Feet
Insights

Factors to Consider When Choosing the Best Shoe Inserts

Flat feet have a different structure compared to arched feet. The shoe inserts or insole also vary when a person has flat feet. So, for such variation, there are respective products available. It makes choosing the right shoe wear. For flat feet, it can be sometimes confusing to find the best of its kind. The best shoe inserts for flat feet can be found in the shoe features.

A main difference between the flat feet is the absence or slight presence of an arch in the feet. The lack of arch leads to exerting direct pressure on the bottom of the feet. It causes back pain, knee pain, and foot pain. They mostly suffer from the kind of inflammation even when they are walking. In such cases, the best shoe inserts for flat feet are specially developed keeping in mind the comfort and requirement of a flat foot.

Flexible Shoe Inserts For Flat Feet

There are no specific categorized insoles, but it is always effective to find the best shoe inserts for flat feet. The materials should be flexible as well as if a metatarsal pad is added to the insole. It helps to reduce the intense pressure on the feet.

Based on the factors, there are insoles available both online and offline. It should be bought keeping in mind the sizes and gender. Not only does it provides comfort and support to the flat feet. But, at the same time reduces the inflammation or pain of the plantar fascia area. 

When it comes to choosing the best shoe inserts for flat feet, you should cross-check if the inserts are flexible, and provide comfort to the wearer. 

Features To Consider Before Buying Shoe Inserts For Flat Feet

As many types of insoles are available in the market, it is essential to find out the best shoe inserts for flat feet. Some of the features that make the insoles suitable for shoes should be considered based on some features. 

Sneakers
Foot inserts are ready to be placed in the sneakers

Shoes That Need Insoles

Always wear the shoes that need inserts or insoles. As proper fitting of the insoles is essential, it can be for one of your shoes or all. Depending on the number and kind of shoes based on style and shape, the insoles should be selected. 

Consider The Foot Type

It is not difficult for arch feet to find their type, but for the selection of the best shoe inserts for flat feetthe requirements are not the same. The flexibility of the materials should also be kept in mind while choosing insoles for the feet.

What Are The Activities

Are you trying to find one for your regular wear or regular exercises? In both cases, the basic need varies. Based on the activities, you should choose the insoles. Runners type is designed differently from heel insert insoles.

Always Consult A Professional

For wearing the best shoe inserts for flat feet, it is essential to consult a professional. Consulting an expert helps in discovering the insole suitable for the type of feet. Also, they can provide suggestions of the kind of designs and comfort that will match the feet type.

Customized

After the assessment of the feet type, size, and the best-fit one should customize the kind of insoles. Customized flat feet designs will enable to provide support as well as ensure stability to the feet. 

Final Words

The best shoe inserts for flat feet cannot be specifically separated or categorized. But with customization and consultation finding the suitable one is possible. When choosing one for your needs, you should go with the insoles that meet your specific needs and requirement.

Home
Insights

The Best Home Automation Ideas to Make Your Life Easier in 2022

Let’s face it: we all lead busy lives with days that feel scheduled out minute by minute. With advancements in technology comes smart home products to add to your household for maximum efficiency. Here’s our ranking of the best home automation ideas that you can add to your household in 2022. 

Smart Lights to Match Your Daily Life

Is there anything worse than coming home to a dark and empty house? Long gone are the days of fumbling and trying to find your light switch when you walk in! With smart lights, you’re able to automate your schedule to make sure your lights come on and off exactly when you need them to. Here are our best home automation ideas for smart lights:

  • Create a sunrise and sunset by automatically lighting or dimming your lights
  • Automate your smart lights to turn on when you enter a geofence
  • Turn all your lights on and off through your phone

Enjoy Vacations Stress-Free While Your Home is Lit Up

Another one of our best home automation ideas is to set your smart lights while you’re on vacation. Instead of your home look dark and empty from the curb, you can automatically set up a schedule, even if you’re thousands of miles away!  Whether you’re on a beach or in Europe, your home will look lived in.

Programming Your Smart Thermostat to Your Schedule

How often do you sit at your desk and realize you didn’t adjust your thermostat before heading out? When you upgrade your thermostat to a smart thermostat, you’re able to change your home’s temperature from your phone. Not only is this one of the best home automation ideas for 2022, but it’s also a great way to save some money on your electricity bill. 

Set your thermostat to follow your daily schedule, or let your thermostat figure it out for you! Not sure how that looks? Here’s our recommendation for a thermostat schedule:

  • Adjust temperature when you wake up
  • Turn off when you typically leave for work
  • Turn back on around the time you normally come home
  • Adjust for bedtime 

Not only will your thermostat do it for you automatically, but you’re able to adjust the temperature and time if your daily schedule changes. 

Automate Your Home Security With a Click of a Button

Upgrade your home security system by automating it to fit your lifestyle! There are a few different ways you can level up your security through automation. Here are some of the best ways to do it: 

  • Switch to keyless entry locks. Not only can you ditch your keys, but your smart lock can automatically lock when you’re out of your home or can be set on a timer. 
  • Utilize a home security app that allows you to lock and unlock your doors with a click of a button
  • Install motion sensors that send real-time notifications to your phone

Security system
A new home security system is installed

Utilize Amazon Alexa For Daily Life

While Alexa is a great go-to source for quick jokes, simple questions, or playing music that’s stuck in your head, you can also automate it to work with your schedule. You can set alarms throughout the day, control your lights or set up routines. 

Alexa Routines

Set routines with your Alexa to set up your day. You can create a morning routine with alarms, turning on lights, or even automatically playing the morning news. Upgrade your morning routine with this great home automation! 

You can also set nightly routines, such as dimming the lights at a certain time, playing calm music, turning on your security system, or even reading you a bedtime story. 

Look Towards Smart Solutions For Your Daily Life

Living in a smart home is a great idea to advance your life. Not only will you feel like you’ve just stepped out of an episode of “The Jetsons” but you’re able to automate daily activities. Say goodbye to menial tasks, and step into a tech-friendly future with the best home automation ideas. 

Presentation
Insights

5 Strategies for Making Data Stand out in Presentations

Many professionals need to present their work to clients or other audiences at some point, and they worry about capturing their attention. Plain presentations make people lose interest and can cost you a contract. Many presentations miss their mark by not highlighting the essential information hard enough.  

A common problem in unimpactful presentations is an overload of data and statistics. The information can be unappealing if you do not present it in a way that stands out. Having figure-based information to present doesn’t mean that you can’t make your deck appealing. You can still capture the attention of your audience with data.  

Adopt particular strategies to help data stand out during a presentation and connect well with your addressees.  

Change the Formatting 

Data in spreadsheets makes a lot of sense because each has a specific output. However, it may be challenging for a third party to decipher the information at a first look. The way you format the data may not be the right fit for conveying it to your audience.  

Unlike you, who had several days to interact with the data, the audience only has a few seconds or minutes to figure it all out. Attempt to make the process easy for them to avoid losing their interest. For example, having a table with plenty of numbers may be challenging for some people to interpret. A pie chart visually showing the proportions of data may stand out better.  

If you lack the time or expertise to figure it all out, you can hire excel experts to help you format data as you want. Such professionals know how to maneuver data and present them in various formats on spreadsheets.  

Give a Real World Example 

People usually relate to the information they receive that concerns their situation. You are probably presenting to a client looking for solutions to a problem they are facing in business. To help illustrate the data, give your audience a real-world example of the data in action.  

Research shows that problem-centered learning is an effective way to help people retain information. The ultimate reason for collating and analyzing data is to provide insights for decision-making. Many managers and business owners lack the patience to try and figure out how your data relates to their business issues and would rather see it instantaneously.    

You can provide simulations of how your output will help along a decision process or satisfy an emerging market challenge. If possible, provide case studies of how such information has proven critical in solving problems.   

Keep It Top Level 

When you want to deliver particular messages to your audience, there is a temptation to have a lot of information in your presentation because you feel it is critical. Such an approach is counterproductive as the message recipients tire and switch off. You are better off presenting high-level information. 

Avoid bogging your audience down with too much detail. Research shows that great presenters use fewer words and slides. Try and keep the data presented to only the most essential, top-level items. You can always give your audience a takeaway document with more detailed data if they are interested in learning more.  

The most important aspect of information delivery is to command attention. You can get an opportunity later to deep dive into other details. The tip especially applies if you are introducing the information to an audience. 

Make It Visually Stimulating 

Presentation
Innovation is very important for a successful presentation

Appealing visuals and color displays attract most people. The aesthetic appeal of your presentation will catch the attention of your audience and compel them to focus on the information you are conveying. Make your presentation stimulating with aspects like colors, imagery, video, text design, etc.   

If you feel challenged by your creative imagery skills, you can use a graphic designer. However, you can also do a lot of fun content styling and formatting in PowerPoint or Google Slides. Search for relevant imagery on the internet until you identify one befitting your needs. Be sure to highlight or bold what you want people to understand.  

Have an Interacting Element 

Interacting with audiences during a presentation enhances message intake and the likelihood of buy-in to your proposition. These sessions allow you to adjust to feedback and change your delivery style as you move along.  

Make your presentation as interactive as possible. One way to increase engagement is to ask your audience a question and have them take a poll revealing their answers. After analyzing the answers they provided, expose the correct data and allow them to see how close or far off they were.  

The audience interactions also encourage them to feel like they are part of the process instead of just observers. If in a pitch, such feelings increase the likelihood of getting buy-in from the prospective clients and a closed sale.  

Stand Out in Your Presentation 

Presentations are about the style of delivery as much as the content. Many times incisive content falls flat because of poor delivery. After you master your content, work on your delivery mode for presentation success. Ask for feedback to help you better yourself before the actual session. 

Laptop
Insights

How Contract Lifecycle Management Contributes to Your Business Success

Contract lifecycle management is managing the contract’s life cycle as you use it in the business. It is a process that ensures that the contract business and its stakeholders are aligned to achieve desired business outcomes.

You can use it in any scenario where there is an agreement between two parties. For example, there is an agreement between an employer and their employees or between a company and its suppliers.

It helps companies manage their contracts, employees, and vendors in an organized manner. It ensures that the company’s contracts are up-to-date with the latest information, new vendors are added and removed when needed, and that you assign projects efficiently to your employees.

Many companies use contract lifecycle management to make sure they can keep track of the contracts they have signed with their vendors and employees. It also helps them make sure that they have all the information about these contracts at hand to work efficiently.

Here are specific ways that contract lifecycle management can contribute to your business’ success.

Standardize the process from start to finish

Contract lifecycle management is a tool that can help a company to standardize the process from start to finish. The business must standardize the contract management process to help with business success.

Contract lifecycle management is helpful for companies when they need to recruit talent and when they want to retain it. It helps them stay on top of their employees’ expectations by providing them with feedback on their performance or by giving them clear goals that they have set for themselves.

The contract lifecycle management also helps with managing the contract itself. Companies can track the time spent on a project, what they’ve finished, who did it, and how much time they spent on each task. You can use this information for billing purposes, analytics, or quality assurance.

Reduce the need for manual tasks

Contract lifecycle management is a process that automates the contract management process. It can reduce the need for manual tasks in this process and provide better visibility into contracts and their statuses.

Contract lifecycle management can be a tedious process that requires careful monitoring and timely responses. However, it is necessary to ensure the success of a business.

It reduces the need for manual tasks, which can be time-consuming and prone to human error. Aside from that, it avoids mistakes by providing a centralized repository of all contracts related to an organization.

Simplifies tracking and monitoring

With CLM software, you can improve your business’s tracking and monitoring of contracts, contract approvals, and renewals.

The benefits of using contract lifecycle management are many. For example, it provides a centralized location for all contracts, simplifies the contract approval process, and allows easy access to all contractual information.

Tracking and monitoring seem like a relatively simple job, but it can be tedious over time. With CLMs, it becomes a lot easier to do so you can still do the job in a good enough quality without tiring yourself out.

Eases collaboration

Companies that use contract lifecycle management are more successful than those that don’t. It is a way to streamline the entire collaboration process between different departments, and it is a crucial step in business success.

Contract lifecycle management is a system that manages all the contracts that a company has with its partners, clients, and vendors. This system includes negotiating contracts, preparing them for execution, and executing them after all parties have signed them.

Improved revenue

The contract lifecycle management software is a valuable tool for any company. It can help manage the contracts and streamline the contract management process, eventually leading to better revenue.

Contract lifecycle management is a process that ensures that you’ve managed all the agreements between the company and its clients in a timely and organized manner. It helps to reduce risk, mitigate disputes, and improve customer satisfaction.

Due to these benefits, it becomes much easier to close deals with a potential customer.

Simplify the process of personalizing contracts

Contract lifecycle management is a process that can help companies maintain a healthy contract portfolio and reduce the risk of violating any laws or regulations.

It starts with identifying the legal and regulatory requirements for specific contracts. The company then needs to map these requirements to the existing agreements. This step will help them determine which contracts need to be updated and those that require you to draft from scratch.

The contract lifecycle management process should also include an assessment of risks associated with each contract, such as breach of confidentiality, data security, and intellectual property rights infringement.

A CLM can help simplify these complicated parts of managing a contract. It doesn’t take as much time as it usually would, especially since you have different agreements with different customers.

Effective risk and compliance management

Contracts are an essential part of the business. They are a legally binding agreement between two or more parties, and they help the company protect itself from legal risks. However, it is not easy to manage contracts with all their complexities.

Effective risk and compliance management are one of the main benefits of using contract lifecycle management software. It helps companies identify risks early to avoid any potential negative consequences later on.

Saves money and time by eliminating delays

Contracts are an essential part of a business. You can use them to protect the company and its employees from risks while also providing a clear roadmap for how things will happen. The contract lifecycle management process can help companies save time and money by eliminating delays in the contract process.

The contract lifecycle management process starts with defining the project’s scope and determining what type of contract is needed. After this, contracts are drafted, reviewed, executed, and managed throughout their life cycle. These steps can be tedious and lengthy, so CLM software is a welcome approach to ensure there are no delays.

Boost customer trust and brand reputation

Customer trust
Customer trust is very important to the business

Another benefit of investing in CLM is that it can help organizations boost customer trust and brand reputation by making sure that they are not violating any contract terms.

This process can help reduce the risk of being penalized for violating the contract by a third party. It also helps ensure no gaps between what the company promised and what they’ve delivered on those promises.

Wrapping up

Contract lifecycle management is not something you want to overlook, especially when you’re starting to deal with several contracts all at once while running your business. It will make you more efficient, but it can even improve your reputation with clients, which can generate even more business for you. If you can, consider investing in CLM software today.

Software
SaaS

Software Support: 9 Compelling Reasons Your Business Needs it

If you think that software support is only for big businesses, think again. There are many benefits of having on-site professional support, no matter how big or small your business is.

Software support makes your business competitive. It also lets you save money over time and streamline your goals. Also, clients want to work with businesses that can keep up with the latest technological trends. In the same way, as getting information becomes faster, you need to work on the tiniest detail that allows you to achieve a faultless performance in real-time.

In this post, we’ll walk you through the seven compelling reasons why your business needs software support and why it is essential in the first place:

1. Address software issues proactively

A lot of software needs to be regularly patched and updated. The nature of software is that new features are constantly added. The user interface keeps getting updated to enhance usability. Security vulnerabilities are always a risk, and issues need to be fixed. 

But the most common reason that operating systems and software should be updated is that if the applications that run on or in conjunction with them aren’t updated in a specific timeframe, issues may start to resurface. 

2. Get quick and reliable support

Living in this day and age, any issues with your computer systems leads to unnecessary stress.

One of the most frustrating things that can happen to you when running a business is when a computer or network fails or doesn’t work. Any downtime in your network systems can translate to lost productivity, boost overhead costs, unhappy customers, and even revenue loss. 

One of the things that you need to consider when it comes to picking technology software providers is support. Whether this is web hosting, cloud services, network services, email hosting, or web design, you must get quick and reliable support.

3. Be prepared for possible outbreaks 

With technology-related issues being taken care of by software support, you can then have more time to focus on the most critical parts of your business. 

Rather than being tied up with issues that can be otherwise avoidable, you can then devote the time to managing your customers, vendors, and other business processes. 

4. Get in compliance with mobility

A lot is happening in the world of technology today. That’s why software vendors try their best to create the most cutting-edge technology solutions.

You don’t want your business not to take advantage of the latest tech trends. To stay on top of the trends, you might want to keep on renewing software maintenance contracts.

5. Uninterrupted access to timely upgrades

What if there has been a bug or an issue with a spectacular feature that can benefit your business? If you didn’t have software support, you couldn’t access these apparent benefits. Interruption and downtime can put you at an obvious disadvantage to your competitors who have this service and keep on updating their system if needed,

If you want to gain uninterrupted access to the latest notifications regarding the software, you need to get support. You gain access to the latest updates, free patches, and bug fixes. Many software vendors release regular patches when they encounter issues and bugs and will quickly distribute this to all of their clients. 

6. Enhance productivity to meet end-user delight

If you avail of software support and maintenance, you could reap all the benefits of the latest tech advancements. Thus, you can boost your staff’s productivity. This, in turn, helps your business stay ahead of the competition. 

7. 24/7 Maintenance

With ongoing software support, you’ll gain more peace of mind knowing that your systems are being looked after.

Slow Wi-Fi connection, lack of storage, server problems, and failure should also be monitored and resolved efficiently. In the long run, this will keep your business running smoothly and efficiently.

8. Better risk assessment and decision making

 Excellent software apps will also give you access to such information that will allow you to make smarter decisions in the long run and take your business to greater heights.

With intelligent data reporting and predictive analysis, you can easily predict whether it’s wise that you go with a particular option that will benefit your business or not. 

By doing so, you can avoid any prospective minefields that can disrupt day-to-day business operations.

9. Malware attacks are getting more notorious

Software
Software codes are schematically represented

Hackers are constantly out there, ready to look for any software weaknesses that they can use for their own gain. Therefore, if your software isn’t updated with the latest version, it can be highly vulnerable to hacks. Once these hackers break into your system, they will get important information about your company and clients. 

In the same way, they can also hold your system to ransom. You might need to shell out money to get it up and running again. Therefore, what you need is to get software support and maintenance. 

This will protect your system from potential hackers, trojans, viruses, and other malicious software programs. Similarly, your software vendor will constantly be updating, which, in turn, will keep your system secure.

When you commit time and necessary resources to improve your IT systems and your tech support team, this will help you save time and money, which will, in turn, provide you with long-term protection.

Over to You

So there you have it. Software in your business is like the oil that will keep your business running smoothly. When doing its job correctly, it can often be taken for granted. However, as soon as things go wrong, things can go to a screeching halt.

That’s why it makes perfect sense for you to pick software support and maintenance, even if there’s serious cash involved. That’s because the benefits can be difficult to ignore. Not opting for it can also lead to severe repercussions for your business in the long run. It also allows you to save time to focus on the more essential things. Good luck!

Laptop
DevelopmentInsights

Student’s Guide: How to Start Learning Coding

The technology industry is one of the most important industries in the world. We use technology daily to keep us better connected, yet we know little about how it’s all created. As much as it may seem like magic, it was actually made by coders, programmers, and other computer science geniuses.

In this fast-growing industry, you might be wondering how you can get started and become part of it? It may seem difficult to find your initial bearings, but once you make that leap, it will be life-changing.

Why Learn to Code?

There are many benefits to learning to code, here are a few that we think should spark up an interest;

  • It is a booming industry so a lot of related jobs are in demand. Whether you are looking to work for a company or freelance, there are lots of opportunities.
  • When coding you’ll find new challenges and be continuously learning. This really boosts your problem-solving and logic skills, giving your left side of the brain a proper workout.
  • It’s fun! Nothing is more rewarding than seeing your technological creations come to life before your eyes. After you’ve passed the initial stages of getting started you can delve into specific parts you are more passionate about and be more creative.

What Languages are Best for Beginners?

Coding is a vast subject, where there are hundreds of different coding languages, each with a different purpose to what they can do. It’s not always easy to figure out what’s the best one to start with and that’s really because there is not just one answer. There are multiple different languages that work well in the beginning, but it’s best to start with the one that fits in with your coding goals. Below are some coding languages that beginners often start with and a little summary of how they can be helpful.

  • HTML – used as a foundation of the internet, and can set up content for web pages. HTML is a great starting block for beginners and often you’ll find even when you are more advanced you’ll be referring back to HTML.
  • CCS – HTML and CSS go as a nice pairing, so often you can learn them together. However, CCS handles the colors, sizing, fonts, and layouts of web pages. If you want to sparkle up a page, this is the one for you.
  • JavaScript – JavaScript helps make web pages more interactive. You can learn how to add videos, maps, and animated graphics.
  • Python – Python is another good option to start with as a lot of its code reads more like English so it’s easier for beginners to get a good grasp of. It isn’t built for a specific task, it instead helps build websites and software, automate tasks, and conduct data analysis.

Don’t feel that you have to keep to just one of these, you can switch between a few, and in the next section, you’ll learn more about how best to learn these.

Coding Tutors

The best way to learn to code thoroughly and quickly is with your very own coding tutor. In a one-to-one environment, your tutor can focus on key areas specific to your needs, track your progress, and you will be able to learn at your own pace. Tutor House, a top online tutoring platform, provides online coding lessons for students. Their tutors are highly experienced in many coding languages, and you can opt-in for a free trial call to find out how they will help achieve your goals. Learn at a time convenient to you and get personalized feedback to see a positive improvement.

Online Tutorials

If you prefer to go the longer route and be self-taught, there are numerous online coding tutorials and resources out there for you to pick up on. Tutorialspoint is a coding channel that carefully explains concepts to you and provides beginner tutorials for many different languages such as HTML, CCS, and Javascript. Self-teaching can be tricky, so make sure you go through these tutorials and resources at your own pace and practice each point thoroughly before moving on to the next. This will move you in a positive direction where you can track your own progress.

Books and Podcasts

Books
A young girl has a lot of books to read in the short time period

There are many books and podcasts that can help educate you on topics on coding. Books are a great way of learning more about coding history and how people have developed in the tech industry. Podcasts can inform you on current and specific topics on coding; such as cyberwarfare, and the socio-economic impact of artificial intelligence. This will help you have a deeper understanding of your discipline and find interests in particular areas in your free time. It’s especially useful to read about topics that are difficult and it helps you see things from a different perspective.

Mini Projects

Most importantly, learn coding by doing. Start yourself up on a mini project and challenge and see how well you can adapt. Whether that is through your lessons with a tutor, an online course, or learning with friends. Sometimes it’s easier to learn when you have a particular motivation to create. The more action, the better the results, and it builds up your problem-solving skills along the way.

Have You Learned The Secret Language Yet?

Like with traditional language learning, to learn a coding language, you need to be passionate, you need to be patient, and you need to practice. There is so much you can do and learn in the coding world, you’ll never get bored. That’s why often coders, new and old, can learn from each other as each person learns with a whole new perspective. Coding is worthwhile to learn – don’t miss out!

SEO
SEO

Significance of Search Engine Optimization in Small Businesses

What is SEO?

Search Engine Optimization, or SEO, is the process that helps in navigating web traffic to the websites, by adapting the website to search engine algorithms and subsequently assisting prospective customers in finding you. People will be much more inclined to visit a website that appears higher on the results page rather than other links, so small businesses should use this marketing tactic to appear on the first page of the search engine which means better traffic and traction on the site, as well as improved search engine rankings when compared to their competitors. Thus, there are quite a number of benefits of SEO for small business owners.

Benefits of SEO for Small Businesses

Building Brand Awareness

Now, as websites are an integral part of building brands, with better investments and an increase in digital marketing budgets, small businesses will be able to exponentially improve their accessibility, visibility, and brand recognition. If your website appears on the first page of the Search Engine Results Page (SERP), people will become more aware of your brand presence and hence proper SEO techniques will enable brands to surpass their competition.

Small businesses can build their brand awareness by publishing relevant content that contributes to the niche of their potential customers, furthermore, this content will serve as the voice of your community and establish your website as a credible source.

Convenient and Faster Website

By optimizing the website, small businesses need to establish an enhanced user experience simultaneously improving the rankings, as SEO help in ranking websites that are user-friendly, and higher in functionality than the others. Moreover, people tend to avail themselves of services and buy products when the business websites are convenient and user-friendly, which will directly help the small business to increase sales and build a customer base.

Increased Conversion Rates

Optimized websites which are user-friendly are quite easy to explore, load faster, and are compatible to use on various devices such as mobile phones or tablets thereby increasing the options for users to surf conveniently on different devices. This will also attract users and eventually convert them into organic traffic as they are more likely to revisit the website considering they are intrigued by what the small business has to offer.

Surpass the Competition

Optimization is the key to outperforming your strong competitors and attracting more visitors to your website, thus, investing in SEO not only helps you to improve your ranks but also enables your business to outrank your competitors, if done correctly. The appropriate SEO agency will propel small businesses to get higher in search results, making them a better choice for potential customers.

Finding New Customers

Small businesses adopt various marketing strategies to grow their businesses, be it offline or online. To expand their online presence, they try to invest in various digital marketing tools and try to tap audiences throughout the web which becomes easy on one’s own website. A better website leads to a good user experience which further creates a strong customer base and finally, it helps to increase sales. Thus, a good marketing strategy is pivotal to bringing new customers to the business, and SEO is similar in this aspect except it includes varied methods or strategies.

SEO Tips to Expand Small Business

So, it is apparent that SEO is quite useful for a business to expand its online presence; we present some SEO tips that will help small businesses to implement and grow.

Choose Best SEO Practices to Build your Website

A properly structured website generates more traffic than a website that doesn’t satisfy the needs of your target audience and most small businesses suffer because their website is not designed with keeping search into consideration.

If a website is properly structured, it enables search engines to correctly scan and index the web pages. To check this, begin with your website and navigate through all the main pages, moreover, ensure that any broken (404) sites that are no longer functional are removed from the websites because they squander “link equity” as these links lead nowhere and are considered a dead-end to the search engines.

Mobile-Responsive Site

Make sure that the website is reachable on various devices as many users use mobile phones instead of laptops or computers which makes a mobile responsive website a good user experience, thus generating leads and higher ranks on the search engine.  

Prioritizing Keywords

One of the most critical factors in developing an efficient SEO content strategy is choosing the right keywords. Keyword research is optimal as it will enable your business to create content on parallel lines with the terms that people use to search which ultimately induces search engines to increase your ranks thus making it discoverable by the relevant audience.

Create Various Backlinks

When a website is linked to some other, a backlink is established and these backlinks play a key factor in SEO. Small businesses can connect their internal backlinks from local directories such as past articles or blogs too but the true value of backlinks originates from outside sources. Moreover, one effective technique to link back to your website can be through the events posted.

Creating a Calendar

Content marketing is a great way to build a better website; however, it needs to be consistent to ensure good rankings and finer SEO strategies. Posting once in a while would not show authority to the customers or even the search engines and will not generate organic traffic; therefore, consistent posting of content is of utmost significance for small businesses.

Conclusion

SEO Process Diagram
Man is touching the virtual screen with SEO process information represented.

SEO is the need of the hour for small businesses to grow and expand, as it not only builds organic results but also ensures long-lasting growth and strategies. A proper technique of SEO can be an enabler to capture a bigger chunk of the market and a prompt significant surge in sales. This article elaborates the importance of using appropriate techniques of SEO for small businesses and thereafter provides some tips to inculcate in their daily schedule to boost the existing results.

Laptop
Insights

7 Best Practices to Prevent DDoS Attacks and Protect Your Business

Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks have become rampant over the last couple of years, primarily because of the pandemic. Many people are working from home and accessing online services throughout the pandemic. 

In a report from NETSCOUT, about 10 million DDoS attacks occurred in 2020. It primarily targets remote and other essential services that are often used to make it through the lockdown. 

Industries hit hard by these attacks are healthcare, e-commerce, and streaming services.

What is a DDoS attack?

In a nutshell, a DDoS attack involves bombarding an IP address with substantial traffic volumes. So, if the IP address points to a web server, legit traffic can’t reach it, and your site becomes unavailable.

A flood attack is another type of DDoS attack. Groups of servers are flooded with requests which need processing by victim machines. It’s often generated in huge numbers by scripts that run on compromised machines that are part of a botnet. As a result, it exhausts the server resources of the victim, such as the memory or the CPU. 

As networks become more and more diverse, now is the time for network observability. What is network observability? It’s the ability to answer questions about your network quickly and efficiently. 

A DDoS works in the same principles except that malicious traffic comes from several sources but comes from one central point. Since traffic sources are distributed worldwide, DDoS attack prevention is more complicated than preventing DDoS attacks from a single IP address. 

Fortunately, you can avoid these attacks. Here are some of the best practices for preventing them and protecting your business: 

1. Make a DDoS response plan

Do you know what you’ll do in case of a DDoS attack? How do you respond? Having a definite plan right from the get-go will allow you to react quickly and efficiently whenever your network is being targeted. 

Creating a response plan can take some planning. The more complicated your site infrastructure, the more detailed your response plan is. Regardless of the size of your company, your goal should include the following:

  • Systems checklist
  • A professional response team
  • Clearly defined notification and escalation procedures
  • List of internet and external contracts which should be informed about the attack. 
  • Detailed communication plan for stakeholders.

2. Keep security infrastructure up to date

Your network is as strong as your weakest links. You need to know of legacy and outdated systems in your infrastructure since these can be entry points for attacks once compromised. 

Your data center and systems should also be up to date. It will help if you patch your web application firewalls and network security programs that you might have. Also, when working with an ISP or hosting provider, a security and data center vendor for implementing advanced protection capabilities is an excellent idea. 

Don’t put all your eggs in the same basket. Your data centers should be placed on different networks to ensure that all your data centers aren’t in the exact physical location and on various data centers. You need to ensure that these aren’t places wherein traffic bottlenecks in your network. 

3. Identifying your network’s traffic

Every organization’s infrastructure has internet traffic patterns, so you need to know yours. Once you know the typical traffic pattern of your organization, then you have a baseline. 

Doing so ensures that you can quickly identify the symptoms of a DDoS attack if any unusual activity happens. 

4. Always look out for the warning signs

Again, DDoS attacks come with classic symptoms. The most common symptoms are intermittent site shutdown, spotty internet connectivity, and disconnection. 

But the problem is that these warning signs are pretty similar to other issues that you might be having in your system, like a slower internet connection and viruses. 

If these problems become prolonged and severe, your network will likely suffer from a DDoS attack and utilize proper prevention actions. 

5. Use a cloud-based service provider

Cloud providers are offering high levels of cybersecurity. It includes firewalls and monitoring software protecting your business assets and networks from cybercriminals. It also has much greater bandwidth than most private networks. Therefore, it’s unlikely going to fail with increasing DDoS attacks. 

Similarly, reputable cloud providers have network redundancy, duplicating systems, data, and equipment. Therefore, if your services become unavailable and corrupted because of an attack, you can quickly switch to secure access on your backed-up versions. 

6. Sufficient server capacity

Hosting
A word hosting is displayed as a central figure of the picture

Since many DDoS attacks work by overwhelming network bandwidth, overprovisioning bandwidth is one way to counter this attack. 

Therefore, you need to ensure that your server capacity can handle several heavy traffic spikes by adding bandwidth. 

Doing so ensures that you’re ready for any unexpected surges of traffic that are caused by these attacks. Although it won’t completely stop a DDoS attack, it will provide a couple of extra minutes to prepare your defense before all of your resources are used up. 

7. Practice good cyber hygiene

You should also engage in the best security practices. It includes regularly changing passwords, securing authentication practices, knowing when to avoid phishing attacks, etc. 

The more minor the errors you’ll be committing right from the get-go, the safer it will be for you if there’s an attack. 

Over to You

Considering how complicated and devious attacks are, you’ll hopefully follow these best practices to prevent DDoS attacks effectively. 

Doing so keeps your web property secure and that you’re more than ready to fight off any of these attacks. Good luck!

Photos
Insights

How to Enhance Photo Quality by Removing Your Backgrounds

Did you know 71% of people enhance their selfies? With the rise of social media, users have a need to enhance photo quality quickly and easily. Lucky for the world, there are apps and software for that! 

The more tech-savvy users can use photo editing software to make glamorous photos. For the rest of the world, there are many apps available to help you create good-quality images that stand out in social feeds. 

Keep reading for easy ways to enhance your photos. 

1. Use an App to Remove Backgrounds 

Did you know there are apps to remove backgrounds? And once you do that, you can replace it with something else?

For example, let’s say you took an awesome selfie in the bathroom at work. Naturally, you don’t want to have the bathroom in the background, so you can edit it out! You could even replace it with flowers or nature to make it look like you were somewhere else entirely. 

Not sure which app to choose? Check out this cool background remover app

Streamline with Background Remover Apps

For a cleaner and more polished appearance, try background remover apps. Easily eliminate unwanted backgrounds and replace them with more attractive settings, creating standout photos for your social media feeds.

2. Use Image Enhancement Tools

There are so many tools available to improve images! You can use filters on most social media platforms that do this. If you want to step up your game, you can download apps that make it a few steps further. 

You can use filters, add text, or insert stickers. You have the option to zoom in on pictures or add an overlay to change the color. There are several enhancement tools that erase red eyes or blemishes, too. 

Cropping or creating a collage is another innovative idea to change up your images. Some apps will even add natural-looking makeup to your photos! Many of these apps require subscriptions, but the features are limitless! 

3. Color Adjustments

Adjusting the color, saturation, and lighting of a photo can make all the difference. An easy way to enhance photos, using this tool that most phones already have installed is a quick fix. There are several areas you can make adjustments to: 

  • Saturation
  • Color
  • Lighting
  • Brightness
  • Tone 
  • Contrast
  • Vibrance
  • Sharpness
  • Clarity
  • Noise

If you aren’t a photographer or an artist, some of these may be confusing. You can click this link to learn more about each. 

4. Adjust the Resolution 

Resolution
A girl is adjusting resolution on her photo camera

A good-quality image has a high resolution. If your photo doesn’t have a high resolution, there are ways to fix it! You can use software such as Photoshop or Adobe to improve it. You can also download many photo apps to your devices that will allow you to adjust. 

When you have a higher resolution, you have a clearer picture. It’s not blurry and doesn’t look pixelized. The more pixels the image has, the clearer it looks. 

Read More Interesting Articles

Did you enjoy this article about how to enhance photo quality for your pictures? We hope you learned cool techniques for your next photo editing session! 

Interested in reading more fun articles? Check out our blog!

e-Commerce
SaaS

Magento Development: is it Still the Best Out There?

Magento is one of the best and most widely used eCommerce app development platforms. Choosing Magento development services for your eCommerce platform is a wise decision. 

A plethora of eCommerce or web app development platforms are available in the market, and choosing the best amongst them is a very crucial thing. A lot of deciding factors are there to choose the best platform. 

What is Magento?

Image source: nevinainfotech.com.

Magento is mainly an open-source platform that can be used to develop a flawless eCommerce web application. The best Magento development services platform has many options for in-built themes and templates. 

It is a platform that provides flexibility, scalability and is expandable. Magento provides three significant varieties of its Magento enterprise edition, Magento community edition, and Magento commerce cloud edition. 

Features of Magento

Magento has fantastic features that can be used for developing an excellent eCommerce platform. The features are:

  • Analytics and reporting
  • Product browsing
  • Catalog management
  • Customer accounts
  • Order management
  • Payment and shipping 
  • Search engine optimization
  • Marketing and promoting tools
  • Site management
  • Mobile commerce

Advantages of using Magento

If you still doubt why to use Magento as the best eCommerce app development platform, then here are some of the advantages you can consider to clear your doubts. 

It is a flexible management system

Magento is the best choice for an eCommerce platform by contrast with other platforms. The platform has an intelligent and flexible content management system. 

It is compatible with every store irrespective of the product they have. Developing an eCommerce platform for various sizes and types is easy to develop with the help of Magento. 

Advanced SEO

Every business owner of an eCommerce platform wishes to have a higher ranking for their application or products pages, lead in SERP of every search engine, and even in the top lists.

The owners take all the measures through which their website can rank higher on the search engine optimization page. Due to it, Magento has developed Advanced features SEO to help the owners to improve their ranking. 

Extensions

Image source: nevinainfotech.com.

Magento provides a high range of in-built extensions that a Magento developer services provider can utilize to develop an eCommerce platform. It will allow the facility to extend the Magento store feature. 

The extension in feature will depend on your targeted audience and what they require. Gradually when your store gets famous, it will need more advanced features to attract users, and extensions will help you.

Highly secured

Magento is one of the most highly secure platforms compared to other eCommerce platforms available in the market. Magento follows the globally accepted security standards. 

Business owners who deal with the global market have to worry more about the security of the payment they need to collect online, and according to them, Magento is the perfect fit. 

Faster loading time

The main aim of Magento is to provide faster loading of an eCommerce website. According to research, the loading speed of a website plays a paramount role in increasing the users and your business. 

As no one likes to wait for the website to load and if the website’s loading speed is low, your eCommerce app can lose users permanently, and if the speed is proper, it can attract more customers to your eCommerce website. 

Hosting options

Hosting options
Schematic representation of the hosting

Magento allows various hosting options for business owners to choose from according to their businesses; it won’t be the business to stay with the hosting that is provided by the platform.

Magento allows every eCommerce store owner to select a hosting provider based on their demands openly. It will provide freedom for online businesses to choose their file and the hosting companies.

Why is Magento development the best choice for eCommerce?

Here are some of the reasons that will answer your question and make you understand why to use Magento development services. Let us go through the various reasons deeply.

It is open source

One of the primary reasons to select Magento for the eCommerce platform is that it is open source. It simply means that anyone aware of using Magento can use it easily and can use its advantages.

As Magento has 3 main editions and amongst all the three editions, Magento Community Edition is free to use. You can easily install it for free cost and can use any version of Magento Community Editions.

Magento Community

Image source: nevinainfotech.com.

Another essential reason to select Magento is its vast community that consists of certified developers, bloggers, programmers, project managers, and much more. You can also hire a certified Magento developer from the extended community. 

The Magento community assures that everyone stays on the same page. If you are a developer and facing any problem, you can rely on the Magento community to solve your problem. 

Compatible for eCommerce platform

Magento is a default content management system that is compatible with online businesses. Magento allows various facilities to the eCommerce store to help the owners improve their business. 

Magento also supports multiple store management, which can help the eCommerce website handle multiple stores simultaneously. It also has various payment gateways useful for making in-app payments to provide a smooth purchase to the customers.

Superior support

It is integral to have strong support for running a successful online business, and it is also essential for business growth. So when it comes to online support for the eCommerce store, the technical support team will handle the critical things.

High performance

Magento provides high performance to the eCommerce store with the faster page loading speed, query processing time, and other static and dynamic operations. 

It assures high performance for your eCommerce website even by using minimum server resources. Magento understands the disadvantage of the low performance of the website, so it provides such facilities to improve the performance. 

Multitasking

Magento enables eCommerce to do various tasks simultaneously, and it will be easy to perform other essential tasks simultaneously while monitoring the Magento website’s performance. 

Thus it also helps you to save your precious time. The owners and developers can also handle the items, bills, customer information with just a single admin panel that is user-friendly. 

Conclusion

The above blog shows the benefits and reasons why Magento is considered the best eCommerce platform. Magento is the most loved platform for business owners and developers as it provides various facilities to improve the business.

One can hire a certified developer who is willing to have a successful eCommerce website for their business. Magento platform provides a smooth experience to the users for shopping through the website.

About Author:

Rahim Ladhani, CEO and Managing Director at Nevina Infotech, Enterprise Web App & Mobile Application Development Company, helps global businesses grow by the eCommerce website development services.

LinkedIn:- https://www.linkedin.com/in/rahim-ladhani-7841a237/