APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) are used to connect software applications, allowing them to share data and functionality. APIs are an essential part of modern software development, enabling developers to create more powerful and complex applications. However, APIs can also pose a security risk if they are not properly secured. In this article, we will discuss API security and the best practices developers can use to secure their APIs.
Why Should Developers Prioritize API Security?
Protecting sensitive data: APIs often transmit and receive sensitive data, such as personally identifiable information (PII), payment card details, and health records. A security breach can lead to data theft, fraud, and identity theft, causing significant harm to individuals and organizations.
Compliance and regulatory requirements: Many industries, such as finance, healthcare, and government, have strict regulatory requirements for data security and privacy. Developers must ensure that their APIs comply with these standards, such as GDPR, HIPAA, or PCI-DSS, to avoid legal and financial penalties.
Reputation and brand image:A security breach can lead to negative publicity, loss of customer trust, and damage to the brand’s reputation. Consumers expect for their data to be secure when they use an organization’s services, and a security incident can quickly erode that trust.
Financial losses: Security incidents can result in financial losses due to data theft, fraud, and legal fees. Organizations can also incur costs associated with remediation and recovery efforts.
Cyber threats are on the rise: Cyber threats are evolving and becoming more sophisticated every day. Developers must stay vigilant and adopt best practices to prevent cyberattacks and data breaches.
15 Best Practices
Developing secure APIs is crucial for protecting the data and resources of the API. Here is a checklist for developers that includes recommendations for securely developing APIs:
Have you ever wanted to understand how URLs work in JavaScript? If so, then you’ve come to the right place!
In this article, we’ll be diving deep into the topic of URL parsing in JavaScript and understanding how to access certain data from a URL string. We’ll do so by breaking down the components of a URL into their individual parts—such as hostname, pathname, query, and hash—and taking each one for a spin.
A few days ago, I read an article by the author of Core-js. To be honest, it was my first time hearing about Core-js. As someone who has written some front-end code and has been keeping up with open source projects, I feel a bit ashamed.
However, there are many open source projects that are widely used but not well-known. In this article, I will take a closer look at a few of these unsung heroes of the open source world. I do not want to give them a business model or financial advice in this article. This largely depends on the author’s personal experience and values. I just want to raise more awareness about these open source projects.
Before deepening into the different supporting technologies, let’s create a baseline about schemas and message brokers or async server-server communication.
“A small group of developers and I gathered to design and build a new internal tool and saw an opportunity to do more. We saw ourselves building something more substantial than another internal tool through that process. Months later, we ended up with an early version of Bootstrap to document and share common design patterns and assets within the company.”
The above statement was said by Mark Otto, one of the developers of Bootstrap. Jacob Thornton, another developer, and they both worked in the Twitter organization, which is a popular social media website. However, even though we see a beautiful landscape as an end-user, the story differs for the developers responsible for building it. A website accessed by millions of people every day had to be (or needed to be) just perfect for each.
There are few recent technologies that have garnered the attention of generative AI. According to tech investor Sequoia Capital, “Generative AI is well on the way to becoming not just faster and cheaper, but better in some cases than what humans create by hand.”
Whether it’s being used for artwork, writing, or voice augmentation, the applications of generative AI are expanding beyond ‘just for fun’ to delivering real business value. We’re already seeing it take hold across industries. And it’s only the beginning of what is sure to be an exciting but challenging next generation of AI software and solutions.
I recently gave a talk at CNCF Security Conference North America on the subject of zero-trust computing. In this post, I'll provide an overview of the material from that talk, discussing how zero-trust computing is supported at the module, runtime, capability, and cluster levels.
Zero Trust Distributed Computing
I thought it might be a good idea to provide a recap and distillation of the material from the conference talk here. As we continue to preach, WebAssembly is far more than just another tool for building applications that run in the browser. We all firmly believe that it is a next-generation enabling technology for the cloud, the edge, and everywhere in between.
Telecoms fraud is a prevalent and ever-evolving issue that affects both business and individual customers in the telecommunications industry. It encompasses a range of fraudulent and abusive activities that can cause significant financial damage to companies and individuals alike. Ranging from well-established methods, including PBX hacking and SIMBox bypass, to newly evolving threats, such as flash calls and mobile money fraud, the tactics used by cybercriminals and fraudsters are constantly changing.
Telecoms fraud is booming and costs the world $32.7 billion each year, per a joint report issued by Europol and Trend Micro. The consequences of telecoms fraud can be severe, resulting in not only financial damage but also damage to the brand reputation of telecoms companies. With the increasing use of artificial intelligence (AI) in fraud protection strategies, we set out to explore the impact of this technology on the fight against telecoms fraud.
Technical debt is unavoidable in the software development process. Properly managed, it can be a potent tool that can drive genuine competitive advantage, just like a financial loan.
All too often, though, it gets out of hand. When we take on debts, we don’t understand the terms of, or when we don’t manage tech debt properly, there can be severe consequences.
Shared and dedicated hosting is among the most popular hosting services. Most hosting providers offer either option at different price points. However, it’s not always clear which hosting type is right for your website. Fortunately, there are distinct differences between shared and dedicated hosting. Therefore, making a decision shouldn’t be difficult if you know the benefits and drawbacks of each hosting service.
The 8 Best Web Hosts for Dedicated Hosting
While shared hosting offers many advantages, most websites are better off with dedicated hosting. We tested more than two-dozen service providers to compare the best dedicated hosting plans. Our recommendations include the following:
Bluehost – The best overall dedicated hosting plan
InMotion – The best dedicated web host for small businesses
Now let’s explore the primary differences between shared hosting and dedicated hosting.
1. Server Allocation
The main difference between shared and dedicated hosting is how the service provider allocates servers and their accompanying resources. This disparity is the basis of all other differences we’ll explore in this post. With this in mind, the terms shared and dedicated hosting are self-explanatory.
Shared hosting means that multiple users share the same server. Therefore, numerous websites and applications share the same server resources. For example, the service provider may divide a server’s central processing unit (CPU), random access memory (RAM), and storage space among multiple websites or clients.
The obvious problem with shared hosting is one website or application hogging most of the server’s resources. However, most hosting providers implement measures to ensure that each website uses a reasonable amount of the shared server resources. For instance, the service provider may use an operating system like CloudLinux to control server usage.
The operating system creates LightWeight Virtual Environments (LVEs), which work like isolated servers. The host allocates resources like CPU, RAM, and storage to each virtual environment, independent of the central server. Therefore, a website can only use resources as it is allocated.
Dedicated hosting is exactly how it sounds. The provider only hosts one account or website, so the website can access 100% of the server’s resources.
Resource allocation is one of the dedicated hostings’ main selling points. You don’t have to share much-needed computing power. Instead, you can access all the resources at your service up to the server’s capability.
2. Server Management & Customization
Server management refers to the tasks performed on the server to ensure that it runs optimally and reliably. The main objectives of server management include minimizing slowdowns and downtime, securing and protecting the server environment, and scaling the server to keep up with the website’s resource requirements. You’ll notice a considerable difference in server management between shared and dedicated hosting.
Generally, shared hosting requires little server management at the user level. Instead, the web host takes primary responsibility for server management, including hardware maintenance, setup and configuration, software management, and server monitoring.
Shared hosts also offer limited administrative access. This design rules out customization options like bespoke software configurations or using your preferred software and operating system. However, most shared hosting providers offer a cPanel for simple administrative tasks like organizing web files and managing domains.
On the plus side, shared hosting is user-friendly, especially for people with limited technical skills. In addition, you don’t have to worry about back-end maintenance and other technical details. However, you’re also at the mercy of your host’s operating system, server configuration, and security policies.
Dedicated hosting provides more freedom for server management and customization. It’s a terrific choice for tech-savvy administrators who want the server to match their exact specifications and requirements. In addition, most dedicated hosts provide unrestricted root access.
Bluehost offers top-tier dedicated hosting for your website.
Root access allows you to customize the server to meet your specifications. For example, you can install your preferred operating system and software, adjust hardware specifications, and install custom server-wide applications. For technical users, this freedom is critical for optimizing performance.
Dedicated hosting isn’t just for tech-savvy administrators. Many providers offer managed dedicated hosting. It is a good alternative for users who don’t have the technical skills to manage a server independently.
3. Performance
Naturally, sharing server resources has an impact on your website performance, and it’s the main reason many prefer dedicated hosting versus shared hosting. Sharing resources with other websites means you can only access a portion of the servers’ true capability.
Service providers can host hundreds or thousands of websites on one server. As a result, you can expect some performance issues. For example, lower loading speed is a common downside of shared hosting.
You can still get the tools and features you need with Bluehost’s shared hosting plan.
It’s worth mentioning that shared hosting doesn’t always mean limited performance. For example, a content-light website requires few resources to run optimally. Therefore, you may not notice differences in page loading speed and other performance metrics with shared hosting.
Similarly, there are things you can do to speed up your website, even with shared hosting. For instance, optimizing images, using a CDN solution, or executing web caches can speed up your website. Again, most shared hosting providers readily allow you to implement these measures.
On the other hand, dedicated hosting gives you access to 100% of the server resources. As a result, there’s a perceptible performance boost, especially for a content-heavy website like an ecommerce store. Plus, with enhanced customization, you have more control of server performance at your fingertips.
With Bluehost’s dedicated hosting plan, you get improved performance, storage upgrades, and more.
Overall, your website type plays a primary role in performance when considering shared vs. dedicated hosting. For example, a resource-heavy website with a lot of traffic will likely have performance issues with shared hosting. Therefore, dedicated hosting is the safer bet if website performance is a primary consideration.
4. Web Hosting Bandwidth
Web hosting bandwidth refers to the maximum amount of web traffic transferred between a user, website, and the internet during a specific period. Web hosts typically measure bandwidth in Megabytes per Second (MB/s) or Gigabytes per Second (GB/s). Each web visit eats into your total bandwidth allocation. Therefore, a higher bandwidth limit is preferable, especially for a quickly growing or high-traffic website.
Shared hosting typically imposes lower bandwidth limits compared to dedicated hosting. Shared hosts usually limit access to the website or lower its performance if you go over the bandwidth limit, referred to as bandwidth throttling. All this is understandable since you must share the server resources with other websites.
Many shared hosting providers claim to offer unlimited bandwidth. However, a quick look at your contract exposes a “fair use” clause. You’ll notice limitations such as CPU or bandwidth usage in your contract, and the web host may reserve the right to interrupt service if you exceed this limitation.
Dedicated hosts have vastly higher bandwidth limits than any shared host, and it’s unsurprising since you’re paying for total server capacity. Typically, the bandwidth is more than most websites need to operate optimally.
Many dedicated hosting providers also offer unmetered bandwidth. This means you don’t have to worry about sudden traffic spikes or exceeding your bandwidth limitation. The hosting provider doesn’t throttle your bandwidth if you exceed the allocated bandwidth.
5. Scalability
Most websites don’t have a baseline for assets and web traffic. Instead, there are frequent fluctuations, especially during peak seasons, when running a promotion, or from a sudden spike in demand. Similarly, a growing website uses more resources with every piece of new content or additional web page.
Scalability refers to the hosts’ ability to keep up with your website’s fluctuating system resource demands. Furthermore, scalability works both ways. Ideally, the web host should allow you to increase or decrease computing resources as needed quickly.
Shared hosting packages are generally not flexible. Often, you can only reduce your computing resources if you downgrade to a lower package. Similarly, you’ll likely need to upgrade to a higher package to increase computing resources.
Furthermore, you may need to contact the shared hosting provider to upgrade your package. Alternatively, the hosting provider may allow migrating to a higher package manually. Regardless, you may waste valuable time while you attempt to scale your computing power to keep up with a sudden traffic spike.
On the other hand, dedicated hosting is inherently scalable. If nothing else, most dedicated hosting providers add bandwidth, processing power, and storage space on request. They’re also willing to downgrade system resources, so you don’t have to pay for unnecessary computing power.
6. IP Address Management
With shared hosting, all websites share the same server IP address. Therefore, there could be illegal or scam websites among the shared server’s hundreds or thousands of sites. If one of these gets blocked, your website is also blacklisted.
There are ways to recover a blacklisted website in case you’re caught in the crossfire. Your hosting provider may also work diligently to recover your website. However, the downtime can do irreparable damage to your website’s reputation and client trust.
Dedicated hosting solves this problem by assigning each server a unique IP address. This way, you’re solely responsible for your online reputation since you’re not sharing an IP address with anyone. The peace of mind is sufficient to choose dedicated hosting over shared hosting.
It’s worth mentioning that shared hosting providers take extra precautions to detect and remove dubious and illegal websites. Unfortunately, however, dishonest actors can fall through the cracks. This inherent risk is one of the major drawbacks of shared hosting.
7. Security
Shared hosting isn’t inherently insecure. On the contrary, shared hosts go to extreme lengths to secure the server. However, shared server infrastructure introduces additional security risks you don’t find with dedicated hosting.
Firstly, shared hosting plans use a common directory. The directory contains all website core files. This structure means your website is interlinked with other sites sharing the server.
Theoretically, a hacker could access the main directory. Unfortunately, this situation means that all the websites are potential targets for the hacker’s dubious activities.
Shared servers are also common targets of distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks. Such an attack can cause the server to slow down or crash. In addition, such an incident may slow down or crash all the websites on the shared server.
Dedicated hosting offers more robust security by default. If nothing else, you’re not sharing space with vulnerable websites that could provide hackers an access point to the server. You also don’t share a directory with other websites, so you only have to worry about your security policy.
Furthermore, dedicated hosting allows you to customize your server for added security. You can limit admin access, set up new firewalls, use your preferred malware protection program, and install an intrusion detection system (IDS). Dedicated hosting provides added security for users with robust web security policies.
8. Cost
Shared hosting is inexpensive, which is one of the main reasons why many users prefer shared hosting. The hosting cost is spread among multiple users, reducing the per-user cost.
On the other hand, dedicated hosting is more expensive. You’re paying for extra benefits, but some may find the added cost inaccessible. Still, you can find affordable dedicated hosting providers if you price shop.
The Similarities Between Shared Hosting and Dedicated Hosting
There are undoubtedly stark differences between shared vs. dedicated hosting. However, there are also similarities between the two hosting types.
For example, shared and dedicated hosting providers offer technical support. The quality and support time may vary depending on the hosting provider. Regardless, you can count on technical support in case there’s an issue with your website or server.
Both types of web hosting also eliminate the need for physical or on-premise servers. Instead, the hosting service offers virtual servers that run from the cloud. These servers also don’t require technical staff to maintain.
Additionally, shared and dedicated web hosts provide a cPanel account or other interface to monitor critical metrics. For example, you can keep track of server status, daily process logs, system performance metrics, and server availability and uptime. This information is often delivered in real-time.
Furthermore, web hosting providers offer built-in security. These features may vary depending on the hosting provider. However, most web hosts provide DDoS protection, regular data backups, SSL certificates, firewalls, and scheduled malware scans. Most providers also offer these security services at no extra charge, depending on your hosting plan.
Final Thoughts About Shared Hosting vs. Dedicated Hosting
Shared and dedicated hosting are vastly different. Choosing the best hosting type should be easy. The best option depends on your hosting requirements.
While dedicated hosting offers more advantages, shared hosting plans are good enough for some people. For example, a small website with minimal traffic and computing requirements can get by with shared hosting. In addition, you can always migrate to dedicated hosting when you scale the website.
However, most users will benefit from dedicated hosting. This goes doubly for websites that collect and process personally identifiable information (PII), anticipate significant growth, or have custom hosting requirements.
Finally, compare the best hosting companies before choosing your preferred web host. The specific services vary depending on the provider. So a little research goes a long way in making the best purchase decision.
Are you looking to start a new business that has minimal overhead?
There may be several businesses that come to mind when you think about that, but today we are here to present you with an option that you may or may not have considered before: a commercial cleaning business.
This is one type of business that has much lower up-front costs than others and also is one that you can start quickly and fairly easily without the need for a bunch of capital.
It is also one that doesn’t require a bunch of experience or previous knowledge. Even if you don’t yet have connections, that doesn’t mean you can’t find success in this industry.
However, commercial cleaning is also a type of business that requires working hard and understanding that profit growth will likely happen slowly.
If this sounds like something you may be up for, continue reading to find out how you can start a commercial cleaning business today.
6 Steps to Start a Commercial Cleaning Business
This is the blueprint to start a successful commercial cleaning company:
The Easy Parts of Starting a Commerical Cleaning Business
Let’s start with the easy stuff so that you can get the ball rolling on your idea.
Register your business
Though not necessarily the fun parts of a commercial cleaning business, there are some things that you can get out of the way that help you take steps in the right direction.
One of those things is registering your business with the state. You have a few different options when it comes to choosing the type of business you want to register as.
Sole proprietorship. This type of business is best for those who are starting the business on their own and want to have as much control as possible. However, note that a sole proprietorship does not separate your business assets from your personal assets. So, in the case that something goes wrong with your company, your personal assets are at risk.
Limited liability company (LLC). This is the most common type of business that people choose for commercial cleaning companies, and it’s primarily because, unlike a sole proprietorship, it separates personal assets from business assets. With this type of business, however, you are self-employed so you still have to pay self-employment taxes such as Medicare and Social Security.
Partnership. This is the type of registration you want to choose if you are getting into your commercial cleaning business with another person. You can either opt for a limited partnership or a limited liability partnership.
Corporation. If you are looking for maximum protection, this is the type of business to register as. The only downside is that corporations are the most expensive to create. You must pay income tax on your profits, and you are taxed separately.
Implement cleaning business software
It may feel overwhelming at first to keep everything organized with your commercial cleaning business, and that feeling may grow as your business expands and as you hire more employees and gain more clients.
To help you keep things organized no matter what stage of your business you’re in, we suggest investing in software that can help make things easier, specifically work order software.
This software works best for field service, like what you’ll be doing with your commercial cleaning business. It helps you and your team organize and schedule cleanings as well as invoice clients easily so that everything runs smoothly in your business.
Jobber offers all sorts of tools that we will go into more detail about down below, but you can access them all from a user-friendly dashboard that optimizes efficiency.
Prices for Jobber start at $49 per month for an annual subscription.
The Difficult Parts of Starting a Commercial Cleaning Business
To find success in a commercial cleaning business, you’ve got to get your hands dirty, both literally and figuratively. That means pushing through the hard parts of starting this kind of company.
To help you in this, we are sharing one of the things you should know will present a challenge when starting your commercial cleaning business.
Market research
Before you dive too deep into building your business, you need to make sure that there is a market for your business.
How many companies in your area need commercial cleaning? Why should they hire you as opposed to someone else?
Here are some of the best ways you can start market research.
Create an online survey that you send to businesses in your area that may need cleaning services. You can send them via email or LinkedIn.
Pick up your phone and call business owners in your area. Offer to take them to coffee to chat about how you can help them.
Hop on review sites such as Yelp and Google to see what businesses may need cleaning services.
Consider offering free cleaning products to potential customers to try out for themselves.
When doing all of the above, you also want to think about competitors in the area. What are they missing from the services that you can offer?
In addition to that, know your limits when doing your market research. In the beginning, you are likely starting small so be realistic about what projects you can take on. Try to research markets where massive multiple-story office buildings are looking for professional cleaners is not something you may be able to tackle from the get-go.
Step 1: Register Your Business
The first step you want to take in your commercial cleaning business is to make it official. That requires registering your business in the state that you’ll be performing your work.
As mentioned above, there are a few options to choose from when deciding what type of business entity to start. It may be a good idea for you to talk to a lawyer about the pros and cons of each and which one is the best option for you for now, and also for the future.
Step 2: Get Insurance
One of the most important things you need to do when starting your commercial cleaning business is to make sure you are protected.
You do this by purchasing commercial cleaning business insurance. This covers you if any sort of accident or injury occurs on the job. Without this, you run the risk of paying out a large sum of money in damage, which may cause your business to go under.
To avoid this from happening, get yourself insurance from the beginning. Below are the different types you may want to look into getting.
General Liability Insurance
This insurance protects your business from any third-party accidents as well as property damage, injuries on the job, and more.
Workers’ Compensation Insurance
If you are looking to hire employees to help you with your commercial cleaning business, then you need to get workers’ compensation insurance. This protects your employees if they get hurt on the job or sick.
Commercial Auto Insurance
If you plan to have company cars for your cleaning business (which is typical in this industry), you also need commercial auto insurance.
Step 3: Organize the Flow
It is important that from the start, you get a good flow going with your commercial cleaning business. Rather than being disorganized and using archaic systems to schedule cleanings for clients, invoice clients, and more, adopt a tool that will make all of these things easy for you and easy for your customers.
The best way to do this is by using work order software like Jobber.
This software is ideal for on-the-go field services like you’re providing in your commercial cleaning business.
One of the biggest bonuses of this tool is the mobile app.
You can do nearly everything from your phone with Jobber including:
Track your team
Communicate with customers
Know where things are at with your business
Schedule cleanings
See job details
Invoice
Between the app and the desktop version of Jobber, you gain access to all sorts of features that will make running your commercial cleaning business a smooth process. Some of the features you’ll love include:
Automatic follow-ups with customers
Real-time scheduling
Real-time dispatching
Batch invoicing
Online booking for clients
Custom checklists
Branded professional quotes that can be sent via text message
Email and postcard marketing
Online payments
Reporting
“On my way” text messages
By bringing this software into your company, you will find that things go much more smoothly and your clients are much happier.
There are a few different package options for Jobber depending upon your specific needs.
Core. $49 per month with an annual subscription or $69 per month with a monthly subscription. 1 user. Provides the basics for organizing your business.
Connect. $149 per month with an annual subscription or $169 per month with a monthly subscription. Up to 5 users. Provides tools to help you connect your team and create strong customer relationships.
Grow. $249 per month with an annual subscription or $349 per month with a monthly subscription. Up to 15 users. Provides tools to help you scale your business and automate processes.
Step 4: Plan Your Budget
Though the overhead and startup costs of a commercial cleaning business are not nearly as large as other businesses, there are some expenses involved.
The two biggest expenses with your cleaning business are supplies and transportation. The amount you pour into these things depends on the size of your business. Chances are, you won’t need to allot a massive budget as you are just starting with very few (if any) employees besides yourself and minimal clients. However, as you grow, this will change.
Here is a breakdown of the things you need to consider with your budget.
Transportation
It is up to the cleaner to get to the client’s place of business, so if you plan to hire employees, it is your responsibility to get them to and from cleaning gigs. Thus, you need to plan a budget for transportation, whether that is providing them with company cars or giving them a gas stipend.
Supplies
To do your job well, you need the right cleaning supplies. Some clients may allow you to get your own cleaning supplies, which are best bought in bulk. Other clients may prefer that you use specific products that they provide. Determine which is best for you, and plan a budget accordingly.
Equipment
Part of the cleaning job may require you to have access to or purchase your own equipment or machines for things such as cleaning carpets, specialty flooring, upholstery, and more. Take the time to sit down and calculate whether you should rent this machinery and equipment, or whether it makes more sense for you to outright purchase the equipment to have on-hand whenever you need it.
Step 5: Find Clients
Your commercial cleaning business won’t be a success unless you find clients to clean for. This may be one of the more challenging parts of starting your business, thus you must focus your efforts on this once you’ve got all the other business details sorted out.
There are a few different ways that you can go about finding clients to keep your business going.
References
When reaching out cold to new clients, it is best to have on-hand references from past jobs that you can provide. Showing your previous work to potential clients is pretty hard when it comes to cleaning services, so you’ll need to rely on references from previous or current clients to show your work.
You can either provide those references via email or put them on your website for any potential client to see.
Referrals
Once you have a more established client base, referrals will be the best way to get new clients. This is one of the reasons why it is so important for you to establish strong relationships with current clients – not only so that they continue to be clients of yours, but also so they spread the word about your good work.
Step 6: Set Your Prices
To get clients and keep them coming back, your pricing needs to be competitive. To find competitive pricing, you need to take into account a few different things:
Location
Services
How much competition there is
Once you’ve done your research on those things, you want to decide whether you want to charge your clients by the hour, by the square footage, or by using a flat rate.
Whatever you do, do not just pick random prices. Take the time to research the market and see what other commercial cleaning businesses are charging, and how your rates should compare.
If you’re a huge DIY enthusiast with a very limited budget, Liz Fenwick is about to become your favorite DIY creator. She specializes in attainable and affordable home DIYs, and her Dollar Tree videos are the biggest hit on her YouTube channel. Since deciding to share her DIY skills online in 2018, Fenwick has attracted […]
In today’s modern world, websites are a must-have for brands, service practitioners, and content creators. So, how can web design newbies build beautiful, navigable, and user-friendly sites? One of the most cost-effective techniques is to use free website builders like Weebly. In this post, we’ve listed some interesting Weebly website examples to help you decide if this service is ideal for you.
Hi all! If I want to get fast results on the project, what would be more efficient: getting only senior engineers, or considering those who are less senior but result-focused? Why?
Are you looking to add a product question and answer section in WooCommerce?
Adding a Q&A section enables customers to ask questions about the product before buying it, and see the questions and answers of other customers. This helps recover abandoned cart sales and improve customer engagement in your store, and reduce support requests.
In this article, we’ll show you how to easily add product questions and answers in WooCommerce.
Why Should You Add Product Q&A in WooCommerce
You may have noticed the product question-and-answer section on popular eCommerce websites like Amazon, Target, Best Buy, and more.
Adding a product questions and answers section allows customers to ask questions about a product right there on the product page.
You or your customers can then answer that question and it becomes visible to all other new customers who may have the same question in mind.
Over a period of time, your product page will have its own frequently asked questions section, which will help increase sales and reduce abandoned cart rates.
Adding a question and answers section to your online store also allows you to curate user-generated content which improves your WooCommerce product search rankings.
That being said, let’s see how you can easily add product questions and answers to WooCommerce.
Upon activation, go to the YITH » License Activation page and enter your license key. You can find this information under your account on the plugin website.
Don’t forget to click on the Activate button after entering your license key.
Next, you need to go to the YITH » Questions and Answers page to configure plugin settings.
From here you need to scroll down to the ‘Question Approval’ option and simply toggle the switch to ‘Yes’.
Once you do that, the questions on the product pages will have to be approved by an administrator before they are displayed on your WooCommerce store.
Next, you need to scroll to the ‘Show on Product Tabs’ option.
Here, you need to toggle the switch to ‘Yes’ so that the plugin will automatically add a ‘Questions and Answers’ section to product pages.
After that, don’t forget to click the ‘Save Options’ button to store your changes.
Now, you need to switch to the ‘Advanced Settings’ tab.
From here, simply toggle the ‘Vote Question’ switch to ‘Yes’ if you want to allow users to vote on product questions.
Next, you can choose if you want to get an email notification once a question is submitted on your website.
Simply select the ‘Notification in HTML Email’ option from the dropdown menu next to the ‘New question notification’ field.
Similarly, you can also choose the ‘Notification in HTML Email’ option in the ‘New answer notification’ field if you want to receive an email once a question is answered on your site.
Your user can also receive a notification once the question submitted by them is answered.
To enable this, you need to toggle the switch next to the ‘User Notification’ option to ‘Yes’.
After that, you can review other settings. The default options would work for most websites but you can change them if needed.
Finally, don’t forget to click on the ‘Save Options’ button to save your changes.
You can now visit your website to see the Questions & Answers section appear on your product pages.
From here, your customers can submit their questions.
Moderating Questions and Adding Answers
You will receive an email notification for new questions submitted by the users. You can also view them by visiting the Questions & Answers » All discussion page.
You can sort entries here by ‘Content not approved’ or ‘Unanswered Questions’.
You can also take your mouse over a question and click ‘Approve’ to make it live.
To add an answer to a question, you can simply click on the ‘Edit’ link below that question. On the edit screen, scroll down to the ‘Your Answer’ section to answer the question.
Repeat the process if you have more unanswered questions.
This is how the product questions and answers section looked on our demo store.
2. Adding a Product Q&A Section Using a Free Plugin
If you want to use a free plugin to add a product Q&A section to your WooCommerce store, then this method is for you.
Upon activation, click the Product Q&A menu from the WordPress admin sidebar which will direct you to the ‘Product Q&A Settings’ page.
From here, simply check the ‘Load More’ option if you want to add a ‘load More’ button to your product Q&A section.
Adding this button will allow customers to load older questions and reduces the page load time if a product gets a ton of questions.
Next, you need to choose a page size.
This means that you need to select a default number of questions that are shown in your Q&A section.
All the other questions will be hidden from view. Users will be able to access those questions after clicking the ‘Load More’ button.
You can also change the text used for the ‘Load More’ button to anything you like. For instance, you can call it ‘Load more questions’.
Next, you need to choose a layout for your product Q&A section from the dropdown menu next to the ‘Layout’ option.
You can choose the ‘Normal’ option if you want to display the Q&A section in paragraphs.
On the other hand, you can also display your questions as an Accordion menu. This means users will need to click on a question to view the answer.
Once finished, don’t forget to click the Submit button at the bottom to save your settings.
Managing Product Question and Answers
After plugin configuration, simply visit any product page on your store. You’ll notice a new Q&A tab added there.
Clicking on it will display the ‘Q&A’ section where customers can submit their questions.
You will receive an email notification when a user submits a question.
Now, to answer customer questions, you need to go to the Products » All Products page from the WordPress admin dashboard.
From here, simply click the ‘Edit’ button under a product to open up its’ ‘Edit Product’ page.
Next, you need to scroll down to the ‘Product Data’ section and click the ‘Q&A’ tab from the left column.
Here, all the questions submitted on that specific product’s page will be displayed.
Now, you need to simply type the answer to a customer query in the ‘Answer’ field.
If you want to delete a question because it’s inappropriate or irrelevant to your product, then you can also do that by clicking the Delete icon on the right corner of each question.
You can also uncheck the ‘Approve’ option if you don’t want to display the question on the product page.
After you have answered the product questions, go to the top of the page and click the ‘Update’ button to save your changes.
Now, you can visit the product page to see the Questions and Answer section in action.
We hope this article helped you learn how to add product questions and answers in WooCommerce. You can also check out our top picks for the best WooCommerce plugins to grow your store, and our beginner’s guide on how to add web push notification to boost sales.
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