plugins up to date. This helps secure your website if you have the latest security patches. This also ensures that you have all new features available.
• Regular Backups: Set up automatic backups of your site for peace of mind.
• Utilize TurboHub: We have created a WordPress Dashboard for our WordPress users. This makes it easier for people to make many of the optimizations above as easy as a click! It’s now offered on all shared and managed WordPress plans.

Congratulations! You now have a WordPress site!

In conclusion, opting for our managed WordPress hosting provides a seamless and efficient solution for website owners. By auto-installing WordPress, the initial setup becomes a breeze and by utilizing TurboHub, it simplifies the process of implementing crucial optimizations for your WordPress site.

Get started today with managed WordPress hosting!

By following these easy steps, you’ve successfully built a WordPress site from the ground up! As you navigate your WordPress site, experiment with different themes, plugins, and customization options to make your site truly unique. Happy WordPressing! 

The post Build a WordPress Site in 3 Easy Steps appeared first on The A2 Posting.

Themes provide the look-and-feel of the cPanel interface. The latest cPanel theme release is named Jupiter, and it replaces the Paper Lantern theme (which in turn replaced the x3 theme before it). If you have been using Paper Lantern for awhile, you may be considering a switch to Jupiter. Here’s what you need to know about cPanel’s latest theme.

Differences between cPanel Paper Lantern and Jupiter themes

Jupiter provides a completely new look-and-feel to the cPanel interface. But it also offers two new pages: Tools and Solutions.

If you have used cPanel before, the Tools page will be largely familiar to you. It is the default page, and groups features into familiar categories, such as Email, Domains, and Databases.  You’ll also see relevant information about your account at a glance in the right sidebar, including:

• General information: Here you’ll find information such as your account’s IP address, home directory, username, and more.
• Server information: Here you’ll find information specific to the server, such as software version numbers and path information.
• Statistics: Here you’ll find various statistics relating to your account’s resource usage, such as disk, database, and domain usage.

The Solutions page, on the other hand, is totally new. It is intended for novice users of cPanel. It features tutorials on common tasks, such as how to set up an email account and build a website. There are also FAQs and links to documentation resources to help you easily find answers to your questions.

Switching from Paper Lantern to Jupiter theme in cPanel

You don’t have to wait to see what the new Jupiter theme looks like. You can easily switch your account to the Jupiter theme now to get a feel for the new interface. To do this, follow these steps:

1. Log in to your cPanel account.
2. In the right sidebar, under GENERAL INFORMATION, locate the Theme list box.
3. Select Jupiter. cPanel switches to the Jupiter theme automatically.
4. If you want to switch back to the Paper Lantern theme, just select paper_lantern in the Theme list box.

Conclusion

cPanel has made it easy to switch to the Jupiter theme. With dedicated development and the promise of more features, the benefits of making the switch to Jupiter outweigh the costs of staying with the older Paper Lantern theme.

At A2 Hosting, we strive to provide our customers with the latest industry standards and updates. Our hosting accounts include the new Jupiter theme so you can enjoy the best that cPanel has to offer. Our dedicated Support team is standing by 24/7/365 to answer any questions you may have.

The post Switching to cPanel’s Jupiter Theme appeared first on The A2 Posting.

Why Node.js?

So why use Node.js? Here are some key Node.js features that make it a popular choice for building web, desktop, and mobile applications: 

• Scalability: Node.js can handle a large number of concurrent connections,  improving application performance.
• Fast processing: Non-blocking thread requests are processed faster, enabling clients to receive faster responses for simple web application requests.
• Easy to maintain: Node.js is a cross-platform environment that enables you to use the JavaScript language to create web, desktop, and mobile applications.
• Large support community: Node.js has a large online community and tutorial repository, making it ideal for beginners.

Who uses Node.js

Approximately 1.6 percent of websites currently use Node.js, and usage is on an upward trend. It is frequently used by sites with high traffic, including many well-known companies such as Twitter, Spotify, eBay, Reddit, LinkedIn, Godaddy, and Netflix. Concurrent request processing, its lightweight footprint, and other Node.js features make it ideal for applications such as chatbots, data streaming, and the Internet of Things (IOT). For example:

• Twitter used Node.js to improve the performance of its mobile web app.
• Node.js is the de facto front-end web stack used by eBay to power web applications and orchestrate services on the eBay platform.

Getting started with Node.js web hosting 

Node.js has the right features to offer if you want to build a scalable web application using a single language, such as JavaScript, for both the frontend and the backend. These features include scalability, speed, and advanced performance. To see how easy it is to get started and set up a Node.js application using the cPanel control panel, see our Knowledge Base article How to Create a Node.js Application with cPanel.

Conclusion

Choosing the right development environment for your application can be a difficult decision, especially when starting out. This blog post has highlighted some of the key features of Node.js, and why it is a popular choice for web development. For more information about Node.js, please visit https://nodejs.org.

The post Why Should I Use Node.js? appeared first on The A2 Posting.

The concept of reselling has become increasingly popular due to the convenience it offers to companies, and the high number of sales generated through the partnership. However, some people may be hesitant to participate in reselling due to a lack of knowledge in the field. If you are an aspiring web hosting reseller looking to invest time in a new business opportunity, then read on to learn more!

Frequently Asked Questions About Being a Reseller

1. What is Reseller Hosting?

Running a web hosting company involves many things — acquiring and maintaining IT infrastructure, billing and managing customers, and much more. Needless to say, all of this also requires a lot of capital.

But with reseller hosting, you can provide web hosting services to your customers without all of the overhead and headaches of setting up and running an entire IT company. The “parent” company provides the digital infrastructure, freeing you (the reseller) to focus on creating, maintaining, and expanding your customer base. Even better, with white-label reseller hosting plans, you can brand everything under your own business name and logo.

2.   How Do I Become a Reseller?

To become a web hosting reseller, find a company that you are interested in partnering with. Make sure you find a reliable and trusted company, like A2 Hosting. Feel free to contact us — we are happy to help and answer your questions!

3.   Who Can Become a Reseller?

Anyone can become a reseller. If you are a driven and motivated individual, then you are the perfect candidate. As long as you are willing to learn and determined to succeed, then we are happy to welcome you as a reseller.

4.   Why Should I Become a Reseller?

Reselling is a great way to gain business experience, such as.

• How to sell a product.
• How to advertise your services.
• How to run a business.
• … and much more!

If you are looking to start your own business, or want to build your reputation and expertise to explore other business opportunities, then reseller hosting may be a good fit for you. You are able to gain necessary experience while generating your own revenue.

5.   How Much Capital do I Need?

This typically depends on the company you are collaborating with. Many companies offer flexible packages that allow a reseller to pick and choose from their list of options depending on their budget. There are companies that also permit resellers to build their own packages in terms of variety and quantity to personalize their experience.

At A2 Hosting, we have a variety of reseller plans to help you launch your web hosting business.

6.   How Much is the Profit?

The profit depends solely on how well you do. You set your own profit margins and quotas. Work within your limits and try your best to surpass them if you can.

7.   Do I Need My Own Domain Name?

As a web hosting reseller, you should have your own domain name. The domain name is an important part of your company’s identity.

If you do not have a domain name yet, make sure you read our tips for choosing an effective domain name.

8.   How Do I Create my Own Packages and Prices?

Many resellers use WebHost Manager (WHM) to create and manage account packages. For the billing and customer account management side of your business, WHMCS and Blesta are popular choices.

9.   How Can I Succeed as a Reseller?

As with most things, it all comes down to how hard you work. If you are new to reselling, it can all seem a bit overwhelming at first. Like any business, reseller hosting requires hard work and perseverance. But it can also be very rewarding, and profitable at the same time.

10. Where Do I Start?

Start by contacting us today! We are always ready to welcome new resellers. We can help you get your web hosting business off the ground and guide you through the initial setup process.

Take the next step into unlocking your potential by working with us!

The post What is Reseller Hosting? – Top 10 FAQs appeared first on The A2 Posting.

However, if you know how to incorporate video into your website, you can use it to maximize engagement and drive conversions. With the right approach, video can act as a powerful Call To Action (CTA).

In this article, we’ll talk about some of the latest video content trends, and then go over three tips to incorporate videos into your website. Let’s get to it!

What the Latest Video Content Trends Are

It’s likely that many of your users spend a significant part of their day watching videos on one platform or another. On average, users consume around 100 minutes of video per day. If you can seize even a fraction of that time through your content, it can help increase conversions.

If the primary goal of your videos is to drive sales or conversions, shorter is usually better. Despite the massive amounts of video content that customers consume, it’s safe to say that attention spans are getting shorter. At the end of 2019, up to 66 percent of video ads were approximately 30 seconds long. Although that might sound short, there’s a lot that you can say about a product or service in half a minute.

Thanks to the rise of social media stories and platforms such as TikTok, users are getting increasingly comfortable with shorter video ads as a part of their online experience. Moreover, there’s massive interest in User-Generated Content (UGC). If you can get consumers to share their experiences with your products or services in video format, that’s a huge marketing win.

There’s also a growing interest in educational videos. If your website focuses on online learning, video is a channel that you can tap into to expand your audience.

3 Tips for Incorporating Video into Your Website

If you’re ready to start incorporating videos into your website, there are several factors that can help you maximize their effectiveness. Let’s look at three tips you can use to make the most of your video strategy.

1. Add an Intro that Highlights Your Brand

If you go to your favorite YouTube channel right now and open a random video, we’re willing to bet it has an intro:

The goal of intros isn’t to pad video length, but to take the opportunity to reinforce brand awareness. An intro can accomplish that in several ways, including:

• Reminding you of the brand’s name
• Showcasing the brand’s logo
• Reinforcing the brand’s style and the type of content it focuses on

In this case, your website or business is the brand. Even if your videos are only 30 seconds long, adding a short intro that includes your name and the site’s logo can only benefit you. This is particularly the case when users end up watching those videos outside of your website.

Depending on which video marketing tools you use, adding intros to your content might be easier than you think. A lot of tools provide you with templates that you can use and edit, as well as the ability to upload your logo and incorporate it into the video.

2. Choose a Performance-Oriented Hosting Provider

If you plan on uploading videos directly to your server, you should use a performance-oriented web host. A lot of websites choose the cheapest hosting provider they can find, which often translates to slow loading times and a frustrating User Experience (UX).

If visitors have to spend minutes waiting for a video to load, and then wait for it to buffer every two seconds, they are much less likely to watch it in full. Even worse, that poor user experience can reflect badly on the rest of your website.

To ensure the best video experience, we recommend avoiding shared web hosting. At the very least, you’ll want to use a Virtual Private Server (VPS) hosting plan, which in most cases provides better performance as well as dedicated resources for your website.

3. Create Videos that Target Your Website’s Audience

You probably have a pretty good idea of who your website’s target audience is, such as:

• Where your users are visiting from
• The average age of your audience
• What their interests are and what content they want to see or read about

This information is critical for video creation. You can have an amazing idea for a marketing video, but if it doesn’t speak to your website’s audience, it won’t get the results you want. In other words, the video won’t get you conversions.

When you’re working on video content for your website, it’s important to consider whether it’s something your audience will be interested in. If the video provides or promises solutions and answers to questions they might have, it will likely succeed in its goal.

Conclusion

Knowing what the latest video content trends are is a solid starting point for creating your own media. Your website is the perfect channel to deliver those videos because it already has a built-in audience, some of whom may appreciate a different kind of content.

If you’re not sure how to approach video creation, you can start off on the right foot by keeping the following three tips in mind:

1. Add an intro that highlights your brand.
2. Choose a performance-oriented web hosting provider.
3. Create videos that target your website’s audience.

Do you have any questions about how to incorporate video into your website? Let’s talk about them in the comments section below!

Image credit: Pixabay.

The post 3 Tips for Embedding & Adding Video into Your Website appeared first on The A2 Posting.

Fortunately, there’s no shortage of CSS frameworks that can fast-track the design and development process. By opting for a framework, you can create standardized, higher-quality code, with less time and hassle.

In this post, we’ll discuss what CSS frameworks are and why you may want to consider using one for your next project. We’ll then share advice on how to find the framework that’s right for you, before exploring six popular CSS frameworks. Let’s get started!

An Introduction to CSS Frameworks

CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) controls the presentation of a document that’s written in a markup language such as HTML. Unlike some other languages, CSS creates a separation between presentation and content. This gives you more flexibility in how you display your content.

This language also promotes code reuse, as multiple pages can use the formatting defined in a single CSS file. This can reduce complexity and repetition, while also improving your project’s performance, such as by reducing your website’s page loading times.

Many different systems use CSS. This includes WordPress themes, which uses CSS to output the data generated by this popular Content Management System (CMS). Every WordPress theme contains a single style.css file:

Although you can write pure CSS, many designers and developers choose to use a CSS framework. This is a collection of stylesheets that provide a basic structure and classes for common elements.

You can use these pre-prepared stylesheets as a reference for resolving problems of a similar nature. Alternatively, you can override the framework’s generic functionality for your specific use case.

There can be some confusion about when to use a framework, and when it makes more sense to opt for a library. With libraries, you control when this technology performs a particular function. The rest of your code exists independent from that library. However, with CSS frameworks the control flow is in the framework, and you’ll customize it in places to better suit your project.

Why You Might Want to Use a CSS Framework

CSS frameworks can reduce the amount of code you need to write. Instead of programming everything from scratch, these frameworks provide all the tools you need to spin up a basic UI.

You can then spend your time perfecting this interface to meet your project’s exact requirements. Since you’re not starting every project with a blank slate, you’ll have more time to focus on the specific features that make your site or app unique.

A CSS framework can also be useful for agencies and freelancers who manage multiple client sites. Using this tool, you can create a theme and then deploy it across countless websites. This can help you onboard new clients more quickly, and grow your business without drastically increasing your workload.

If you’re collaborating on a project with multiple people, a CSS framework can help you achieve consistency. For example, instead of each team member inventing their own class names, a CSS framework implements standardized naming conventions. This typically results in higher-quality code that’s easier to read and maintain.

When your code is consistent, you’ll also find it easier to onboard new team members or freelancers. It’s also worth remembering that just because your staff are happy in their role now doesn’t necessarily mean they’ll stick around forever.

It’s smart to ensure that even if your head developer leaves, your project can continue. To make sure your project is never wholly reliant on a single person, it’s a good idea to implement a standardized approach that’s clearly defined and understood by everyone. A framework can help you achieve this uniformity across your project.

Factors to Consider When Using a CSS Framework

A CSS framework can be a valuable addition to your project. However, if you have little previous experience with CSS, then it’s important to familiarize yourself with this language before jumping into the world of frameworks.

By taking the time to master pure CSS, you’ll be better equipped to identify issues with your syntax. When you know how to achieve the desired results in pure CSS, you’ll also find it easier to scan your framework’s documentation for the information you need. This can boost your efficiency, particularly when it comes to problem-solving and troubleshooting.

We always recommend taking some time to sharpen your CSS knowledge before you start shopping around for a suitable framework. Depending on your previous experience and knowledge, this may require a significant amount of time and effort.

A CSS framework will also add to your project’s overhead. Depending on your project, this may include lots of unnecessary or irrelevant code that you don’t even use. Bloat is never good, but it makes zero sense to increase your project’s size without adding any value.

Since your project exists inside the CSS framework, this may be limiting for your application or website. If you rely on a framework too heavily, there’s also the risk that your finished project will look similar to other sites and apps that use the same framework. This can make your project blur into the background, when it should be standing out from the crowd.

How to Choose the Right CSS Framework

To start, your chosen framework should meet all of your project’s technical requirements. It’s also smart to look for characteristics that make this framework a good fit for your project. For example, a lightweight framework may be the perfect addition to a mobile-focused design, but it may be less ideal for a large, complicated application.

Over time, your project’s requirements will likely change. Although it’s impossible to predict the future, it’s always worth considering how your project might develop over the long-term. Your chosen CSS framework should be able to support your site or application as it evolves over months, and potentially even years.

When choosing any technology, it’s always smart to consider its ease of use. Even if you’re fluent in CSS, learning any new technology requires a big upfront investment. Every moment that you spend familiarizing yourself with your new framework is time that you could have invested directly into your project.

Ideally, your chosen framework will be intuitive, user-friendly, and have a gentle learning curve. This will minimize the time between installing the framework and starting to reap the benefits. If a framework is user-friendly, then you’re also much less likely to encounter major issues, including stumbling blocks that require you to pause development in order to research the problem.

When considering ease of use, it’s important to find out what support is available. Ideally, the framework will be backed by official documentation, tutorials, and perhaps even professional support.

You should also consider the level of community resources available, including third-party blogs, forums, and social media sites. An active community can be an invaluable source of additional support. You could even put your questions directly to the community via channels such as Stack Overflow.

6 Popular CSS Frameworks (And When To Use Them)

With so many CSS frameworks to choose from, picking just one isn’t always easy. That’s why we’ve compiled this list of the six most popular CSS frameworks. Along the way, we’ll help you make the right decision, by suggesting the kind of projects each framework is perfect for.

1. Bootstrap

Originally named Twitter Blueprint and developed as a tool for internal teams, Bootstrap has since grown into one of the most popular CSS frameworks. Today, Bootstrap is used by around 22 percent of all websites, and its GitHub consists of over 20,000 commits from more than 2000 contributors.

To get started, you can download Bootstrap’s source Sass and JavaScript files from either Composer, Meteor, or the Node Package Manager (npm). You can also use the npm template repository to quickly generate a Bootstrap project, or check out any of the official examples, that are supported by extensive documentation.

All of this makes Bootstrap a great choice for anyone who’s new to CSS frameworks, or has limited pure CSS experience. This may include back-end developers who want to make some changes to their projects’ User Interface (UI). For these designers, Bootstrap provides templates for all of the most popular UI components, including alerts, tabs, forms, and dropdowns.

Bootstrap is also designed for responsive, mobile-first front-end development. This makes it a good fit for mobile projects.

If you do require additional support, Bootstrap has a large and active community on Stack Overflow. You can also access real-time support via the Bootstrap Slack channel.

2. Foundation

Foundation is a front-end framework for building websites, applications, and emails. Thanks to its Sass compiler, the responsive Foundation framework is ideal for creating projects fast.

Foundation favors clean, semantic code and takes a mobile-first approach. After ensuring that your project is fully compatible with mobile devices, you can add in more complexity for a fully-responsive design.

Foundation provides HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, which is great for rapidly prototyping websites. If you’re using Foundation to create emails, this framework provides tested patterns that work with all of the major email clients, including Outlook. This can help you create emails that display and function correctly, regardless of how the recipients choose to access them.

Despite its speed, Foundation is far from a limited framework, and many developers use it to create large applications. It’s also highly customizable, which makes Foundation a good choice for designers who want to create a unique experience for their end users, and who aren’t afraid to dig into Foundation’s more complex features in order to achieve the desired result.

Despite its current status as an open-source project, Foundation was originally maintained by ZURB. Today, ZURB continues to offer a full program of tutorials, online courses, custom training, and even an official Foundation certification.

3. Skeleton

The Skeleton framework is a small collection of CSS files that you can use to rapidly generate clean code and simple layouts. Coming in at under 400 lines of code, this bare-bones framework is a good fit for smaller projects, or projects that don’t require the utility of a larger, heavier solution.

As a lightweight framework, Skeleton shouldn’t add unnecessary bloat to your project, which can be particularly valuable for mobile designs. If you’re creating a mobile project, Skeleton has a well-structured grid that enables you to create a responsive layout with minimal hassle.

Skeleton provides a 12-column fluid grid with a maximum width of 960px. This grid shrinks according to the browser and device. However, if you need to alter the maximum width you can make that change with a single line of CSS.

Skeleton serves its scalable grid using media queries. It also provides a list of mobile-first queries for styling your project across multiple devices. All styles outside of a query apply to all devices, so larger devices are targeted for enhancement. This prevents small devices from having to parse large amounts of unnecessary CSS.

If you’re new to the world of CSS frameworks, Skeleton’s simplistic approach makes this a good framework for beginners. For CSS newcomers, it can even be a valuable learning tool before progressing to more complex and feature-rich frameworks.

Unlike some of the other CSS frameworks on this list, Skeleton is designed as a starting point that you can develop into something more substantial. It’s also worth noting that Skeleton’s lack of templates may become an issue if you try to use this framework in larger or more complex projects.

4. UIKit

UIKit is a responsive, lightweight CSS framework that you can use to create clean and professional-looking interfaces. This framework defines all the core components such as table views, buttons, labels, and navigation controllers.

UIKit is also extensible, and supports a comprehensive collection of advanced components that are not bundled with the core framework. This includes parallax girds, dynamic pagination, and sliders.

Alongside CSS files, UIKit provides an autocomplete package for Sublime Text and Atom editors. Since users don’t have to repeatedly look up UIKit markups and class names, this framework is great for your overall productivity.

Unlike other frameworks such as Bootstrap and Foundation, UIKit breaks the layout into three components: grid, flex, and width. Instead of restricting you to a 12-column grid setup, UIKit gives you the flexibility to create as many columns as you require.

Over at the UIKit website, you’ll find extensive official documentation and a series of video tutorials. Despite these useful learning resources, we find that UK Kit is a more complex framework that’s best suited to experienced developers.

5. Semantic UI

Semantic UI is a framework for creating responsive layouts. Based on natural language principles, Semantic UI aims to make code readable and easier to understand by creating a shared vocabulary around UI.

To achieve this, Semantic UI treats words and classes as interchangeable concepts. All classes are human words and use syntax from natural languages, including noun/modifier relationships and word order. Semantic UI also uses plurality to link concepts intuitively. As a result, its code often resembles regular text.

Human-readable code and ease of use makes Semantic UI a great choice for anyone who’s new to the world of frameworks. If you do have previous experience, it’s worth noting that Semantic UI integrates with React, Angular, Meteor, Ember, and various other frameworks.

In addition to the functionality you’d typically expect from a CSS framework, Semantic UI provides simplified debugging and performance logging. This enables you to track down bottlenecks without digging through stack traces. These added extras make Semantic UI suitable for larger projects, including enterprise apps and websites.

6. Pure

Built on Normalize.css, the Pure framework is a set of small, responsive CSS modules that provide layout and styling for native HTML elements. This includes many common UI components. Pure has a minimal and unopinionated design, so you should have no issues adding new CSS rules and overriding Pure.css with your own styles.

Coming in at 3.87B minified and gzipped, this is a simple, lightweight framework. If you only require a subset of Pure’s modules, you’ll save even more bandwidth. This makes Pure ideal for smaller projects, or any project that has modest requirements.

Its small footprint also means that Pure is a good choice for mobile projects, where you’re typically working with less memory. Even better, this framework is responsive out of the box, thanks to its use of Pure Grids and Vertical Menus. With Pure CSS, you can be confident that your UI will look and display correctly across a range of mobile and tablet devices.

Conclusion

Building applications and websites from scratch can quickly start to feel repetitive. Instead of wasting time coding the same elements over and over again, a CSS framework can handle this busywork for you.

If you’re still unsure which CSS framework is right for you, here’s a quick reminder of the six frameworks we covered earlier:

1. Bootstrap: An open source framework that’s perfect for responsive, mobile-first front-end web development.
2. Foundation: With an emphasis on speed, Foundation is ideal for rapid prototyping.
3. Skeleton: Coming in at under 500 lines of code, this CSS framework is designed with mobile devices in mind.
4. UIKit: A lightweight, modular framework that targets highly-experienced, professional developers.
5. Semantic UI: This theming framework contains pre-built semantic components that can help you create professionally-designed, responsive websites.
6. Pure: A collection of responsive CSS modules that have much to offer for mobile developers.

A CSS framework can be your secret weapon for developing professionally-designed websites and applications in record time. However, once you’re ready to send your project out into the world, you’ll still need somewhere to host it.

By choosing a provider that’s optimized for web frameworks, you can ensure that you’re getting the very best out of your finished project. At A2 Hosting, we’ve optimized our plans for a wide range of frameworks, including Bootstrap. We even offer 1-click framework setup!

The post What Is a CSS Framework? (And When to Use 6 Popular Options) appeared first on The A2 Posting.

So, Does Website Migration Affect SEO? 

Any server change carries a slight SEO risk with or without modifications to your website,  but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. You see, migrations primarily affect site speed. So if you’re migrating to a host like A2 Hosting, you’ll notice increased site speed. As loading time is a top SEO ranking consideration, this can only help you, not hurt you. Unfortunately, this means the opposite for migrating to a slower host (maybe it’ll make you think again about migrating to a cheaper host?). 

When users experience slow loading times, they’re less likely to revisit your site in the future, especially when more than 50% of visitors abandon a website if a page takes over 2 seconds to load. Since 2010, speed has been a ranking factor for desktop searches on Google. When researching new hosts, look for speed optimizations or determine how the web hosting company optimizes its servers for speed. 

For example, at A2 Hosting, we use only SSD and NVMe storage. “Our speed, your success” is our motto because we believe that speed is the most critical factor in attracting, maintaining, and increasing traffic and conversions. Additionally, our Turbo servers offer Litespeed caching, and specific servers also offer the AMD EPYC processors. When combined, these three elements contribute to lightning-fast speeds.  

Changing web hosting providers can also come with risks, especially if you lose certain functionalities at the new host or move from Apache to Nginx or IIS (Internet Information Services). If you’re wary about changing hosts, talk with someone on our sales team about the process and ensure your server needs match up with what we can offer you. 

Now that we’ve discussed how website migrations affect SEO, let’s review the migration process. Use our SEO checklist to prepare your website for its migration:

• 1. Set up a staging site on your new server. Before canceling your other web hosting plan, compare your existing site’s page load speeds against the new server’s load speeds. Hopefully, the new server improved your site speeds! 
• 2. Pick a slow time. After testing your new site on the server, pick a quiet time to perform the DNS propagation. Your site may be down for up to 24 hours as the DNS propagates around the world, but choose a time when you experience low traffic, so you’re not missing opportunities for leads and conversions. 
• 3. Perform checks on your site. For example, check the organic health of your website. Is there any penalization for spammy backlinks? Are your current backlinks relevant for the content? We recommend tracking your site’s domain authority with Moz Pro. 
• 4. Crawl your site. With Moz Pro or ScreamingFrog, you can crawl your website to receive a full URL and content inventory. Then, you can fix issues while you’re staging your site and map old URLs to new URLs in your 301 redirect map.  
• 5. Update Internal Links. Test your website and update internal links to avoid internal redirects or broken links. ScreamingFrog allows you to find internal links and their attached anchor text and their respective pages.
• 6. Create a custom 404 page. When visitors experience a broken page, engage them with a custom 404 page. It should direct them to your homepage or additional pages on your website. Otherwise, a blank 404 page frustrates users and makes them want to close the browser tab altogether and find a site that works. 
• 7. Update your Robots.txt file. The robots.txt file tells search engine crawlers which pages the crawler can or can’t request from your site. It lives at www.yoursite.com/robots.txt. 
• 8. Test your website on mobile. Is your site responsive or rendering correctly on a mobile device? Google offers a Mobile-Friendly Test tool to determine if Google views your site as mobile-friendly. 
• 9. Measure your performance post-launch. Once you’ve ensured your site launches appropriately, there are no broken pages or backlinks, your site is mobile-friendly, and you’ve updated your robots.txt file, analyze your performance after you launch your website. Check your ranking performance, organic traffic users/sessions, check for site crawl issues, and monitor your backlink profile. Track any 404 page traffic in your Google Analytics post-launch to catch and add any redirects to your 301 redirect file. 

SEO doesn’t need to be significant when migrating your website concern. With a few preparations, you can efficiently execute a website migration plan without worrying about lowering your website’s ranking. 

Related articles:

• How to Migrate a WordPress Website to a New Host
• Tips for Migrating to Joomla 4
• How to Switch Your Domain Name Without Damaging Your Site’s SEO
• A Total Beginner’s Guide to Website Hosting
• Who Has the Fastest Web Hosting? Matching Your Need for Speed

The post Does Website Migration Affect SEO? The Definitive Website Migration SEO Checklist. appeared first on The A2 Posting.