The internet is an incredible space to build as well as grow business. Online businesses have certain advantages, such as low overhead, fast to set up, and wider reach; that motivated many entrepreneurs to set up e-commerce stores.

And the number of such entrepreneurs is steadily increasing. At the same time, the trend of consumers shopping online is becoming more and more popular with every passing day.

Running a successful e-commerce business is akin to a rock climber, who needs the right set of tools, a good strategy and firm determination to reach the goal. Any deviation in these imperatives would mean the climber is likely to fall—so is the case with e-commerce entrepreneurs.

Despite the advantages of online business, many entrepreneurs fail because of the mistakes they commit knowingly or unknowingly.

From choosing the wrong e-commerce platform to ignoring customer service, you can commit several such mistakes that would hinder your business. To restrict obstacles and to steer your online business along the profitable lines, you can take the help of TIS India, one of the best web development company, based at Noida in India.

With dedicated software professionals, skilled in Magento development and digital marketing specialists, TIS India has been successfully helping several entrepreneurs to set up, manage and grow their online businesses.

Figure out if you are committing any (or all) of the following 10 mistakes, and if you do so, avoid those to weed out impediments against your e-commerce business.

Top 10 Critical eCommerce Mistakes

#1 Wrong e-Commerce Platform

Choosing the wrong e-commerce platform can wreck your business. And that is a costly mistake. You use the e-commerce platform not only to sell products but also attract and retain customers. The platform also plays a decisive role in scaling up your business. So, do not choose your platform in haste, devote time in choosing a platform that suits your business model.

You should consider the following factors before finalizing the e-commerce platform:

• The products you are going to sell
• Your scaling up plan
• Tools to integrate
• The budget you formulate
• Whether customized or template designs
• The values you want to share with your customers

A wrong e-commerce platform can entail lesser conversions, reduction in traffic, security issues, lower revenue, and other hindrances. So, invest time to figure out the platform that fits into your business model.

Specialized in Magento e-commerce, TIS India can help you in choosing the right e-commerce platform.

#2 Failing to Understand Your Target Audience

Simply having the right e-commerce platform and populating it with your products will not work in making your online business venture successful. Defining as well as understanding your target customers is the key to success. Only when you understand them properly, you can create a user experience that is in tune with their tastes and preferences, and that will entice them to return to your e-commerce website again and again.

So, conduct thorough market research to understand:

• Consumer segments having a need for your products
• Mode of communication with them to make them understand your products easily
• Marketing tactics you will adopt to put your target customers at the center

Many times, business owners tend to push aside the need for understanding their target customers and so it takes considerable time to figure out what makes them tick. Avoid this mistake.

You can understand who could be your ideal customers by conducting market research to figure out:

• Their pain points
• What solutions they tried in the past, and what did not work
• The values they prefer
• How they engage themselves with online content
• What solutions your products offer to them

#3 Un-scalable Website

You should not think small when it comes to designing and structuring your eCommerce website. Ensure that your website can accommodate a wide range of products and include complex features, so that, you have the flexibility of growing your business.

If your website is not scalable then it will hamper your business growth. So, make sure that your e-commerce website can handle the increasing number of products to make your business grow.

#4 Poor UX

Your main objective is to convert website visitors into customers. So, you need to provide good UX without complex navigation features.

If your website is cumbersome, the visitors are likely to discard your website and go to some other website. And this would mean that you will lose customers.

So, avoid confusing navigation features on your website and hard-to-find content to ease visitors in browsing your products.

You can consult a Magento development company, such as TIS India, to optimize your website for smooth navigation and good user experience.

#5 SEO Unfriendly Content

For e-commerce websites, content is the king as your business relies on the quantum of website traffic. If the content on your website is not SEO friendly, then visitors will not be able to find your website as it will not show up in search engine results.

Content on every page of your e-commerce website has to be written in SEO friendly ways so that your website attracts more and more customers and that is the foundation of your business to operate successfully. Making your website visible among more and more visitors helps in enticing them to buy your products.

Many times, online business entrepreneurs commit the mistake of ignoring the need for optimizing content for search engine results. They somewhat fail to understand that every content on the website bears the potential to fetch business.

So, get in touch with an SEO agency to optimize the content on your e-commerce website for search engine results. You can get in touch with TIS India, which has carved out a niche of its own by running successful SEO campaigns for a large number of e-commerce businesses.

#6 Cumbersome Check-Out Processes

It is often seen that e-commerce websites host a lot of abandoned carts. And the underlying reason in most of the cases is—a complicated check-out process. Quite understandably, visitors tend to give up their purchases at the last stages due to the frustration arising out of the complications associated with the check-out process.

So, keep the check-out process as simple as possible. One of the best ways of easing the check-out process is to eliminate the need for the customers to register themselves before buying.

#7 No Brand Image

If you are under the impression that your products will get sold because of their quality alone, you are terribly wrong. You need to cultivate a strong brand identity for your online business so that consumers get attracted and become loyal customers.

Based on your market research, you should be able to understand what values your would-be customers look for, and figure out how you would send messages to them in sync with their aspirations. Your values should be discernable in your content, branding, and marketing.

# 8 Slow Loading Website

If you did not optimize your website to load fast, it will break your business. Consumers do not like websites that take too much time to load. According to a survey, 47% of online consumers expect an e-commerce website to load within two seconds. If your website takes too much time to load, consumers are likely to discard it. So, optimize your website to load fast.

You also should include a Call to Action (CTA) on every page of your e-commerce website to send the message to the consumer to take an action immediately. Having a CTA will help you not to miss out on a selling opportunity.

You can delegate the task of optimizing your e-commerce website to TIS India, which has a team of expert Magento developers to accomplish your task to the best of your satisfaction.

# 9 Ignoring Customer Service

If you fail to properly service your customers, then the likelihood of them returning to your website is questionable. With the large volume of transactions happening over your e-commerce website every day, you are prone to forgetting the customers who make purchases. It is needless to say that customers are likely to return to your website only if they undergo a good experience. So, make sure that you build up some sort of communication channels with them, such as online chat, email or telephonic call.

At the same time, devote ample time to monitor the social media posts and reviews related to your business. And be active on social media.

#10 Not Having an Email List

Email marketing is a powerful way to get customers. So, you need to have a list of emails of prospective customers to whom you should regularly send updates on your online business offerings.

Many online business owners tend to ignore the idea, often forgetting that the subscribers could become the best customers.

Send emails to your subscribers promoting your products and updating them of special offers to entice them to make purchases.

Conclusion

Perhaps the best way to stay ahead of your competitors is to delegate the task of maintaining your e-commerce website to TIS India. With dedicated and skilled professionals, TIS India can boast of running successful e-commerce projects for several years, entailing clients’ satisfaction. Why do you not leverage our experience?

The post 10 Critical eCommerce Mistakes to Avoid When Selling Online appeared first on Digital Marketing Agency - TIS India Blog.

Thinking to revamp your design on a new platform? Did you check the compatibility of your chosen new platform with respect to SEO essentials? How far is your new platform SEO ready?

Considering the fact that in today’s ever growing online space, a website is basically the heart and soul of your business, and implementing good SEO features has become essential for any new website you might want to build. However, not all website platforms are equally SEO friendly. Yes, you might have to do a bit more customization and coding on some platforms than others. So how do you study the SEO readiness of a platform?

Well, hiring SEO experts is the perfect trick here. But if you are running out of budget or simply want to give yourself a try, here are the very basics of SEO that you need to look upon while choosing the platform.

Your website platform should support the canonical tag “rule sets” on the pages

So does your website support canonical tags?

It probably does, but even still, exactly how easy is it to be able to integrate the advanced rules around category facets and such?

Now you might ask why this is even important. This is so because the canonicals allow the user to eliminate duplicates and low-quality content. Talking from a SEO point of view, it gives the site owners the SEO power that they deserve to control their pages.

You should have the freedom to customize the “Title Tags”

The title tag of your page should tell the search engine what the page is about within 60 characters or less.

All of the pages of your website should have a unique title that should be relevant to the page that it represents. You might also choose to auto-generate the title tags that are based on the category, filters and such. But to meet up the requirements for advanced SEO purposes, the platform you use should at the very least allow you to customize the title tag on every page.

Ability to customize Meta-Description tags on every page

What the meta-description tags on your pages do is that they give the search engine more insight about your page. Whether or not meta-descriptions can help you with the keyword ranking is still up for debate, but you should write it keeping in mind that it is for human audiences. Meta descriptions should be catchy and informative enough to convince users to visit your page.

Session ID’s should not be required by Page URLs

Session IDs are a strict no, just because they often end up generating duplicate content if URLs are not properly canonicalized. Use of session IDs in-page URLs is thus no more recommended.

Does your chosen platform support an automated XML sitemap?

The fact that a well-structured website does not really need an XML sitemap in order to assist a search engine to index your site is noteworthy. However, an XML sitemap still remains as an essential method of interacting with the various search engines through their webmaster tools utilities. It also permits the site owners to call the search engines’ attention to the existence of all new URLs.

A good XML sitemap will allow the owner of the site to tie a URL to a variety of attributes to further assist its growth. Thus, having an updated XML sitemap is the first step towards making your brand new website SEO friendly.

Able to support a custom robot.txt file

The robots.txt file should not only help you in preventing the indexation of admin and cart elements of your website but should further provide you the ability to control the minute details such as the directory and permissions at the file level from your website platform.

 Navigation that has been rendered in plain HTML text should be supported

It should be ensured that your navigation links are working and are clickable even when users have their cookies, CSS, and JS disabled. This would ensure that your navigation links are properly crawled by the search engine bots, and your rankings are boosted accordingly.

You should be able to index location pages

So you have your own brick and mortar shop but have you talked about that on your website? Make sure that your chosen platform deals with location pages, and if not, it should be able to get easily integrated with ‘store finder’ widgets and the likes.

If your chosen platform provides location pages, then make sure that a proper widget compatible with your platform is available which can spider down the website to the level of an individual store. This is essential for search engine rankings. The most notable way is to have a click-able path from the landing page of the Store Finder to the individual stores.

Ability to customize the content headers on each page

Just as in title tags and meta description, content headers help explain what your page is about and hence also assist in making your website more SEO friendly.

The ability to be able to customize the content headers on every page on your site is essential for achieving the optimal results on your site, as an admin. This ability should be a basic requirement that you need to look at from your web-platform.

The inclusions and navigation depth should be customizable

To put this in other words, your chosen platform should be perfectly customizable. You should have the freedom to include/choose the subcategories that get displayed in the list of your top navigation.

The ability to customize how your website would navigate is an essential part of ensuring a good user experience as is the ability to customize the page URLs. This also enables you to fine-tune the internal links that you might have.

Basic mobile-friendly features should be supported

Regardless of whether you have a “mobile-first” mindset or not, your platform should be mobile friendly. It should be ensured that each page has its own specific viewport in accordance with the size of the device the page is viewed on. Further, the content of all pages should fit in their respective viewport.

Supports ad hoc 301 redirect mapping

The details are all that matter here. Most of the platforms available right now allow the webmasters to create 301 redirects. Many other platforms even insist that you should go ahead and do it through their GUI using a table and rows limit that is fairly complicated.

Basically, any ability to author the individual redirects will satisfy this requirement, but what you also need to do is appreciate the ease with which you can implement these.

Ability to also customize each pages URLs separately

While this isn’t absolutely required to be successfully indexed or to even rank the keywords, Google does suggest that you should give it a shot to consider organizing the content you have such that the URLs get started to construct logically in a manner that is most intelligible to us humans. When possible, it is also suggested to use readable words rather than the long ID numbers that you are used to.

Should be able to host on dedicated IPs

The major reason as to why a range of blogs and website are not able to enjoy good rankings is because they are being hosted with a dozen of other websites that don’t enjoy the same reputation as the concerned blog or website.

This hurts the ranking of the websites. It should thus be ensured that your chosen platform can host your website on dedicated IP.

There are a lot many factors that should be stressed upon while choosing a new website platform, but the above-mentioned ones are a must-have. Look for each of these SEO essentials in your new platform and work in the right direction to gain top rankings.

Did we miss any essential factor? Let us know in the comments!

The post 14 SEO Essentials for a Brand New Website Platform appeared first on Digital Marketing Agency - TIS India Blog.

Created in 2003 as a Content Management System with a difference, Joomla currently has around 3 million websites running on it. That’s quite a feat, and it’s not without reason that Joomla is considered to be an increasingly popular CMS. After WordPress, it’s considered the world’s most popular CMS and as of October 2015, it had been downloaded over 50 million times!

It gives its users the freedom to create their very own websites, ranging from business to personal, and more. The benefits of opting Joomla CMS include page caching, printable versions of pages, composer integration, RSS feeds, Google ReCAPTCHA, support for language internationalization, collapsible side bars, blogs and what not.

But, are these the only benefits of Joomla CMS? Most certainly not! Scroll down to go through everything that Joomla has to offer you –

Benefits of Using Joomla CMS

1. Publishing Blogs on Joomla is as Easy as ABC

If you fear you require extensive knowledge of CSS, PHP or HTML to use Joomla to create websites, then you couldn’t be more wrong. It’s pretty easy to use once you get the hang of it, and the only thing you need to know about uploading a blog is to simply copy paste the content and hitting on the “publish” button. Yes, that’s pretty much it. Read this article on How to set up a blog in Joomla! to gain a better perspective.

2. Open Source Infrastructure

Did you know that open source software powers most of the internet? And the king of open source web scripting language is PHP. In fact, such is its popularity that even biggies like Citibank and Harvard University prefer using PHP.

The language was used to create Joomla too, with MySQL being its go-to for data storage. This combination has made it that much easier for developers across the globe to create extensions for Joomla, as well as supporting the CMS itself.

3. Flexibility

With over 8000 Joomla extensions, you there’s just no limit to how functional and interactive you can make your website. For those wanting to add social media widgets onto their website to integrate social networking, you have an extension for that! If you want to focus on consumer feedback and need to create several customizable forms, don’t worry – Joomla extensions have got your back!

These extensions are divided into 33 different categories, including communication, editing, marketing, social, languages, site management, and living. Every extension is clearly labeled and is given a rating out of 5 stars to indicate exactly how useful (or how useless) it is for users. Review categories include functionality, support, ease of use and documentation. Exhaustive, right? But it’s one of the best benefits of this platform.

4. Content Management is a Piece of Cake

The primary function of Joomla is content management. This means that unlike in other CMses, in Joomla, you can easily manage users with various permission levels easily and without having to switch tabs. Second, creating a new website in a specific hierarchical order is extremely easy. What this means is that you can create and access your website in a streamlined, like this chart – website>blog section>articles on SEO> 2015>What are the benefits of SEO?

Want to know more pros of selecting Joomla CMS? As is always the case, you do not require any coding experience to create your websites in an orderly fashion, and that’s because Joomla was built to do that in the first place. You also get complete control of all the elements of your website via your administrative panel.

5. E-commerce Becomes Easy with Joomla

If you’re an e-commerce company that’s still contemplating about which CMS to opt for, well, you needn’t contemplate anymore. Joomla is an e-commerce friendly CMS that offers many components created specifically for e-com.

For example, you can easily manage your products and their content without having to switch over tabs to do your job. Then there are 3rd party components that run inside the Joomla like Virtuemart. It gives you several options like PayPal and Google Checkout, shipping, product management, and payment gateways.

The topside is that it’s very simple to use, much like Joomla’s other e-commerce solution – RokQuickCart. These components are ideally suited to a company that has a business presence online and would like to add a shopping cart system to their existing Joomla!

And as is always the case, Joomla CMS means you get your own set of awesome e-commerce extensions.

6. A Strong User Community

Did you know that Joomla has a community of over 200 000 users? What this means that each and every single one of those people has used this CMS and can help you out with any problem that you’re facing. How?

Because anything you’re facing right now has already been faced (and solved) by them! Every single person there can be considered a tester, and the Joomla community is unusually active. Loopholes, updates, security concerns, software bugs – everything is detected very quickly and uploaded on its forum.

In fact, the community has a high number of web developers, whose presences ensures that Joomla security updates are received as soon as possible. You can also make use of the Joomla Documentation to get access to a wealth of online resources for additional help and support.

7. Built-in Basic SEO Functionality

Joomla is SEO friendly, and one of the main advantages is that Search Engine Friendly URLs are built in it. Initially, all that you had to do was to enable them in order for them to get you better SEO rankings. However, this option is on by default since Joomla 1.6.

You also have the freedom to choose your own meta keywords and meta description of your web pages, which again improves your SEO. The bottom line is that Joomla allows you to do basic SEO yourself. And if you want, you can make your website more SEO friendly by simply following these 11 steps.

If that’s not enough for you, then instead of paying money to hire an agency to do SEO for you, you can make the most of all that Joomla has to offer in terms of SEO functionality is to simply download the best SEO plugins the CMS has to offer

8. High in Security

Joomla is highly secure. The high-security feature persists only up the time of installing after downloading. Thereafter, the security is somewhat threatened if you do not routinely install the latest security updates or utilize unreliable third-party extensions.

9. Numerous Extensions

Joomla has 8,000+ extensions to choose from. From including social media channels on your website to get buyers’ feedback, you will never see a shortage of extensions. The extensions are grouped in 33 different categories, including communication, marketing, social media management, languages, editing, among others. Each extension is labeled and is rated out of five stars to show precisely how valuable it is for clients.

10. Abundant Templates

Joomla has abundant templates for almost everything. Be it developing a user-friendly website or a corporate portal, there are templates for all kinds of usages. However, one important thing to bear in mind is that the templates are version-specific. And that means a Joomla 1.5 template will not work in a Joomla 2.5 website.

The post 10 Benefits of Using Joomla CMS For Your Website appeared first on Digital Marketing Agency - TIS India Blog.

PHP latest version 7.0 is about to be launched in the market with its exciting features and impressive performance.  According to W3techs, PHP has a market share of 81.5%. Among all PHP versions, 98.7% PHP websites are using PHP V5. However, the latest PHP version is expected to outperform all the previous versions.

If your website is developed on PHP based Content Management System like WordPress, Joomla, Magento, and Drupal, then this is the best time to upgrade your website because PHP 7.0 is a full package of surprising and cutting edge features.

PHP 7 is still in the development stage and a competed version will be released in November. But you can download its latest beta version and experiment it on your website to test what will and what will not work for your website. It will help you to fully prepare your website for the full version of PHP 7.0.

The first beta of PHP 7.0 was released in July 2015 along with the announcement of releasing full version of PHP 7.0 on November 12, 2015.

Here is a list of top 7 things you need to know about PHP latest version 7.0.

1. The Name

PHP 6 was expected to be a major release but the project failed due to several bugs. The performance was also not up to the mark. However, people confused the latest version of PHP with modified PHP 6.0. The dispute was resolved by naming the latest version as PHP Version 7.0 instead of PHP version 6.0.

2. Zend Powered PHPNG

Since 1999, Zend Engine has been used to power up PHP. It was launched when fourth version of PHP was released. Zend Engine II was launched along with the introduction of PHP Version 5.0. PHP latest version is powered with Zend New Generation. This is why it is also called PHPNG.

PHPNG supports almost all extensions except the following.

• Interbase
• MSSQL
• PDO_OCI
• OCI8
• SYBASE_CT
• PDO_DBLIB

A complete installation and usage guide for PHPNG is also available online.

According to Zend blog, PHPNG is already outperforming Facebook’s HHVM. Endi Gutmans, the founder of Zend, believes that PHP is a complete and dynamic ecosystem of innovations.

3. Abstract Syntax Tree

Abstract Syntax Tree or AST has already been implemented in PHP 7.0. It enables you to implement Syntax in intermediary structure easily. It allows you to emit opcodes directly from parser and remove a number of hacks to make implementation easier.

The use of AST will bring you two primary advantages.

• Firstly, it makes maintenance of parser and compiler easier.
• Secondly, it allows you to decouple syntax decisions from other technical issues.

4. Facilitating Error Handling

Handling catchable and fatal errors in PHP has never been easier than in PHP 7.0. PHP updates show that the new Engine Exceptions will replace old errors from PHP V5. In order to further facilitate the users, the Exception Base Class does not extend in the new Engine Exceptions.

This way, it provides you two different kinds of exceptions to handle the errors. The first one is traditional error handling and the second one is Engine Exceptions.

5. Cloud Computing Solutions

Zend has partnered with globally reputed cloud computing systems to allow its users to make their applications portable. With cloud computing solutions, you will not only be able to retrieve or extract your files, but you will also be able to exchange your files from one cloud to another cloud server whenever you need.

This PHP7 development with Zend will facilitate Ecommerce stores. Without affecting speed and performance of your web store, you will be able to develop light-weight websites along with keeping your data safe and secure. It will also allow the entrepreneurs to store their company data with optimized security.

6. 64-Bit Windows Support System

PHP is primarily naïve Linux member but the users can also run it on Windows systems. PHP 5.X series didn’t provide 64-bit Windows support system but PHP 7.0 does provide this support. Along with improving PHP 7.0 performance, it will allow the websites to support native 64-bit integers as well as large files.

The 64-bit Windows support system is in experimental stage. If the experiment is successful then the users will be able to confidently keep running their websites with new versions of Windows in future also.

7. Doubled Speed

PHP New Generation engine has been conceived on the idea of improved speed. With Just-in-Time (JIT) compilation, you can instantly run compilations instead of waiting for execution time. According to Zend, this PHP7 development will offer improved PHP7 performance in two ways.

• Firstly, it will allow you to serve the same number of users or traffic load but by using fewer servers.
• Secondly, the code of your site will be executed faster.

According to the official website of Zend, PHP 7 will be 2X faster.

PHP 7.0 is also significant to cleaner website for faster speed. For improving the speed and site performance, PHP 7 operates by cleaning the environment in two different ways.

• It removes the functionality which had been deprecated in PHP 5.0 version. Here is a detailed study of deprecated functionality in PHP 5.0.
• It removes the dead SAPIs and extensions or those which do not support PHP 7.0. Here is a complete understanding of how it removes dead SAPIs.

When upgrading to PHP latest version, remember that PHP 7.0 will break the code of any running legacy app. PHP 7.0 will also come up with surprises for developers including Combined Comparison Spaceship Operator and Declarations and Scaler Type Hints. With all these innovations and development, managing your PHP developed website will become easier than ever.

The post PHP 7.0 – Things You Need to Know About PHP Latest Version appeared first on Digital Marketing Agency - TIS India Blog.

The overall impression of a website depends on the quality of its design. Whether the users are impressed or not upon visiting the site depends on its layout and visuals. This makes the web development stage one of the most important in creating a successful online presence.

Every web development project has to go through certain steps that take the project from initiation to completion. The web development steps divide the project into easily manageable phases. Although the exact phase of the web development process varies slightly, the most basic steps remain the same.

Below are 5 essential stages of the design process that will help you understand how a website is designed and developed on a professional scale.

Step 1: Project Planning

Project planning refers to determining the overall goals and objectives of the web development project. This is arguably the most important stage in the entire project. It is further divided into the following five parts.

1. Requirement Assessment – Requirement assessment refers to finding out the precise requirements of the website. This includes determining the target audience, website goals, detailed features, and other similar information about the website.
2. Project Summary – The project summary sums up the website’s requirements. The document is typically concise and serves as a reference point throughout the web development process.
3. Determining Required Resources – The project planning stage also defines the software and other resource requirements for the website project. In this step, any 3rd party media needs are identified. All of the resource requirements are then added to the budget of the project.
4. Key performance goals – The website planning stage also involves determining key performance goals. Project deadlines, budgeted costs, and page speed are some of the website design and development goals that are set at this stage.
5. Competitor Analysis – Finally, this stage also involves conducting a competitor analysis. Which are the rival businesses of your website? How many visitors will visit the website? What will be their bounce rate? Other important things that are considered at this stage include visual branding, call to action, navigation, and layout.

Step 2: Determining Project Scope

The next stage of the design process includes determining project scope. Creating a well define scope of the project will help in ensuring that the website project ends on time and within the specified budget. One of the best ways to delineate scope of the project is through a Gantt chart.

A Gantt chart offers a visual reference of the project. The chart shows activities involved in the project. It also shows the timeframe for the completion of each stage. It helps in specifying scope of the project. Moreover, it also creates accountability between the website design team.

Step 3: Website Design

The next critical stage of the website design process is designing the website itself. In this stage, the website development team focuses on selecting the theme, color, layout, features, and other aspects of the website.

During this stage the website designers incorporate various elements such as company logo, color that strengthens brand identity, a theme that reflects the company’s product portfolio, and layout that is elegant and looks appealing.

The website designer will create one or more prototype designs for the website. This is then sent to the website owners through email with the mock-ups of the website.

Step 4: Website Development

In this web development stage, the website development team takes individual elements of the website and uses them to create a functional website. The stage involves developing a home page after which a “shell” is created for the interior pages.

The shell contains navigational structure and site layout without the web content. Once the website owner provides the content, it is distributed throughout the site in the specified areas.

On the technical side, the website development process includes elements such as designing interactive contact forms, implementing payment gateways, and choosing a CMS (content management system) such as WordPress, Joomla, and Magento.

Step 5: Website Testing and Deployment

The fifth and final stage of the website is the testing and deployment process. In this stage, the website designer adds final touches to the site and tests the website before deployment. The designer will test the complete functionality of the site to ensure that it runs smoothly without any glitch.

The website designer will test the scripts and forums, ensure that the site displays well on different devices and platforms, verify internal links, and other similar tasks.

The website designer will also validate the website codes to ensure that it meets the latest website standards. This ensures that the website performs smoothly without any issues and problems.

The website is then shown to its owners to obtain final approval of the site. After the final approval, it’s time to deliver the site. The web design team will upload the site on a hosting server specified and selected by the website owner using an FTP (File Transfer Protocol) program.

After the website has been uploaded to the hosting server, a final run through is conducted to ensure that the site performs without any problem. This step is performed just to validate that all the files have been uploaded correctly, and that the site is fully functional.

Finally, the website design team adds finer details to the website to optimize its functionality and performance like plug in installation, on page SEO (Search Engine Optimization), and page speed optimization.

On a final note, you should know that the web development process takes a lot of time and effort. Designing a visually appealing website that stands out from the competition is an uphill task. But the rewards are certainly greater than the effort, cost, and time required to craft a beautiful website.

Step 6: Content Creation

Content is one of the most important aspects of a website. Two fundamental aspects of website content are—driving engagement and search engine optimization (SEO).

Since content engages readers and promotes them to take action; therefore the style of content writing is important.

Writers should avoid long and lifeless content, which fail to attract visitors’ attention. And instead, they should write interesting, short and to-the-point content not only to grab the attention of visitors but also to prompt them to click through the other pages. If your pages need large content, then structure the content into small paragraphs, and supplement those with visuals to make it interesting for the visitors to engage.

It is also the content that plays the most important role in boosting the visibility of a website in search engine results. Search engines easily find websites with content, which are well-structured, informative and are rich in keywords. So, write your website’s content with rich keywords for better Search Engine Optimization.

Step 7: Visuals

In website design, images play a very important role. Images have a lot to do on websites. In addition to giving websites a professional look and feel, images also help in building trust for your brand.

Images make texts on websites easier to understand and also strengthen the appeal of the texts. Appropriate images help a lot in conveying the underlying messages in the texts.

Content with images is known to engage more visitors, increase the number of clicks and hence boost the revenue.

But, do not use large images that slow down your website. Use a tool, such as Optimizilla to compress the large images to restrict website slowdowns.

So, use the right images to appeal as well as communicate with the visitors of your website.

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Monetizing a website is a process that begins when you completely establish the website, put up some great content, and optimize the website for the search engines to generate considerable traffic. The first option that comes to mind to earn from the content-based website is to merge Google AdSense in your Joomla website. A simpler and web-engineering based way to integrate AdSense in your Joomla website is to copy the Javascript or HTML code and paste it in Custom HTML Module.

There are two problems with this type of coding. Firstly, you need to change the code every time you change the appearance of the ads. Secondly, it requires complex web engineering which may not be easy-to-understand for many people. Here are some tips to help you merge the Google Adsense in your Joomla website like a professional and without errors.

1. Setup the Adsense Module

Install the Adsense module after downloading it from the website. Then go to Joomla Administrator and click on Joomla Module. Follow the given steps for advance settings of Module Parameters.

• Go to ‘New’ and click on ‘Sponsored Links’.
• Decide a name for the module and enter it in the given space. For safer names, use numbers and letters like 346xmih76.
• Click on the option ‘Don’t show the title’.
• Without publishing the module, assign a position for the module on your website. If you have already decided the size of the ad then don’t assign the position to the module.
• For publishing the module, go to Menu Assignment and click on Publish Module.

2. Setup the Module Parameters

Go to Parameters and select Module Parameters. In the Advance or Module parameters, you will get options for blocking specific IPs or add advance but optional features to your website. The first part contains information about Middle-Class Suffix, Publisher ID, Channel Number and Div CSS codes. The tip here is to create a backup of this information as this information is difficult to retrieve or change as compared to optional information in the section. The optional information includes ad type, ad layout, link color, text color, background color, border color, URL color and corner styles.

Some more tips for basic and advance settings are given here.

• For Module Class Suffixes, use the Joomla template suffix known as ‘blank’ or ‘-blank’. It allows you to customize the relevant boxes according to your need.
• Make the process of formatting the code easier by entering the information to Div CSS code instead of the CSS template. A few examples of the codes include these.

              Text-align: upper right;
              Text-align: center;
              Float: right; margin-right: 12px; margin-bottom: 12px;

• Find the Google Adsense Publisher ID from the top right corner of Google Adsense. If you are unable to find the ID then log in to your Google Adsense account again and see the ID on the top right corner.
• The ad type is set to Text and Image only by default. Always check the ad type to set it to Text and Image only, Text only and Image only according to the type of your advertisement.
• Always check the corner styles. The options include square corners, very rounded corners and slightly rounded corners. The slightly rounded corners look better on most of the website designs but you can select one according to your choice.
• According to the Google Adsense team, 300×450 works the best for medium rectangle, 160×600 works the best for skyscrapers and 728×90 performs the best for the leaderboard. Make sure that the size of your ad equally fits the size of the module positioned on the web page.

3. Choose the Colors Technically

The use of colors does not depend on your choice or the design and color combination of your website but it depends on the ad given by the advertiser to display. Make sure that the ad is well-blended with the colors you choose. It is important that the ad can be visibly seen by visitors.

Avoid using borders for the ads as borderless ads are more efficient in blending with the ads. The tip is to test and experiment with with different colors and decide one which best suits the website.

Some more tips for choosing the colors are given here.

• Use ‘FFFFFF’ to set the color of borders as white.
• Use ‘FFFFFF’ for setting the color of background as white.
• For link color, use the color you have used in other sections of the website.
• For text, the best color is black as it is more vision-friendly to digital audience as compared to other colors. If you want darker shade but not black then use ‘111111’ for the text color code.
• For URL, use the color that you use for the Link Color or any other shade of the same color.

4. Improve the Performance of Ads by Setting up the Google Adsense Channels

The performance and placement of ads are the keys to know the success of your monetary goals. To measure the performance of every ad individually, Google Adsense Channels are used. For setting up the Google Adsense Channels and linking the ads to be tracked with them, follow the given settings.

• Log in to your Google Adsense account.
• Go to Adsense Setup tab.
• Click ‘Channels’.
• From the new bar, click ‘Add New Custom Channels’.
• Decide a name for the channel and enter it in the given field.
• Click ‘Add Channel’.

5. Attract More Advertisers with Ad Placement Option

The advertisers need a call and place to action for placing their ads. Take the example of Tolet hoardings and billboards on the highway and roads. Similarly, you can improve the value of your website and attract more visitors with ad placement option. Here is the setting for advertising the free space on your website.

• Log in to your Google Adsense account and go to Adsense Setup.
• Go to Channels.
• Now select a Channel for placing the advertisement.
• Go to the ‘Edit Settings’ of the chosen Channel.
• Here you will see a checkbox with statement ‘Show this channel to advertisers as an ad placement’. Click to activate this checkbox.
• Click on Save to activate the settings.

6. Choose the Right Position for Placing the Ad

If you are new to the digital business, you need to attract more visitors to generate money. The established and optimized websites are the needs of advertisers. The position of placing the ad depends on the position of website on the search engine.

The fresh websites need to give more prominent position to the advertisers whereas the optimized websites may give some down position to the advertisers. Module Position is a Joomla template which allows you to choose the desired position of the ad. You may also select the position of ad with the help of Google Adsense Module settings.

7. Check the Ad Placement and Position

Always check the placement and position of the websites every time you add a new ad to the website or change the settings of existing ads. The settings are practically implemented within 20 to 30 minutes. Log out of your Google Adsense account and check the ad position as a visitor.

If you have responsive website then check the position and placement of the ad on different screens including mobile phone, tablet, laptop and desktop.

Using Google Adsense for your Joomla website is quite easier and does not require advance web engineering for editing and formatting the settings. Another important tip is to keep exploring the Google Adsense for Joomla for learning more about the benefits it offers to its users.

The post 7 Steps to Merge Google Adsense in Your Joomla Website appeared first on Digital Marketing Agency - TIS India Blog.

Understanding the security of websites is mostly difficult for beginner developers. The simplest way to explain this school of thought is that a website is neither secure nor insecure. It is actually the rate of how much a website is secure. There is no black and white in website’s security; there is always gray area. The security of a website developed on PHP depends on the skills of the developer.

According to a study published in International Journal of Advances in Computer Networks and its Security in 2014, almost 90% of all the websites are vulnerable to the hackers’ attack.

A majority of the websites were hacked in last five years by targeting the website’s insecure coding. Common attacks are made on SQL Injection, Buffer Overflow, XXS and Remote File Inclusion. This is one of the reasons that most of the entrepreneurs want their websites to be developed on PHP.

But sensitive information can also be stolen from PHP developed websites by manipulating the URL parameter. Some common reasons of easy PHP hacking include mistakes in snippets, surprise input string or wrong combinations of PHP settings.

PHP Functionalities for Identifying Security Scripts

1.The programmers can send email through PHP script. If changes are made in the script or if the script is poorly coded, the mail server will automatically send a fake email to the programmer by fetching some information from the header. The fake email might look something like this.

 <?php

$header = ‘From: ‘ . $_Get[‘from’] . \’’r\’’n\ .
‘Reply-to: . $-Get[‘replyto’] . \’’r\’’n\ .
$Mail = mail($_Get[‘to’],$_Get[‘Subject’],$_Get[‘Message’],$header);

?>

2.The hackers can access to root directory of server and damage the files by targeting the Web applications and launching an unauthorized operating system command. The input information is passed through GET or POST script. The hacker enters the domain name and malicious files are created in the www directory of server as filename.php. This attack is easily launched on poorly written PHP codes.
3.Remote File Inclusion attack is launched on poorly written web application codes or if the developer has enabled file inclusion on the server. The Remote File Inclusion attack is launched by interfering with ‘include’, ‘require’, ‘include_once’, and ‘require_once’ statements. In the previous PHP versions, the developers had the authority to enable or disable ‘allow_url_include’ to enable include, require, include_once and require_once functions. In PHP 5.2.0 Vulnerable script, allow_url_include is enabled by default.

4.One of the most common attacks is launched on error messages by Web Applications. The attackers trick these applications to reload or return with disclosed sensitive information. This attack is done to plan the major web hack attack.
5.Another common attack is made on php.ini file where most of the web configuration settings are stored. The vulnerable script is as follows.

 <?php

………
$incfile = $REQUEST[‘’file’’];include ($incfile.’’.php’’);
………

?>

5 Techniques to Minimize Web Security Vulnerabilities

For avoiding common attacks on PHP developed websites and web pages by the hackers, here are some easiest techniques to make the web a safer place for all.

1.Restrict Foreign Access

The first step to restrict the foreign access is to manage the configuration files, data files and scripting pages separately. The following script can be used in the Apache server in httpd.conf files.

 <Files ~ ‘’\.inc$’’>

 Order allow, deny
  </Files>

2. Select Correct Form Submission codes

GET and POST are the most common form submission techniques used in PHP coding. GET method is set to settings by default. If you use the GET form submission method, the hacker can easily interfere with and manipulate the exposed query string portion in the URL. It is highly recommended that GET form submission method should be used in less important web pages with no sensitive information only. Otherwise the developers should choose HTTP POST form submission method for improved web security.

3.Configure PHP.ini

Prevent the most common hacking attack by configuring your php.ini files. PHP.ini is used to register Cookie, Server, GET and POST and can be manipulated with the help of global variables. Different ways used to secure the php.ini files are here.

• Hide configuration files and restrict access to them.
• Scrutinize the uninitialized global variables by readjusting the error reporting to E All | E STRICT or E ALL.
• Enable safe_mode in the configurations and open base-dir restrictions in server directory.
• In php.ini, set allow_url_fopen to 0 for disabling it.

4. Secure Input Programming Data

Input validation security is the technique to defend against injection attacks and buffer overflow attacks. Correct syntax, length and time of programming data is used to scrutinize first use and numerically validate string content. The following script helps prevent direct input to the statements.

 If(!ctype_alnum($_GET[‘login’])) {echo ‘’Only A-Za-z0-9 are allowed.’’;}

If(!ctype_alpha($_GET[‘captcha’])) {echo ‘’Only A-Za-z are allowed.’’;}
$If(!ctype_xdigit($_GET[‘color’])) {echo ‘’Only hexadecimal values are allowed.’’;}

Type Casting variables are also used in the Casting technique for PHP to secure input data programming from uncontrolled external sources.

5. Prevent Error Disclosure

Crashing, error or any relevant event may disclose the unnecessary information and as described earlier, it can be translated or tricked into sensitive information disclosure by the hackers. By default, PHP sends information regarding error so that the end user can develop an immediate and corrective response. In case of error or crashing, information like password, uninitialized variables and file path may also be revealed to malicious users. The logging settings and error functions can be fixed with the help of following code.

 Ini_set("display_errors"),FALSE;

Ini_set("log_errors"),TRUE; .

For restricted control panels, use unique names instead of obvious names. Also, disallow the directory listings with the help of following code.

• For disabling PHP identification header

‘expose_php=off’


• For disabling Apache identification header

‘ServerSignature=Off’


With the help of aforementioned codes, your PHP developed websites and web pages can be easily secured. Hacker attacks not only disclose the sensitive information but also cause damage to the system, reveal confidential files, result in loss of services and ruins the reputation of your business. Securer coding is essential to prevent these losses and grow as an exceptionally professional web developer and engineer.

The post 5 PHP Techniques to Minimize Web Security Vulnerabilities appeared first on Digital Marketing Agency - TIS India Blog.

The way shopping used to be done has changed a lot with time and technological advancements. Today, customers prefer their shopping done on the internet on the innumerable eCommerce websites. There is a constant war among these sites to engage as many customers as possible. Today, online shopping is no longer a niche market as it reaches out to a large number of customers all around the world, people visit websites like https://www.raise.com/coupons/nike every day in order to find the best offers online. We all are aware about the success and efficiency of this system and how it has changed the way shopping is done. Since, this platform is expanding and evolving at a fast pace, it is important to have certain components that are essential for the success of an eCommerce site. Some of them are-

Clear Logo

Not only for the start up shops, but also for well established and known branded stores, a well designed and eye catching logo is very important. A logo that can be easily identified and kept in mind is necessary when it comes to online shopping. A logo is a symbol of trust of an organization or a company. Many popular branded stores have an interesting site with minimum features, but a fashionable page altogether. This helps in gaining the attention of the target audience. A well known mascot attracts the attention of the customers without fail. The fun colours that are used in eBay’s logo- red, blue, yellow and green describe the theme of the website – friendly, open and accessible. The logo simply reflects that eBay is a fun place to buy and sell stuff.

Promos and Deals

People work very hard to make their site interesting and attractive and they work on every page, but it is a well known fact that visitors decide whether or not they like a website in just a few seconds. It is an instant like or dislike, thus it is very important that the home page of a site is made quite interesting. It must have all the necessary elements that help to grab immediate attention of the visitors. The site must be easy to navigate and page loading time must not be more than necessary. Another factor that grabs eyeballs is shopping deals. People love to do something about their shopping itch and if attractive deals and discounts are available, they are ready to buy anything under the sun as it is available at slashed prices. For example, Pets World, the Pet Food Shop in India offers amazing discounts at Wag Shop where pet owners can buy pet products and accessories at crazy low prices. Discount offers and eye catching ads and banners on the Home Page effectively attracts a large number of visitors.

Free Shipping Services

eCommerce websites also offer free shipping services as now the companies are not restricted just to the local market, but have transcended geographical barriers and catering to the entire world. Thus, the costs of shipping are also taken into consideration, still, it is affordable when compared with actual stores. It is seen that when shopping at branded online stores or big retailers, multiple purchases results and that makes shipping services added to the shopping value quite negligible. Also, customers are not deterred by free shipping even if the order price is low. Moreover, shopping online sans any deal or discount is still reasonable as compared with shopping at boutiques or shops. If we talk about shipping strategy, the best example is Zappos. The e-commerce company, Zappos offers free shipping services to their customers no matter what the amount is. If you are not happy with the product then return facility is also provided by the company.

Branded Products at the Top

Every customer has unique choices and demands, but it is practically not possible to give space to each product on the home page. Thus, most of the eCommerce sites place their most exciting and eye catching offers and products on the main page, ensuring ready accessibility. The retailers who have a huge collection of products, it makes things easier. Branded merchandise is given a premium position followed by other less known brands. Also, the items on sale are placed up front, followed by the newly added branded stock. The idea is to grab the attention of the target customers, especially first time visitors who take some time to get the feel of the site. Using effective and targeted channels, customers can look for the merchandise they were looking for! Amazon is an amazing example of this strategy. The website has a filter that keep the most popular brands on the top followed by the least recommended. They even have a different section for other brands that are majorly highlighted on the index page.

Login Box, Search Box and Shopping Cart

The features of an eCommerce site like the Login Box, Search Box and Shopping Cart must be placed close to each other. Having an eCommerce site without shopping cart feature is unthinkable. A simple looking cart can be made to denote a shopping cart in a prominent corner space. Private accounts are created and shared with the customers by several stores where they can review their past and present orders. The customers are given Login and password details that help the customers to further access the site. Such premium customers also get to enjoy special schemes, discounts and offers. Having a Search Box feature on a site makes it easier for the customers to wade through an extensive collection by streamlining their search. Website of Marks and Spencers has everything aligned properly. Log in, Log out, Cart and search tabs are placed quite close to each other that gives an excellent opportunity for customers to explore better.

Icons for Payment Systems

The eCommerce sites have been able to reach out to the customers located in the different parts of the world and it is important that the payment options given to the customers meet their desire. In case there are any technical limitations to any payment system, the same must be clearly stated. For example, many sites do not accept International Credit cards and some sites make it mandatory to share the billing and delivery address of the customer in the country where the store is located. This limits the number of customers. Thus, whatever payment options are available with the site, they must be clearly displayed in plain sight on the Home Page, reducing confusions. Snapdeal.com has the best solution to deal with this problem. If you see the index page footer, there are icons that tell about payment options. All these icons help customers to understand payment options in a better manner.

If you are new in the e-commerce industry and don’t have enough resources then it will be better to hire an e-commerce development company to assist you. Incorporating the above components help in creating a successful eCommerce site

The post Top 6 Essential Components to build an Online Store appeared first on Digital Marketing Agency - TIS India Blog.

PHP is one of the most admired and popular server side scripting languages which are widely used for creating websites. With faster turn-around time, enhanced security and affordability, PHP has become preferred choice of the website developers. Due to plethora of benefits of this scripting language, many famous online businesses such as Facebook, Yahoo, Wikipedia, Flickr etc. are using this scripting language. In this article, I am explaining 11 advantages that make PHP popular among web developers.

Reason #1 — PHP boasts Simplicity

With PHP, coding is like writing an essay in English for a computer to read, except the essay is a piece of code that instructs it to create and run websites in the most efficient manner possible. Creating a code in PHP is simple, and though you’ll hear some developers complaining that this does not build the necessary coding habits that streamlines (read standardizes) coding, it allows the code to be highly personalized (and hence easier to protect).

Reason #2 — PHP Is FREE

PHP is an open source language: free, is easy to use, and has a stupendous amount of available documentation — making it the most cost-effective method of creating robust websites and taking over online real estate space without worrying about legal obligations and subscriptions fees.

Furthermore, PHP reduces barriers to entry for new website developers, allowing them to simply leverage their skills and talents for coding to get started.

Reason #3 — PHP Works Exceptionally Well With CMS

The latest (and recent) trend towards adaptive content has made CMS customization a crucial competitive need for businesses. Adaptive content is content personalized for the individual visitor to the website (using sign-in, or visitor history) to create a one-to-one experience for visitors. This is only possible if the website’s code can be customized and integrated with the CMS.

PHP makes websites amoebic, allowing the developers to transform them at their will. All PHP websites are fully customizable and can be transformed to meet the requirements of the customers with ease because Content Management Systems like WordPress, Drupal, Joomla and others are primarily based on PHP. Hence, developing or integrating a robust custom-made CMS solution with your website is simple.

Reason #4 — PHP Accepts Platform Diversity

A code created in PHP can run on all the major platforms, allowing the developer to seamlessly integrate website across multiple platforms. This allows the business to cost-effectively leverage all existing infrastructure, leveraging platforms as diverse as Windows, Unix, and Linux, with the additional ability to interface their website with MySQL and Apace.

Reason #5 — PHP is Powerful Flexible and Scalable

Facebook, the largest and most powerful social media platform is running on PHP. Facebook has even created a PHP derivative language, named “Hack” to meet the emerging needs of the giant’s content management needs. This shows the level of flexibility, robustness, and scalability that is built into PHP. Compared to other languages, PHP’s biggest advantage is that the website’s code can be updated without requiring a server reboot!

Reason # 6 —Extensions and Add-Ons

PHP is one of the most scalable languages for website development. Being an opens source language, its family of online developers is continuously involved in developing extension to meet the emerging requirements of the businesses. This allows the developers and businesses to easily develop and add newer functionalities and features to their website with ease.

Reason #7 —Embed-ability

The latest trend in adaptive content has made responsive website and fluid grid systems even more pertinent to businesses. In this context, HTML5 is the unquestioned industry standard for developing highly dynamic and responsive websites. This is where PHP surfaces as the language that allows its code to be easily embedded into the HTML. Developers can easily convert existing static website code into a whole new dynamic one by adding their PHP code into HTML.

Reason # 8 —PHP is Backed By a Vast Community

This is a corollary of PHP being open source language. The language itself has a vast and growing community of developers and professional experts willing to support beginners and involved in continuously addressing the latest problems facing the web developing community. Furthermore the popularity of the language and hence availability of developers means that the developers are bound to offer highly competitive pricing.

Reason # 9 — PHP has a Huge Standard Library

What differentiates a good programming language from a great one is the extent of its standard library. Libraries play a crucial role in simplifying and speeding the data processing ability of the language.

Given that online visitors spend no-more than 8 seconds per webpage while they are on a surfing spree (in the earlier ‘research’ phase of the buying process), website’s loading time plays a crucial role in keeping them engaged on the website. PHP offers extensive support for HTTP fetching, regular expressions, URL parsing, and database drivers, to name but a few. It is true that the library is incoherent, but the community’s on it!

Reason # 10 PHP Delivers Exceptional Performance

PHP improves speed of development as much as it improves speed of execution. Operating on a conventional web stack, PHP leverages the Apache web server and allows applications to leverage MySQL databases — allowing developers to create bespoke, one-stop solutions for online presence.

Turnaround time is one of the most important factors that enhance performance of any website. PHP is known for its quick turnaround time. The large standard library, a diverse range of extensions, cross platform functionality, seamless integration with and customization of various CMS, and embed-ability allows experienced developers to offer exceptionally fast turnaround times at highly competitive rates. Further, any website that is developed using PHP has faster data processing features and that website is compatible on all operating system such as Windows, UNIX and so forth.

Reason #11 — PHP offers Diverse Frameworks

PHP is able to deliver exceptionally fast turnaround times because it has a sufficiently large family of PHP-frameworks. These range from the enterprise level Zend and Yii frameworks, all rounder Laravel and Sympfony, performance optimizers like Phalcon, and PHPixie for speedy application designs or Code igniter for more robust ones.

The post 11 Reasons Why PHP is Getting Popular Among Web Developers appeared first on Digital Marketing Agency - TIS India Blog.

Sometimes, we want that our website visitors can access only certain information or certain authorized users can only use the listed features on our site. What we will do in that case? We have to put some authentication factor for making sure that the information that we want to share with certain section of visitors on our site will remain inaccessible for the rest of the visitors.

Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA), as it name suggests combines two or more self-regulating credentials; one is what the users have with them (security token), other is what the users know genuinely (password), and what the user identity is (biometric confirmation). In simple words, Multi-Factor Authentication’s aim is to make a strong and layered defense to make it complex or tedious for the unauthorized users to access certain information like network, computing device, or a physical location.

Before learning how multi-factor authentication can be implemented in website development with PHP, let’s shed some lights on the scenarios where it is needed to be executed.

The common scenarios where MFA is implemented are:

• Logging into a website by entering requested One Time Password (OTP) that is sent by the website’s authentication server to the requester’s email address or phone number.
• Scanning fingerprint, swiping in card, and answering a security question
• Attaching a valid certificate with VPN client and then downloading and logging into the VPN prior to getting access to a network.
• Generating one time password by attaching a hardware token to a computer this one time password for logging into a VPN client.

Multi-Factor Authentication in PHP Websites

You can use Biometrics for authenticating users on your website, but if you want to implement a more practical approach for executing MFA correctly on your PHP projects is to execute options from two alternatives ways: demanding password or a confirmation token that is sent to the mobile phone of user or you can ask for voice call also. In PHP projects, developers have the option to implement Twilio in their PHP projects as it provides a compatible API and infrastructure that they can apply in their websites to write interactive telephony apps without any difficulty.

Twilio comes with TwilML (Also known as Twilio Markup Language) that helps you to receive and make calls and messages. Let’s understand how we can use MFA in PHP projects.

Using Authentication factor in MFA

In Multi-Factor Authentication, each of the authentication factors is inclined towards boosting guarantee that an entity can use or access the information on a website only if he or she is having the permission to do so. However, there are three common categories of authentication factors that are used in Multi-factor authentication and they are:

• Knowledge factor
• Possession factor
• Inherence factor

1.Knowledge factors

It consists of the information that users should offer in order to log in and access the information from the website. The elements that fall under this category are username, PINs, passwords, and replies to secret queries.

2.Possession factors

It consists of the information that the users have in their possession for accessing the permissible data such as one –time password, security token, employee ID information, a key fob or a phone’s SIM card.

3.Inherence factors

It consists of the biological traits that the users are confirmed in order to login to the website. In this category, the elements includes biometric methods for authentication such as fingerprint, retina scans, finger veins scans, voice recognition, facial recognition, earlobe geometry or hand geometry.

Technologies of Multi-Factor Authentication

After learning about the factors that are used with Multi-factor authentication in PHP websites, it is vital to explore the technologies of MFA and they are listed as follows:

Soft Tokens

Soft tokens are used as a crucial MFA technology that is commonly used for generating single-use PIN for multi-factor mobile authentication in Smartphones. It includes the software based security applications for generating the single-use login PINs.

Security Tokens

It consists of the small hardware equipment that the users carry for authenticating themselves for accessing the protected network. The equipment could be a smart card or it can be integrated as a USB drive of a key fob. The security tokens falls under possession factor of the multi-factor authentication method however; in case of websites built in PHP framework, software tokens are given more importance above the security tokens.

Mobile Authentication

In this MFA technology, several variations of multi-factor authentication are used like sending phone calls or SMS to the users, Smartphone One time password applications, smartcards and SIM cards with hoarded information.

Biometric Authentication Methods

Again when we talk about the biometrics technology used in MFA, it includes scanning of finger prints, finger veins, retina of eye, voice and face recognition, iris scans etc.

Authentication in PHP

When we talk about the proper execution of MFA in PHP, request based authentication is most commonly used method, which requires users to provide credentials for posting an authentication script. When it will be authenticated, the credentials can be used for storing and encrypting in a session on the server, in database operated sessions or in cookies of the client side.

In PHP, HTTP authentication using headers is also supported that triggers the web browser to open the user and password dialog. Basically, two types of authentication methods are available for implementing MFA in PHP:

• Basic authentication: It is not so much secured because the credentials of the users can be transferred via plain text. Hence, it is advised to be used over a Secure Socket Layer (SSL) connection.
• Digest authentication: This method is used in PHP 5.1 that allows the encryption of credentials thus adding additional security layer to the authentication process. Apart from these two authentication methods, there are other classes of authentication also available for PHP that helps you to choose the one that fits your website’s requirements.

Concluding Words

Multi-factor authentication is not about adding layer of security to the confidentiality of your website, but it is the act of maintaining balance between the secrecy of the resources and information that we can to secure along with the amount of inconvenience that might be cause to our website’s visitors while going through this process.

If you understand the appropriate execution of MFA in your projects, you will definitely choose the authentication process in the best possible way for offering a more secured environment of data transmission between your site and your visitors. If you have any questions or suggestions related with the multi-factor authentication process, you can post your queries or comments below.

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