Author: Ross
How an IT course can help you be more productive at work
If you find you are constantly running out of time at work and that IT based tasks are taking up a lot of your day, then it may be worth completing an IT course. You will often find when it comes to working on computers that there are a lot of shortcuts that you may not be aware of. Even switching tabs or opening programs can be made quicker with certain shortcuts.
Of you use Microsoft Excel then you may not be aware of a number of different ways in which you can arrange and sort data. You can use simple through to complex equations to enable you to quickly solve sums across multiple columns, rows or even sheets.
Although you may feel like you do not have time to attend a computer course, one day out of work could potentially save you hours a week going forward and therefore makes it a very worth while task. Some IT courses are free to complete others may come at a cost, but if you can show your employer how it will add value to the job you do, they may be willing to pay or at least contribute towards the cost of it.
How can I securely send documents to my clients?
When running a business from time to time you may need to send documents via email to your clients, so how can you ensure these are sent safely and securely?
The first thing to consider is what does the document contain? If it contains data sensitive material such as personal details like name, address and date of birth as well as any financial details you will need to send the email using an encryption. There are different ways to do this depending on what email service you are using however normally you will find this option in your security settings. Encryption means that only the specified recipient can open the email ensuring it doesn’t get into the wrong hands.
You can also password protect and attachments that you are sending then issue a separate email with the password on for your client or set the password as something only they would know like their national insurance number or date of birth.
If you are sending contracts or legal documents you will want to make sure that these cannot be altered by any one and to do this you’ll need to send the document as a PDF. PDF means portable document format and it’s widely used to exchange documents and share files than cannot be altered.
When sending documents there are also programs available such as DocuSign that allow documents to be sent via a secure portal and then the client can virtually sign these documents and return to you quickly and safely.
Cybersecurity should concern remote workers
Many office workers are continuing to work remotely as businesses have seen the benefits of this across the board but remote working and cybersecurity risks, regrettably, go hand in hand. Cyber threats to individuals and businesses continue to grow and the only solution at the moment is to invest in strong technology solutions that protect networks and to train employees in cybersecurity so that they develop secure remote working practices.
The first issue is to use strong passwords as they provide the first line of defence against any unauthorised access to devices and personal information. In this way it is more challenging for cybercriminals to gain access and disrupt the system’s networks.
Secondly, it is vital that software updates are installed as soon as they are released. Timely software updates (including antivirus updates) help patch security flaws and safeguard the computer system.
Lastly, employees who are working remotely should only access the network through a virtual private network (VPN) and should never turn it off. The VPN as an essential part of network security and is designed to secure information transmitted between employers and remote employees through data encryption.
A remote work policy for employees should be published and be read and agree to by all remote workers. Training should be provided for the employees in cyber incident response so that they are equipped to deal with any cyber incidents that may occur.
How various types of marketing software can help you do your job
If you work in online marketing, then you will know the importance of software to help you do your job. You often need to use different types of software to not only carry out certain marketing techniques but also to access how well they have worked.
It is quite common for an online marketing person to use multiple different programs daily to get a true picture as to what is going on with a website. They may use analytics as a way of accessing the traffic to the site and what is happening with that, but they may then use different programs to check where a site is raking for certain phrases and what their competitors are doing.
It can be hard to find good, reliable software to use as there are so many different options out there but ideally you should try and get a free trial to ensure that it does what you need it to and that it is accurate before tying yourself in to a contract with them. You may want to speak to other marketing experts to get their recommendations as to what they use and find the most useful.
Top up your web marketing skills
If you work in web marketing then you will know that it is ever evolving and you need to keep on top of new techniques and advances in order to do your job correctly. One of the major placers when it coms to marketing is Google. Google is the most used search engine and therefore it is important you follow their advance and guidance to try and get your websites ranked high.
Google have a number of free courses you can do which will help you learn about the different products they offer and how to use them. There are courses on Analytics, Ads, YouTube and Shopping for example. These courses are designed to teach you what you can do through these different marketing channels. Within each category you often have a series of course to complete. Some are aimed at beginners and then some are for the more advanced. You will first have to do a pre assessment, then you will learn about the platform then you will be given a short post assessment questionnaire to see how much you have learnt. These accreditations can then be linked to your Google account in Adwords etc to show you are certified.
Cutting the costs of software for your business
When running a business, it is important to keep your overheads down and cut your costs where possible whilst still ensuring you can do your job well.
Software is often a huge cost to businesses, especially those that are within the technology or marketing industry. You may feel that you have to subscribe or buy a certain amount of software for your staff to use and this is often not cheap. For example, if you need to use Microsoft Office then you will need to purchase a business package with the required number of licenses needed. This can quickly add up in to the thousands.
Often the self-employed of small business owners simply cannot afford to buy software outright. You may be able to do some savvy research and find similar software that can be obtain at a much cheaper price or shop around for discount codes.
Adobe Photoshop for example, is a great bit of accounting software but it can be pricey especially if using the complete design package. Instead of buying it outright you may look for another photo editing software package or set up monthly payments which can be cancelled at any time should you need to.
Does it matter where your server is located that hosts your website?
You may not realise it but there are many things that can have an impact on your search engine rankings for your website. All website owners want to be found as high up as possible on the search engines and although they may know w bit about content and search engine optimisation, they will probably not be aware of all the elements that can have an impact, such as server location.
They may not know much about their hosting company, but it may pay to do a little research in to them. Often people mention about the physical location of the hosting server and if this can have an impact on your SEO. Google state that location of the IP address which your website is hosted on does play a part in the ranking algorithm. Google try and show their users the most relevant information so is likely to favour sites that have a closer physical location than ones that are hosted in other countries. So if your business is located in the UK then it makes sense to make sure your server is also based in the UK. You can ask your hosting company to confirm this for you.
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Has your website rankings started to fall?
With any website, it is important to have ways in which you can track how it is performing and how successful it is. There are several ways in which you can do this but one that is vitally important is to check where you rank organically on the search engines. Organic listings are the ones that are not listed as a lid for ad. The search engines have a ranking algorithm with they use in order to help them decide which websites to put where when a keyword or phrase is searched for. This algorithm is often secret but they usually will tell you roughly what they are looking for.
If you notice that your rankings are starting to fall down, it’s time to do some investigation work. Have a look at the traffic to your site and see if that has also dropped. Sometimes rankings can drop for no apparent reason and then they bounce back up so it is recommended that you monitor them for a week or so to see if it is a true drop in rankings. If it is then you may need to enlist the help of a marketing agency who will be able to assist you in improving the rankings once again.
what is the difference between on page and off page marketing?
When it comes to devising a marketing plan you may need to think about on page and off page marketing. On page marketing is work that is done directly on your website to influence its rankings and visibility on the search engines and improve conversions. It includes SEO (Search Engine Optimisation), content writing and includes adding internal links to other pages and improving or adding meta data, adding XML site maps and robots.txt files. This is just a few examples.
Off age marketing is work that you do away from your site with the aim of improving your site remotely. For example, building up external links to your site, creating blogs and comments on other sites, social media interaction, uploading videos to sites such as YouTube and PPC campaigns. These can all influenced your website success whist being controlled away from your website.
The best websites will do an element of both of these types of marketing to achieve the best results. A marketing agency will be able to advise you on what sorts of optimisation will work best for your business and which ones offer the highest return on your investment, which is especially important if your budget is tight.