Web sites that tick all the right boxes

Just what is PCI compliance?

In a nutshell...

The letters PCI are the initials of the Payment Card Industry but the phrase PCI compliance itself refers to the Data Security Standard, which the PCI set up as a global benchmark for online payments.

The standard is evolving and requirements changing on an almost weekly basis – you can see current requirements here on the The PCI's DSS compliancy website - but all you really need to know is that if you are transmitting, processing or holding on to cardholder information then you need to be compliant with the PCI’s standard. If your bank hasn’t been in touch for proof of your PCI compliancy yet, it will be soon.

The good news is anyone who takes up hosting on one of our nine Linux servers can say goodbye to the hassle of keeping up to date with the constant stream of demands and regulations that come with running a retail website.

Every website we host is guaranteed to be PCI compliant; we do the hard work for you. We keep up to date with requirements, monitor daily for known software vulnerabilities and ensure that your website is fully compliant. And your customers can rest assured that their transactions are safe too - e-commerce software that’s just a couple of days out of date can enable hackers to steal credit card details, which is why we get instant alerts on essential software updates.

And we do this for all our e-commerce customers for just £60 per month. As well as keeping all our servers fully compliant, it also covers the daily backup of all data, images and documents, email management, plus the administration of your domains.

In short, if your retail website is on our server, you know it’s safe. 

Accessibility - the big issue for websites...

Despite their simplicity, there are some vital things you need to consider when it comes to even the most basic brochure site. The most important of these is accessibility. There is a wealth of material on the web which attempts to distil the Disability Discrimination Act for websites but, in a nutshell, if you’re developing a new website or redeveloping an old one, you have to ensure that your site is accessible. We'd be happy to explain to you what makes a site accessible and how to check that it is. However, you'll see a few useful links in the right-hand column of this page including one that will let you check the accessibility of any site.

One of the nice bonuses that you will get from an accessible site is that it is easier for search engines to read it and so will make a huge contribution to your search engine optimisation and, therefore, rankings. In other words, more people are likely to find you.