FAQ Archives - SmartFrame

Why is my SmartFrame image not showing?

albano.toska — Mon, 26 Feb 2024 14:13:55 +0000

There are a number of reasons why a SmartFrame image may not be displayed correctly, or is displayed in a different way to how it may have previously appeared.

These are typically due to the preferences set by the content owner or changes made to a SmartFrame image since it was first published.

Here, we explain the most common reasons as to why a SmartFrame image may not be displayed as expected.

SmartFrame has been blocked from a domain or URL

The owner of the SmartFrame image can control whether or not it appears on a particular URL, or even across an entire domain.

If you find a SmartFrame image cannot be successfully embedded on a website or domain, it’s possible the owner has chosen to block its embedding.

This is sometimes necessary in order to ensure exclusivity agreements or licensing restrictions are adhered to.

Original embedded SmartFrame image has changed or been deleted

If a SmartFrame image has been embedded from another SmartFrame image through the copying of its embed code, the status of the former will affect this and any subsequent embeds.

For example, if the original SmartFrame image has its Captions or interactive elements changed, or if it is deleted by its owner, any SmartFrame images that were embedded from it will display the same alterations.

Image has been deleted

The owner of the SmartFrame image may have deleted the original image within it since it was published. In this case, the SmartFrame itself will still appear, but its image and any interactive elements that were enabled will not be displayed.

Image ID was not copied correctly

It’s possible that a SmartFrame image has been embedded in the correct way, but the image ID has been copied incorrectly, meaning that the image itself cannot be displayed. This will typically result in an error message being displayed.

If you are the owner of the SmartFrame image, check the image ID in the SmartFrame Admin Panel and paste it into your website builder again to see if this rectifies the issue.

SmartFrame image is being viewed in preview mode

A SmartFrame image may not display correctly when previewing a page that has not been made live yet, even if it is displayed without any issues in a live environment. This is not a fault.

If you find that an embedded SmartFrame image isn’t visible in both staging and live environments, check that the image ID or embed code has been copied and pasted correctly. If the issue persists, please refer to other possible issues mentioned on this page to help identify the problem.

Browser is not supported

SmartFrame is supported by most common browsers, such as Chrome, Safari, and Firefox, as well as Brave, Opera and other Chromium-based browsers. Should a SmartFrame image be viewed in an unsupported browser, the image within it may be displayed as a small thumbnail without any interactive elements.

Click here for more information on browser support.

SmartFrame image is nested inside an iframe

It’s possible that your website builder has placed a SmartFrame image inside an iframe. This may cause a SmartFrame image to be displayed without its full functionality.

If you encounter any issues with the display of SmartFrame images that are not resolved by refreshing the page or trying again later, please contact us, quoting the error message displayed.

The post Why is my SmartFrame image not showing? appeared first on SmartFrame.

How do I add the SmartFrame Publisher ID to my ads.txt page?

albano.toska — Mon, 26 Feb 2024 14:13:55 +0000

This page contains important information on ads.txt files.

What is ads.txt?

Ads.txt is a document stored on a website’s root domain that contains information about advertising for that particular domain. More specifically, it’s a text file that contains a list of companies that the domain has authorized as sellers of its digital inventory. This is used for the purposes of programmatic advertising. This initiative was introduced by the IAB Tech Lab as a means of improving transparency around programmatic advertising. As a publicly accessible document, a domain’s ads.txt file can be seen by both crawlers programmed to find it and individuals who want to ensure that they are only buying inventory from third parties authorized to sell it. This also protects the latter from purchasing counterfeit inventory.

Do I need to create an ads.txt file?

An ads.txt file is not necessary for every website, only those that include some kind of programmatic advertising. The advertising within SmartFrames falls under this category.

How do I add the SmartFrame publisher ID to my website’s ads.txt page?

The code you need to add to this ads.txt file will be generated by SmartFrame on demand. Please get in touch with us to obtain this if you have not already received it.

For users with existing ads.txt files

If you already have an ads.txt file on your domain with a list of authorized inventory sellers, download this file and add the publisher ID and code provided by us to this list. Save the file and re-upload it to the root directory of your site.

For users without existing ads.txt files

If you do not already have an ads.txt file, create a new file in Text Edit or a similar program on your computer before adding the publisher ID and code provided by us. Save it as a .txt file with the file name ads.txt before uploading this to your website’s root domain.

How do I know this has been successfully added to my site?

Once you’ve uploaded (or re-uploaded) your file, you can check it has been successfully added by adding /ads.txt to the end of your domain in your browser’s command bar. So, if your website address is www.smartframe.io, your file should be visible at www.smartframe.io/ads.txt

The post How do I add the SmartFrame Publisher ID to my ads.txt page? appeared first on SmartFrame.

How do I create a strong password and keep it secure?

albano.toska — Mon, 26 Feb 2024 14:13:55 +0000

How do I create a strong password?

Follow these steps to create a strong password that will ensure maximum protection against hacks from cybercriminals.

1. Use a variety of characters

Always ensure your password contains a mixture of letters, numbers, and symbols. Be sure to use a combination of upper and lower case characters, and try to avoid obvious substitutions such as the letter 5 for S.

2. Utilize random sequences

Using a real word in your password will make it easier to guess, so we recommend using a completely random sequence of characters. If you do use actual words, choose a number of unrelated words and place them together in a random sequence.

3. Make it as long as possible

The longer your password is, the harder it is for cybercriminals to crack, so we would recommend using as many characters as you can remember.

4. Never use personal information

The nature of the digital world means that hackers can find your personal information online easier than you might think. For this reason, it is important to never include information like date of birth, name, or telephone number in your password.

How do I keep my password secure?

Once you have created your password, it is important to make sure you protect it from theft. By taking the following steps, you can ensure maximum security against attacks.

1. Never reuse a password

Using the same password across multiple different online accounts might be easier to remember, but it also means that if one account gets hacked, they likely all will.

2. Never tell anyone your password

No matter how much you trust a person to keep your password safe, by sharing it you are inevitably exposing it to additional threats from attack.

3. Use a VPN when using public Wi-Fi

While convenient, public Wi-Fi networks are unsecured and can give cybercriminals access to your device, allowing them to track your online activity and potentially expose login information. Always use a trusted VPN when using a public Wi-Fi.

4. Change your password regularly

In many cases, you will not know when your password has been compromised, so it’s a good idea to change it on a regular basis, just in case.

The post How do I create a strong password and keep it secure? appeared first on SmartFrame.

Can I download a SmartFrame image to my computer?

albano.toska — Mon, 26 Feb 2024 14:13:53 +0000

It is not possible to download a SmartFrame image to a computer, tablet, or mobile device.

Conventional images are files that you can save to your computer or send by email. This makes them vulnerable to theft, as the moment the image is displayed online, it’s very easy to download it.

By contrast, SmartFrame images are not files. The original image file you upload is kept safe behind the firewall, and the SmartFrame image counterpart is streamed to the user, quickly and always in the correct resolution. This is why you cannot download SmartFrame images and have to embed them instead.

The post Can I download a SmartFrame image to my computer? appeared first on SmartFrame.

Which website platform is recommended for use with SmartFrame?

albano.toska — Mon, 26 Feb 2024 14:13:53 +0000

The quickest way to set up a website is to use a website builder or blogging platform.

There are several free platforms, such as Blogger, that support embedding via SmartFrame. You will need to upload your images to the SmartFrame Admin Panel first, before copying the embed codes generated here and pasting them into your website platform.

A list of compatible website platforms that have been tested to work correctly with SmartFrame is maintained and constantly expanded. Please refer to this for further details on compatibility.

The post Which website platform is recommended for use with SmartFrame? appeared first on SmartFrame.

How do I boost the SEO of my blog?

albano.toska — Mon, 26 Feb 2024 14:13:51 +0000

Google considers over 200 signals when ranking a webpage in search results. While some signals are weighted higher than others, many website owners and bloggers fail to implement even the most basic of SEO practices, missing opportunities to reach more people. This article offers five simple tips that can have a dramatic SEO impact.

1. Keywords

Thinking about the keywords to include on your blog may sound obvious, but it is often overlooked. Keywords are important because Google will only return your site if it is relevant. By thinking about what your potential visitors are searching for, you can include relevant keywords within your articles. Using synonyms and acronyms will also help increase your reach, but don’t overload your articles with keywords and make sure not to dilute your primary keyword by trying to target too many variations. Remember, your article is to be read by people, not just Google, so keep it natural.

2. Meta title

The meta title is the title text that appears in Google and it’s a highly weighted signal. While some content management systems may not allow you to define the meta title, most will. It is important that your meta title describes what is on the page and includes your primary keyword, but it must also be enticing. It shouldn’t be a repetition of your article title, rather it should be concise at around 65 characters. A call to action is often useful.

3. Article Title/H1 Tag

Unlike the meta title, the article title is displayed on the page. First, you should make sure the title is used in conjunction with the ‘H1’ HTML tag. As the page heading typically describes what the page is about, Google uses it as a highly weighted signal. It is therefore essential to ensure your primary keyword is included in the title, but by differing it from the meta title you also have an opportunity to vary your keyword phrases. There is also no character limit, although the longer the H1 tag the more its SEO impact is diluted.

4. Content

While it is useful to include acronyms and synonyms of your target keywords within the articles you write, you should remember that your content should be primarily targeted at your users, not Google. However, many often forget some basic requirements enforced by Google, namely that content must be unique and authoritative. In other words, you should ask yourself whether Google is right to rank your page over others. In the case of duplicate content, Google will often ignore pages that are very similar to others, and will penalize websites in extreme circumstances. If you just copy and paste content, you shouldn’t expect it to rank well. Google may also perceive your content to be duplicated or low in authority if your page has very little text content present. It is recommended that your articles are of a reasonable size, at least 300 words or so, although this is just a suggestion rather than a strict rule.

5. Images

Optimizing your images by including descriptive filenames and alt text attributes provides more opportunities to expose your website to more visitors by appearing in Google Images search results. While SmartFrame automatically optimizes your images, you can also optimize your regular images by creating an image sitemap, and using keywords in your filenames and alt text. Many site owners overlook the potential of image searches. While some may consider the alt text, it is very common for filenames to be ignored, and to keep system-generated filenames instead. It is important to use hyphens instead of underscores within filenames because Google perceives hyphens as spaces, but does not do so for underscores.

The post How do I boost the SEO of my blog? appeared first on SmartFrame.

What is a CDN?

albano.toska — Mon, 26 Feb 2024 14:13:51 +0000

A content delivery network (CDN) can help to speed up your website and give your users the best possible browsing experience, wherever they are in the world. This article explains what a CDN is, how it works, and why you may want to consider one to help improve your website’s performance.

What is a content delivery network?

Instead of hosting your static website assets (such as images) on one server, a content delivery network caches your assets across multiple servers around the world. These are also known as edge servers, or nodes. When a user visits your website, they are served content from their closest edge server, which reduces latency and speeds up your website.

The concept of a CDN is illustrated below. In the first example, there is no CDN, just a single server hosting a website. In this case, the server is hosted in London, with website users spread all over the world. While users in Europe are relatively close to the server, users in Australia are considerably farther away, which means they are likely to experience latency in receiving data. This means they will experience slower content-loading speeds than visitors in Europe.

The second graphic (below) illustrates a CDN. In this case, the origin server is still located in London, and this stores the original version of the website. Spread across the world, however, are edge servers, which cache (duplicate) the original website’s assets. When a user visits the website, they receive content from their closest server, and therefore experience reduced latency and faster loading.

Why should I use a CDN to serve images?

A CDN is not always necessary. If your customers are based in one country, it may well be sufficient to maintain a single server in that country. For those serving website visitors over significant geographical distances, however, a CDN can boost loading efficiency – and with it, customer satisfaction. A CDN can also mitigate against spikes in traffic, which may otherwise crash a website. By distributing bandwidth across multiple servers, visitors can enjoy fast loading speeds, even during peak periods.

Does SmartFrame use a CDN?

Yes. While SmartFrame itself is not a CDN provider, the technology uses a CDN to ensure that customers enjoy consistently fast loading speeds. In some cases, embedded SmartFrames can load faster than when images are served via SmartFrame users’ own content delivery networks. If you don’t currently have a CDN, and your website serves lots of images to users across the world, try it out for yourself and see the difference.

The post What is a CDN? appeared first on SmartFrame.

What steps should I take if I find my images have been stolen?

albano.toska — Mon, 26 Feb 2024 14:13:51 +0000

Whether it’s accidental or deliberate, image theft is a considerable worry for many photographers and content creators. This article explores various measures that can help prevent image theft and outlines what you can do if your images are stolen.

What is image theft?

Image theft occurs when someone copies a photo without the permission of the copyright holder. It’s a common misconception that images found in Google, or available under a ‘royalty-free’ license, are free of copyright and therefore free to use. Unless explicitly stated, it should always be assumed that a photo is subject to copyright, particularly online where the content creator may not be immediately obvious.

What are royalty-free images?

Royalty-free is a license type. Those who obtain a license to use a royalty-free image do not have to pay ongoing royalties to use the image. However, it does not necessarily mean that the image is available free of charge. Royalty-free images are still subject to copyright. The copyright holder may charge a fee for you to license their royalty-free images, or they may decide to grant you a royalty-free license for free. However, if you use a royalty-free image without the express permission of the copyright holder, you will be in breach of its copyright.

How do you prevent image theft?

Some of the more common methods adopted to prevent image theft online include watermarking, only displaying low-resolution images, disabling the ability to right-click – and so, to save – images, and hiding images from Google. But these solutions are far from ideal. Watermarking images and only displaying low-resolution images diminishes the quality of your photos and website. You also may not want to hide your images from Google and lose that potential traffic source. Disabling right-click functionality is likely to annoy your users, but they may still be able to copy your images using other means, such as screenshots. A better approach is to ensure that anyone viewing your images is fully aware that they are subject to copyright. Consider placing copyright notices on your site footer, perhaps under the images themselves as a caption. The idea here is to eliminate accidental theft by making it perfectly clear that the images are not free – and our research shows this to be effective. You should also prevent hotlinking. Hotlinking happens when someone copies the source link of your image and displays it on their website while it remains hosted on your server. Preventing hotlinking requires some technical knowledge that’s outside the scope of this article, but a quick Google search will bring up many articles on how this can be achieved. With a little technical tinkering, you can also configure your image sitemaps to ensure that Google only indexes watermarked images. You should, however, remember to hide your non-watermarked images from Google using your robots.txt file. Doing all this should eliminate, or at least diminish, instances of accidental image theft. It won’t stop anyone determined to steal your photos, though. Ultimately the measures commonly implemented to prevent image theft, including those suggested above, are not perfect. At SmartFrame, we’ve developed a new technology to help combat image theft. Images uploaded to SmartFrame are broken down into many pieces, much like a jigsaw. These pieces are scrambled and are invisible to users, and they’re also encrypted for maximum protection. This makes it even harder for people to copy your images, and allows you to display high-resolution, unwatermarked images on your website.

What to do if your images are stolen

If you’re the victim of image theft, seeking appropriate legal counsel would be the first thing to do. What follows is not legal advice, rather the steps previously taken by many photographers to quickly settle cases of image theft. First, consider your desired outcome. How exactly do you want to remedy the situation? Perhaps you want the offender to remove the image? Or license it? Or maybe just add a credit? Whatever you want, you must be realistic, and any compensation demanded should be objectively proportionate. When contacting the offender, clearly state the offense committed, providing some form of proof that they are in breach and outlining the action to be taken. You could, for example, email an offender with a link to the offending image on their website, and instruct them to review the IPTC metadata, which can confirm you as the copyright holder. Having stated a demand for a remedy, you can now conclude that the breach must be rectified within a defined timeline, after which legal action would be taken. This has worked for many photographers although not all offenders will be as forthcoming. It’s therefore worth considering what you’d do if your requests are ignored. One route is to send a DMCA takedown notice to the company hosting the offending website. Assuming the offender has not complied with all reasonable requests to remove the offending content, the hosting company is obliged to do so. If you continue to have issues, seeking legal advice – particularly if you haven’t already – would be your best option at this point.

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