If you’re reading this article, it’s likely that you spend a fair amount of time online. However, considering how much of an influence the Internet has in our daily lives, how many of us actually know the story of how it got its start? Most of our daily lives are saturated with social media, online shopping, and browsing for new information, but how did we get to this point?
Here’s a brief history of the Internet, including important dates, people, projects, sites, and other information that should give you at least a partial picture of what this thing we call the Internet really is, and where it came from.
While the complete history of the Internet could easily fill a few books, this article should familiarize you with key milestones and events related to the growth and evolution of the Internet between 1969 to 2009.
1969: Arpanet
Arpanet was the first real network to run on packet switching technology (new at the time). On October 29, 1969, computers at Stanford and UCLA connected for the first time. In effect, they were the first hosts on what would one day become the Internet.
The first message sent across the network was supposed to be “Login”, but reportedly, the link between the two colleges crashed on the letter “g”.
1969: Unix
Another major milestone during the 60’s was the inception of Unix: the operating system whose design heavily influenced that of Linux and FreeBSD (the operating systems most popular in today’s web servers/web hosting services).
1970: Arpanet network
An Arpanet network was established between Harvard, MIT, and BBN (the company that created the “interface message processor” computers used to connect to the network) in 1970.
1971: Email
Email was first developed in 1971 by Ray Tomlinson, who also made the decision to use the “@” symbol to separate the user name from the computer name (which later on became the domain name).
1971: Project Gutenberg and eBooks
One of the most impressive developments of 1971 was the start of Project Gutenberg. Project Gutenberg, for those unfamiliar with the site, is a global effort to make books and documents in the public domain available electronically–for free–in a variety of eBook and electronic formats.
It began when Michael Hart gained access to a large block of computing time and came to the realization that the future of computers wasn’t in computing itself, but in the storage, retrieval and searching of information that, at the time, was only contained in libraries. He manually typed (no OCR at the time) the “Declaration of Independence” and launched Project Gutenberg to make information contained in books widely available in electronic form. In effect, this was the birth of the eBook.
1972: CYCLADES
France began its own Arpanet-like project in 1972, called CYCLADES. While Cyclades was eventually shut down, it did pioneer a key idea: the host computer should be responsible for data transmission rather than the network itself.
1973: The first trans-Atlantic connection and the popularity of emailing
Arpanet made its first trans-Atlantic connection in 1973, with the University College of London. During the same year, email accounted for 75% of all Arpanet network activity.
1974: The beginning of TCP/IP
1974 was a breakthrough year. A proposal was published to link Arpa-like networks together into a so-called “inter-network”, which would have no central control and would work around a transmission control protocol (which eventually became TCP/IP).
1975: The email client
With the popularity of emailing, the first modern email program was developed by John Vittal, a programmer at the University of Southern California in 1975. The biggest technological advance this program (called MSG) made was the addition of “Reply” and “Forward” functionality.
1977: The PC modem
1977 was a big year for the development of the Internet as we know it today. It’s the year the first PC modem, developed by Dennis Hayes and Dale Heatherington, was introduced and initially sold to computer hobbyists.
1978: The Bulletin Board System (BBS)
The first bulletin board system (BBS) was developed during a blizzard in Chicago in 1978.
1978: Spam is born
1978 is also the year that brought the first unsolicited commercial email message (later known as spam), sent out to 600 California Arpanet users by Gary Thuerk.
1979: MUD – The earliest form of multiplayer games
The precursor to World of Warcraft and Second Life was developed in 1979, and was called MUD (short for MultiUser Dungeon). MUDs were entirely text-based virtual worlds, combining elements of role-playing games, interactive, fiction, and online chat.
1979: Usenet
1979 also ushered into the scene: Usenet, created by two graduate students. Usenet was an internet-based discussion system, allowing people from around the globe to converse about the same topics by posting public messages categorized by newsgroups.
1980: ENQUIRE software
The European Organization for Nuclear Research (better known as CERN) launched ENQUIRE (written by Tim Berners-Lee), a hypertext program that allowed scientists at the particle physics lab to keep track of people, software, and projects using hypertext (hyperlinks).
1982: The first emoticon
While many people credit Kevin MacKenzie with the invention of the emoticon in 1979, it was Scott Fahlman in 1982 who proposed using after a joke, rather than the original -) proposed by MacKenzie. The modern emoticon was born.
1983: Arpanet computers switch over to TCP/IP
January 1, 1983 was the deadline for Arpanet computers to switch over to the TCP/IP protocols developed by Vinton Cerf. A few hundred computers were affected by the switch. The name server was also developed in ’83.
1984: Domain Name System (DNS)
The domain name system was created in 1984 along with the first Domain Name Servers (DNS). The domain name system was important in that it made addresses on the Internet more human-friendly compared to its numerical IP address counterparts. DNS servers allowed Internet users to type in an easy-to-remember domain name and then converted it to the IP address automatically.
1985: Virtual communities
1985 brought the development of The WELL (short for Whole Earth ‘Lectronic Link), one of the oldest virtual communities still in operation. It was developed by Stewart Brand and Larry Brilliant in February of ’85. It started out as a community of the readers and writers of the Whole Earth Review and was an open but “remarkably literate and uninhibited intellectual gathering”. Wired Magazine once called The Well “The most influential online community in the world.”
1986: Protocol wars
The so-called Protocol wars began in 1986. European countries at that time were pursuing the Open Systems Interconnection (OSI), while the United States was using the Internet/Arpanet protocol, which eventually won out.
1987: The Internet grows
By 1987, there were nearly 30,000 hosts on the Internet. The original Arpanet protocol had been limited to 1,000 hosts, but the adoption of the TCP/IP standard made larger numbers of hosts possible.
1988: IRC – Internet Relay Chat
Also in 1988, Internet Relay Chat (IRC) was first deployed, paving the way for real-time chat and the instant messaging programs we use today.
1988: First major malicious internet-based attack
One of the first major Internet worms was released in 1988. Referred to as “The Morris Worm”, it was written by Robert Tappan Morris and caused major interruptions across large parts of the Internet.
1989: AOL is launched
When Apple pulled out of the AppleLink program in 1989, the project was renamed and America Online was born. AOL, still in existence today, later on made the Internet popular amongst the average internet users.
1989: The proposal for the World Wide Web
1989 also brought about the proposal for the World Wide Web, written by Tim Berners-Lee. It was originally published in the March issue of MacWorld, and then redistributed in May 1990. It was written to persuade CERN that a global hypertext system was in CERN’s best interest. It was originally called “Mesh”; the term “World Wide Web” was coined while Berners-Lee was writing the code in 1990.
1990: First commercial dial-up ISP
1990 also brought about the first commercial dial-up Internet provider, The World. The same year, Arpanet ceased to exist.
1990: World Wide Web protocols finished
The code for the World Wide Web was written by Tim Berners-Lee, based on his proposal from the year before, along with the standards for HTML, HTTP, and URLs.
1991: First web page created
1991 brought some major innovations to the world of the Internet. The first web page was created and, much like the first email explained what email was, its purpose was to explain what the World Wide Web was.
1991: First content-based search protocol
Also in the same year, the first search protocol that examined file contents instead of just file names was launched, called Gopher.
1991: MP3 becomes a standard
Also, the MP3 file format was accepted as a standard in 1991. MP3 files, being highly compressed, later become a popular file format to share songs and entire albums via the internet.
1991: The first webcam
One of the more interesting developments of this era, though, was the first webcam. It was deployed at a Cambridge University computer lab, and its sole purpose was to monitor a particular coffee maker so that lab users could avoid wasted trips to an empty coffee pot.
1993: Mosaic – first graphical web browser for the general public
The first widely downloaded Internet browser, Mosaic, was released in 1993. While Mosaic wasn’t the first web browser, it is considered the first browser to make the Internet easily accessible to non-techies.
1993: Governments join in on the fun
In 1993, both the White House and the United Nations came online, marking the beginning of the .gov and .org domain names.
1994: Netscape Navigator
Mosaic’s first big competitor, Netscape Navigator, was released the year following (1994).
1995: Commercialization of the internet
1995 is often considered the first year the web became commercialized. While there were commercial enterprises online prior to ’95, there were a few key developments that happened that year. First, SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) encryption was developed by Netscape, making it safer to conduct financial transactions (like credit card payments) online.
In addition, two major online businesses got their start the same year. The first sale on “Echo Bay” was made that year. Echo Bay later became eBay. Amazon.com also started in 1995, though it didn’t turn a profit for six years, until 2001.
1995: Geocities, the Vatican goes online, and JavaScript
Other major developments that year included the launch of Geocities (which officially closed down on October 26, 2009).
Java and JavaScript (originally called LiveScript by its creator, Brendan Eich, and deployed as part of the Netscape Navigator browser – see comments for explanation) was first introduced to the public in 1995. ActiveX was launched by Microsoft the following year.
1996: First web-based (webmail) service
In 1996, HoTMaiL (the capitalized letters are an homage to HTML), the first webmail service, was launched.
1997: The term “weblog” is coined
While the first blogs had been around for a few years in one form or another, 1997 was the first year the term “weblog” was used.
1998: First new story to be broken online instead of traditional media
In 1998, the first major news story to be broken online was the Bill Clinton/Monica Lewinsky scandal (also referred to as “Monicagate” among other nicknames), which was posted on The Drudge Reportafter Newsweek killed the story.
1998: Google!
Google went live in 1998, revolutionizing the way in which people find information online.
1998: Internet-based file-sharing gets its roots
In 1998 as well, Napster launched, opening up the gates to mainstream file-sharing of audio files over the internet.
1999: SETI@home project
1999 is the year when one of the more interesting projects ever brought online: the SETI@home project, launched. The project has created the equivalent of a giant supercomputer by harnessing the computing power of more than 3 million computers worldwide, using their processors whenever the screensaver comes on, indicating that the computer is idle. The program analyzes radio telescope data to look for signs of extraterrestrial intelligence.
2000: The bubble bursts
2000 was the year of the dotcom collapse, resulting in huge losses for legions of investors. Hundreds of companies closed, some of which had never turned a profit for their investors. The NASDAQ, which listed a large number of tech companies affected by the bubble, peaked at over 5,000, then lost 10% of its value in a single day, and finally hit bottom in October of 2002.
2001: Wikipedia is launched
With the dotcom collapse still going strong, Wikipedia launched in 2001, one of the websites that paved the way for collective web content generation/social media.
2003: VoIP goes mainstream
In 2003: Skype is released to the public, giving a user-friendly interface to Voice over IP calling.
2003: MySpace becomes the most popular social network
Also in 2003, MySpace opens up its doors. It later grew to be the most popular social network at one time (though it has since been overtaken by Facebook).
2003: CAN-SPAM Act puts a lid on unsolicited emails
Another major advance in 2003 was the signing of the Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act of 2003, better known as the CAN-SPAM Act.
2004: Web 2.0
Though coined in 1999 by Darcy DiNucci, the term “Web 2.0”, referring to websites and Rich Internet Applications (RIA) that are highly interactive and user-driven became popular around 2004. During the first Web 2.0 conference, John Batelle and Tim O’Reilly described the concept of “the Web as a Platform“: software applications built to take advantage of internet connectivity, moving away from the desktop (which has downsides such as operating system dependency and lack of interoperability).
2004: Social Media and Digg
The term “social media”, believed to be first used by Chris Sharpley, was coined in the same year that “Web 2.0” became a mainstream concept. Social media–sites and web applications that allow its users to create and share content and to connect with one another–started around this period. People loved the idea of being able to travel through their friends and families pictures and adventures, despite not being physically present.
Digg, a social news site, launched on November of 2004, paving the way for sites such as Reddit, Mixx, and Yahoo! Buzz. Digg revolutionized traditional means of generating and finding web content, democratically promoting news and web links that are reviewed and voted on by a community.
2004: “The” Facebook open to college students
Facebook launched in 2004, though at the time it was only open to college students and was called “The Facebook”; later on, “The” was dropped from the name, though the URL http://www.thefacebook.com still works.
2005: YouTube – streaming video for the masses
YouTube launched in 2005, bringing free online video hosting and sharing to the masses.
2006: Twitter gets twittering
Twitter launched in 2006. It was originally going to be called twittr (inspired by Flickr); the first Twitter message was “just setting up my twttr”.
2007: Major move to place TV shows online
Hulu was first launched in 2007, a joint venture between ABC, NBC, and Fox to make popular TV shows available to watch online.
2007: The iPhone and the Mobile Web
The biggest innovation of 2007 was almost certainly the iPhone, which was almost wholly responsible for renewed interest in mobile web applications and design.
2008: “Internet Election”
The first “Internet election” took place in 2008 with the U.S. Presidential election. It was the first year that national candidates took full advantage of all the Internet had to offer. Hillary Clinton jumped on board early with YouTube campaign videos. Virtually every candidate had a Facebook page or a Twitter feed, or both.
Ron Paul set a new fundraising record by raising $4.3 million in a single day through online donations, and then beat his own record only weeks later by raising $4.4 million in a single day.
The 2008 elections placed the Internet squarely at the forefront of politics and campaigning, a trend that is unlikely to change any time in the near future.
2009: ICANN policy changes
2009 brought about one of the biggest changes to come to the Internet in a long time when the U.S. relaxed its control over ICANN, the official naming body of the Internet (they’re the organization in charge of registering domain names).
The Future?
Where is the future of the Internet headed? We can only assume that the Internet will continue to grow. From basic developments to things like PPC advertising, the Internet has only become more impressive over time. Share your opinions in the comments section.
Sources and Further Reading
A People’s History of the Internet: from Arpanet in 1969 to Today: A timeline of the Internet from guardian.co.uk.
History of the Internet: An early timeline of the Internet, from precursors in the 1800s up through 1997.
A Brief History of the Web: A series of videos from Microsoft to celebrate the launch of Internet Explorer 8.
Hobbes’ Internet Timeline – the definitive ARPAnet & Internet History: A very thorough timeline of the Internet, starting in 1957 and going up through 2004, with tons of statistics and source material included.
Internet Timeline: A basic timeline of Internet history from FactMonster.com.
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Pagination is one of those little design necessities that often gets overlooked. But for blogs and other content-heavy sites, it provides an important means of navigating between pages. A well-crafted paginated website can encourage users to explore further what you have to offer.
Some designers dare to take pagination to the next level. Here’s a look at some very creative CSS and JavaScript code snippets that you can use for free to improve the pagination on your own website.
You might also like these menu and navigation snippet collections:
Our first example shows how some basic hover effects can vastly improve standard pagination. The ultra-smooth underline that follows your cursor makes for a much more intuitive experience. Plus, the entire menu is very easy to read. This is a simple way to help users.
One of the most frustrating parts of pagination can be how menus handle a large number of pages. This snippet uses jQuery to show adjacent page numbers as you click. It’s a much easier path to follow.
This is an exciting concept. Designed to be both responsive and more accessible, this pagination UI contains multiple ways to navigate – including via a keyboard. The timeline-like bar at the top clearly labels the current page and offers a great overview of everything available.
They say good help is hard to find. But this snippet provides the help of a Yeti (at least, the hand of a Yeti) when clicking through the page numbers. While Yetis may not fit with your motif, this is an example of how we can add an element of fun (and surprise).
On smaller screens, pagination can be terribly difficult to use. Navigation items are often too small and too hard to read. This snippet provides a great alternative for mobile devices. Each item is larger as the navigation stretches vertically. The result is that mobile users can get around without having to squint their eyes or zoom in.
Sometimes, we don’t need to number each item within the pagination. This example is attractively minimal with the use of dots rather than numerals. It’s a good solution for slideshows or navigating multiple panels of content.
Mobile UI works best when it reacts to a user’s touch. Here we have pagination that allows the user to swipe to get to the next or previous item. This little convenience can make all the difference when it comes to usability.
Designers often use infinite scrolling to replace pagination. But this is a neat concept of how they can be combined. The frustration of infinite scroll is that it can be difficult to go back and find that one particular item. This snippet adds new page numbers to the navigation as you continue to scroll down, making returning to the previous page a little easier.
A great web design doesn’t ignore the various elements that make up a page. The pros above show that pagination has more to offer when you put some effort into enhancing it.
So, take some inspiration from these examples and create pagination menus that both look and function better.
Tomas Votruba and I first met a couple of years ago at one of my favorite conferences; the Dutch PHP Conference in Amsterdam (so actually, we're very close to our anniversary, Tomas!). He presented Rector there and it was really inspiring. A year later I was working on a legacy migration problem: our team wanted to migrate from Doctrine ORM to "ORM-less", with handwritten mapping code, etc. I first tried Laminas Code, a code generation tool, but it lacked many features, and also the precision that I needed. Suddenly I recalled Rector, and decided to give it a try. After some experimenting, everything worked and I learned that this tool really is amazingly powerful!
Thank you, Tomas
I asked Tomas if he would like to write a book together, about Rector, combining the perspective of a developer who needs to learn how to use and extend Rector, with the perspective of the creator who has a vision for the project. This turned out to be a very fruitful collaboration. To be extremely honest, in the beginning of the project I was really annoyed by Tomas' contributions. As an example, this guy put all of the value object classes in a namespace called ValueObjects. I had never encountered anything like that. He also added all kinds of PHPStan rules that would throw errors in my face whenever I tried to commit anything. At first I was like: that is not how writing a book works, Tomas. You're treating it as a software project. I want to have freedom. I want to treat it like art.
In the end, I realized we were optimizing for different things. He focused on:
Achieving the simplest possible setup for service container configuration.
Never having to remember any special rule: a failing build should remind you of your mistakes.
Maximum maintainability in the long run. This book needs to be useful not only this year, but during the life span of the project itself.
These are very valuable principles, and from this place I'd like to thank Tomas for leading by example here. I'll never forget this, and will make it part of every future project (books and software projects alike). Thanks to this approach, every code sample is analyzed for issues, automatically formatted, and every code sample can be automatically refactored with Rector. When we need to, we can even upgrade the code base to a new PHP version. In fact, we could even decide to downgrade it!
Rector is better because of this book
While writing I often encountered a weird problem. Sometimes it turned out to be bug in Rector, sometimes an edge case that would be solved by a feature that was already on the roadmap (like migrating Rector to use static reflection). In all cases, Tomas was able to improve Rector, making the learning experience for news users much smoother, and more enjoyable.
You'll be a better developer because of this book
Rector is a fascinating tool, but before you can effectively extend it for your own code transformation needs, you have to learn about some other related topics, like tokenizing, parsing, the Abstract Syntax Tree, node visitors, and so on. This book aims to provide a good introduction to all these topics, making you a better developer anyway, even if you'd never actually use Rector.
Conclusion
In conclusion: buy this book. It's now 100% complete. It'll teach you a lot about PHP as a language, how to improve legacy projects without wasting development time, and even about test-driven development.
imagick 3.5.0RC1
- ImageMagick 7 is still not widely available on systems. So contrary to previous plans, ImageMagick 6 support will continue for now. But users are recommeded to use ImageMagick 7 if possible.
Method names have been changed to not be all lower case. Both method names and parameter information is built from the Imagick*.stub.php files.
Prevent accidental creation of zero dimension images. ImageMagick doesn't prevent creation of zero dimension images, but will give an error when that image is used. I don't think this will affect any correctly program, but if it does, and you need to re-enable zero dimension images, please open an issue at https://phpimagick.com/issues
Various pieces of work have been done to make GOMP not segfault including:
Call omp_pause_resource_all when available during shutdown.
Added the 'imagick.shutdown_sleep_count' (default 10) and 'imagick.set_single_thread' (default On). Both of these exist to mitigate the segaults on shutdown.
Fixes:
Correct version check to make RemoveAlphaChannel and FlattenAlphaChannel be available when using Imagick with ImageMagick version 6.7.8-x
Imagick::morphology now no longer ignores channel parameter
Added:
PHP 8.0 support.
Location check for ImageMagick 7 for NixOS and Brew.
Imagick::houghLineImage(int $width, int $height, float $threshold): bool {}
Imagick::setImagePixelColor(int $x, int $y, ImagickPixel|string $color)
Imagick::setImageMask(Imagick $clip_mask, int $pixelmask_type)
Full fledged arginfo is available under PHP 8 (Remi Collet)
Calling dbase functions with wrong parameter types/values throws TypeExceptions and
ValueExceptions, respectively, instead of raising warnings under PHP 8 (Remi Collet)
Bug Fixes
Fixed #80156 (Incomplete records may be written)
Fixed #80488 (ReflectionParameter->getDefaultValue() throws for dbase_create())
event 3.0.5
Fixed a test not working with PHP 8.1.0alpha1
igbinary 3.2.3
* Fix build for php 8.1 after changes to enum internals.
* Update tests to suppress deprecations in php 8.1 and support run-tests.php changes in php 8.1
* Don't emit a notice when unserialize_callback_func causes igbinary_unserialize to throw https://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=81118
Is your ecommerce store loading slowly? Has your product line outgrown your website’s capabilities? Is your business falling behind its competitors? It may be time to move to a new ecommerce platform.
In this ecommerce platform migration guide, we’ll cover everything you need to know about moving your site to a new platform, including:
What ecommerce platform migration is
Deciding whether to migrate your ecommerce site
Choosing an ecommerce platform
Deciding whether to migrate your site yourself or work with a third party
Steps for migrating your ecommerce site to a new platform
Ecommerce platform migration, also called ecommerce replatforming, is the process of transferring your ecommerce website from one platform to another.
You might transfer your site from one website builder, such as WordPress or Shopify, to another. You could also move your site from an ecommerce platform to a custom-built site or vice versa.
Should you migrate your ecommerce site?
Why do businesses switch their ecommerce stores over to new platforms, and is this something you should do?
Migrating your site is a big decision. It can be expensive and require significant time and effort. It also comes with risks and requires a transition period while your team learns how to use the new platform and you work out any bugs with your new site.
However, staying with a platform that isn’t working for your business can be much more costly in the long run.
You’ll need to weigh the costs and benefits of migrating your website to determine if it’s worth it for you.
Here are some of the reasons you might need to upgrade to a new platform.
Poor performance: If your site isn’t performing well due to the platform it’s on, you may need to upgrade it. Perhaps your site loads too slowly, or you experience frequent technical difficulties.
Outdated technology: Technology changes rapidly, and if you’re using an old, outdated platform, you may need to upgrade to keep up with the competition, especially if your site is missing important modern features.
Business growth: As your company, sales, and product line grow, you might find that your old platform isn’t powerful enough for your needs.
Opportunities for increased efficiency: Consider migrating your site if a new platform would give you significant improvements in efficiency, whether through additional automation capabilities, enhanced analytics, or simpler content management.
Evaluate the benefits your company will gain in the above areas. Then, compare those benefits to the costs, including:
The platform you choose to migrate to is, of course, a crucial decision in the ecommerce replatforming process. You need to pick the right platform to make the changeover worthwhile and ensure you get the most value from your ecommerce platform migration.
Consider factors such as the following when choosing a new ecommerce platform:
Input from multiple stakeholders: Talk with various stakeholders and departments and find out what they want from your website’s ecommerce platform.
Platform features and capabilities: Compare the features and capabilities each platform offers and look for those that best fit your company’s needs.
Compatibility and integrations: Make sure the platform you choose integrates well with any other tools you currently use and can work with any you plan to use in the future.
The capabilities of your team: While it will always take some time to set up and learn a new platform, try to choose one that matches reasonably well with your team’s knowledge and abilities.
Long-term outlook: Take a long-term view when choosing a new ecommerce platform. Select one that will meet your needs well into the future and one that’s likely to keep up with changing technology.
Customer support: Consider the quality and accessibility of each platform’s customer support.
Should you migrate your site yourself or work with a third party?
One important question to consider when it comes to ecommerce platform migration is whether to complete the migration yourself or hire professionals to assist you.
If you choose to complete the site migration yourself, you’ll need to dedicate sufficient time to planning your migration. You must carefully prepare for and execute the changeover to avoid losing data.
Consider how comfortable and experienced you and your team are with the tasks required, such as setting up a new site, backing up data, and transferring data to the new platforms.
If you don’t feel comfortable completing the migration yourself or would rather leave it to the professionals and spend your time elsewhere, hiring a data migration company is an excellent option.
Some companies that perform data migration services can also help you design your new site. You might choose to hire a web designer and transfer the data yourself or work with one company that can handle the whole process.
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Steps for migrating your ecommerce website to a new platform
What steps should you follow when migrating your ecommerce website to a new platform? Take a look at this ecommerce migration checklist and read about each step in our ecommerce platform migration guide in more detail below:
Outline the steps of your ecommerce platform migration
Catalog your existing content
Design your new site
Back up your data
Migrate your data
Connect plugins, email, and other tools
Test your website
Launch your new site
Communicate your migration to existing customers
Monitor your results
Outline the steps of your ecommerce platform migration
Ecommerce replatforming requires careful planning. The first step of the process is outlining everything your migration will include.
What changes will you make to your site? Are you moving everything over exactly as is, or are you going to alter your site’s navigation, product categorization, or other elements? Consider creating an ecommerce migration checklist to assist you with the transition.
Also consider the following factors:
Domain: Make sure you have access to your domain That way, if you’re changing your website’s host, you can point your domain name server (DNS) record to the correct servers.
Secure sockets layer (SSL) certificate: Also check on your SSL certificate to make sure you can transfer it to your new server and that it will be compatible.
URLs: Will your URLs change after you migrate your site? If they do, you’ll need to set up 301 redirects. It’s crucial to complete this step correctly to avoid losing search engine rankings and to make sure users who access your new site via links get to your new pages.
Catalog your existing content
To successfully move everything over to your new site, you must organize all the content you want to move over from your old site.
Create an outline showing all your pages and where they’re located on your site. This list will help you keep track of all your content as you move it over to the new platform.
Design your new site
Before you can start moving your data, you’ll need to have the design for your new site ready. Design your site with your new platform in mind and set it up on a staging site — a website that isn’t live where you can test your new design.
Back up your data
Before you start migrating any of your data, make sure you back up your site. You’ll be happy you have a backup of the most recent version of your website if something goes wrong during your ecommerce data migration.
Migrate your data
Next, you can start migrating your data. Begin by migrating part of your site and test it to make sure everything works correctly. If it does, you can continue your ecommerce data migration.
You can use a file transfer protocol (FTP) agent such as FileZilla to transfer static files. If you have a dynamic site that runs on a database, you can import your database to your new web host or platform.
If the new platform’s structure is different than that of your old platform or you want to change your content, the migration process will be more involved. You’ll either manually reformat and move your data or have a developer write a custom script that automatically reads and reformats the data across platforms.
You may need to map out a separate migration process if you keep customer accounts or order histories on your current platform.
Connect plugins, email, and other tools
Once you’ve migrated your content, you can start connecting any other tools you use on your site, such as your checkout platform, chatbot service, shipping platform, and email.
If your email is hosted on your old platform’s server, you’ll need to set up your new email and have mail forwarded from your old account to the new one. Before moving your email account, back up the account, including your contacts and messages.
Test your website
Testing is essential throughout the ecommerce replatforming process. Thoroughly test pages, site elements, and functionalities as you move them over to your new site.
Some important elements to test include:
Your website’s key pages
Product filtering and search functions
Website navigation
Checkout process
Email
These are just a few examples of the items you should test during your ecommerce platform migration. Your testing should be as comprehensive as possible.
Launch your new site
Once your content is moved over to your staging site and everything is set up, you’re ready to launch your new website. Ideally, you’ll want to launch your site at a time when few customers are online, such as late at night or early in the morning.
Once you launch your site, check your most important pages to ensure they’re working correctly and double-check that your robots.txt file allows search engines to crawl your site. Also, verify that you’re receiving form completion and checkout notifications.
Any time you make a major change to your website, you’ll likely encounter bugs. Be prepared to fix these issues quickly to make the transition as smooth as possible. Keep a backup of your old site in case anything is missing on your new site.
Communicate your migration to existing customers
You’ll also want to let your top customers know about your ecommerce platform migration. They’ll appreciate being kept in the loop, and it will keep them from getting confused when they see your site and it looks different than usual.
Monitor your results
An essential final step in our ecommerce platform migration guide is monitoring your results. In the months following your ecommerce replatforming, keep an eye on your website’s traffic, search engine rankings, conversions, and other metrics using tools like Google Analytics, Google Search Console, and MarketingCloudFX.
It’s normal to see a dip in metrics like rankings and traffic immediately following your migration, but if you completed the migration correctly, your site should recover over time.
Measuring what matters most
Are you interested in custom reporting that is specific to your unique business needs? Powered by MarketingCloudFX, WebFX create custom reports based on what you care about most.
Leads
Calls
Transactions
Revenue
Maximize your ecommerce platform migration’s benefits
Ecommerce platform migration is a huge job, but if you plan your process carefully and follow this guide, you’ll be on your way to success.
With 94% of first impressions relying on web design, you must create a beautifully crafted website for your business. But when you get started with web design, you may not know what approach to take with your website. What types of web design are best for your business?
Luckily for you, we’ve got all the answers. Keep reading to learn about six types of web design and the pros and cons of each. Plus, we’ll cover the different types of websites you can create, so you can determine which one is best for your business!
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Ready to build your website but aren’t sure which web design format is best? Here are six of the most common web design layouts for your business and the pros and cons of each.
Web design format #1: Static page layout
One of the most basic types of website design is static page layout. With this layout, you build a website with pre-set page dimensions — it has a permanent width. Static layouts stick to these dimensions, regardless of the browser or device type.
Static layouts have phased out with the rise of mobile usage. Since these sites don’t adapt to devices, they don’t provide a positive user experience on smartphones or tablets. While static layouts are still an option, you typically don’t want to use them unless you’re creating a completely separate mobile version of your site.
Pros of static page layout:
Easy to set up
Cons of static page layout:
Not responsive to devices or browsers
Requires creating a separate mobile site (more work)
Web design format #2: Liquid design layout
Next on this list of types of website design is liquid design layouts. This layout, also known as fluid design, uses flexible units rather than the fixed units static layouts use. Since the units are flexible, the page will always fill the width of the device’s screen, regardless of what device it is.
Because user experience is critical to your site driving and engaging traffic, liquid layouts have also started to phase out as a viable option for businesses. While you can still use this layout, you risk delivering a poor user experience from your site stretching too far or squishing information together on the page.
Pros of liquid design layout:
Easier to set up than responsive design
No information gets cut off on pages
Cons of liquid design layout:
If a browser is really wide, information gets stretched to fit the screen and can look unappealing
If a browser is smaller, information gets smooshed together to fit the screen, making it difficult to read and browse
Web design format #3: Adaptive website layout
One web design format you can use for your site is adaptive website layout. As the name implies, this website uses CSS queries to adjust the website’s size to detect the size of the browser. Adaptive websites will automatically alter the website’s layout to provide the best user experience for visitors.
With adaptive website layouts, there are set parameters for how a website will adjust. For example, a set parameter may look like this: “If the browser is 500 pixels wide, set the main content container for 400 pixels wide.”
For example, if you have a website with a two-column layout, the adaptive layout would change into a single-column design on a small browser screen.
Pros of adaptive website layout:
Easy to set up
Takes less development time than responsive layouts
Can adjust your website according to each browser size
Cons of adaptive website layout:
Device widths in between set points can cause your site to have too much space or not enough space
Isn’t fully responsive
Web design format #4: Dynamic website layout
When you’re looking at a list of the types of web design, you’ll see that the dynamic website layout is an option. Dynamic website layouts are great for people who don’t have extensive HTML knowledge. These websites can deliver different content to website visitors, even if two separate people look at the same page.
With a dynamic website layout, you build a database of information and features. Then, when a user requests a page, the web coding automatically works to put the components together from your database to form the webpage.
Pros of dynamic website layout:
Interactivity with users
Increased functionality for users
Less coding skills required
Cons of dynamic website layout:
Can be more complex to set up with different functionalities
Tend to load slower because of all the different elements and page compositions
Web design format #5: Responsive design layout
Next on our list of types of website layouts is responsive design layout. This layout format is the most popular type, as it allows your site to accommodate all devices and fill the browser size perfectly.
Responsive design is built with a mobile-first approach. You create your mobile layout first, and then you expand your website for bigger browser sizes. So instead of trying to trim down your website and make it smaller, you start small and build it bigger.
You can see a great example of responsive design from Dropbox. Here’s how their site looks on a large desktop browser:
When you look at it on mobile, the entire site is adjusted to fit the mobile browser size, which delivers a great user experience.
Pros of responsive design:
Get a website that’s built for mobile users
Delivers a seamless experience on all devices
Don’t have to build a separate mobile site
Cons of responsive design:
Takes more time to build and develop
Web design format #6: Single page layout
The last item we’ll cover on our list of types of web design is a single-page layout. As the name implies, single-page layouts use only one page that users scroll down to find information about your products or services.
With this design layout, you can have a “navigation menu” with links to specific points of your page. KitKat is a great example of this single-page layout.
Pros of single-page layout:
Easy to create
Can help you create a clean and simple website
Cons of single-page layout:
Cannot be used for businesses that sell products online
Cannot be used for companies that need multiple pages
Can deter people away if the single page is too long and requires too much scrolling
Types of websites: 4 types of websites you can create
In addition to narrowing down your list of types of website layouts to the best one, you also must determine what kind of website you need to create for your business. Every business has different needs, which means your site type may differ from others.
Here are four types of websites you can create for your business:
1. Blogs
First on our list of types of websites is blogs. Blogs are websites that share helpful information with readers about topics in their industry.
While a blog may not be your company’s primary website, you may consider creating a blog site if you’re doing content marketing. Content marketing is a crucial strategy for helping your business grow online and build trust with your audience.
You may consider having a separate blog website, like Allstate, or integrating it into your core website to help you take advantage of the benefits of content marketing.
This website type can use any type of web design format, except for single-page layouts. The best types of web design layouts for this website type are adaptive and responsive.
2. Ecommerce websites
Another type of website you can create for your business is an ecommerce website. This website type is best for your business if you want to sell products on your site.
Ecommerce sites are built to host product pages, add products to a cart, and complete transactions. If you’re looking to sell products, this website type is best for your business.
In terms of the best types of web design for an ecommerce website, responsive and adaptive are most suitable for an ecommerce site.
3. Business websites
Another type of website you can create is a business website. A business website is a standard site — it contains information about your company and the services you offer. If you don’t sell products online, you may also build a business site just to showcase what you offer.
These sites are simple and serve as a hub for people to learn about your business. You can use this website type if you’re not selling products on your website.
For a business website, you can use any of the types of web design listed above — you’ll want to choose the ones that help you deliver the best experience for your audience.
4. Membership websites
The last type of website you can create is a membership website. With this website type, you have a paywall for people to enter. Only people who have a membership can enter your site and see your products.
Grove.co is a membership website example. You must create an account and pay the membership fee to see all their products.
If you want to use this website type, you can use two types of web design layouts: adaptive or responsive. These layouts will work best for hosting products for members.
Need help figuring out which type of web design is best for you?
With so many types of web design available, it’s challenging to know which type is best for your business. If you’re feeling overwhelmed with building the best website, WebFX can help you create a beautiful web design for your business.
We’ve designed over 1000 websites and won dozens of awards for our website design. Our team of over 300 marketing experts can help you craft a beautifully designed website that delivers the best experience for your audience.
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