What does an SEO consultant do?
Written by: Simon A. Skaar

You might think that online businesses are the future. It may be that way, but the steps to get the best results with online sales have a lot in common with old-fashioned farming. Like the farmer, an SEO consultant works to make your crops as large as possible. The future is very likely based on online shopping, but strictly speaking, us keyboard jockeys are not much more than glorified digital farmers. You may have heard that “SEO is a method to have the most visibility online”, but it’s actually not that simple. SEO is not a single method. It is a barn full of different tools that together make your website sprout and grow. SEO has become such a big subject today that no one becomes an expert in the entire field. Just as farming is divided into agriculture, forestry and animal husbandry, SEO agencies often divide the tasks into “on-page SEO”, “off-page SEO” and “technical SEO”. There are thus three categories, and each of these includes hundreds of ranking techniques. An SEO consultant uses these techniques when helping you implement good digital marketing strategies.

But what is SEO really?

SEO is an acronym for the phrase «Search Engine Optimization». In short, SEO is a set of techniques for ranking websites in search engines in relation to the keywords potential customers use in their searches. A good ranking increases traffic to the site. More traffic gives more chances to create sales and increase sales. What makes SEO challenging is that the guidelines for good search engine optimization are constantly changing. The reason for this is that search engines – like Google, Bing and Yahoo! – tries to find a perfect formula for their SERP (search engine results pages), or what we like to refer to as a search in a search engine. The goal is for users to find what they are looking for, and for the content they find to be the best available on the internet. SEO ensures that the growth conditions are best for your digital farm. Not all farmers are equally moral. Like farmers deforesting the Amazon rainforest to get more arable land, people have been using SEO for as long as the Internet has existed. Sneaky salespeople always try to cheat themselves into the top of Google search by manipulating search engine ranking algorithms. This is something an experienced SEO consultant knows how to steer his clients away from as dishonest tactics are cracked down on by search engines like Google. Utilizing SEO has resulted in Google and other players keeping their ranking rules secret while looking for the perfect algorithm to determine the value of websites. Until anyone invents a set of rules that can not be manipulated and gives users top quality every time they do a web search, good SEO will depend on always keeping up to date on the latest changes in search engine policies. This is a key part of an SEO consultant’s job.

Man with megaphone clipart

SEO’s three pillars

Like previously stated, search engine optimization has become a massive subject. It takes so much work to become an SEO expert that very few online businesses have the resources required. An SEO consultant, on the other hand, has made the SEO field their livelihood. They live to stay up to date on the latest developments in the market. This is how they can help websites sow their seeds for digital marketing and reap the greatest possible harvest in their industry. Initially it was mentioned that search engine optimization is divided into three categories to make the subject more manageable. Simply put, “on-page SEO” is about the part of the site that is visible to readers. “Off-page SEO” is about everything that happens outside your website, such as promotion on social media, guest blogging or working with backlinks. “Technical SEO” are invisible improvements to the website. This can be things like making the loading time faster, makeing the website more mobile-friendly or making sure that coding on the website is easy to understand for search engines. In other words, search engine optimization is too comprehensive to learn in addition to running an online business. A certain overview is of course desirable, but even SEO agencies divide their teams with specialists in each SEO category. A good SEO consultant will tell you what you should focus on and take care of the rest for you. For new web starters this will in many cases mean creating good routines for on-page SEO.

The basis of on-page SEO

Digital marketing is all about creating growth on the internet. In order for websites to grow and generate good sales, you need to nurture your content the way a farmer nurtures their crops. Growth is inhibited if they forget to fertilize the field. Your content is just as vulnerable, and risks fading away if you do not keep it maintained with regular fertilization.

Very few farmers engage in all forms of agriculture however. Those who know everything are either large farmers, advisers or teachers at the agricultural college. An SEO consultant is a teacher in search engine optimization. The first thing they look at when your online business knocks on their door is how good your chances of success are. That is, they carefully go through your website to look at opportunities for improvement and market potential. This is called an “SEO audit”.

Such an analysis of your company’s website facilitates the shaping of a good marketing strategy. Once the strategy begins to take shape, content must be adjusted and produced for search engine optimization. An SEO consultant can either produce the content for you, or train you in appropriate content production that takes into account search engine optimization. This phase is therefore about on-page SEO. The following four points are some of the most important in this category of search engine optimization:

Tools for farming clipart

1. Create quality!

What an SEO consultant knows for sure is that Google controls the internet market. Google says it more often with each passing year: “Quality is the most important factor for ranking.” Google is looking to promote the best texts, movies, images and podcasts available on the internet on all topics. It is your job to make sure that the quality of your content is the best available in your industry. Find out what’s useful to your readers, what’s valuable to your audience, and how to create content that holds a higher standard than your competitors! How to build a digital farm with values ​​that can prove to be profitable for many years to come.

Read Google’s own manual, Page Quality Rating Guidelines to find out what they define as quality!

2: Be user-friendly!

Building a website that is not very user-friendly is a pitfall for beginners, but also a very specific task to tackle for an SEO consultant. A user-friendly website is clear, easy to navigate, mobile-friendly and produces content that is easy to read and easy to read for information. The key is to eliminate every conceivable annoyance. The website must work on all kinds of platforms and devices; It must be understandable to everyone, and it should allow for easy and direct communication between the site and users.

If you fail at one or more of these points, your readers will spend less time on the page. Google interprets this as a sign that your web pages should rank lower.

In the same way, the fertile soil becomes poor and the grain quality is lower if the farmer never harrows the soil. Few people are more fond of bread than Norwegians, and we place great demands on quality. No baker takes shortcuts and buys cheap grain for their baking. On the internet, readers are just as skeptical. A site that is “hard to digest” will send packing faster than you realize.

3: Use keywords!

Google has long tried to downplay the importance of keywords, but any SEO consultant knows that this still has a lot to say for ranking. Keywords, or key phrases, are key words in texts that tell search engines what the content is about. This is important to be aware of because the keywords determine which competitors the texts should be ranked in relation to.

The theory is quite simple, but the method can present challenges. An experienced SEO consultant working with on-page SEO will start by identifying your target audience and your fiercest competitors. Then they will find key keywords for both of these groups and create a battle plan. This is how they write texts aimed at specific readers with specific needs. In addition, the texts are shaped so that they have the best chance to rank higher than competing content on the internet.

Look at the SEO consultant as your digital agronomist. They assess your prerequisites, the level of competition and the customer potential. This is how they identify your most promising investment areas and find out which key values ​​you should hone in order to win over other digital farmers in the same specialist field as yourself.

4: Remember the value of links!

An SEO consultant never completely stops thinking about links to internet pages they are trying to rank in the search engines. For the sake of simplicity, we should just mention that there is a difference between links that go around your own website, links that go out to other sites, and links that come from other sites to you. Of these three types, links coming in from other sites have the greatest value for your ranking.

A link to your site from another site is the same as a sign that someone likes your site. This is something an SEO consultant might work actively to provide. This is because websites that are respected in their own industry quickly catches the eye of Google.

This means that it has a lot to say who the link comes from. If you get a link from grandpa’s blog, Google will not be very impressed. If, on the other hand, you get a link from Wikipedia, Google will immediately take a closer look at your site. As a result, your company will most likely rise a few levels on the internet respect-scale, often called building authority.

Bonus: Authority

If we were to include a fifth item on this list, it would be appropriate to explain more about authority. However, this is a big topic that our colleagues in the SEO blog have written a good explanatory blog post about. We therefore refer to their posts, and also to their blog in general which is full of good SEO tips.

Conclusion

This has been a superficial and basic introduction to search engine optimization and the most important tasks of an on-page SEO consultant. You now have an overview of how SEO is used to strengthen online businesses, and a list of the most important requirements for websites when it comes to on-page SEO:

Five on-page SEO requirements that make your website competitive!

✔ Quality makes you valuable
✔ Good customer experience makes you stand out
✔ Keywords make you available
✔ Links give you a good reputation
✔ Authority gives you respect

Sources

Ahrefs: SEO Basics
Search Engine Land: What is SEO / Search Engine Optimization?
Moz: On-page SEO

Office 365 – Now available
Written by: Simon A. Skaar

In order to compete in a competitive market, whether you are a small start-up company or a large enterprise, efficient tools are required to get ahead. There are many roadblocks, and poor organization of the IT environment is something that will slow you down the most. Office 365 from PRO ISP can help you avoid that.

What is Office 365?

Office 365 is an integrated experience with applications and services designed to help you follow your interests and grow your business. Get apps like Word, Excel, PowerPoint and more, and get them updated continuously with the latest features and security updates.

With a cloud-powered email solution you will always be able to stay in touch with customers and colleagues, wherever you may be.

Home Office or Maldives – Be available when you need to

Microsoft Teams, the hub for collaboration in Office 365, lets you chat with colleagues, hold meetings, and share files. You also get a terrabyte of storage where you use OneDrive to keep documents and important files in sync across all your devices.

Run your business with business applications that let you manage customer care, billing, referrals and more, from one place.

All of our Office services come with a 99.9% uptime guarantee and have a complete Microsoft service guarantee.

Lead your business forward with Microsoft 365

Fully installed and always updated versions of Outlook, Word, Excel and PowerPoint for Windows or Mac will help you boost your business going forward. We’ve written a bit about the most important features that can help you.

Continuous updates

Get the latest features and features with the fully installed and always updated versions of Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint for Windows or Mac, OneNote (features vary), Access and Publisher (PC only).

Contact and cooperation

Instant access to everything your teams need with Microsoft Teams, including chat, content, tools, and people.

1 TB of secure cloud storage

No matter where you are and on which device, you can edit and share your documents, photos and more with 1 TB of cloud storage in OneDrive.

Intranet and group areas

Inform and engage the organization and connect people to content, expertise and processes with team areas via SharePoint. Tell your story with great websites.

Email and calendars

Get professional email through Outlook with a 50 GB mailbox per user and the possibility to send attachments up to 150 MB.

Work across multiple devices

Get the fully installed Office applications on up to 5 PCs or Macs, 5 tablets, and 5 phones (including Windows, iOS, and Android) per user.

Professional digital storytelling

With Sway you can easily create engaging, interactive online reports, presentations, newsletters, tutorials and more.

Instant messaging and online meetings

Communicate using text, voice or video calls with Microsoft Teams. Host online meetings using one-step screen sharing and HD video conferencing.

Intelligent search and discovery

Discover content and expertise across your organization with intelligent search across all data sources, including SharePoint, Delve and Office apps.

Business Essentials vs Business Premium – What should I choose?

There are clearly both price and functional differences between the two different packages you can choose from. The main difference is that you can not install the actual apps on your machine with Essentials, only access the applications via browser, but for many this is enough.

Regardless, you get premium email solution based on Outlook and Microsoft Exchange in both solutions. Here you have 50GB available per account. OneDrive with 1TB per account and a 1TB joint account for the company is also included. Microsoft Teams also works with both types of licenses and as always you get our 5 star support with the purchase.

If you are the kind of person who likes to have the software installed on your computer, we recommend Premium as you will then have the opportunity to install apps on up to 15 devices between computers (Windows, Mac), mobile and tablet.

Please see full overview and ordering pages here.

We will eventually provide you with more detailed information on the exciting features the applications offers that can help your business. If you are have questions just contact us on chat or normal support. We look forward to upgrading your business!

cPanel Version 86
Written by: Simon A. Skaar


cPanel latest version (86) is now running on all web hosting servers. We have written a short summary of the changes this version brings.

Dette bildet mangler alt-tekst; dets filnavn er cpanel-86-1024x536.png

File Manager interface can now be used to delete files when the account’s disk space is full. Previously, when the account had no disk space, you could not access this interface as you got “suspended” for over usage.

EasyApache 4’s version of OpenSSL is upgraded to version 1.1.1. This enables the use of Transport Layer Security (TLS) protocol version 1.3. We will soon enable the use of TLS 1.3 for all clients that wants this. News will be posted regarding this.

The ability for the cpcalendars and cpcontacts service subdomains to get SSL certificates via AutoSSL is now added. This change allows users to connect to the domains via HTTPS for calendar and contact information. With the SSL certificate, users will not encounter a certificate domain mismatch anymore.

The AutoSSL feature’s automatic creation of CAA records now recognizes subdomains, as well as wildcard domains. Also, this feature now creates all the CAA records it needs to ensure that it will issue certificates.

AutoSSL now verifies Certificate Authority Authorization (CAA) records and a domain’s DNS configuration at the same time. This change will help improve AutoSSL’s execution time.

Support for use of reverse DNS entry for the mail HELO/EHLO if available has been added. When you enable this setting, Exim uses the sending IP address’s reverse DNS name as the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) HELO. This will help improve email deliverability for servers with a properly-configured PTR record.

This version is live on our servers and any feature listed here can be used at this moment.

Dette bildet mangler alt-tekst; dets filnavn er cpanel-86-1-1-1024x536.png
Tom has recently upgraded all the servers to the latest cPanel version, 86.

Secure backup with ransomware protection
Written by: Jon Eivind Malde

Back in March, we implemented our new backup solution provided by Acronis where all data remains in our data centers. All our services are secured with this backup solution with the exception of our customers’ virtual servers where this is an additional product at extra cost.

Tom and PRO ISP are satisfied users of Acronis backup

New backup service launched

So we have been using Acronis for 9 months and we are so very happy with the solution. This applies both in terms of stability and safety, as well as ease of use. For this reason, we are now launching the same solution to our customers so that you can secure their devices in a secure and user-friendly way that at the same time safeguards against ransom virus and crypto mining.

Are you going to act before it’s too late?

Tom is affected by hacker attacks. Are you going to act before it's too late?

It is becoming more and more common to hear about larger companies affected by hacker attacks and ransom viruses. Last out was a Spanish security company named Prosegur. Without a good backup solution you could be in trouble in a similar situation. For many, perhaps the most important thing is that it is at all possible to recover data. A fast recovery to be back in normal operation as quickly as possible means a lot to minimize the loss associated with the attack.

Protection against ransomware

In the case of Prosegur Acronis probably would have stopped the attack, but it is not possible to determine for sure. A test of Acronis and other similar solutions with such protection clearly shows that Acronis is at the top with regards to defense against ransomware.

Acronis backup with ransomware protection

Interesting related facts

  • 93% of companies that experience a data-related disaster without a plan to return to normal operation disappear within one year
  • 96% of all companies with backup and plan to return to normal operation survive a ransomware attack
  • More than 50% of all companies experience downtime lasting more than 1 business day within 5 years
  • On average, it costs $100,000 for one company per ransomware attack to get back into normal operation, as well as the cost of lost working time (source: CNN)

Choose where your backup is stored

With our backup solution you can save backup both locally and / or in our data center. We recommend that you store both locally and in our data center, but you decide this based on your needs. If you need to store backups locally, this must be stored on your own hardware and it requires that you have the equipment connected to your device or network.

Backup with many uses

Besides being easy to use, protecting and having a good performance, there are many other benefits as well. For example, you can restore to a device with completely different hardware without any problems (not applicable for Mac). This is useful if you need to use a whole new machine. It is also possible to restore a virtual server to a bare metal server or to cloud solutions like Azure etc. and vice versa. This can be useful if you want to switch vendor or upgrade / downgrade hardware.

Try for free for 30 days

Anyone can order a 30 day free trial of the solution where you can test the solution to the fullest and see that it works as desired. If you do not want to use the solution, it can easily be canceled and it will then be deleted at expiration without costing you anything. In other words, you can safely test the solution before choosing to go for it, as well as receive emails about what to expect to be billed before the trial ends.

We hope the solution fits you as well as it does us 🙂
Feel free to give us feedback once you have tested the backup solution.

Try for free now

cPanel Version 84
Written by: Simon A. Skaar

Faster validation for AutoSSL, PHP 7.3 on backend and a new refreshed interface for the webmail users is some of the new features in this version

We changed the AutoSSL feature’s Domain Control Validation (DCV) processing order. This change will significantly improve AutoSSL’s DCV execution time. Now, AutoSSL performs HTTP-based DCVs for each user first. Then, any DNS changes for users’ DNS-based DCVs occur in a single DNS update.Before this change, AutoSSL would separately process each user’s local DCVs. This process resulted in separate DNS updates for each user requiring a DNS-based DCV.

I n cPanel & WHM version 84, we upgraded the PHP version in cPanel & WHM from PHP 7.2 to PHP 7.3. This means that tasks in cPanel will be completed faster aswell as updates and maintenance will happen more smoothly.

We will move from bind to PowerDNS cluster this month. That will improve DNS for all customers. We will also remove old DNSSEC solution and transfer to PDNS DNSSEC. Read more about this on their blog.

Webmail user interface updates
In cPanel & WHM version 84, we have updated the look and feel, as well as the workflow, of the Webmail interface. The updated Webmail Home  interface allows users to perform the following actions:Open their inbox upon login — Users can select to open their email’s inbox every time they log in to Webmail. To do so, they can select the Open my inbox when I log in checkbox.
Change their Webmail client — Users can click any logo under the Change your webmail client header to change their Webmail client.
Set up email on a device — Users can email configuration instructions to a device. They will need access to their inbox from the device.

Errors interface now displays last 300 lines in an error log
cPanel’s Errors interface (cPanel >> Home >> Metrics >> Errors) is now updated to display the last 300 lines of the following log files:/usr/local/apache/logs/suexec_log
/usr/local/apache/logs/error_log
The interface now displays the following information:Error log entries from the user’s home directory.
Entries from the /usr/local/apache/logs/suexec_log  file that include the username for the account.

Earn money on your website with Google AdSense
Written by: Simon A. Skaar

If you run your own blog or another kind of website which has some traffic you could earn money by displaying ads.

I’ve been testing Google Adsense Auto Ads and would like to give you some tips on how to set it up and describe what it does.

“AdSense Auto Ads” was recently released by Google in order to make the ad display work better by letting AI (machine learning) processes work on your website. This should result in better earnings and a good user experience.

An example on the different ways Google AdSense Auto Ads could display on your page before finding the best result

The benefits with this Auto Ads is the machine learning which optimizes and tries different ways to display ads. This could be by displaying them near articles, within text or just header or footer of your site.

After a while, the AI will decide which solution that works best and use that for your future visitors. With both your earnings and the user experience in mind, you should be able to get good results and happy visitors.

It’s easy to control how many ads you want to display and which types inside the control panel of the Auto ads.

As you can see on the image, there is alot of different ads. Google recommends to keep them all on but you look closely into them. The “Overlay ads” which will pop up infront of your webpage should be tested.

I would recommend you to see how the “Vignette ads” looks before deciding if it should be enabled.
It could make your websites first impression look bad.

There is several way to experiment, you could try all the functions in the image over here. There is possibilities to reduce or increase the ads on your page. I recommend to start with something like 60%. There is a function for this that can be changed inside the control panel of the ads.

How do I get started with Google AdSense Auto ads?

No matter which CMS or website you are running, you will need a Google-account to sign up into Google AdSense. Ff you allready got this, just click on the “Get Started” button which may be found after logging in:

Register /Log in

When you got your AdSense account up and running, you can now log in again and click on “Ads”, Auto Ads will then appear in the menu. Click on “Get Started” and set up your domain in the panel. Follow the instructions provided by Google.

When you are done adding, you will get a script-code which you need to place in the header of the website.

If you use our website builder, you can add this at Settings -> SEO Settings -> Add script to header (paste it in there and publish).

For WordPress we recommend to code it in manually or use a plugin like Header and Footer Scripts.

For other CMS’s it might need to be added manually or by plugin/theme.

You might need to wait for Google to approve the site, when this has been done (usually in 1-7 week days).
When it’s approved, your site will start to display ads.
The cool thing is that if you are gonna make changes to the ads, just make the edits in Google AdSense and they will have effect at once.

Good luck!

More space and increased price for web hosting
Written by: Jon Eivind Malde

cPanel shocked the entire web hosting business 27th June when they overnight drastically increased their prices without any kind of warning to their partners. cPanel is the control panel we use for our web hosting service and is the foundation for the service we deliver to you.

Increased pricing for cPanel

We have calculated that our prices are 7 times higher now than before the change. The hosting business in general have been in turmoil since the change and cPanel has received a lot of complaints from upset partners in all channels. A quick search online will get you a lot of “colorful” feedback about the change.

cPanel price increase

We have ourselves notified cPanel about what we consider to be unacceptable business practice. cPanel does not listen to their partners unfortunately and we are forced to either accept the change or find alternative solutions to be able to continue to deliver stable and good services to our customers.

Our thoughts

cPanel is promising that the price increase will result in a better product for you, but such a radical increase is hard to digest when the price was far from low initially. We have considered other solutions, but unfortunately there are no other solutions that are good or stable enough compared to cPanel. We could develop our own solution, but that requires a lot of time, time we do not have as the change is already upon us.

We believe that what is most important to you as our customer is that we keep delivering a secure and stable service. With that in mind we do not have any other choice than to keep offering web hosting with cPanel. Our goal is however to deliver what is best for our customers at any given time at as competitive prices as possible. You can, in other words, rest assured that we will not stop considering other alternatives. Our loyalty to cPanel is nonexistent and cPanel will have to deliver on their promises to avoid changes.

Increased pricing and space

We have to increase the prices for the following web hosting plans due to the change:

PlanOld priceNew price
Pro Medium5.50€6.50€
Pro Premium12.00€14.00€

The prices will be effective from 15th September for all customers. This gives you the chance to order new or upgrade with the old pricing until that date.

As we increase the prices we also want to add more value to the services. Due to this we also increase the included disk space:

PlanBeforeAfter
Pro Medium15GB30GB
Pro Premium30GB100GB

All customers with those web hosting plans have already been upgraded to the new limits.

Happy Tom with thumbs up

Summary

This change was not planned so we hope for your understanding for why we reached this decision. We also hope that the increased disk space can make up for some of the increase in price.

cPanel version 82
Written by: Simon A. Skaar

Less new features than earlier versions but still important

Apache Solr upgrade

The Apache Solr has been upgraded from version 6 to 8, this will result in a lot faster indexing and search both in webmail and applications as Outlook or the mail app on your phone.

SSL/TLS status for your main domain

Under the “General Information” at the main page of cPanel, you can now see if you have a valid certificate and which type it is (DV or EV also displays, see here what an EV-certificate is).

A valid certificate should look like this.

cPanel / WHM performance updates

Different changes for faster maintenance, shorter reboots and updates will result in even less downtime for our clients.

You can see the official release log here.