Hi from Ottawa,

Designing websites and following industry news here, which we want to share with you. The Joomla! Development Team has just released version 3.4.5! This is a very important security patch, everyone using Joomla 3 for their websites need to upgrade immediately. The security holes in question exist in the Joomla! core codes, meaning every unpatched Joomla! 3 website, regardless of setup and configurations, are at risk of being compromised. Publishing the patch and security vulnerabilties on the web would also have the undesirable side-effect of making the exploit more well-known - so it is imperative that everyone update asap.

Version 3.4.5 only contains security-related fixes, so in general, it shouldn't affect templates or frontend experience.

You can update your site in your Joomla admin panel, or download the packages on the Joomla! site.

If you need any assistances with Joomla upgrades or need to restore compromised Joomla site, we at Joomla Bliss are ready to help you. Give us a call!

The 3.4 release introduces new features into the CMS such as improved front end module editing, decoupling of weblinks, composer integration, Google new reCaptcha and security improvements by implementing UploadShield code which can detect most malicious uploads by examining their filenames and file contents.

This release was possible thanks to a hard work of over 130 different volunteer contributors.

Over 700 bugs have also been resolved with the 3.4 release of the Joomla! CMS.

Halloween Special Edition

Google and other search engines include Twitter profiles and messages in their search results. Search engines use "signals", such as the number of social media shares of a link, to determine how that link ranks for a given keyword. This is now called a "social search". 

It is official. Social media matters now more than ever. it matters for SEO and it matters for Marketing in general. You've got to get on top it.

This post concisely describes how to use Twitter for website marketing and SEO.  We explain how to use your Twitter smartly to get higher ranking for your website on Google and other search engines. 

If we could tell you one thing and one thing only about how to use Twitter and social media in general to get higher ranking of your corporate website on Google and other search engines, this will be the following: "Create and tweet/retweet only highly useful and valuable content". If you don't have time to learn or do anything else, applying this rule alone will eventually generate a social following for you and will establish you as a thought leader in your field.  If you'd like to do more, here are 13 quick and easy tips you can employ:

Every web marketer uses their own tools, but there is a list of tools that all marketers use or at least are familiar with. Moz published the results of their 2012 survey on the status of SEO and web marketing industry. These results are very useful, especially if you are just starting with SEO and website marketing and looking for some benchmarks.

Below is the Moz list of the most important website marketing tools by category and by percentage of respondents (out of 1600 respondents in total, if we are not mistaken). Joomla Bliss in Ottawa adds one category to this list at the very end.

Every two years, one of the leading web marketing firms and tool developer Moz produces results of their survey on search ranking factors. Below are their findings. Note that it is not clear how exactly they estimate the values and the total points, but in general, their guidelines are valuable.

We are pleased to announce the launch of our new Client Support Portal. The support portal allows our clients submit and trace all technical support issues related to their websites. The new support portal offers an ability to quickly view submitted requests, trace their status, add attachments, and comment on follow up actions. The support portal sends automated email notifications and reminders, providing an added convenience of hands-free project management.

The Joomla Bliss Support Portal currently includes the following features:

When selecting a web design agency for your website project, apart from looking at their portfolio and reviewing their client testimonials, the following ten topics are a must to include in your checklist:

1. Content Management System (CMS) - open source or commercial? Commercial CMSs would lock you into a contract with maintenance fees. Best open source CMSs are Joomla and Drupal. WordPress is still suitable for simple websites but not recommended for more complex websites. Read more about differences between these CMSs in this blog post. Most open source CMSs are easy to use and do not require a lot of training. They also allow users to manage and update content on their website without the help of a web developer. However, you need to keep them up to date. With Joomla, for example, upgrades after version 3.0 are extremely easy to implement. For most CMSs, upgrades within a given release can be implemented with a click of a button. But this is not the case when a new release version becomes available.  Make sure you ask whether your web design agency provides regular CMS upgrades and what the terms and limitations are. 
2. Website Hosting - it is not advisable to store all eggs in one basket. It is best to select specialized service providers, i.e. those who specialize either in hosting or in web design. Find out if your web design agency can recommend a trusted website hosting company. Most hosting companies look equally qualified when you read information on their websites, but things can be very different in practice. Find out if your web design agency will assist you with moving the website from one hosting company to another if necessary.  Sign up for a free website monitoring service (such as GTmetrix, for example).
3. Security - security issues can originate with your website and with your server (hostig). Some hosting companies provide sufficient disaster recovery services in case of a hacking attack. But some don't provide any. Find out what is included in your package. In terms of your website, find out what security measures will be put in place by your web design agency and what support you can get from them - and what the terms are - in case of a hacking attack. 
4. Speed - if you are using a web content management system (CMS), any CMS, your website will be slower to load because advanced CMSs contain a lot of files. This is normal and to be expected. However, if a website is large and contains a lot of images and if your hosting plan does not provide for optimized speed, your website may load at a sub-optimum speed. In order to remedy this, there is a number of techniques that can be implemented on your website that can improve its loading speed dramatically. Find out what is included with your website package.
5. Mobile and Tablet Technologies - find out what optimization your website agency provides for mobile devices. Make sure you understand the difference between a "custom mobile layout" and simply a "responsive" website. Both are good options, but you need to know what you are getting and for what price. Joomla Bliss' customers do not pay anything extra for a responsive website (we provide this by default) only for a custom mobile layout.

Having completed the site's development prototype stage and received approval from the client, it is important to proceed with certain Quality Assurance (QA) check points in mind. Working "backwards" this way ensures a higher quality of the final website.

Needless to say, upon completion of the website design, the first round of testing should check off the following points:

Please note that the website QA check list below, while applicable to all types of websites, applies to Joomla websites design primarily.

Interface

1. Ensure that the site’s name is correct
2. Make site name in the footer right after the copyright as a link to the home page. Insert following code instead of %sitename% in /language/en-GB/ en-GB.mod_footer.ini: <a href="/" title="%sitename%">%sitename%</a>
3. Add customer’s logo. Change template to store logo in /images/stories/ folder to let client easily change logo. If logo is not available, ensure that their business name appears at the top banner in text, making sure that it looks good and fits the overall style of the template.
4. Remove Joomla’s favicon. Add customer’s favicon, if it is available. If not, place a temporary favicon of your choice.
5. Contact page. Check capitalization in all fields on the contact form; add the updated contact info, ensuring consistency and nice display; test the form to make sure it is working.
6. Install error404 component (or errors2site and add settings recommended by errors2site to the .htaccess file) and configure error message. Check its display. (Was Modify the 404 error page - to reflect the colors of the template (the background of the title bar and the border of the box)).
7. Check the color scheme to reflect the particular needs of the client.
8. Ensure borders around the menu bar look nice and consistently the same for the 2nd and 3rd level.
9. Ensure that all edges and corners on all boxes and bars, etc. appear nicely
10. Ensure that the background image looks nice, especially if a gradient image is used, that no content is accidentally being "smudged over" by the background.
11. Ensure smooth transition for the gradient images.
12. Ensure that link hover/active is consistent throughout all elements of the site (check search, various modules, error page, contact, static pages, etc etc)
13. Test to see that all buttons look good (contact, newsletter signup, search results, login form, and similar elements
14. Check bullets and other formatting and make sure they are all available for use inside the content article inside the current editor (create a content page and use various styles to make sure all options display properly)
15. Ensure all images display properly and that appropriate imagery is used (do not use copyrighted images!). Make sure there are no articles which have /components/content/article/... in their address, i.e. not connected to any, even fake, menu. If necessary, add those menus to site map.
16. Test all forms and functional components, make sure to test them all one by one and correct visual imperfections to reflect the style of the template, e.g.:
    • Square buttons vs. oval buttons
    • Thick borders vs. thin borders
    • Background color and shades
    • Link color and hover/active color
    • Header and sub-header styles 
    • Bullet styles 
    • Font styles Completed
17. Translation pages and search results (page titles, images, etc.) 
18. Go over every page one by one and conduct a visual inspection, looking for inconsistencies in tags, titles, email formats, empty spaces, too much/too little spaces between sections, etc. etc.
19. Check all modules and ensure that the display is correct, no uneven spacing, no border overlapping, nice alignment, etc.

A website has a little value if your clients or customers can't find it. Before embarking on a website design project, it is good to familiarize yourself with the basic web marketing principles.

Website Marketing in a Nutshell

Overall, website marketing can be summed up as three things:

1. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
2. Social Media Marketing (including Affiliate Marketing)
3. Paid advertising on search engines (Google AdWords) and social networking sites (Facebook, LinkedIn, Google Plus, etc)

Whether you are focusing on all of them or only one, the bulk of your activities will be creating content on your website. Quality content is key for any kind of website marketing activity.

A prototype of a website, for our purposes, is a draft version of a website hosted live (what is called a high-fidelity prototyping). It usually consists of three pages: home, second page, and contact page. Images are placeholders and most information is presented as a "concept".

Building a website prototype can be done at any stage of the project, but we build prototypes as soon as the discovery stage has been completed. Building a prototype very early in the project offers many advantages:

1. Eliminates risks for clients: clients get to see a "preview" of the future website and have a chance to provide feedback
2. Saves time: it is cheaper and easier to make changes early in the development process
3. Ensures higher level of customer satisfaction: clients provide feedback and clarifications as well as approvals after each milestone
4. Simplifies QA: as prototype evolves into a full website, usability flow is tested and reviewed both by developers and the client - before the final QA even begins
5. Provides sufficient time and opportunity for reviews, thus preventing contract disputes and other unpleasant miscommunications
6. Ensures better quality: ownership of the project is shared with the client, hence developers feel more pressure to perform better
7. Simplifies project management decreases risks to a minimum, i.e. there is always plenty of room to correct potential errors and catch misunderstandings.

Those are the main advantages of creating a high-fidelity website prototype early in the project. There are, of course, some disadvantages - but only for developers, none for the clients. The main disadvantages for developers of a live website prototype include the following:

1. More communication time required: clients receive a link to their website's prototype early in the project, and then they check every day, send emails and small questions on the fly
2. More detail work required: client feedback is incorporated in three or four review cycles. But even after the official reviews have been completed, and client's approval on the interface design has been received, many clients change their mind and request tiny tweaks here and there
3. Higher level of frustration: not all clients are familiar with current web design standards or best practices. They often request things that developers are reluctant to incorporate (for example, instead of adding a Site Map link in the footer, some clients request it to be added as a main menu item; some clients request adding a link to an external website as a main menu item, etc.). In most cases, they can be convinced to follow current web design standards, but not always. In some cases, clients' personal taste prevents designers from including the final website in the portfolio display (it happens more often that we thought it would!)

But overall, whatever the differences in opinions or tastes - clients have the final say. As long as clients are happy with the development process and the final results, the project can be considered a success. Client satisfaction is the ultimate measure of success. Our own opinion is just that - an opinion.