AVS adds an extra level of security to a transaction. The address that your customer has entered is checked against the cardholder address that the bank holds for that card. The bank will indicate whether there is a match between the address entered and the card address.

All our payment gateway providers support the real time validation of AVS data. An online merchant can use the results of this test to decide whether or not to fulfil an order. For example, you might want to check that the delivery address matches the cardholder address before dispatching the goods. This is valid only for UK orders.

The Creative Hub use Drupal as our content management system. Drupal is a free open source content management system (CMS). It is used as a website system for many different types of websites ranging from small personal blogs to large corporate and political website including the American White House.

The standard release of Drupal, known as Drupal core, contains basic features common to most CMSs. These include the ability to register and maintain individual user accounts within a flexible and rich permission / privilege system, create and manage menus, RSS feeds, customise page layout, perform logging, and administer the system. Out of the box, Drupal provides options to create a classic brochure website, a single or multi-user blog, a forum, or a community website providing for user-generated content.

Drupal was also designed to allow new features and custom behavior to be added to extend Drupal's core capabilities. This is done via installation of plug-in modules. The Creative Hub are always evaluating modules to include in our Drupal package. We currently install modules for search engine optimisation (SEO), content creation,  email marketing, maps and geocoding and social media such as Twitter.

Although Drupal offers a sophisticated programming interface for developers, no programming skills are required for administration.

The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard is a worldwide information security standard assembled by the Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council (PCI SSC). The standard was created to help organisations that process card payments prevent credit card fraud through increased controls around data and its exposure to compromise. The standard applies to all organisations which hold, process, or pass cardholder information from any card branded with the logo of one of the card brands.

PCI DSS originally began as five different programs: Visa Card Information Security Program, MasterCard Site Data Protection, American Express Data Security Operating Policy, Discover Information and Compliance, and the JCB Data Security Program. Each company’s intentions were roughly similar: to create an additional level of protection for card issuers by ensuring that merchants meet minimum levels of security when they store, process and transmit cardholder data. The Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council (PCI SSC) was formed, and on 15 December 2004, these companies aligned their individual policies and released the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS).

Non-compliant companies who maintain a relationship with one or more of the card brands, either directly or through an acquirer risk losing their ability to process card payments and being audited and/or fined.

Search engine optimisation (SEO) is the process of improving the volume or quality of traffic to a web site from search engines via "natural" or un-paid ("organic") search results. Typically, the higher a site appears in the search results list, the more visitors it will receive from the search engine. SEO may target different kinds of search, including image search, local search, video search and industry-specific vertical search engines to give a web site web presence.

As an Internet marketing strategy, SEO considers how search engines work and what people search for. Optimising a website primarily involves editing its content and HTML and associated coding to both increase its relevance to specific keywords and to remove barriers to the indexing activities of search engines. SEO tactics may be incorporated into web site development and design. The term "search engine friendly" (SEF) may be used to describe web site designs, menus, content management systems, images, videos, shopping carts, and other elements that have been optimised for the purpose of search engine exposure.

Another class of techniques, known as black hat SEO or spamdexing, use methods such as link farms, keyword stuffing and article spinning that degrade both the relevance of search results and the user-experience of search engines. Search engines look for sites that employ these techniques in order to remove them from their indices.

All credit and debit cards carry a security code number. This number is known to the bank and printed on the card, but is not stored or printed anywhere else. Therefore, it can be used as a confirmation that the person using the card to make a purchase is in physical possession of the card, or has at least seen the card at some time.

Our payment gateway providers support the real time validation of card security code numbers as a standard service to merchants. For online merchants this code can provide extra assurance that the credit card is in the physical possession of the person making the transaction. You can ask for this number, along with the other credit card details, when your customer places an order, and the number will be checked by the bank.