Category: SEO

SEO

How Accountants Can Use Digital Marketing and SEO

Miley on March 19, 2021

Did you know accountants hold the top spot when it comes to their importance to small businesses?

As a matter of fact, entrepreneurs believe your profession plays a vital role in the success of their business, which is why it comes before attorneys, bankers, and insurance agents on their priority list.

But, this statistic doesn’t mean that your accountancy firm will have clients line up and knock on your door by simply being there. While word of mouth is a decent tactic for attracting new customers, it’s crucial to take a more proactive approach when it comes to generating new business opportunities.

Luckily, digital marketing and SEO can help you spread the word about your accountancy and bring a lot of traffic.

Here’s how to leverage their benefits to improve your visibility and gain a competitive advantage.

1. Make the Most of Your Website

53% of people will research a product or service before they decide to purchase, which means establishing an online reputation is a must. And even more so if we bear in mind that your clients will trust you with managing their finances.

In other words, your website should exude reliability, expertise, and credibility.

Having a visually appealing website that loads fast and is mobile responsive is a start in the right direction. Stats corroborate this, as 38% of people stop engaging with a website with an unattractive layout and content, while 94% of website first impressions are design-related.

Opt for a clean, decluttered design that makes it easy for your potential clients to find your contact information and descriptions of the services you offer. Besides that, your home page should feature engaging options that allow visitors to explore more about your accounting firm, find out about the experts that work for you, read customer testimonials, schedule an appointment, and list helpful resources.

The point is to keep your potential clients on your website for as long as possible and get them to convert, that is, to book a call with you or subscribe to your newsletter.

2. Build a Strong Online Presence Through Blogging

Producing superb content consistently is something that is key to your digital marketing efforts.

By focusing on the topics relevant to your audience, you’ll be able to attract visitors to your website and engage them. For example, managing steady cash flow is one of the biggest challenges of running a business, so it’s a good idea to discuss viable methods of staying in the black.

Similarly, as more than 50% of small business owners think tax preparation is complicated, addressing this issue and talking about how they can reduce their tax bill will score you a loyal audience of potential clients.

Besides, blogging is a great way of establishing yourself as an authority in the field, and that’s something that will bring you a lot of qualified leads. It’s only logical that entrepreneurs want only expert advice when it comes to their finances, which means that sharing your expertise will help you win more clients.

Finally, generating high-quality content on a regular basis will fuel your social media and email marketing activities, and result in boosting your online presence.

3. Increase Your Google Rankings Through SEO

Search engine optimization (SEO) is a digital marketing practice that will help your website rank higher in Google search results and make it easier for your potential clients to find it in an avalanche of search results.

“The best place to hide a dead body is page two of Google.” This quote perfectly sums up the importance of SEO, as most people never scroll past the first page, while less than 1% actually click on any result on the second page.

Investing in SEO for accountants is a surefire way of attracting qualified traffic to your website and generating new business opportunities.

The first two steps that we discussed are also a part of this strategy. Having a well-designed, user-friendly website and relevant content won’t be of much use unless you leverage SEO and vice versa – there’s no use trying to optimize a slow, poorly-structured website or thin, low-value content.

After you ensure that your website loads fast, as well as that it’s mobile-responsive, you should focus on making sure that Google crawlers can easily access it, understand the content, and index it. This means adding meta tags, fixing broken links, eliminating duplicate content, and making it secure.

Another important segment is doing keyword research and including the relevant ones to your content, meta tags, page titles and descriptions, and other relevant page elements. It’s crucial not to overdo it, as the point is to help both Google and your potential clients find relevant content.

Link building is an SEO practice that will improve your website search engine visibility and build up its reputation. What you should do is try to earn links from authoritative websites that will in a way vouch for the quality of your content by linking back to it.

4. Don’t Neglect Social Media

Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn can be leveraged to expand your reach and additionally strengthen your online reputation.

You can use social media channels to promote your content and engage your prospects and existing clients.

But besides promotional activities, companies have been using social media for customer service purposes too. Given that 1 in 3 people in the world uses at least one social media platform, it’s obvious that you can use these channels to get in touch and interact with your target audience.

By leveraging social media’s interactivity and its potential to make communication instantaneous, you can answer your client’s questions, provide them assistance, and resolve their potential issues, thus offering exceptional customer experience.

If you implement customer service chatbots to your social media platforms, you can even ensure 24/7 support, which can tremendously improve customer satisfaction and help you build trust and loyalty with your clients. In order to take your accountancy firm to the next level, it’s important to tap into the power of digital marketing and SEO. These strategies will open the door to a larger client pool and help you create more business opportunities.

Development Insights Martech Products SaaS

Top Technologies Driving Laboratory Efficiency and Accuracy Forward

Miley on September 21, 2020

For decades, clinical laboratories have played a significant role in advancing patient care within the nation’s healthcare system. Through effective testing processes, clinical laboratorians generate accurate results that support doctors and other medical experts in making appropriate diagnoses and treatment plans for their patients. As new diseases, strains, and the global spread of life-threatening illnesses increase, rapid testing and diagnosis become more apparent.

Laboratories around the world have stepped up to the challenge by adopting technologies that enable them to work more efficiently to support the growing demand for improved diagnostics and patient care. Continue reading to learn more about technological trends in clinical laboratories.

Cloud Technology

The adoption of cloud technology in clinical laboratories has worked to streamline lab processes, create controlled environments, and disseminate information in real-time. Advanced lab equipment comes with features that automatically record testing data and store it in the cloud allowing technicians, scientists, and other associated parties to access pertinent medical information quickly.

Assisting scientists and technicians in maintaining a controlled environment, the integration of cloud technology in advanced lab equipment immediately alerts teams when issues arise in the testing or experimental stages. Such alerts provide teams with the support they need to accurately monitor and adjust processes as necessary to generate accurate results.

Modern laboratories are also adopting cloud based test equipment tracking solutions to gain visibility into their disposable and non-disposable items ranging from expensive testing equipment to instruments and disposables such as laboratory reagents. This software helps ensure reliable reservations of equipment required for testing and enables timely preventive maintenance and calibrations to make sure everything is always in top-notch condition. Also, alerts can be set for important events such as expiring equipment leases or low stock levels of materials so testing cycles are not stretched out due to such shortages.

Lastly, cloud technology features allow scientists to share information in real-time with project contributors from virtually anywhere. The data can be accessed remotely, making it easier to collaborate with other employees and laboratories for improved productivity.

Improved Equipment Designs

New technologies have enabled designers to create more efficient lab equipment compact in size with advanced capabilities for more efficient lab and testing processes. Microfluidic cell sorting, for example, can be done on a compact system, performing various functions, and helps to eliminate the need for traditional flow cytometry lab setups with simple, easy to use technology. Such innovations save laboratories money, time, and space.

Automation

The use of lab equipment to automate testing and experimental processes have been an ongoing practice for most clinical labs. As technology continues to advance, current equipment designs include features and automation tools that save time and improve efficiency in laboratory processes. The use of automation in laboratories reduces the need for manual tasks previously performed by lab technicians eliminating many daunting and repetitive steps in experimental studies resulting in authentic results in record time. Scientists and technicians are now able to focus their attention on critically analyzing data.

Sustainability

As the general public becomes increasingly concerned about the environment, industries across the board have taken great strides to do their part to reduce their carbon footprint. Realizing the extensive amount of energy used to operate labs, scientists and lab workers have begun utilizing resources that support a more eco-friendly and sustainable work environment.

Many laboratories reduced their carbon footprint by improving their recycling efforts by properly and safely disposing of used supplies, equipment, and containers. Consequently, in purchasing recycled materials for experiments, testing, and lab processes, laboratories have also been able to save a significant amount of money.

A new concept, referred to as open labs have also become an increasingly popular method for laboratories looking to reduce their carbon footprint. With technological resources like compact equipment, cloud technology, and automation features, sharing space, equipment, and data amongst other labs cuts down on waste while saving money.

The investment in more efficient lab equipment has also improved sustainability within the industry. Newer models require less energy to operate without compromising the accuracy of results.
At a time when the world is in the middle of what could be the worst threat to public health in history, clinical laboratories are needed in the fight. From increased testing and rapid results to the development of vaccinations and treatment options, scientists and lab techs around the world will ultimately save humanity. As such, laboratories need to continue to adopt technology trends such as those described above to deliver the most accurate results as quickly as possible.

Development Insights Products SaaS SEO

How to Set up a Print Server on Linux

Miley on September 17, 2020

After years of working as a support technician, I can tell you one of the most frustrating pieces of technology out there is the printer. When they work, they are an indispensable tool in the office. When they don’t work (as it often happens), they are a never-ending point of frustration.

This is especially true when your printer is attached to a Windows machine that can cause any number of problems, without rhyme or reason. Getting that shared printer back up and running can take some time. Or you might wind up having to call in support.
To make matters worse, printer problems don’t just plague end users. This almost universal bone of contention causes problems for every level of the user, even all the way up to JavaScript developers, like those at BairesDev.

Fortunately, there’s a way for your business to avoid the headaches brought about by sharing printers from desktop machines. That solution is to deploy a Linux printer server. Once you have such a server up and running, you’ll find it will serve you without fail (so long as the hardware and your network don’t become a problem).

Outside of reliability, the fact that you’ll be using open source means the only cost for you is the hardware.

Requirements

First off, you need to have a printer that supports Linux. At one point in time, this was a challenge that caused many users to avoid the Linux print server. But that’s all in the past. Today, it’s fairly easy to have a Linux printer. To find out what printers are supported by Linux, check out the OpenPrinting site.

With your supported printer at the ready, you’ll need to make sure it’s connected to your Linux server.

You’ll also need to have a Linux server available. I’ll be demonstrating with Ubuntu Server 18.04, as that’s one of the most user-friendly Linux server distributions on the market. Do note, however, that Ubuntu Server 18.04 installs without a GUI, so you’ll be working from the command line.

Finally, you’ll need a user with sudo privileges.

And that it’s. Let’s get to work.

Installing the CUPS printer server software

The first thing to take care of is the installation of the CUPS printer server software. CUPS stands for Common Unix Printer Server and has been around for some time.

To install CUPS, log into your Ubuntu server and issue the command:

sudo apt-get install cups -y

Once the installation completes, you’ll need to start the CUPS daemon and configure it to start at boot (otherwise you’ll have to start it manually anytime the server goes down). To start the CUPS daemon, issue the command:

sudo systemctl start cups

To enable the CUPS daemon at boot, issue the command:

sudo systemctl enable cups

Configuring CUPS

With CUPS installed, it’s time to configure it. Only a few quick changes need to be made within the configuration file. To open that file for editing, issue the command:

sudo nano /etc/cups/cupsd.conf

The first change you need to make is the line:

Browsing Off

Change that to:

Browsing On

Next, you need to configure CUPS so that the web-based manager is accessible from within your Local Area Network (LAN). Look for the line:

Listen localhost:631

Change that line to:

Port 631

For our next trick, you’ll have to make sure that CUPS is listening on all network interfaces. Look for the following section:

<Location />

Order allow, deny

</Location>

Change that to:

<Location />

Order allow, deny

Allow @LOCAL

</Location>

Finally, you’ll want to add access to the CUPS web-based admin console. Look for the section:

<Location /admin>

Order allow, deny

</Location>

Change that to:

<Location /admin>

AuthType Default

Require valid-user

Order allow, deny

Allow @LOCAL

</Location>

If you do opt to make the web-based admin console available, you might want to lock it down to allow only a specific user. To do this, you would change the line:

Require valid-user

Require user @SYSTEM

Save and close the cupsd.conf file. Restart the CUPS daemon with the command:

sudo systemctl restart cups

If you opted to lock down the admin console to a specific user, you’ll want to create that user with the command:

sudo useradd -g lpadmin cupsadmin

Set the new user’s password with the command:

sudo passwd cupsadmin

With that configuration, you can point a browser to https://SERVERIP/admin (where SERVERIP is the IP address of the machine hosting CUPS). You will be prompted to log in with the cupsadmin user and the password you set above.

Share the printer via Bonjour and IPP protocols

You’ll want to make sure your printer is visible to your LAN via Bonjour (for macOS desktops) and IPP (for most other desktops). To make this work, you’ll need to install the avahi daemon with the command:

sudo apt install avahi-daemon -y

Once installed, start and enable the daemon with the commands:

sudo systemctl start avahi-daemon

sudo systemctl enable avahi-daemon

Open the firewall

If you happen to have the UFW firewall enabled on the Server, allow Bonjour and IPP printer traffic through with the command:

sudo ufw all 5353/udp

Connecting your printer

At this point, everything is ready for desktops to connect. How you connect the desktop to the printer server will depend on which desktop you are using. For example, with Pop!_OS Linux, I can go to Settings > Printers, and (as long as the necessary drivers are installed) the new printer will automatically appear (Figure 1).

Figure 1

Our printer on the CUPS printer server is now available for connection.

Conclusion

And that’s all there is to set up a reliable Linux printer server. The only hiccup you will run across is if you have entities outside of your LAN (such as third-party JavaScript development companies). To allow those groups to use the printers connected to the server, you’ll need to employ a VPN. Otherwise, your printer server is ready and should serve you without fail.

Development Insights SEO

15 of the Most Effective SEO Tips for Beginners

Miley on September 11, 2020

As a beginner, you need to realize that there is no other golden opportunity to improve the website rankings in the popular search engines like Google or Yahoo other than SEO service. Of course, there are many options available to achieve better rankings, but guest post service provider helps you to design a reliable framework for your website that is 100% safe and secure!!

Important SEO tips for beginners

1. Page title and descriptions:

When it comes to any content, page titles are very important aspects to consider. It is an impression that helps you to grab the attention of the visitors. Be short and informative…!!!

2. Post blog that visitors love to read & share:

Nothing would bring vast changes to the rankings of the website other than the guest blog. You need to provide great content to drive high traffic rates and engage more audiences. With the help of guest post outreach, you can promote the brand worldwide!

3. Keyword research:

As a beginner, you need to perform more studies on keyword research to make the site appear on the first page of the search results.

4. Improve on-page elements:

Of course, on-page elements might be small, but you to concentrate on the elements like title, header tags, etc to have a great impact on your website’s page.

5. Identify and fix SEO issues:

Identifying and fixing any SEO issues will help you to run the website smoothly.

6. Improve page loading speed:

SEO helps you to load the page of your website much faster and make your site appear on the first page in the search results.

7. Make use of social media platform:

When you are ready to use social media platforms, you can find a massive audience reach and high traffic rates to your niche.

8. Understand the importance of Anchor Text:

With the help of anchor text, you can influence the website that you are linking to and you can grab the attention of the visitors much faster.

9. Link building:

Link building is the most imperative aspect of SEO. You need to build a link that is relevant to your niche to strike skyrocket hit on your business.

10. Make your site mobile friendly:

If you do not provide a smooth browsing experience for your site, then it may decrease your website rankings and so it is essential SEO tips for beginners to enhance the user experience.

11. Content marketing:

Content marketing is an important aspect of SEO. When you offer great content, sure visitors will help you to promote the website.

12. Stay updated:

One of the most important SEO tactics to consider for beginners is to discover and post updated content on your site to generate organic traffic rates.

13. Keep your eyes on your competitors:

It is always important to keep your eyes on your competitor’s website so that you can come to know what type of services they are providing.

14. Image optimization:

Make use of attractive images to enhance the user-experience and focus on page load speed as well.

15. Verify your external links:

External links are significant for SEO. All of these SEO tips help you to verify that your SEO tactics remain efficient and successful.

This was an introduction about SEO, but there are a lot more details to work on when you dive in. If you need professional help, you can always get in touch with SEO experts. They will provide you with detailed information or offer their services.

Development Insights Martech SaaS SEO

How Odoo Can Cover All Your Needs

Miley on August 27, 2020

Each business carries a large amount of data that needs to be generated on a daily basis. As technology continues to grow more complex every day, it has made it harder for business owners to find an efficient solution to keep all employees up to date on sales and purchase processes.

Having an excellent customer relations team is a major part of a successful business and that can be difficult when you need to focus on the challenges of owning your own company.

Odoo can help solve all your business problems by integrating your customer relationship management software and enterprise resource planning together to improve your business and your staff’s productivity.

Here are the top advantages of using Odoo for your company:

1. Real-time access to important data

There are a lot of complications that can happen when your system is not integrated fully. When your employees are processing a purchase without having the most updated information, you could risk leading them to making a big mistake that will cost customers a lot of money.

Having a fully integrated CRM and ERP system will always give your employees fast access to information that gets updated immediately to ensure that you won’t have to run into any problems with customers, inventory, shipments, payments, returns, order history, and more.

2. Save money by reducing IT costs

When you are using two different systems instead of one means that you are spending double the cost on everything including IT costs and hours of training your employees to use both programs.

Integrated ERP and CRM will create one platform to use for everything, which means no more expensive maintenance cost for two separate systems and wasting your money on individual platforms.

3. Get rid of unnecessary data entry

Combining ERP and CRM into one system that will have all of the information that you need can eliminate the unnecessary data entry work that has to be done twice on each system.

You can enter the data once on an integrated system and it will show on ERP database as well as CRM without accidentally duplicating it. This also applies if an account needs a custom field to be added and when the data is removed or edited from the system.

4. Allows your team to be more productive

Your CRM system is focused on sales and providing customer support and ERP is for shipping and billing information, inventory data, warehouse, and more. Both systems depend heavily on each other to avoid making any mistakes, which can slow down your employees’ productivity when they have to double check every information before confirming a purchase.

It is especially a hassle for your staff when they are in the middle of an important sale process that has to be done as quickly as possible. By integrating both systems you will improve the customer’s experience with your company by making it easier for your employees to collaborate through the platform and giving them the ability to track all operations.

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A Handbook on “Go Agile”!

Miley on August 21, 2020

Agile is a procedure by which a team can deal with a project by separating it into a few stages and including steady coordinated effort with stakeholders and consistent improvement and emphasis at each phase of the task. It starts with clients laying out how the finished result will be utilized and what issue it will resolve.

What is Scrum???

Scrum is a subset of Agile. It is a lightweight process framework for agile development, and one of the most widely used one.
It’s not a process or methodology.
Easy to understand.
Based on Empiricism which means that scrum artifacts should be transparent to everyone in the team.

Principles of Agile

To fulfil the client through right on time and continuous use of important software.
To cater to changing requirements, even late in app development.
Delivering working software frequently.
Stakeholders work with the scrum team together throughout the project so as to avoid any communication gaps.
The most efficient way of communicating information within the team is face-to-face conversation.
The progress of work is measured by working software.
Continuous attention is paid to technical excellence.
Due to the self-organizational team structure, the best architectures, designs, and ideas come up.

Empiricism

Transparency:- All artifacts of the process should be visible to the stakeholders and the scrum team. Due to transparency, they can inspect the current state of the project and take necessary action if needed.
Inspection:- Having regular inspections of artifacts will help the stakeholders to incorporate changes in order to achieve the goal.
Adaptation:- Improvements can be made by adjusting the process based on the inspection results.

Scrum is Iterative and Incremental

First one – Incremental

Second one – Iterative

Incremental:- This type of development is to build small increments of the entire product. Each increment adds more features to the product. After multiple increments, you will get the complete product.

Iterative:- This development is to build something, take some feedback, and then refining to make it better. This will keep happening until we receive the product of good quality.

The Scrum Team

The Product Owner.
The Development Team.
The Scrum Master.

The Product Owner

The product owner is liable for augmenting the estimation of the product and work of the development group.

Clearly describing the Product backlog items.
Responsible for managing the product backlog.
To ensure the PBI is visible and clear to all.
To ensure the requirement is understood by all to the level it is required.
Accountable for building high-value products.
Ordering of Product backlog items to achieve the best goals.
Responsible for understanding and answering all questions pertaining to the product domain.
Responsible for tracking the release progress.
Liable for making and dealing with the release plans.
Liable for making and building up the product vision.
Enhancing the estimation of work done by the development team.

The Development Team

The Development Team comprises experts who accomplish crafted by conveying a conceivably releasable Increment of “Done” product at the end of each Sprint.

Cross-functional and self-organizing.
Participates in all scrum events.
Responsible for creating the product increment.
Collaborates with the Product Owner for optimal value.
Responsible for identifying and eliminating technical debts.
Liable for creating and coordinating the sprint backlog.
Responsible for implementing good engineering practices.
Helps product owners in backlog management by explaining the technical constraints.
Answerable for learning all the functions required to convey a product increment.
Answerable for following the advancement of the sprint.

The Scrum Master

The scrum master is responsible for ensuring that Scrum is understood and enacted by all. He ensures that the scrum team adheres to Scrum practices and rules.

He is a servant- leader to the scrum team.
Responsible for building the product fast by eliminating impediments.
Goes about as a change agent that builds the productivity of the scrum team.
Mentors the development team for self-organization and cross-functionality.
Helps the product owners prioritize the work and teaches stakeholders value-based prioritization.
Facilitates Scrum events as requested or required.
Finds and teaches techniques for effective product backlog management to the product owners.
Enables workers and partners of the association to comprehend and institute Scrum and experimental product development.
Assists with streamlining the outside connection with the scrum group to amplify the value created.

Scrum Events

All occasions are time-boxed occasions, with the end goal that each occasion has a maximum duration. When a Sprint starts, its span is fixed and can’t be abbreviated or extended.

The remainder of the events may end at whatever point the explanation behind the event is accomplished, ensuring an appropriate proportion of time is spent without allowing waste at the same time.

The Sprint

The core of Scrum is a Sprint, a time-box of one month or less during which a “Done”, usable, and possibly releasable product Increment is made.

Sprint Planning:- A time-boxed event that occurs at the beginning of every sprint where the team determines the product backlog items they will work on during the sprint.
Daily Scrum:- It’s a brief time-boxed occasion for the development group to synchronize exercises and make an arrangement for the following 24 hours.
Sprint Review:- This is again a time-boxed event that occurs at the end of every sprint to inspect the increment and adapt the product backlog if needed.
Sprint Retrospective:- This occasion gives a chance to the team to review itself and make an arrangement for enhancements to be done in the following sprint

Scrum Artifacts

Scrum Artifacts speak to work or incentive to give transparency and chances to investigation and transformation. Artifacts have been planned with a reason that everyone has a similar comprehension of the artifact.

Product Backlog:- An arranged rundown of everything that may be required in the product which is the single wellspring of necessities for any progressions to be made to the item. The Product Owner is liable for the Product Backlog, including its content, accessibility, and ordering.
Sprint Backlog:- The arrangement of Product Backlog things chose for the Sprint alongside an arrangement for conveying the item increase and understanding the run objective.
Product Increment:- The whole of all the Product Backlog things finished during a Sprint and the estimation of the additions of every past Sprint is called item increase.
Product Backlog Refinement:- The ongoing product backlog refinement takes place within each sprint to refine items to be ready for future sprints.

Scrum Values

Commitment:- It is a team activity where you and your team are accountable to work together and confirm your team commitments. The scrum teams must be committed to progress and stick to the goal of the project.
Focus:- Once the requirements are clear and the target is set, one should be goal-oriented which motivates you for delivering faster and better.
Openness:- Colleagues ought to be open about their work, progress, what they realized and the issues they are confronting. Additionally, you ought to be available to work with partners, perceiving people to be people, and not resources, robots, or replaceable bits of equipment.
Respect:- As a piece of the Scrum group, you should regard partners, their choices, and their experience. You should regard your partners by not building anything in which individuals are not intrigued. You have to similarly regard your clients by settling their issues.
Courage:- Flexibility to change shapes the bedrock of any Scrum project and to acknowledge a change, fearlessness is required. Scrum is tied in with facing challenges and discovering an improved arrangement. The Scrum group is permitted to consider various ways to deal with the workshop the best and most proper arrangements. So as to execute new things to the undertaking, we have to disclose these new plans to the group for which you would require fearlessness.

Author bio

Radhika Sethi is a tech enthusiast with specialization in Digital Marketing. She is passionate about technology, internet marketing, big data, and writing. Currently working in Affle Enterprise, a chatbot development company. Reading novels, traveling, researching new online marketing trends are some of her areas of interest that keep her rejuvenated.

Development Insights Martech Products SaaS

5 Ways Businesses Can Avoid Risk of Information Breach Online

Miley on August 12, 2020

Successfully managing a business is a daunting errand because of the challenges you face amidst the journey. Cyber-attacks have been exponentially increasing; alone, in 2019, it is reported that breach of data exposed 4.1 billion records. And with that, the need to secure your business is becoming of enormous importance.

Business information serves as a critical asset for any company and makes it of the utmost worth. Therefore, in this post, I will be sharing 05 hand-picked ways to minimize and eradicate the risk of getting your information stolen by hackers.

Let’s dive right into how you can protect your information online from cyber thefts.

1. Use a Secure Network

Surfing on the websites using public Wi-Fi makes your information exposed to cybercriminals. That further leads to increased chances of getting your vital information stolen. Thereby, it would be best if you used a secured network that is end-to-end encrypted.

One of the best ways is to incorporate a virtual private network connection on all your devices to get full-fledged security. On top of that, using multiple devices VPN makes it easier for you to protect information sharing on all systems. Besides top-notch security, it will also enable you to have online anonymity on all networks.

2. Beware of Phishing Emails

To avoid information breach, you need to be vigilant about the emails you entertain in your daily routine. Phishing emails are increasing enormously and are one of the apparent reasons behind security vulnerabilities. Make sure you do not click any of the emails that seem like a spamming activity.

Also, companies must provide adequate security training to the staff, administering the emails to know the parameter to recognize a fraudulent email. Based on a recent report conducted by Mimecast State of Email Security, almost 60 percent of companies are likely to bear email attacks if not appropriately secured. Therefore, you need to ensure to keep intense monitoring before you open any email.

3. Encrypt Confidential Information

Access to sensitive information must be in the hands of critical stakeholders only. Company owners need to make their employees well-versed in handling cyber-security. It is essential to encrypt all the data you have stored in your business systems.

Never share any of your details using the collaboration tools as the risk of information theft is considerably high. For instance, it has been reported that the Zoom app has some serious privacy concerns that make your shared data vulnerable to cyber-attacks. Therefore, it is best to encrypt your data on all the platforms and restrict access to trusted people only.

4. Create a Strong Password

If you are operating multiple business accounts, you must be concerned about making it secure from cyber-attacks. One way is to make your account password sturdy enough to provide security defense to your accounts. That means you have to create a strong password to secure your sensitive information on online platforms.

People who use easy-to-remember passwords are more vulnerable to security breaches. Thus, you need to ensure you follow the standard security policies while creating your password on business accounts. Ensure you modify your password after 6 months so as to avoid the risk of code-cracking.

Moreover, it is recommended to use a blend of unique lower and upper case letters, symbols, and numbers. Make use of two-factor authentication in your password to fortify security. This way, you can create an impenetrable password that will make it hard for hackers to attack. And eventually, your information will be safe from unwanted malware.

5. Regulate Vulnerability Assessments

To make sure you are following all the standard security practices on your business systems, you must use an information security management system (ISMS). That has all the power to manage your business security in one place. This way, you can be assured that all your organization data is safe from any security threat or possible vulnerabilities. Try doing security audits every after some time to ensure business systems are well-equipped to combat threats.

Key Takeaways

The risk of an information breach is getting high, and with that, the need to upgrade your security practices is a must to consider. The online world is a cut-throat medium for hackers and other spammers. And to restrain them from harming your business, it is better you keep in practice the above shared 5 ways to avoid the risk of an information breach. Although there are other practices, too, the ones I have shared are imperative for your security.

Author Bio

Amtul Rafay is a Cybersecurity enthusiast who loves to write on topics pertaining to online privacy, internet security, and web privacy. She believes in the influential power of research-backed opinions to stay updated with the futuristic technology trends.

Development Insights SEO

Turn Website Visitors into Loyal Paying Customers With These Tips

Miley on August 3, 2020

E-Commerce has established successful businesses that are now ruling the world. From Amazon to the renowned Alibaba, the magic of e-commerce can be seen from many inspiring businesses. But, It’s not always easy to set-up an e-commerce website, engage the audience, and maintain them.

Extra-ordinary customer services, quality products, and, most importantly, a well-designed e-commerce website is what keeps the business going.

Many businesses fail due to lack of absence, poor website design, and the conventional way of selling. A website that is not intuitive, SEO-optimized, rich in graphics does not attract viewers, and they prefer to click the ‘CLOSE’ button. But if you have an understanding of your visitors, their buying patterns, you can design a website that will turn browsers into regular paying clients.

Brands hire SEO professionals and website designers, who work with them to build an engaging, user-friendly, compelling website.

They are aware of the local audience preferences, their buying behavior, and help in e-commerce development. Here are some e-commerce website design tactics that capture customer attention and urges them to shop.

Make Your Website Fast

According to various case studies, most shoppers don’t complete the purchase because of delayed website response. And that’s not shocking. With most people having an attention span shorter than that of a goldfish, it’s not hard to understand why one-second delay can cost a significant percentage of sales.
So, make your website faster and responsive. You can increase the page loading speed by:

Ditching budget web hosting.
Reducing HTTP calls.
Enabling compression.
Enabling browser caching.
Optimizing on-page elements.

Focus on Product Pages

No matter how compulsive your homepage is, the product pages are where visitors become shoppers. Make sure the product page has all the information about the product. Include high-quality product images editing. You can also try motion images, including interactive functions that show products up-side-down (360°) views, zoom-features that show fine details.

Write an excellent, compelling product description.

You can also experiment with on-screen videos.

Include Live Chatbots

Chatbots are quickly becoming a talking point. Thanks to the wide range of use cases in many industries, they’ve become a major communication channel with customers.

This is an interactive way to engage with customers as they feel more comfortable when communicating with and getting new information from chatbots.

It might be, the viewer has specific requirements about the product that can’t be described on-page. A little help with live-chat will resolve the problem, and the customer will happily buy the product.

Easy Check-Out Process

An abandoned cart is the most common problem e-commerce businesses face. It is because of the long contact forms, shipping details, and payment options.

So, reduce the ordering process to 2 to 3 clicks. Moreover, make the online payment easier and convenient by introducing payment options which the majority of customers use.

Design A Thank You Page

It’s a page where visitors go after they shop from the website. Creating a thank-you page provides a great opportunity for you to express gratitude and encourage them to sign up for your newsletter.

When designed skillfully, these pages can keep your leads engaged and promise secondary conversion opportunities.

Final Thoughts

Excellent website design, informative product pages, user-friendly interface, and simple check-out process, are the main pillars for e-commerce business. So, if you focus on the above-mentioned points and hire the best firm of public relations, your website will attract visitors and turn them into paying customers.

What are the current strategies you adopt to convert your visitors? We’d like to know in the comment section below.

Development Insights Martech SaaS SEO

Best Google Chrome Extensions for Small Businesses

Miley on July 27, 2020

Google Chrome has arrays of extensions that you can use to scale your business. You can use them to send emails, automate tasks, and safeguard your documents online. The extensions work on your PC or Mac once you have downloaded them. Here are the best Google Chrome extensions that are of immense benefit to your business.

1. Todoist

Todoist is a useful tool that will help you organize all tasks in your organization. You will work with other workers as a team to complete all the jobs. Plus, you can assign individuals to work based on their skills and talents as well. As the boss, you can track the tasks regardless of your location. The highlight is that you can set reminders via Todoist so that you won’t miss out on significant job events.

2. Helium 10

Helium 10 is an Amazon Chrome extension for sellers that help them check prices on various items. You can keep tabs on the cost of specific products in your line of business. Once the prices drop, Helium 10 will alert you so that you can set competitive rates. This way, you will generate profits based on the trends that come with the cost of goods. The best part is that you will get data on Amazon and other global online sellers. You will be ahead of other businesses that trade in the same products as your enterprise.

3. Grammarly

The app is essential since you need to create content from time to time about your company. On that account, Grammarly removes typos and grammar mistakes that make online content appear unprofessional. Once you install it, it automatically corrects all errors when you write to attain polished posts. Your emails will be easy to read and have the correct spelling as well.

4. Buffer

It is a widely used Google Chrome extension that links all your social media accounts. You can advertise your products via Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn with one click. The posts become automatic, making social sharing a seamless thing to do. The highlight is that you can track and analyze results to see the number of likes, shares, and comments.

5. Boomerang

Boomerang is the best extension for your email account since it manages the messages that you send or receive. It can delay texts until when you are ready to view them in free time. In addition to that, Boomerang can help you schedule when you want to send emails. You can track messages if you don’t get feedback from your clients. The best part is that you will know if the recipient has read the content or not, thanks to Boomerang.

6. Click & Clean

As part of technology, your business will face risks such as cyberattacks and other cybersecurity breaches. Therefore, you need to protect vital information that you have searched via your browser. Click & Clean is the ideal mechanism to clear history and cookies. It gets rid of cache and typed URLs so that no one can have a wind of what you are doing as part of your venture.

7. Fakespot

If you buy products in bulk online, you need to know if they are authentic or not. Fakespot allows you to determine genuine and fake reviews from customers. This way, you can purchase items that will not discredit your business. The extension pans out the difference between honest and untrue comments about specific goods. You will view the real grades from A to F that show the value or worth of the items that you intend to buy.

Development Martech SEO Startups

Why San Diego is a Great Location for Tech Startups

Miley on July 27, 2020

Tech startups are some of the hottest companies in existence today. However, there’s always the question of where they should be located. For 2020 and the future, let us take a very close look at why San Diego is an excellent location for tech startups.

Great Location with Relatively Lower Costs

To start things off, San Diego features relatively low costs compared to the rest of California. Let’s not get confused, the price of living is still high. But it is moderately affordable, especially for a startup. An office can be rented at a reasonable price. If you’re willing to commit to several years of rent, these deals are even better. Utilities also aren’t extremely high. On a day to day basis, tech startups will find that they pay less than their counterparts in other cities with a large tech presence. As for your employees, they’ll be spending less as well. Food and transportation costs are very affordable in San Diego. This means that more people are flocking to the city, and your employees will be set up for success in financial regard.

A Strong, Supportive Tech Community

Next in line, San Diego features a strong tech community. There are already many tech startups in the area that make for high competition. In particular, this is a friendly sort of competition. While companies in some industries are fiercely at war with each other, this is not true for the tech industry. Many of these startups work alongside one another and even bounce ideas off each other. As the company across the street makes progress, you’ll want to achieve the same. There are tech festivals and celebrations throughout the year that feature the latest developments. These are fantastic ways to stay up to date with the newest tech and look toward the future. When your startup wins an award or recognition, other businesses throughout the city will respect this achievement for what it is worth.

A Rich Talent Pool

Another factor that is similar to a strong tech community is the number of tech graduates. Thousands of students from nearby universities are looking for internships or their first job out of college. They have completed all the relevant coursework and are more than qualified to take on a startup job. Moreover, they are hungry and have a genuine interest in tech. If you situate your startup in San Diego, you’ll be able to work with all of these graduates. It’s a relationship that goes both ways. You’ll have the best workforce at your fingertips, and your startup will surely see success. At the same time, these graduates will be able to work for a promising startup instead of a company that doesn’t fit their interests.

A Diversity of Resources

Last but not least, the diversity of resources is phenomenal, from San Diego water purification resources like Rayne Water to San Diego billboard companies like Lamar. Solar energy is a thriving business, as well, because San Diego is a city that is highly focused on renewable energy. In particular, solar panels are commonly found on the roofs of many downtown buildings. The Southern California climate is perfect for generating these sorts of renewable energy. It will lower the cost of your electric bill and help the environment at the same time.

That Perfect Weather

Northern California draws a lot of people in the tech industry, but unless you like wearing a jacket most of the year, there’s no comparison to the weather in San Diego. Every few years, another news publication writes an article about how San Diego is the finest place to live. Maybe that’s why the city’s motto is: “America’s Finest City.”

When all is said and done, San Diego is an excellent location for tech startups. It’s nearly the perfect environment for a startup looking to make waves in the tech industry. Take all of the above factors and more into consideration!