While writing blogs and searching for some terms, one comes across such terms as how to avoid making mistakes. How does one avoid the inevitable? The most one can do is learn from the mistakes. John Powell is quoted as saying that the only real mistake is the one from which we learn nothing.

Humanity is constantly in a state of evolving. New things replace old. It’s the basic law of nature. However there are times when the human race needs to pause and think before leaping unto the future.

The SEO industry is poised to take a leap into the newer and yes better versions of promoting its clients’ website/s. However, before it does so, better look back and face what was being done wrong, take remedial actions and proceed.

1. Keyword Stuffing – Most SEO campaigns are focused on getting as many keywords as possible within their content regardless of them not being contextual. Keyword stuffing is against the guidelines proposed by the leading search engines. By doing so the website is at a risk of being penalized or barred outright. Basically, keyword stuffing serves no purpose if the content is subpar or irrelevant.
2. Failure of optimizing CTR – Though Meta Tags are not given as much weight by the search engines currently, they are important when it comes to CTR. An succint description in meta description can lead to a better CTR.
3. Misleading Or No Title Tags – Since we are discussing tags, it is imperative to mention that some websites do not add the title tags or worse still add misleading tags. These tags comprise of relevant keywords or keyword phrases and by omitting them, you might end up with no-show on your site!
4. Low Web Page Loading Speed – Every SEO worth his/her salt knows that small size pages are faster to load. By not using CSS, the pages become victim of loading at a slower pace. Moreover, CSS enables an SEO campaign to focus on text which the search engine bots basically crawl for.
5. Low optimized Text – Speaking of text, many websites do not make optimal use of text on their sites. And as search engines recognize html, less or no text results in the site not showing on the SERPs.
6. Trying to Fool Search Engine Bots – Some unethical SEO practices involve cloaking of web pages. In this method the web pages for the search engine bots are different from the ones that are displayed to the browser. But, search engine algorithms can detect these discrepancies as they index the pages that browsers actually see. This is another sure shot method of getting banned or penalized by search engines.
7. Using Unrecognizable Java Script – On the other hand, apart from using less text, some websites try to attract browsers with flashy images. They use JavaScripts to enable these, which again the search bots do not recognize. And overly done imagery or graphic on website look cheesy or downright garish.
8. Improper Image Description – As mentioned earlier search bots do not dig images. They cannot differentiate between images of a chocolate cake from that of a strawberry one! By adding fancy text, the purpose of ranking is lost. On the other hand, without any images a website would look bland. Hence to overcome this antithesis of sorts, the best thing to do is add tags to the image.

The guidelines for search algorithms are constantly changing. It would behoove SEO practitioners to keep a constant vigil on what would exactly work and what to ‘avoid’ doing. To say the least, mistakes are the portals that take you on a journey of discovery!

About the guest author: Divya Rawat is a mother and has great flair for writing. She has been rendering her content writing duties in an SEO Company which provides various Web Development Service.

Related article: Stay Safe SEO Tips

Let’s face it – either you are with Google or out of SEO race. SEO primarily means aligning your site with Google’s objectives. This post is about how to align your site with Google.

Get the content and keyword right

I am sure everyone knows how Google makes money? If not, here is a primer. In addition to organic search, Google has paid advertisement programs like AdWords. Essentially, when a website participates in an AdWords program, its advertisements appear on other sites which have relevant content. For example, my site contains information on Flex Belt and Trx training. When I participate in AdWords program I make sure that these keywords are present in my ad. When this ad appears in another website and someone clicks on it, he is taken to my site which has information on the subject. This is called fulfillment. When the person who clicks on a link and doesn’t find the right information there is no fulfillment. This obviously is a disappointing situation. If this continues and people don’t find fulfillment, they will stop clicking on the AdWords ads. Google will lose revenue because no one clicks on the ads. This is the main reason why Google wants you to carry the right content on your site – content which is aligned to your keywords.

Google organic search

There was a time when search always led to porn sites, whatever the keyword you may use. That was a frustrating experience. Google created a search engine which threw sensible results. This is reason why Google became popular- because search results were relevant. Even today people use Google search because they get relevant results. Google makes sure that search results are relevant by tweaking their algorithm, punishing websites which have irrelevant content and rewarding those with the right content. The entire Google revenue model depends on it. Remember that if people don’t use Google search it won’t earn any income. This means it will go down and will take all of us with it. The very existence of Google depends on relevant content and you better make sure that you provide it.

The secret of making money through Google

The secret therefore is to align your own goals with that of Google. You must not only provide great content but also make sure that the overall theme of your blog or site is consistent. If you write on Flex Belt and Trx training, make sure that links leading to those web pages convey the right message. In short, don’t throw surprises at visitors. Good content in the context of Google doesn’t mean research papers, but simple stuff which is relevant.

Conclusion

Aligning your website objectives with that of Google is easy. You only have to provide content which is relevant and consistent. Whether you are creating keywords, anchor text, links or page title make sure that everything you do is consistent and thematically relevant.

About the guest author: S Srinivasan is a tech blogger who loves to write on technology related to health and fitness. He is presently offering coupon code for trx and flex belt coupon on his website that offers discounts and coupons for weight loss products. Besides, he also writes reviews on flex belts and trx training, two programs that help in fitness and weight loss.

Related article: Reacting to Google Fresh

Everyone knows that Valentine’s Day is all about love and roses.  Many of you must have already started preparing for the big day when the heart will obviously rule. But the lovelorn hearts are not alone in this wait. Hundreds and thousands of businesses are waiting to make a fast buck on this day.

What has tech got to do with this?

This is a technology blog and you must be wondering what all this has got to do with tech? A lot, I must confess. To begin with, the word ‘Valentine’ will be the most searched keyword in January and half of February as well. This is a huge opportunity for those into organic search. Obviously, this is no big secret and everyone will be hitching a ride on the Valentine bandwagon. The real issue is to thematically relate your product with Valentine. If you can do this effectively, you would be a winner. The trick is to begin early – right now and not wait for the V-day. The tempo should be slowly raised till it reaches a crescendo on Valentine’s Day.

Happy times for advertisers

Valentine’s Day is big for advertisers. More than a hundred million Valentine Day cards are exchanged on a single day. Wonder how many guys and girls, let alone men and women are looking for love to attack or descend on this particular day? But that’s not the point. This gives massive thumbs up to advertisers who can sell anything in the guise of love and everything in between. This is probably the best time to work on your PPC strategy. Once again, success would depend upon how well you synchronize your keywords with Valentine. For example say you want your keyword phrase ‘car title loans’ to work with Valentine. I would try ‘Quick cash this Valentine with car title loans’. Or maybe ‘Avail special car title loan this Valentine’s’. I am sure you can come up with better keyword phrases. The idea is to use Valentine’s Day to perk up your sales though your product or service has nothing to do with Valentine’s Day.

Behind the scenes on Valentine’s Day

Did you know that the number of web servers deployed to cater to the humungous traffic on Valentine’s Day jumps to over hundred times that on a normal day? For example, if your website is catering to 100,000 visitors a day, you would expect it to touch 100, 00,000 on this particular day. Even sites like Facebook and Twitter can’t keep up with the traffic and their servers splutter and go down. Things have changed with cloud computing but the situation is still alarming or exciting depending on the way you look at it.

Mobile advertisements

This year Google and other giants (read Apple) are looking at making big money from mobile advertising. This is a development which will be watched carefully by the tech community. It’s predicted that revenues from mobile advertising would outstrip that from traditional internet platforms.

Conclusion

Valentine’s Day is probably more exciting for online businesses than for those in love. This is also the best time to make love and money.

About the guest author: Sarah Waters lives in Los Angeles and blogs on various subjects including tech and financial news.   She writes to help consumers maximize their potential. She also writes for  websites offering auto title loans and car title loans

Related post: Top 5 Most Popular Topics Searched On Google

PHP is an open source technology, the most popular server side scripting language, used for developing web applications. PHP offers many frameworks over which quick and effective web development can be performed. These frameworks make the whole development process more streamlined and developer friendly through various powerful tools and features. Today, PHP frameworks are extensively used and can be found in every web application development company.

PHP frameworks help in decreasing the amount of coding developers are required to do when not using a framework. This helps in rapid application development of solutions that are more compatible and suitable for current technologies. A web application development company in Indian subcontinent can now easily offer IT outsourcing services to clients located in offshore locations as PHP frameworks are open sourced and allow these service providers to develop and deliver cost effective solutions to their global clients.

Key Features of PHP Framework

Model View Controller: Most of the PHP frameworks, and all the popular frameworks, use the Model View Controller (MVC) pattern which allows the developers to manage and work on the web application based on various layers in which it is divided. It separates the data of the application which is also called the model layer from the interface or implementation that is also called the view layer. Further it separates the data from the business logic i.e. the controller layer. This unique layer wise division of an application allows developers to work separately on each layer without disturbing any other layer. Thus, graphical designers can work solely on the view layer, the database expert can work on the model of the application and the PHP developer can concentrate on the code in the controller layer. Each team can simultaneously work on their respective layers without disturbing the personals concerned with other layers. This feature allows quick and efficient development of applications.

Maintenance of Code: PHP frameworks are known for implementing good coding practices which makes the code of the applications easier to understand and manage. Frameworks offer predefined file structures that are common in all projects created on a particular framework. This makes the project easily transferable to a new developer if required as the project is not based on the developing style of any one particular developer.

Pre-developed Functionalities: A web application development company is well aware of all the different aspects of project development that are time consuming and require a lot of effort. PHP frameworks offer pre-developed functionalities for many tedious and time consuming processes such as the file structure, forms, CRUD functionality, user data checking and many more time consuming activities. Developers can now concentrate on the creative part of the project and come up with innovative solutions for their client’s requirements without worrying about other tedious activities.

PHP frameworks have played a very important role in popularizing IT outsourcing services in Indian subcontinent. The ability to develop and deliver cost effective solutions in minimum timeframe has encouraged the formation of many more web application development companies who further increase the competition and force them to create and deploy better and quick solutions to their clients. Some of the popular PHP frameworks are CakePHP, Zend, CodeIgniter, Kohana, Symfony and Yii.

About the guest author:

Steve Graham is Sr. content editor at Xicom Technologies . Xicom is a CMMI Level-3 Web  application development company which offers a full range of  IT outsourcing services ranges from mobile application development,custom web developmen to upgradation of existing legacy web applications.Xicom is proactively acquired insights into a leading & emerging technologies to meet the ever-growing needs of clients.

As the old web marketing adage goes, content is king. Without good content, your website’s online presence will be meaningless. But while content is the lifeblood of your web marketing campaign, it has to do something. In other words, if your content marketing strategy is ineffective, it doesn’t matter how good your content is, it will fall flat every time. Here are 8 ways to turn your dormant content into active content through smart distribution.

Plan Ahead

Consider your goals. Figure out what you want your content to accomplish, and ask yourself qualifying questions.

What type of conversions are you looking for? Sales? Email list signups? Whatever you’re working with, clearly define what your end-goal is. Whether you’re publishing content for internet service providers or working on a private blog, planning is the first key to success.

Be a Leader

Know who you are as an expert in your field, and develop your content authoritatively. Be forthright enough to want to establish yourself as a leader in your industry. Approaching content development from this mindset will drastically change how your content strategy is shaped.

Publish Content that Sings

Two seconds. That’s all the time you have to convince a reader to keep reading according to several widely-read studies on web-users’ online reading habits. The new generation of web readers skim, they don’t read. Therefore, your content has to be great from the start: headline and first sentence especially.

Optimize Your Content

Optimize your content for search engines. This seems like a no-brainer, but many beginner content strategists falsely think that good content will simply yield good results on its own.

The thing about good content is that it has to read by actual people. If search engines can’t find your content, then neither will anybody else. Optimize your content. It’s worth mentioning twice.

Faster is Better

Publish your content quickly and often. Always look for new ways to improve the speed at which your content is published and distributed. This will go a long way to keep you a step ahead of your competitors. Use internet service providers that will let you publish massive amounts of digital content quickly.

Backlinks Are Your Friend

Backlinks legitimizes your content to major search engines. The more backlinks that point to your content, the more value search engines will ascribe to your content.

Leave comments on blogs, and forums with links to your content. Be careful to only participate in blog or forum conversations if your content contributes to the topic. Consider submitting content through article and blog networks, like Yahoo! Contributor Network, Ezine Articles or Buzzle.

Socialize Your Content

The web is social, so your content should be social. But don’t just post your content’s title on Facebook or Twitter. Instead, pull key points, quotes from your content, or ask a question and publish it alongside your content’s link.

You may also consider posting to LinkedIn professional groups relating to your industry. This serves as a good way to track user interaction on blog posts submitted to a LinkedIn group.

Research & Develop

Integrate new products or services into your content. This lets you test new products with potential customers. Always be in R&D mode, so that your content will keep growing and developing your products.

Most importantly, never stop innovating. The internet is arguably the fastest platform for marketing and distribution, and it is constantly evolving. Online businesses, search engines, and social media networks continually find more effective ways to provide better results for users, and staying on top of these changes is the best way to find success.

About the guest author: An expert on internet service providers and all things tech, Blake Sanders is a writer at broadband comparison site Broadband Expert, where he specializes in high speed internet, cell phones, and industry news and information.

Note: Photo courtesy of desiitaly via FlickR Creative Commons.

Related article: The Basics of Quality Content

It only logical that your blog should be connected to your Twitter account. Your circulation from your Twitter account should be directed to your blog to increase the number of readers you have. The same idea is true of your blog traffic. The traffic from your blog should be directed to your Twitter to bolster your number of followers. But how can you direct people to your Twitter account from your blog?

One simple and effective way to add Twitter to your blog is through a Twitter feed. A Twitter feed is better than just a follow button. A Twitter feed is a list of the most recent Tweets you’ve made- easily available for your blog readers to see. They can immediately tell if they like your Twitter content as much as they do your blog. Through this, many of your blog-only readers will follow you on Twitter.

If you use WordPress for your blogging, then it is very simple to add a Twitter feed. First of all, go to your blog’s dashboard. This is the control panel for your blog. Once you are there, look at the control panel on the left side of the screen. Near the bottom of the tab list there is a tab called ‘Appearance’. Click on that tab. This will open a new list of tabs and show you what theme your blog is currently sporting.

Now look at the new tabs list that just opened. The first tab should be ‘Widgets’. Click on that. This will open up a list of widgets that your blog is presently using. Inside the box labeled ‘Available Widgets’, there should be a grey bar labeled ‘Twitter’. Click and drag that Twitter bar to the section on the right labeled ‘Sidebar’. You can also choose to put it in one of the footer sections, but I suggest putting it at the top of the sidebar so that visitors can see it right off the bat.

Once the Twitter bar is placed, adjust the settings on it. You can do that by clicking the arrow button at the end of the Twitter bar. The bar will then open with a list of options. The first option is ‘Title’. There you will enter whatever you want the Twitter feed to be named. Something like “Name’s Twitter Feed” would work. Next is a space for your Twitter username. You can enter it without the @ symbol. Below that box is the pull down menu for the number of Tweets you would like to appear on your blog. Between five and ten Tweets is usually the standard for blog feeds. Anything n=more than ten is too long. There are four check-box preferences below that.

When you have filled in all the space boxes and checked the options you would like, click on the ‘Save’ button. Now you can see what the changes you made look like by loading your blog. You can make sure that the Twitter feed is visible to any visitors on your blog and that there are not too many or too few Tweets shown. Feel free to return to the widget tab to make any changes you feel are needed.

That’s it. You have successfully added a Twitter feed to your Wordbress blog. You should soon see many new followers on Twitter as a result of that feed. You can also connect your WordPress blog to your Twitter account so that your followers are notified of any new posts.

About the guest author: Melanie Slaugh is enthusiastic about the growing prospects and opportunities of various industries and writing articles on various consumer goods and services as a freelance writer. She writes extensively for internet service providers and also topics related to internet service providers in my area for presenting the consumers, the information they need to choose the right Internet package for them. She can be reached at slaugh.slaugh907 @ gmail.com.

Related article: Top 5 Reasons Why Bloggers Should use WordPress

PPC (Pay-per-Click) advertising has surfaced as one of the highly preferred means of generating substantial income for online marketers. Unlike some other channels of online marketing that not only need much labor in execution, but also take considerable time in paying off, web marketers prefer PPC for its high risk, high reward nature.

With October almost half way through, it is about time for internet marketing services to get ready for making the best of their paid search holiday season. This could serve you best in solidifying your grounds as an effective and diversified online marketing entity, taking your competitors by utter surprise through your outrageous leap in PPC campaign.

However, all this is possible only if you plan out your PPC management wisely enough. Given below are some of the most effective ways that could help you boost your incremental PPC traffic, making this holiday season truly worth it.

Product Listing Advertisements (PLA): Splitting up your PPC bids according to product categories serve you with smarter bidding opportunities, thus pulling in increased traffic on products performing best.

Tablet Segmentation:  With every passing day, tablet traffic seems to increase its volume, rounding up to about 4-5% very recently. This suggests that launching separate tablet campaigns might be what you need, so that you become able to put higher bids for it, rather than waging campaigns for all devices side by side.

Separating Mobile Campaign: On a similar note, make sure you segment your mobile PPC campaign from your regular computer campaigns as well as tablet campaigns. The possibility of users getting into initial research with their smart phones cannot be ruled out completely, so make sure your PPC campaign holds a safe route to it as well.

Contextual Targeting:  Managing high quality content campaigns may seem like a very demanding task let it not become a hurdle in your contextual targeting through Google Display Network. If you want high outcome, make sure you do not confine your PPC campaign to overall low bids. Instead, make sure you go for quality traffic by focusing top selling products and categories in your campaign.

Do Not Think Of Dumping Bing: Well, there is no doubt in Google’s outrageous dominance in the world of search engines, but still you should not be dumping Bing completely. Make sure you extend your PPC advertising campaign with all your important keywords to Bing as well. For internet marketing services, such a confinement can prove more harmful than beneficial. Though there are more people responding to keywords managed through Google AdWords, but still there are many who respond equally well to Bing’s AdCenter platform.

Add Match type and Google.com Segmentation: Statistics reveal that exact match keywords reward you with better results, just like Google.com mostly performs better than its competitive search partners. Combining the effects of both of them together might brew the best recipe for a perfectly successful PPC holiday campaign. You can solidify your PPC campaign by launching a second version for your top traffic keywords based on match type and confining them strictly to Google.com.

Following these few tips, you would be amazed to see how much of incremental traffic you end up bagging through your PPC holiday season, so just stick to these tips and go ahead with your campaign to enjoy significantly improved results.

Related article: The Impact Of Google’s “Dynamic Search Ads” On PPC Advertising

Designing and developing web applications is the need of the hour today. If you wish to make your company name known in this highly competitive market, you need to offer something unique and innovative as compared to the applications offered by all other web development companies.

Web application development is one process that needs to be performed with great efficiency and care. One small mistake in the application development process and it can create havoc in the functioning of your application. Thus, it is extremely crucial that you follow these 6 quick steps of web application development and thus popularize the name of your web development company.

Step 1 – Assessment

Assessing and understanding the need to design and develop a new web application is the most important part of the entire web application development process. If the needs are not clearly defined, planning the application gets more difficult than one can imagine. Make sure the assessment is done perfectly and that it matches the requirements of the clients.

Gather information related to the functioning of the application, its purpose, what result the application needs to provide to its users, to whom it will prove beneficial, etc. Ask these questions to your client and make sure you have a clear idea about the application you wish to design and develop.

Step 2 – Planning the Application

Step 2 is all about using the information collected in step 1 and planning the design and development stages of the application. Create a sitemap or guide for the developers as well as the users about how the application will appear and function. This will help the design and development teams to keep a check on their proceedings.

Step 3 – Designing the Application

A web application is successful only when it is able to productively lure its targeted audience. Thus, apart from focusing only on the look and the feel of the application, it is essential that you also focus on other features that attract users to your application. For instance, site navigation, logo design and page design are some factors that should be designed attractively.

Step 4 – Development of the Application

This is the most difficult and also the most crucial part of the web application development process. Now that the application has been perfectly planned and designed, it is important to develop it based on the same guidelines and requirements. The designers and developers should come together and structure the application as demanded by the clients.

Step 5 – Testing and Delivering the Application

Testing and correcting the flaws in the application is an important step in the web application development process. You would surely not like a product that is not tested and has loads of mistakes, right from its appearance to its functioning. In order to provide the perfect web application to your client, it is of extreme importance that you test it thoroughly and only then deliver it to your client.

Step 6 – Maintenance of the Application

And finally, maintenance of your developed web application. Like all other things, your application also needs regular updating that will help it deliver its tasks with perfection.

Author Note:
Timothy Scott is a web developer associated with the site Site2You.com. Website builder by Site2You offers an affordable and smart solution to creating awesome websites.

With so many web hosting providers offering unlimited disk space and bandwidth out there, it’s not easy to choose your next provider. The huge number of offers available does make the selection process daunting. But the good thing is that there’s a lot of competition between providers these days, and the result of this are some really attractive hosting plans, five of which are listed below in ascending order according to their pricing. Note that all the plans are under $7/month and offer unlimited disk space and bandwidth.

WebHostingPad

• $2.99/month
• Free setup, free domain name
• Money-back guarantee

In the 5 years that it has been around, WebHostingPad had managed to entice 150,000 customers with its affordable yet reliable services. Its hosting plans meet all the hosting requirements needed to run a blog, personal website, or business website. Because of the many e-commerce features it offers, WebHostingPad is particularly good if you have a small- to medium-sized website which sells things. Features an unlimited number of FTP accounts.

iPage

• $3.50/month
• Free setup, free domain name registration
• Money-back guarantee

I used to host a website with iPage myself not long ago, and I was pleasantly impressed by the overall server performance. Other than that, I also liked that the technical team always responded right away to my help tickets, and that the support provided was indeed helpful. Surely you can’t judge their whole customer support based on this, but they do tend to solve problems quickly. You may find iPage one of the best cheapest hosting providers for websites that are big resource eaters.

BlueHost

• $3.95/month
• Free setup, free domain name registration
• Money-back guarantee

With 1,900,000 million customers and 14 years of experience in the hosting industry, BlueHost is the largest and most experienced web hosting provider that makes it into this top. You can expect a high quality hosting with a 99.9% uptime and prompt customer support. A great thing about BlueHost is that it lets you host multiple websites for free on a $3.95 account – when adding a new website you only have to pay for the domain registration.

IX Web Hosting

• $3.95 a month
• Free setup, free domain name registration
• Money-back guarantee

IX Web Hosting has about 200,000 customers at the moment, and all of them are able to host unlimited domains on one account. Besides the standard hosting features you’d expect from a high-quality web host – unlimited disk space and bandwidth, 99.9% uptime, and excellent server performance – IX Web Hosting also offers plenty of features and tools for managing and maintaining a website including e-commerce integration, antispam, and extensive website statistics via Webalizer.

Lunarpages

• $6.95/month
• Free setup, free domain name
• Money-back guarantee

Lunarpages has been around for almost a decade now, but it’s only in the last few years that it has become increasingly popular. A good choice for both personal and business websites, Lunarpages is fast and reliable, and works particularly well with e-commerce websites. Lunarpages offers hosting for an unlimited number of websites on a single account, unlimited MySQL database support, and 24/7 customer support through toll-free telephone, live chat, and e-mail.

Before buying hosting, remember to check for discounts for 1-year or 2-year hosting services. All the web hosts above offer them, and some discounts are substantial.

About the guest author: The post has been written by Patrick Smith, a web developer and writer for Web Hosting Secret Revealed. The site offers unbiased web hosting reviews. The web owner writes extensively researched enlightening reviews and also provides comprehensive hosting solutions. So, now all your hosting requirements are a click away.

Related article: Are the Web Hosting Services Able to Influence Search Engine Rankings?

Hypertext Preprocessor, abbreviated as PHP, is a scripting language used to create dynamic web pages. It is one of the most popular scripting languages because it offers many developers many customization options, and it lets developers modify many settings within the code. PHP is easy to change by yourself even if you don’t have previous programming experience, but it also offers more advanced settings for more experienced programmers.

In order to use PHP on a website, you must install a PHP processor module on the server if your hosting company has not already installed one. This module reads the PHP code and creates the website. PHP also includes a command-line interface capability, so it can be used alone for graphical applications.

Nearly all servers, operating systems and platforms are able to run PHP. It is currently used on 1 million web servers and over 20 million websites around the world.

Using PHP on your website makes it easy to change settings yourself, even if you are a novice web developer. One of the most common reasons to change your PHP settings is when you need to adjust the PHP memory setting when using a content management system (CMS).

Before you can modify your PHP settings, you need to determine your current settings and what module your server is using to run PHP. PHP runs on either a CGI module or an Apache module on the server. To find out which module your server is using, create a new PHP page and enter this code:

This page is commonly named phpinfo.php and is referred to as the “PHP info page.” When the page is displayed, look for the Server API module. It will be named either CGI or Apache.

CGI Module

If your web hosting server is running a CGI module, make changes to the php.ini file to modify PHP settings. The php.ini file lists all variables and their values. To change a variable, search for the directive and change the value associated with that directive. One common setting you may need to change is the the max_input_time to two minutes. Search for that line and change the value associated with it to 120.

Once you make your necessary changes, save the changes and refresh the info page. You will not see recent changes until you refresh the page.

You will only see the php.ini file if your server uses the CGI module to run PHP. When you create your website, the php.ini file is placed in public_html/php.ini. If the file isn’t visible in this location, contact your host’s tech support.

Making any modifications to the php.ini file in the public_html folder will not change any PHP files located in subdirectories. To make global changes to your website, you will need to place a copy of your php.ini file in all folders within your website. You can also use the .htaccess file located in your directory to force the ini.php file and all changes to be recognized by subdirectories. Add this line of code at the top of your .htaccess file:

suPHP_ConfigPath /home/YourUserName/public_html

Sometimes the file is hidden because it starts with a period. In your cPanel, look for the Show Hidden Files option and select it. If you still can’t see it, verify with your web host that it is not there. Creating a new .htaccess file will delete any existing file and any settings it includes.

Apache Module

To update your PHP settings in an Apache module, use the .htaccess file. The .htaccess file is one that you create specifically to update server settings, including PHP settings.

Some servers consider the .htaccess file to a hidden file since it starts with a period. If you do not see the file in your directory, look for the the option to see hidden files and select it in the cPanel File Manager. If this option is not available, click on the link to reset interface settings on the cPanel’s main page. If your .htaccess file still does not appear, you can make a new file and name it .htaccess.

Caution: If you make a new .htaccess file, it will delete any previous .htaccess files. Before you create a new one, you can ask your web host to verify that the file is not hidden within your directory.

The syntax used to make any changes is:

php_value Directive Value

In order to modify a variable, change the directive value after the PHP value. For example, in order to change the max_input_time from one minute to two minutes, add the following line to your .htaccess file:

php_value max_input_time 120

Refresh the PHP info page after you make your changes and they should be visible. If you see an error, check for spelling errors in the syntax.

Brian Flores is a SEO for InMotion Hosting, a company that specializing in providing leading vps hosting solutions in North America.  You can follow him on Twitter @BrianAFlores

See also iCloud & iPhone 4S: A New Model of Content Distribution