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Join WHC @ WordCamp Montréal, the Must-See WordPress Event!

Web Hosting Canada is excited to be a Gold sponsor for this year’s premier Canadian WordPress event: WordCamp Montréal 2019! This 2-day conference on August 10 & 11, 2019, will be packed with presentations, discussions and networking dedicated to help you master WordPress, the world’s most popular content management system.

What is WordCamp?

WordCamp is a volunteer-based initiative, bringing together experts and enthusiasts who wish to share their knowledge concerning every aspect of WordPress. With presentations in both French and English, attendees have multiple topics to choose from at all times. Whether you're a new WordPress user or a seasoned developer, there will certainly be something for you. Popular WordPress topics include:
  • Improving your WordPress Theme
  • Maximizing the use of Plugins (or creating your own!)
  • Developing & Updating WordPress
  • Optimizing WordPress Performance
  • Writing Better Content
  • Marketing your business and improving SEO
  • Enhancing WordPress Security
  • Uncovering Industry Trends

Why attend WordCamp?

Besides gaining insight and expert knowledge into WordPress, WordCamp is about building community. In between presentations, meet with other passionate, like-minded individuals and businesses to strengthen your network and gain useful insight. At the end of the first day, join the WordCamp community for drinks and mingling at the afterparty; the perfect way to decompress after a day of learning. Further your networking by signing up to the Meetup.com group, which organizes monthly gatherings for Montréal WordPress enthusiasts. Industry sponsors including WHC will be on hand throughout the event. We look forward to meeting you at our booth, and sharing our latest updates to WordPress Hosting. Our experts will also be there to answer questions and provide solutions to your WordPress and online marketing needs, or even help you migrate your WordPress website on the spot! Don’t forget to take advantage of The Happiness Bar, where various professionals offer free one-on-one consultations on a topic of your choice. You can view past videos of WordCamp presentations to get a good idea of what to expect this year.

Save the date!

When: August 10-11, 2019 Where: The John Molson School of Business, 1450 rue Guy, Montréal, QC H3H 0A1 How much: $50 for both days. Buy tickets. Schedule: See what’s taking place. WHC’s CEO Emil Falcon will be presenting WordPress Staging Done Right (in French). The presentation will discuss the dos and don’ts of WordPress development and how a staging environment can help reduce risks and keep your website running smoothly with each update. See you August 10-11 at WordCamp Montreal! WHC Team

Beginner’s Guide to SEO: 5 On-Page SEO Tips

In part three of our ongoing series, SEO for Beginners, we look at changes you can make to a single web page to improve its ranking on search engines.

What is On-Page SEO?

On-page SEO helps improve your search engine rankings by optimizing the content of specific pages of your website, as opposed to elements external to your website, like inbound links. In addition to being one of the most effective parts of SEO, on-page strategies allow you to narrow your focus to one page of your website at a time, making the process more straightforward. Before delving into on-page SEO, you’ll need to identify your web page’s primary and secondary keywords. If you haven’t already done so, read our Beginner’s Guide to SEO: Keyword Research for a detailed walkthrough.

5 Ways to Improve Your On-Page SEO

Let’s discover the most effective ways to improve your page’s online search engine rankings.

1. Title Tag and H1 Optimization

Your page’s title and its first header are two of the most important SEO elements of your page. The title isn’t visible to visitors directly on your page; however it will be used by Google (and other search engines) as the text of the main link in search results. It’s also the name that appears in your browser’s title bar as well as the name of your website when you bookmark it. Titles are placed between title tags in HTML and their code look like this: <title>This is my title!</title>. Search result title example Labrador retriever The H1 is your web page's main headline (or first-level heading). It’s usually shown in larger, bold text at the very top of your page, and one of the first things visitors to your page will see, so it's hugely important! First-level headings are placed between <h1></h1> tags in HTML. Each page you create should contain only one title tag and one H1 tag. The title tag and H1 can have the same wording, but don’t necessarily need to. In the examples above you can see they are different but still have the primary keyword “Labrador Retriever” at the beginning and provide a clear description of the information on the page. Since both tags share a similar purpose, similar SEO strategies can be applied to both. In general, your title and h1 tags should:
  1. Contain your primary keyword(s)
  2. Include the primary keyword near the beginning of the phrase
  3. Accurately represent the content of the page
  4. Be engaging! Consider asking a question, stating a problem or offering a solution
  5. Contain secondary keywords if they can be inserted naturally into your phrase
  6. Not exceed 70 characters
While title tags exceeding 70 characters are possible, they may be cut short in search engines results.

Example of optimized title tag

Search result title example Labrador retriever

Example of a non-optimized title tag

Search result example title too long While the second example contains the keyword “Labrador Retriever” at the beginning, its excessive length leads it to be cut short.

In content management systems like WordPress or website builders like Weebly, adding the H1 is the first thing you are prompted to do when creating a new page or post. You can usually also set up your titles so that your company name is appended to the end each page's individual title, separated by a hyphen or a vertical bar | . This will ensure that branding elements such as your company’s name are always present as secondary keywords in all your pages.

2. Meta Description Optimization

In HTML, the meta description tag is a short text used to summarize a web page's content. Search engines can display this text in search results to describe a page’s content before visitors click on it. Just like title tags, meta descriptions are not seen by website visitors, but Google and other search engines often display them below your page's title in the search results. Search result title example Labrador retriever However, unlike title tags, meta descriptions affect SEO indirectly. Search engines do not place much ranking weight (or any!) on meta descriptions themselves, but they can entice people click on the link and go to your website, which in turn increases your click-through rate and contributes to better rankings. So, think of the meta description as a piece of ad copy to get people interested. It’s also important to note that search engines will not always use the meta description in their results. If the algorithm finds other information on the page which it considers more accurate, then it will override the description you wrote. Still, meta descriptions can be optimized by:
  • Writing an engaging text that will grab the reader's attention and intice them to click on your link. Ask yourself: would I click on this link if I were reading this description?
  • Accurately describing the content of your page, to avoid misleading readers
  • Adding primary keywords which search engines will highlight in bold if they match the keywords used during the search
  • Keeping the meta description shorter than 120 characters so that it is not cut off in the search results
In HTML, a meta description tag looks like: <meta name="description" content="This is the content of my meta!" />
It should be placed between the <head></head> tags of your page.

Example of optimized meta description

Search result title example Labrador retriever

Example of non-optimized meta description

Search result example title too long The non-optimized example shows the text from the actual page because a meta description was never created. It has the primary keyword “Labrador Retriever” but is cut short due to excessive length and isn’t as engaging as the optimized example. Website builders like WordPress and Weebly will generally allow you to add a meta description to each page in the page’s settings or SEO screen.

3. On-Page Written Content Optimization

To have Google show your web page in its search results for specific keywords, you'll need to include them in your page's main content. You may find that your primary and secondary keywords will naturally be part of your content, but here are some guidelines for writing good SEO content:
  • Think about your visitors first, not your keywords. If your page's content isn't engaging and visitors don't find it pertinent, manipulating keywords won't help much.
  • Add your primary keyword to the first sentence on your page
  • Include secondary keywords in the first 100 words or first paragraph of your page
  • Don't overdo it! Primary keywords should comprise approximately 2% of your page's text
  • Consider writing enough text on some of your more important pages to keep the visitor reading for a few minutes. A good starting target is 1,900 words
  • Make your text easy to scan and fun to read:
    • Use secondary headings (H2s and H3 tags) to break up the text into sections and to add secondary keywords
    • Enhance content with images, bullet points and bolded words (plain text is boring)
Adding keywords for the sake of adding keywords (also known as keyword stuffing) might harm the quality of your content and may also send negative signals to search engines which can end up lowering your ranking. Let's look at a made up example using the keyword Retriever breeds.

Example of good content

Retriever breeds are known for being great family dogs with their sweet and calm personalities. What’s more, they're good at getting along with other pets (cats, rabbits, etc.) and are easy to train. But are they all created equal? Is a Golden the same as a Labrador or a Chesapeake bay retriever? Let’s find out.

Example of keyword stuffing

Retriever breeds are known for being great family dogs with their sweet and calm personalities. What’s more, retriever breeds are good at getting along with other pets (cats, rabbits, etc.) and retriever breeds are easy to train. But are all retriever breeds created equal? Is a Golden retriever the same as a Labrador retriever or a Chesapeake bay retriever? Let’s find out more about retriever breeds.

While the 2% rule is a good rule of thumb for content optimization, it’s more important to focus on having text that reads naturally and answers your visitor's intent. If you go over 2% but the page has a great flow and doesn’t feel ‘stuffy’ to the reader, then search engines will probably not penalize you. Here's a helpful tool to check keyword density. Also keep in mind that search engines often prefer longer articles for 2 reasons. 1) It helps keep visitors on a page longer, which signals value to search engines. 2) It can lower the chance of a visitor leaving right away, which signals a lack of value. In fact, the majority of first page articles have on average 1,900 words. However, writing 1,900 words should not be a goal when you create content. What is first and foremost is creating quality content, but if you can add some length by providing valuable information, all the better.

4. Image Optimization

Did you ever wonder how website images appear on the image section of Google search results? What’s interesting is that search engines only see images as specific arrangement of coloured pixels. You can help search engines understand what an image is about by including alt text and a descriptive file name. Alt text, or alternative text, is a short description added to that image’s HTML tag. It looks like this: <img alt="this is my alternative text" src="image1.jpg"> Alt tags can also be displayed in some browsers when you hover and hold your mouse over an image. Best practices for optimizing alt text:
  • Limit their length to a maximum of 125 characters
  • Do not start with ‘picture of’ or ‘image of’
  • Add keywords only when they apply to the image
Image file names are what the images are saved as. Just like alt tags, the image file name can help describe what the image is.

Example of optimized alt text and file name

Labrador Retriever laying down Alt text: Labrador Retriever laying down File name: labrador-retriever.jpg

Example of non-optimized alt text and file name

Alt text: picture of dog with a collar with a happy expression laying down looking at the camera with a white background and it’s tail is against its hind leg File name: image005.jpg

5. URL and Page Name Optimization

The address of a web page, also called a URL (or Unified Resource Location), is comprised of your domain name, an optional subfolder (or subdirectory), and your specific page’s name (or file name). Parts of a URL Your page’s URL generally appears in green under the search result link (the title tag), in Google: search result good url example As far as on-page SEO is concerned, we’ll be focusing mainly on the page name component. That being said, your domain name can also be optimized for SEO. For more information, check out The Canadian Guide to Finding Your Perfect Domain Name Here’s how you can choose a good page name:
  • Place the primary keyword near the beginning of the page name
  • Consider using parts or all of your page title in your page name
  • Keep the URL length under 85 characters (i.e. the url in its entirety)
  • Avoid spaces
  • Avoid using uppercase letters
A concise but descriptive page name helps search engines index the page more effectively. Lengthy ones can also be cut short in search results listings, making them less informative and harder to remember.

Example of an optimized URL

URL good example

Examples of a non-optimized URL

URL bad example 1 Doesn’t let you know if it has any information on Labradors. URL bad example 2 It gets cut off and is a little more difficult to remember.

Use On-Page SEO on Every Page

With these 5 simple strategies you will have a much better chance of being found on the first page of the search results. Remember that on-page SEO can be applied to almost any page of your website, so start with the most important ones first and work your way through the rest. It’s much better to create a plan where you can optimize pages on a regular basis than it is to rush through as many pages as you can in one go. To hit the ground running with the optimization of your site, consider trying WHC's SEO tool, rankingCoach. It will help you find keywords, analyze your competition and much more. Read our off-page SEO Beginner's Guide for strategies aimed at gaining more links to your site. Happy optimizing, WHC Team

Hurray, this website is eco-friendly

Hurray, this website is eco-friendly!

Hurray, this website is eco-friendly!

It’s powered by 100% renewable energy*.
This helps reduce its carbon emissions and contributes to a healthier planet for you and future generations!

Green Hosting Certificate Learn more about Green Web Hosting and how you too can make a difference.

*Disclaimer © Web Hosting Canada Green landscape

Green Web Hosting in Canada

Green Web Hosting

Proudly Powered by Renewable Energy

Reduce your website's carbon footprint by choosing a hosting provider that powers its servers with sustainable hydroelectric energy.

Understanding the Problem:
How Websites Pollute

Websites are powered by powerful computers (called servers) that are always on in large specialized buildings (called data centers). Servers require considerable amounts of electricity to operate and need constant cooling to prevent overheating. In most places, this electricity is produced by burning coal or other fossil fuels, which creates emissions that accelerate climate change.

In 2012, there were 500,000 data centers worldwide. In 2019 there are more than 8 million. This rapid growth has led experts to predict that data centers will make up 10% of global electricity usage by 2030, and generate more emissions than the entire airline industry.
pollution

Discover the Solution: Green Web Hosting

Powered by renewable energy

Our data centers are powered by hydroelectricity: a clean, sustainable source of energy.

Energy-efficient SSD storage

Your data gets stored on Solid State Drives, which use a fraction of the power needed by traditional mechanical storage.

Eco-friendly cooling

Our servers are temperature-controlled by outside air and water cooling technology, not energy-intensive air conditioning.

Paperless

We help save trees by performing all our communications and billing electronically. No paper!

Green Certified

Our green efforts are verified and certified by the Green Business Benchmark.

Green Badges

Let visitors know that your company cares about the environment with your own eco-friendly badge.
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Display Your Green Badge

Did you know that 86% of Canadians purchase green products or services? Add a Green badge to your website and proudly show your visitors that your website is eco-friendly.

Get Your Green Hosting Badge
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psimella.com

I have nothing but AMAZING experiences with the WHC live chat support. I started my website making journey with WHC and it has always been so smooth to get assistance… I will continue to recommend you guys to my friends and clients.

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I recently moved my web hosting to Web Hosting Canada and I would happily give them 10 Stars. Apart from providing me with a solid technical environment, they have provided me with absolutely First Class, friendly, informative and fast support.

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Incredible customer service! Every time I get stuck, I know I can ask for help and receive a fast and very helpful response. I would highly recommend Web Hosting Canada to anyone, including beginners to the web hosting world.

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Frequently Asked Questions about Green Hosting

Green web hosting is a website hosting service that reduces its greenhouse gas emissions through its underlying infrastructure and method of operation. Web hosting accounts with most traditional providers are often housed on servers or in data centers which are powered by carbon-emitting power sources, notably gas or coal. As a result, harmful emissions are released into the atmosphere and contribute to accelerated climate change.

A green hosting provider reduces its carbon emissions through smart, sensible choices when it comes to its power sources and power consumption. Web Hosting Canada’s green hosting platform is powered entirely by renewable energy, sourced from hydroelectricity generated in Quebec and British Columbia. Furthermore, WHC reduces its power consumption through the use of energy-saving Solid State Drives (SSDs) and water-cooling technologies, as opposed to power-hungry air conditioning systems. WHC's efforts are verified and accredited by the Green Business Bureau.

Clean, renewable energy, in combination with energy efficient servers and an energy-conscious company culture, allows you to operate your website with little to no negative impact on the planet.

Because you care about our planet’s future and want to minimize the environmental impact of your website and email services.

Also, going green is smart business. Reducing power consumption also means reducing costs, and we pass along the savings to you.

Finally, with the use of our Green Badges, you can differentiate yourself from your competitors and show your own website visitors that you support green initiatives through your choice of website and email hosting provider.

Some other hosting providers will generate carbon emissions but rely on carbon offsetting, which involves paying a predetermined fee for each unit of pollution generated. If a hosting company used coal to power their data centers they can offset the emissions they produce by paying another company to reduce emissions somewhere else. This solution is better than nothing but carbon emissions are still being produced even though they are being offset.

Web Hosting Canada provides a greener alternative by virtually eliminating carbon emissions in the first place. It powers all its operations with hydroelectricity, a renewable power source that generates up to 70 times less carbon emissions than coal-fired generating stations during regular operations.

Web Hosting Canada’s Green Hosting Badge is a visual site seal that you can display on your own website to show your visitors that it’s powered by renewable energy. It’s free to use and available in multiple formats and styles for any website that’s actively using WHC’s Green Web Hosting platform.

When visitors click on the badge, they’ll see additional information that helps them understand how your website is making a difference. The badge looks great in a website’s navigation bar, footer, sidebar, or header. Grab yours from your Client Area's Green Badges section.

Differentiate yourself from the competition
The average visitor spends about 10 to 20 seconds on a web page, leaving little time to make a lasting impression. Our green badges quickly and visually presents your business as ecologically responsible, often setting you apart from your competitors by adding heart and soul to your business proposition.

Being Green is Smart Business
Canadians (and Earth inhabitants in general!) care about the environment and can adapt their spending habits based on a vendor’s environmental impact. As such, showing your green side can help increase trust, sales, as well as secure return business.

Help Increase Awareness for Greener Business Practices
Unfortunately, website visitors may not be aware of the real environmental impact a virtual web presence can have on our planet. By adding the badge to your site you help get the word out. The badge also briefly describes how your website is green, and how your visitors can make a difference too.

If you have a website hosted on WHC’s green hosting platform, then you’ll be able to find the badges within your Green Badges section of your WHC Client Area.

Simply choose the badge you’d like to use and copy its HTML code into your site, at the location where you’d like your badge shown. The badge looks great in a website’s navigation bar, footer, sidebar, or header.

Need some help adding your badge to your website? Reach out to our friendly customer service team and we’ll gladly help you out!

To become green certified, you must sign up for a green certification program, and implement eco-friendly solutions in your everyday operations. As an official partner of Green Business Bureau (GBB), we have the ability to offer you 20% OFF certification with the coupon code WHC20.

To get started, you simply need to sign up for the membership plan that is best suited to the size of your organization, and GBB will help you along the process of becoming officially green certified.

Get green hosting today! Pick Your Green Hosting Plan

Accelerated Mobile Pages: Built for Speed

In 2019, publishing fast loading web pages designed for mobile devices is more important than ever. Google has spearheaded the Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) project to help with this very issue. According to a study done by Google, 53% of mobile users will leave a website that has a load time of more than 3 seconds. Combine that with mobile devices making up nearly 50% of global traffic and it becomes clear that website speed for mobile is important for any site looking for more visitors.

What is AMP?

Accelerated Mobile Pages project (AMP project) is an open source framework developed by Google and Twitter and first made available in 2015. Its goal is simple: make mobile pages load as quickly as possible. Google promises that AMP will make mobile browsing up to 85% faster. This is accomplished by stripping away ‘unnecessary’ code from a page and reorganizing elements so that they load in the most efficient way. For instance, images will not load until you scroll them into view. But speed is not the only value AMP adds to a web page. Read on to learn more.

Why is AMP important?

AMP speeds up web pages for mobile devices, providing a better user experience leading to more users viewing and staying on a web page. This primary function is important but AMP does more than just this. In March of 2018 Google announced its mobile-first indexing initiative. Google will first use the mobile version of your website for indexing and ranking purposes, before it takes the desktop version into consideration. Google has stated that AMP itself is not a ranking factor, but it does increase page speed which is a ranking factor. As such, AMP can affect your website’s ranking indirectly. Another reason to think AMP can improve ranking is from the user’s side. When performing a mobile search, web pages that use AMP display a little lightning icon. As AMP grows in popularity, more people will understand that this icon means instant access to information. This will in turn get more clicks which is an important ranking factor. But educated guesses are not the only reason to think AMP can help improve ranking and get more traffic. Several case studies have shown AMP to improve the amount of times your web page is shown on search results and the percentage of people choosing to click on it. These are both important ranking factors, so the studies do point to AMP being a benefit for your site.

How does AMP work?

Here are 6 ways that AMP improves page speed. Prioritize resource loading — AMP focuses on loading the part you first see when you enter a web page. Instead of attempting to load the whole page at once before showing it to you. Asynchronous scripts — All AMP scripts are loaded in at the same time, so that one script doesn’t have to wait for another to finish before being loaded onto the page. Custom AMP elements — Custom JavaScript can really slow down a page. AMP only allows certain JavaScript within specific custom built elements so other elements aren't waiting on the JavaScript before they can load. Static layout — Images, iframes or ads are made to state their location and size in the HTML script (the primary code of a web page). This allows the layout to be loaded pretty much instantly and without slowing down due to images and other elements being resized or relocated because of multiple competing scripts. Inline CSS — Cascading style sheets (CSS) define the look and feel of a web page. Usually this is one or several separate documents connected to a web page. AMP loads CSS inline with the HTML, reducing load time by removing the step of having to go get, or ‘request’, the CSS. Web font optimization — A typical web page waits to download the fonts until after other elements , like CSS, are downloaded. AMP switches this by downloading fonts first before gathering any other resources for the page. You can find out some of the other speed factors on the official AMP website.

AMP and WordPress

For many websites, applying AMP will require a fair amount of coding knowledge. For coders, you can find free AMP courses on the official site. Non-coders using WordPress have a different option: Plugins. There are two plugins that are currently leading the pack. The official AMP plugin (free) and AMP for WP (freemium). The official AMP plugin is quite simple and easy to use, but it doesn’t have much flexibility. But WordPress’s most popular SEO plugin provider, Yoast, has made additions to its own plugins to enhance the official AMP plugin. If you download the Yoast SEO plugin and the Glue for Yoast SEO & AMP plugin, the flexibility is increased but depending on the complexity of your website it may fall short of your needs. The AMP for WP plugin provides many more options to make changes to mobile accelerated web pages but more advanced features need to be purchased. However, with so many five star reviews, the free version is certainly worth a look.

Is AMP the future of mobile search?

As technology gets more efficient, people are becoming less patient. If this trend remains the same, then providing fast access to your website is only going to become more important. As AMP was created to solve this problem it is safe to say that it’s the future mobile search. So the next time you are thinking of ways to improve your website, give AMP some serious consideration. Interested in more information on how to get ahead online? Take a look at our Beginner’s Guide to SEO series or our article on Increasing your Google Visibility with Rich Results. If you have an online project you want to get up and running fast, then our Managed WordPress Hosting solutions are designed for just that! Happy Hosting, WHC Team