HUGE Google Changes – Is your site ready?

Posted on April 21, 2015 by Heather

Starting today, April 21, 2015 Google will be making a HUGE algorithm change that will affect all mobile searches.

The new change outranks both Panda and Penguin in terms of scale according to Google’s Webmaster Trends analyst Zineb Ait Bahajji. It is predicted to affect 40% of all websites. If you haven’t felt the effects of this change, you will soon!

Whether you have a website, landing page or blog, you WILL be affected by this change. The question is…are you ready for it?

We have been preaching about keeping your website up to date for quite some time. Check out our blog post back in 2013 explaining some of the benefits of keeping your site fresh and new.

The change will only take about a week to complete and is so significant that April 21st is being referred to by several names including mobilegeddon, mobilepocalyse, mopocalypse or mobocalypse!

The end isn’t [that] near! The best way to figure out whether your site will reap the benefits of this algorithm change (or if you will be penalized after the update), is to analyze your site and Google was generous enough to provide the link for a simple test:

https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/mobile-friendly/

If your site is mobile-friendly, congratulations! You won’t fall victim to these apocalyptic changes. However, if your site doesn’t meet these mobile-friendly standards, it’s time for an update!

Not to worry, we’ve got you covered – contact us by phone, email, telegraph or carrier pigeon and we will be more than happy to get your site up to par.

The best way to ensure your site won’t be affected, is to make your site Responsive. Responsive design is the process of creating a single web site that has the ability to adjust its layout, based on the size and orientation of the users display as well as the browser it is being viewed on. Simply meaning, your website “responds” to the device it’s being displayed on for optimal viewing.

We’ve been doing responsive design for a while now, check out some of our favorites:

Aqui Cal-Mex
Pelvic Health and Rehabilitation
Amy Dixon Fitness
Jonathon D Fischer Foundation

Or check out our portfolio for more examples.

Don’t wait until you are no longer competitive in your search rankings. Contact us – we’ve got your back!

Are you sick of spam? We’re reducing email spam now!

Posted on May 8, 2014 by Christopher Erk

This week we are rolling out some new updates to our mail server which will help reduce the amount of spam being received by our customers. We’ve recently noticed an increase in spam over the last few months and decided to take action. This update will include a new settings panel in cPanel called “MailScanner Configuration”; here you can fine-tune how you want to handle a message when it is detected as possible spam. We went ahead and configured this for you and you should already be seeing a reduction in the amount of spam received.

You may start to see some emails come in that start with {spam?} or {Disarmed} but this is just the new spam blocking system working. You can delete these emails if they are spam or treat them as you would a normal message. If you have any specific questions or would like us to make some changes to your account, please contact us or open a support ticket.

We are always striving to improve the quality of service at TrevNet Media – and no one hates spam email as much as we do!

Heartbleed Vulnerability Update

Posted on April 14, 2014 by trev_admin

The Heartbleed Bug is a serious vulnerability in the popular OpenSSL cryptographic software library. This weakness allows information to be stolen that is protected, under normal conditions, by the SSL/TLS encryption used to secure the Internet. SSL/TLS provides communication security and privacy over the Internet for applications such as web, email, instant messaging (IM) and some virtual private networks (VPNs).

Services at TrevNet Media

We have been asked multiple times over the last week regarding our hosting infrastructure, your data, and our managed hosting servers. All of our effected servers have been updated and the security hole has been patched. Due to the nature of this security bug, it’s not possible for us (or anyone else effected) to tell you if your passwords may have been compromised since no data is logged. We can, however, assure you that all of our managed servers running OpenSSL have been updated since April 9th.

Heartbleed Explained

The problem affects a piece of software called OpenSSL, which is used for security on popular web servers. With OpenSSL, websites can provide encrypted information to visitors, so the data transferred (including usernames, passwords, and cookies) cannot be seen by others while it goes from your computer to the website.

Heartbleed exploits a built-in feature of OpenSSL called heartbeat. When your computer accesses a website, the website will respond back to let your computer know that it is active and listening for your requests: this is the heartbeat.

Check out this article to read more about how it works.

Source: http://xkcd.com/1354/

What you should do

If you want to be on the safe side, we would recommend that you reset your passwords on any accounts you have with our services where you connect with SSL. While we don’t know if any data was stolen while any of our systems were vulnerable, it’s a possibility.

Over 60% of the internet was effected by this bug; this includes many popular sites you most likely use, or have used. Check out this list to get up to date. It includes websites like Facebook, LinkedIn, Google, GoDaddy, Netflix, Hulu, and more.

The Year of the Hack!

Posted on October 30, 2013 by Heather

Some are calling 2013 “The Year Of The Hack”; it’s more important than ever to take the necessary steps to ensure your site is secure. Since 2008, almost half a million WP sites have been reportedly hacked and this number is sure to rise as WordPress gains more in popularity. Close to 19% of the world’s websites are powered by WordPress. By not keeping all of the plug-ins and themes associated with your site up to date, you could be potentially leaving it vulnerable to an attack.

Tips to reduce the risk of being hacked:

Keep software and all plug-ins updated

Remove all plug-in and add-ons not in use

Make security a priority when choosing a web hosting company

Use proper file permissions on your server

Use strong, varied passwords and don’t store them locally

Regularly scan your PC for malware

We are in an era where everywhere you turn, you hear stories of the latest hack, and it’s no secret that WordPress has received plenty of bad publicity regarding the topic. Recently, stories about hackers laying a massive, global siege on WordPress sites across the Internet have been everywhere. The main focus of these hacks was exploiting the default “admin” accounts and over 90,000+ IP addresses were involved in the attack. From this, companies scramble with their tail between their legs trying to patch up the security holes they swore never existed.

It should be made a general rule when owning a WordPress site to continuously stay current on the latest updates. Hacking aside, there are several additional benefits to keeping your website fresh and up to date. To put it another way, think about a car; you know the over-all cost of maintenance it is far less than fixing a problem should it occur. Keeping your website up to date, like your car, will be far less expensive in the long run and will give you more “mileage” out of your site.

Inspiring Work Spaces

Posted on October 4, 2013 by Heather

This past week we had a contest across multiple social media channels asking people to submit pictures of their offices, work spaces, or simply the view from their perspective while working. In turn, the prize for the most “liked” picture would be an amazing custom designed TrevNet T-shirt.

We had some great responses from Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Not only did we see pictures of your average indoor offices but we saw perspectives from military personnel, work-from-home professionals and some pretty creative perspective shots.

We are glad the winner wasn’t left up to us because it would have been hard to choose the best one. To give you an idea what amazing entries we had, check out all the submissions below:

Looking at all these offices got us thinking. You all need to decorate! Inspiration is hard to find so we figured we would help you out with some inspiration. Here are some great office spaces we found that would make anyone want to redesign:

And the Winner Is:

After a week of submissions, and 7 days of waiting (wait, a week is 7 days, right?)…the picture with the most likes, shares, comments (and views, but really – likes are the only thing that count here) is – drum roll please – Justin Willemsen!! Justin’s photo was posted to Facebook so, Justin, we will be contacting you via FB to get your information and send you your prize. Check out Justin’s amazing photo below; what an awesome shot. You got skillz, son.

And Just because we are feeling super generous…

The picture with the second most likes will also be getting a prize! At a very close second, The Cupertino Soap Company Posted their work space view on Instagram and received quite a few likes. Check out how creative they got:

Thank you to everyone who sent us their photos, it was awesome to see how everyone works, what inspires people and just how different everyone’s work environments are.

What is your ideal work space look like? It’s not too late to send us a photo or drop us a comment. Keep an eye out for our next freebie; what would you like to see next?