As the holiday season draws near, it’s time to start thinking about updating your website to capitalize on the increased traffic that often accompanies this time of year. Satisfied customers and a successful holiday season will make any business owner smile, and your website can play a big role in making that happen. Taking extra time to prepare now is a good way to avoid technical problems and other issues during the holidays.

1. Optimize for Mobile Devices

Thanks to the growth of smartphones and other mobile devices, online shoppers don’t have to be chained to their computer desks to check off purchases from their holiday shopping lists. Developing a simple and functional theme specifically for your mobile users can increase your potential customer base. The easiest way to do this is to make use of responsive designs. With a responsive design, your website will modify itself automatically to create the optimal layout for the customer’s mobile device; these designs can accommodate both smartphones and tablets. Due to the smaller screen size typical of mobile devices you probably won’t be able to maintain the exact same design from your desktop version, but you can still use the same branding and color scheme.

2. Improve Your Website’s Loading Time

You may want a website with all the latest bells and whistles, but consider your website’s performance before you load it up with high-resolution graphics and elaborate scripts. Sluggish loading times on your website frustrate your customers and may encourage them to shop elsewhere. Before the holidays start, have your technical support team run tests on your website to see how fast each page loads for the average user. Changes to your design, such as reducing large images and eliminating complex coding scripts, can help your website perform better. You can also opt for a better cloud solution or web hosting server for your website to see even more improvement in loading speeds.

3. Secure Customer Data

Shopping online is always risky; some websites don’t safeguard customers’ data properly, putting these individuals at risk for identity theft and other issues. Investing in robust security software is a good way to protect your customers’ important data. Your technical support staff should keep apprised of the latest developments in online security to help your customers stay safe. To help alleviate your customers’ concerns, you can include information on your website about the security protocols that you use and offer tips on how your customers can shop online safely.

4. Offer Friendly Customer Support

Browser problems, incorrect stock levels and missing orders are just some of the common customer issues your staff will need to work through. Having enough staff on hand is an essential ingredient to helping your website survive the holidays. If possible, offer a live chat support option to those who are currently browsing your website. Keep an eye on your social media profiles in case a customer tries to reach you through those networks. Some customers may prefer to use email to get in touch with you; using a ticket system to handle incoming customer emails is a good way to keep track of issues. Help your staff to cultivate a customer-centric attitude, and try to anticipate common problems so that you can develop solutions ahead of time.

5. Boost Your Search Engine Presence

Improving your search engine rankings before the holidays begin can help fuel your success during the holiday rush. There are many ways to help boost your search engine rankings, starting with updating older pages on your website; offering fresh information to your visitors is a good way to impress search engines and show that your website is active. Adding special features, such as a blog, can also help. If your blog content is particularly noteworthy, you can expect more traffic to head your way. Your blog content should offer something useful to readers, such as tips for using your products.

6. Prepare a Festive Look

A festive design for your website encourages your customers to start thinking about the holidays. You don’t need to spend excessive money on a festive look; changing some pictures and making some cosmetic changes, such as altering the font color, can help dress up your website. Your holiday look should also include banners displaying any specials you plan to run, including discount codes.

7. Brush Up Your Social Media Presence

Social media networks offer an excellent way to connect with individual customers, generate buzz about your products and direct traffic to your website. Don’t let your social media networks sit unused with only a link to your website; update them frequently and interact with your customers. Make sure your profile on each platform matches so that you have cohesive branding. As the holidays draw near, using social media to announce your specials will help you get more interest from potential customers.

8. Beef Up Your Website’s Server

If your website is unable to handle massive amounts of traffic at once, a crowd of shoppers on big sales days could lead to sluggish performance or an outright crash. Major server problems are not something to be taken lightly; investing in the right server infrastructure for your expected traffic is a good way to avoid these issues. If your customer base is larger, you might need a dedicated server to keep your website afloat during the holidays. Dedicated Servers may cost more than basic shared or cloud hosting, but your website won’t be at the mercy of problems caused by other websites/users on the server.

Examining every aspect of your website before the holidays arrive can help you prepare a strategy to improve customer satisfaction and your own business success. A good website requires many things, including fast loading times, quality customer service and security. Working on these elements early can ensure that your website is ready long before your customers even start to think about tackling their holiday shopping lists with your business.

The holidays are here and 2019 is drawing to a close. We wanted to send out a sincere “Thank You” for choosing TurnKey Internet as your Cloud Solutions and Data Center partner.

We never forget that without you our business would not exist. We deeply thank you for your continued loyalty and support.

To show our appreciation, here is an exclusive Holiday Special Offer – receive an additional 15% off* your next order using coupon code: HOLIDAY15

Shop all of our Special Offers at turnkeyinternet.net/special-offers

*Coupons limit (1) per client, new orders only, may not be combined with other coupons or offers.Offer expires 1/5/2020

*HOLIDAY SPECIAL OFFER*: 20% off Holiday Coupon Code

The holidays are here and 2017 is drawing to a close. We wanted to send out a sincere “Thank You” for choosing TurnKey Internet as your Cloud Solutions and Datacenter partner.

We never forget that without you our business would not exist. We deeply thank you for your continued loyalty and support.

To show our appreciation, here is an exclusive Holiday Special Offer, receive an additional 20% off* your next order using coupon code: HOLIDAY20

To view all of our Holiday Special Offers, visit turnkeyinternet.net/special-offers

*Coupons limit (1) per client, new orders only, may not be combined with other coupons or offers. Offer expires 1/10/2017

It’s getting colder outside. It’s getting darker sooner. The time has been rolled back an hour, for those of us living in the United States. Winter is right around the corner and with winter, comes holidays. Thanksgiving is a few weeks away with Christmas coming in a close second and finally New Years. Now, why am I telling you all this? Matter of fact, why am I reminding you of these holidays? Isn’t this supposed to be a blog based on technology and not holiday seasons?

Well, I’m glad you asked. This part of the season is busy for us, due to the holiday specials we run. All the way from Black Friday to Cyber Monday. Everything is on sale for a fraction of the price. Everything from Virtual Private Servers (VPS) to top-of-the-line Dedicated Servers. During this time, traffic nearly quadruples to our main site, TurnKey Internet. Everyone wants to get in on the sales. Everyone wants to setup a website for their business. People are just shopping around for hosting providers if you will. Well, with that increased traffic comes increased strain on your servers which brings me to reason I’m writing this article.

With the holiday season rapidly approaching, you may decide to run a special on your products and services. The number one item that always occurs when running specials is an increased awareness of your product. That means you may have bandwidth spikes from potential customers viewing your website. You may have your products selling like hotcakes, but the question becomes, are you prepared for this? Are you prepared from the increased amount of traffic to your site? If you’re not sure, then you should continue reading.

As mentioned previously in this post, you will more than likely have a spike in traffic to your website which brings me to bandwidth. Do you have enough bandwidth ready to accommodate the spike in traffic your site may experience? If not, you should speak with your hosting provider about pricing plans for bandwidth.

Next, what about disk space? If you’re selling products online, more than likely you have a database storing the products with the customer information that is purchasing said products. Well if you’re running a special and have a higher than normal amount of people purchasing from you, you would want to ensure that you have enough disk space to accommodate said orders.  The last thing you want is your website to freeze or go off-line due to you running out of space because your database has tripled in size. You should speak with your hosting provider to ensure that you have enough adequate disk space.

This brings me to last point. You’ve checked your bandwidth and your disk space and they are more than adequate for your special. What’s next? Well, is your current environment sufficient to handle your increased sales? Let’s say your website is on a basic hosting account and receives a large spike of traffic during your holiday sales. Will your host throttle your account as it could be consuming too many resources? If your account is on a basic shared server, this is very high probability as the server will throttle your account for consuming too many resources. You should be aware of these limitations and speak with your hosting provider to see if they can handle your increased traffic. The last thing you want is a user who can’t place an order because when they view your site, they are seeing Resources Exceeded instead of your website.

Remember when I told you that April is Earth Month at TurnKey Internet? Well, I’m back with some very exciting Earth Month news. Two different pieces of Earth Month news, actually–both green; both awesome.

First of all, we are now part of NYS Gov. Cuomo’s ReCharge New York program. Do you know what this means? DO YOU KNOW WHAT THIS MEANS?! This means that TurnKey Internet is now powered by 100% renewable resources! Being awarded this system means a lot to us, and it should mean a lot to you too, because being nice to the Earth should mean a lot to everybody. This hydroelectric power system draws energy directly from Niagara Falls, and extends the portion of our power that we were already drawing from renewable sources to a full 100%.

We were selected for the ReCharge New York installation in recognition of the jobs we are creating in New York State as TurnKey Internet expands. Here’s a fun fact: We have more than doubled our staff in the past two years. Isn’t that crazy? Crazy in the best way possible, of course.

Do you know what else this ReCharge New York system means for us? I told you there were two pieces of Earth Month news, didn’t I? Get ready, I saved the best for last… If you haven’t yet heard, or are impartial to reading titles and/or press releases, our Latham, NY data center now has a zero carbon footprint! This accomplishment is all but unheard of in our industry, so we’re more than a little proud and excited. We feel, and hope you agree, that this accomplishment really sets us apart from the other guys.

If you’re interested in a little more light reading, you can find the press release in our Company News section.

Pssst… Between you and me, we are  running an OUTRAGEOUS sale right now. If you’re interested–and I would recommend being interested–jump on Live Sales Chat. Our Sales Department will tell you what’s up. *cough–HUGE DISCOUNT–cough* …excuse me.

The weather outside is frightful, and the weather inside TurnKey Internet has been brain-stormy with a chance of super-fun end of the year contest! Starting today, and running through December 31st, we invite you to join us in the Year End Tell-a-Friend Contest! You can win 6 months of free service, so you don’t want to miss this.

Here’s how it works:

• –  The object is to recruit as many people as you possibly can to sign up with TurnKey Internet
• –  It doesn’t matter which service they sign up for
• –  Each new sign-up earns you a point, but make sure they know to give your name (if we don’t know you sent them, we can’t give you credit!)
• –  As an incentive for your friends joining TurnKey, they can contact our Sales Department via Live Sales Chat and receive their 4th month ABSOLUTELY FREE
• –  On December 31, 2012, we will tally the points, and whoever has the most points, wins!
• –  If the winner is already a customer, he or she will win 6 months of free service. If the winner is not already a customer, he or she will win a $200 credit towards their purchase.
• –  Extra points for hanging out with us! After you earn your first point by recruiting a friend, you can rack up unlimited additional points by doing any/all of the following:

• *   1 extra point for liking us on Facebook, if you haven’t already
• *   1 extra point for following us on Twitter, if you haven’t already
• *   1 extra point for following us on our BRAND NEW INSTAGRAM (!!!)
• *   1 extra point for anyone you recruit to like our Facebook page, follow us on Twitter, or follow us on Instagram – No limit for extra points here, people. But again, MAKE SURE THEY TELL US! We can’t give credit where we don’t know it’s due.

This may seem like a lot (because it is), so if you have any questions at all, feel free to leave a comment below, on Facebook or Instagram, or send us a Tweet.

Good luck, everyone!

December has arrived, and with it, the holiday season. We love any excuse to celebrate here at TurnKey, so we are kicking off this festive time of year with a sale, of course, but also a fun, interactive game for you to play. Introducing: our Holiday Gift Grab!

First and foremost, with the coupon code GIFTGRAB50, enjoy 50% off* of your purchase, and get locked-in at that price. We are offering this discount on nearly all of our products — dedicated servers, virtual private servers, reseller hosting, SEO hosting, and more! That is our 2012 Holiday Sale, plain and simple. But that is not all, of course. You have participated in grab bag games before, correct? We hope so; they’re fun! Regardless, we are sure you will love our rendition of the age-old holiday tradition. Here is how it works:  With your purchase, we are offering three free gifts* from a pool of 12, and leaving the choice of which you’d like to “grab” completely up to you. These gifts include (but are not limited to) a cPanel license, 1 free month, doubled disk or an additional 250 GB, VoxWire 10-person room, doubled bandwidth… The list goes on! Normally, in holiday grab-bags, your gift is a surprise. However, we are making sure you get the highest-possible value out of your gifts from us this holiday season. If you see it listed, and you want it, it’s yours; completely free, for life. Just grab it! Head over to our Holiday Gift Grab page and check it out.

Seasons greetings, happy holidays, and enjoy!

What are your plans for the holidays this year? Which holiday do you celebrate? We would love to hear about it. Leave a comment below!

*The coupon GIFTGRAB50 and the corresponding offer of 50% off and three free gifts is limited to the selection of an annual payment plan. Please visit the Holiday Gift Grab page for alternate plans and the offers/codes that apply.

After the overwhelmingly positive reaction we received for our Black Friday Special, we have decided to keep the wheels in motion. Today, we’re announcing our Cyber Monday promotion! We’re basically taking our Black Friday Special and changing its clothes, so that you can all enjoy a little extra time with the sale that has everyone (us, included!) buzzing with enthusiasm.

If you happened to miss the sale, don’t you worry! Here’s a little overview:

With the coupon code CM2012, you can get 75% off of  pretty much anything we sell – servers, reseller packages, SEO hosing; if we sell it and you want it, it’s probably 75% off. And guess what? It’s locked-in at 75% off. For life.

Here’s the really exciting part, though. For Black Friday ONLY, we packed in even more savings to the Early Bird Special I told you about earlier this week. Initially, the 75% was only valid with the selection of an annual payment plan, and for Black Friday we decided to throw the restrictions out the window and discount monthly and semi-annual plans as well. Cyber Monday is every bit as exciting for us–if not more, because we heart the internet–so we’re going to put the all-encompassing 75% off into affect again.

Lastly, if you hadn’t noticed, we like to go out with a bang here. Did you really expect us to run a special without giving it a little extra bit of awesomeness? Surely not. As a gift, to thank you for your business and for being so great, we would like to offer your fourth month absolutely free. That’s right, if you participate in our Cyber Monday sale, you will receive the fourth month of your service for exactly $0.00.

Jump over to our Cyber Monday page and save yourself some money! Happy–online–shopping!

The rumors are true, everyone! You spoke, we listened, and you DON’T want to miss this.

Do we have your attention yet?

Based on the wide-spread excitement over last year’s promotion, we at TurnKey Internet have tuned-up, polished, and re-released our industry-leading, eagerly-anticipated Black Friday Special. It’s back, and it’s even bigger and even better than before. We have whittled down prices and jam-packed savings to the bursting point! With the coupon code BF2012, you can get 75% off of  nearly every product we have – dedicated servers, virtual private servers, SEO hosting… oh, my! You name it, it’s marked down. And the best part? This discount isn’t just a one-time thing. Take 75% off your purchase for life.

But wait just one more second before you get down to shopping. 75% off is not the only piece of exciting news we have to share! We launched some brand new hosted services this week, including (but not limited to, of course) our all new ROOT Reseller packages, and super-fast dedicated servers powered by the brand new Intel E5 HexaCore 2620.

We know you’re anxious, so we won’t eat up any more of your time! You can find more information about all this and more at http://www.turnkeyinternet.net/blackfriday. You can also read the full press release here.

Happy holidays and happy shopping from your friends at TurnKey Internet.

A few weeks ago, Jeremy wrote an excellent article concerning Black Friday and why it’s important to consider all the cloud has to offer for managing such a busy holiday. Remember that? If not, you can (and should!) give yourself a little refresher course, here. Now, to establish the obvious, Black Friday is a high-traffic “holiday”. The same thing goes for Cyber Monday. However, these days, this might be little more than the result of heavy marketing campaigns and layers upon layers of hype that have accumulated around it over the years. We recently stumbled over some intriguing statistics that The Wall Street Journal dug up. For those of you hardcore deal-seekers who may be tuning in–you should probably consider sitting down for this.

Did you know that Black Friday may not always be your best bet for finding the absolute lowest price or steepest discount? It was hard for us to believe, too! There’s always such a craze leading up to and—of course—on Black Friday; from the lines wrapping around entire city blocks, to the blinking, coffee-slugging early-birds maniacally refreshing retail sites. However, according to the aforementioned study conducted by The Wall Street Journal and Decide, Inc., all of this effort (and, well, misery) might not be monetarily worth it in the end.

Interestingly, it seems that major retailers are pumping up marketing campaigns surrounding their more extreme deals, while inflating the price of other items to avoid a diminution of profits. Therefore, let’s say you want a specific TV, and see that it’s absurdly marked down at a specific store. Go for it! You wait in those lines, hurdle those human beings, and get that TV by any means necessary! However, if you’re shopping in general or looking for something that has a significantly reduced demand post-holidays, you might want to just hang out for a week or so. Or, you know what? Be a go-getter! Create your own shopping holiday and have a “Super Saturday” a few weeks early, or something.

Before you give yourself a head-slap for time spent in the calamity of Black Fridays past, rest assured that Black Friday does offer some outrageous deals and you absolutely will and have saved yourself a good chunk of cash. Our point is, a lot of expert deal-hunters might be looking for bargains on days that aren’t Black Friday, and you’ll see high traffic spikes then, too. So, although you definitely need to consider Jeremy’s advice for Black Friday because of the less-informed masses who will virtually stampede through your virtual doors, you might ALSO want to do some research and apply it here and there at other times throughout the year. That way, you won’t be unprepared for the hordes of shoppers who have really done their homework.

Take a look at this graphic we pulled from Decide, Inc., and mull it over. Happy Autumn (and happy shopping!) from TurnKey Internet.