Vortex Hosting

Daily Backups

Your entire website is backed up daily to a secure offsite location. Whether a complete website recovery is required or you just need a file that you previously deleted, it’s not a problem. Losing your data isn't stressful when there is a backup. Backups are also an important part of having a good night’s sleep.

Dedicated Servers

Our servers are located in the number 1 privately held dedicated server hosting provider in the world. This world-class data center has more than 40,000 servers, 24/7/365 monitoring and one of the industry’s fastest, most robust networks (100 gigabits/sec). This may sound like geek speak, but the bottom line is that your website won't be hosted on an old machine in our basement. You can’t get any better hosting than this.

Detailed Statistics

Every time you log in to Vortex you’ll see how many people are coming to your site, how they found you and what pages they’re looking at. This isn't a vague "hit" number, but the actual count of people and page views. Statistics are extremely vital in tracking your progress and return on investment.

Email Administration

Adding new email addresses, aliases, or email auto-replies for when you're happily on vacation is easy and instantaneous through Vortex. We're also just a phone call away when you set up your new address in your favorite email program. For those on the go, access your email via webmail or by configuring a wireless device such as a blackberry.

Security Audits

Our servers are scanned regularly to ensure maximum security protection and PCI compliance. Whether your website processes credit card transactions or simply collects visitor email addresses, the data is securely stored and protected against intrusion and fraud.

Self-Monitoring Servers

If something goes wrong on our servers, such as a server process failing to restart, our servers immediately try to resolve the issue themselves. If the server cannot fix itself, it sends a message to us asking for help. If something needs immediate attention, our server provider is ready 24/7 to resolve the issue.

Spam and Virus Filtered Email

We know you have better things to do than delete hundreds of emails a day. Right? Your email addresses are protected by first-class spam and virus filtering utilizing SpamCop, SpamHaus, SpamAssasin and everything else we can throw at the spam gangs.

Vortex CMS

Ajax Interface

Vortex is an extremely fast interface as many components use a special type of technology called AJAX. With this technology, data can be saved and displayed without having to “reload” the page. This makes it fast to switch between modules or tabs, and when adding or editing information.

Blogs & Articles

Create blogs or publish articles to your website as a way to keep your information current. Ideal for publishing newsletters and press releases, articles can include multiple photos and user comments, and can be categorized.

Catalogues

Catalogues are the most useful components on a website as they can be used for many different purposes. Catalogues simply structure your data so that it can be displayed on your website in a consistent manner without having to manually format everything. For real estate listings, products, portfolios or structured content (such as this page) catalogues, are your best friend. Upload multiple photos and add as many custom fields as you like.

Custom Modules

If part of your website doesn’t fit in one of our standard modules, we can quickly and easily custom-develop a module specifically for your needs. There is nothing that we haven’t been able to put into Vortex!

Events Calendars

Provide a listing of upcoming and previous events on your website. Events can be displayed in a graphical calendar or as a list and can have multiple photos added as a mini-photo gallery for each event. Easily integrated with the shopping cart for selling event tickets online.

FAQs

Organize your information into a “frequently asked questions” format to help your visitors find the answers they're looking for.

Flash Detection

Many sites use Flash as a tool for enhancing the design and interactivity of websites. Vortex can automatically detect whether your website visitors have flash installed (most already do) and if not, then direct them to install Flash or provide other non-flash images and information.

Keyword-Based URLs

Customize your page URLs to make them easy to remember and for increased search engine optimization. Instead of having URLS filled with random numbers and letters, you can use whatever words you like. For example, yourdomain.com/lady-bug-information or yourdomain.com/lady-bugs.html for your Lady Bugs page. Keyword-based URLs can be implemented for every page on your site, plus Vortex can generate them automatically if you'd prefer.

Members-Only Areas

Have information that only approved members should be able to access? Vortex can easily provide login, registration and “retrieve password” forms for your website. Manage your members with Vortex CRM and maintain your member’s only content with Vortex CMS. Charging a fee to access this information is no problem with Vortex Ecommerce.

Multiple Users

You have full control over who can access Vortex. For example, you could create separate accounts - and limit their access - for your emailing marketer and for the person who updates your website News.

Photo Galleries

Add beautiful photo galleries to your website easily with Vortex. You can upload multiple photos at a time. Photos are automatically resized and can be rotated on-the-fly as well as dragged and dropped to change their order.

Resource Management

Manage your website’s images, pdfs and other files using the Resource module. Upload multiple files a time to speed things up. You can easily link to your files from your content pages with simple point-and-click.

RSS

Really Simple Syndication allows users to receive updates on your website without even needing to visit it through integration with RSS feed tools. This is especially useful for websites with regular news updates or blog posts.

Site Map

As you add pages to your website, a site map is automatically created to assist website visitors in finding information on your website and help search engines spider your entire site.

Site Search

Vortex can provide a site search feature on your website, giving visitors the ability to search your entire website by keyword. This is ideal for sites with a large number of pages so people can find the information they’re looking for more easily.

Surveys & Forms

Adding forms to your website is simple. We can set up validation to ensure required fields are filled in as well as create email notifications to be sent when forms are submitted. With Vortex CRM, all form submissions can be stored in your contact database as well.

Video Galleries

Video has taken the internet by storm and you may want to include your own videos or a collection of other videos found on the internet to inform and entertain your visitors. With Vortex, that's easy!

WYSIWYG Text Editing

What You See is What You Get simply means that you do not need to know any HTML code to update your website. You can move images around, create tables, format and modify text on your website as you would in any word-processing application such as Microsoft Word. If you can send an email with an attachment, you have all the skills you need to update your website.

Vortex CRM

Activities Calendar

Keep track of all your appointments, tasks and phone calls. View a monthly time-sheet for completed activities as well as a graphical calendar with point-and-click scheduling. Activities can also have custom fields for storing more details about an activity, such as billing details or outcomes.

Contact Database

Store all of your customer contact information in Vortex and enjoy the benefits of web-based customer management. You can easily categorize, filter and search for contacts and then send mass emails, print letters, or export. Store time-stamped notes about your contacts and attach documents and activities. The contact database is ideal for maintaining newsletter mailing lists, customer lists, or just for electronically storing your business card collection.

Contact Filtering

Create subsets of contacts in order to send targeted mass emails, export to Excel, or print mail merges. Filters can be used to group contacts from a specific location, with specific custom field values and those in one or more categories. Need to send an email to all your customers in Canada that have size 10 shoes for example – no problem.

CSV Import

Do you need to import contacts from an Excel file or from another program? Vortex includes a powerful import module that allows you to match fields, skip duplicates, and import into a specific category. You can also generate random passwords for new contacts and import contacts only if they have an email address.

Custom Fields

Create an unlimited number of custom fields to store information about your customers or prosects. Custom fields could be “Age” and “Sex,” for example, or could be used to provide a list of options such as “Products Interested In”. These custom fields can then be used to filter your contacts for targeted marketing.

Mail Merges

Whether sending personalized letters or printing labels, Vortex provides the tools you need. Letters can be configured to automatically print your return address and the customer’s mailing address in the correct spot and to be folded and placed in a standard window envelope ready for mailing.

Mass Emailing

Send email to all or a subset of your contacts for newsletters, specials, updates or personalized follow-up emails. You can mail-merge field information such as “first name”, attach multiple files, send in plain text and HTML, and use customized email templates. Keeping in touch with your contacts has never been so simple.

Web Data Capture

When your website visitors fill out a form, place an order, or request information, all of their information can be automatically stored in Vortex along with a note detailing their request. People can also subscribe and unsubscribe from your mailing lists automatically through your website.

Vortex Ecommerce

Coupons

Create discount coupons to generate more sales. Reward your best customers or offer a coupon for those that sign up to your newsletter. Send a coupon along with a holiday greeting for time-limited sales. Coupons can be a fixed dollar amount or a percentage discount, and can be set for a specific number of uses, and with an expiration and minimum purchase price.

Customer Management

Use Vortex CRM along with Vortex Ecommerce to store all your customer information and order history. You can send mass emails for generating repeat business as well as provide the option for customers to view their order history and order status online.

Membership Subscriptions

Having one-time and recurring memberships to your website is also easily implemented using Vortex. Keep track of all your members, subscriptions, and transactions.

Order Administration

We hope to help you receive non-stop orders from your website so we've provided a way for you to keep track of them all in Vortex. For example, you can review pending, processing and shipped orders as well as store time-stamped notes and tracking numbers.

Real-Time Payment Processing

Accept Visa, MasterCard, Discover, American Express, Money Order and PayPal in real time. We can assist you in setting up merchant accounts with your bank if you don't have them already. Also, provide a “Bill Me Later” option for maximum order placement. Reduce fraud using card code verification and address verification features.

Real-Time Shipping Rates

Provide online shoppers with real-time shipping rates and estimated delivery dates from top couriers including CanadaPost, UPS and FedEx. Shipping can also be configured to allow orders from specific countries only, plus you can add shipping specials such as free shipping with minimum purchase amounts or for local delivery.

Receipts

When orders are received, you and your customer will receive fully customizable email receipts outlining the entire details of the order. All you need to do is pack your items and send them off. Keep track of your orders using Vortex’s order administration features.

Sales Reporting

View reports to see sales totals and product information. Use the Activity report to monitor the number of visitors that created a shopping cart, added items, completed an order, and just as importantly, how many didn't complete their order. These reports help optimize sales conversions.

Secure Encryption

All ecommerce transactions are secured by SSL encryption to protect your customers' information. All of our ecommerce sites undergo rigorous site scanning and analysis by a third party to certify PCI compliance required by Visa and MasterCard. Your online shoppers will see the “lock” in their browser and “https” in the URL, indicating a secure connection to the web server.

Shopping Cart Checkout

Customers can add products and services to their shopping cart and check out without an account. Multiple configurations are available for different price levels (such as retail and wholesale). Customers can select the “remember me” feature so that their information is stored for their next order, saving them time. Tax, discounts, shipping and payment methods are fully customizable.

Vortex SEO

Consultation and Support

Marketing your website is an ongoing job to ensure continual increases in relevant traffic. Whether your goal is to have visitors order products, sign up to your newsletter, contact you, or simply to get as many people as possible viewing your information, we’re here to help and guide you.

Content and Meta Tag Optimization

We optimize pages on your website for targeted keyword phrases to ensure your content is highly relevant and visible to the search engines.

Keyword Phrase Research

We research your products and services to determine target keyword phrases that people are searching for in search engines. Choosing the right niche keyword phrases is the first step in optimizing your website to gain search engine traffic.

Monthly Ranking and Statistics Reporting

Your progress is monitored and analyzed to ensure proper optimization and to track progress with your search engine rankings. The number of back links your site has in the engines, as well as indexed site depth, is monitored and should continually increase.

Page Analysis Tools

Use Vortex to analyze the content on your pages to ensure the correct message is seen by the engines and your visitors. View each page’s keyword density chart to see the phrases most prominent on your page. The keyword “cloud” shows you a visual representation of what stands out most to the search engine spiders.

Search Engine Submission

Your pages are submitted to Google, Yahoo! and MSN to ensure proper indexing. XML sitemaps are created and submitted regularly, making sure the engines are aware of all the pages on your site. You are also provided information and support to increase back links to your site.