Category: Business

Things that you should always check when you are hiring managed IT support providers

Bill English

When you are starting your business, there are factors in your business that will also grow with time. For instance, the technology that you are using when you start your business will not be the same after some years. This is because it will keep on changing and hence you will have your technological needs.

Most of the people hire managed IT support providers so that they can cater them with the technological needs that they are having. However, for the progress and performance of your business, you will have to ensure that you are hiring the right managed IT support providers. With the high number of people today who are ready to offer business owners with managed IT support, you must be very keen. Most of these people want to get money from you, but they are not concerned about the tomorrow of your business. Since it is difficult to tell the providers who will be best for your business, you have to ensure that you look for several things in your managed IT support providers before you hire them.

The following are some of the must look at things that every business owner should look for when they are hiring managed IT support providers.

 

Qualifications

When you are hiring managed IT support, your main agenda is to hire someone who is qualified in offering you the services that will help you in the growth of your business. For this reason, you will need to ensure that you are hiring someone qualified for the job they are doing. You must ask your managed IT support providers to present their academic certificates so that you can be sure that you are hiring someone who is trained to offer you the managed IT support that your business requires.

 

Level of experience

There are managed IT support providers who are new to the field while others have been there for a very long time. At times if you do not inquire about the level of experience of the managed IT support providers you are hiring you may hire either. However, the quality of services that you will get from an experienced managed IT support provider will be very different from what you get from a new managed IT support provider. You should ensure that you look for the level of experience of the managed IT support providers you are hiring before you make your decision.

 

Availability

The availability of the managed IT support providers you hire is always very crucial when you are hiring them. You must always ensure that you ask whether the managed IT support providers that you want to hire will always be there for your business or not. You should be able to hire the managed IT support providers who you can rely on at any time that you require managed IT support.

 

Response time

How long do you manage IT support providers to respond to your needs and the needs of your customers?  There are those managed IT support providers that will respond faster while others respond after a while. You must ensure that you hire the managed IT support providers that can respond quickly.

 

Cost of services

You managed IT support providers will charge you differently. Some will cost you more, while others will charge you fairly. You must make sure that you do not hire the managed IT support providers that will make you struggle so much when pay time comes. This is why you need to look for the charges of the business IT support providers that you want to hire.

 

Does every business need Search Engine Optimisation?

Bill English

Do only a few businesses need search engine optimisation or does every business need it? Can your business do without it or investing in search engine optimisation is a must?

It has been seen that online businesses using the right SEO marketing strategies gain multiple benefits ranging from brand or services trustworthiness to increased revenue.

 

How does SEO deliver on the claim?

 

Applying varied actions, best practices, and strategies to improve the position of your website in search engines is the process used by SEO. Optimising the overall performance of your website to generate revenue and enhance brand reputation aptly describes the term search engine optimisation.

On-page and off-page are the two types of SEO.

On-page SEO is used on things your website can control to improve rankings, to include:

  • Header text
  • Site speed
  • Keyword presence
  • A lot more

Off-page SEO refers to establishing links on other websites to improve your rankings.

The numerous ranking factors involved in SEO have to be done to make your website stand out from the rest of the competition. Staying on top of things needs your website to practice optimum diligence towards your links, pages, and increased number of visitors.

 

The importance of SEO

 

The way that can make Google determine sites that deserve the top rank for every search entered into its search engine is SEO. Websites that want to consistently stay in the top rank can be manipulated by using some software.

Yet, the search results become real and fair with SEO. SEO does away with the manipulation when t comes to rankings. The search results featuring top sites deserve to be there with SEO.

The trust of users with search engines makes it even more important for businesses to rank on top of results. Businesses that are on top of the list in results pages tend to be trusted by users, generating more traffic and clicks.

Improved client experience is also gained with the use of SEO. A satisfied customer has the potential to become repeat buyers and even help to spread the word about your products or services by sharing the experience in social media platforms.

SEO is affordable. Using SEO does not require paying for ad space. All you need to do is to spend time and effort in enhancing the SEO qualities of your website without having to pay for ad space.

 

Is SEO important for all kinds of businesses?

 

Can SEO help your business? Is it compatible with all types of businesses?

SEO is important if your business owns a website. Online success can be achieved whether your business is struggling or successful, large or small, or old or new. SEO is still an important tool to use even when you’re alone in your chosen industry.

The various online businesses and industries that SEO can help include:

  • Retail
  • HVAC
  • Manufacturing
  • Home Services
  • Healthcare
  • A lot more

The reason why SEO is important is that it is something that can be controlled. Your business has a lot of things beyond your control. However, you can control your rankings online with SEO.

 

 

Practical Logo Design Tips for Beginners

Bill English

The logo of a company is the minimalist representation of its core competence. It should be concise, comprehensive and delivers the message perfectly about what the company and its services are about. As a logo designer, companies rely on your creative juices to build something phenomenal for them. So, if you are a logo designer, we’ve gathered here some tips and tricks to keep in mind when you work on making the logo.

Decide the Color Combo

For a company starting out or one looking to re-brand where you build from scratch, you have your entire color palette at your disposal. That in no way means you use all of it in logo design geelong. Pick two and at most three colors in your logo. Keep it simple and elegant. Make sure your logo stands out even when printed out in black and white.

One Size Fits All

Create your logo for multiple sizes since it will be used in a variety of places; from business cards to gigantic billboards, your logo should look perfect in all circumstances and all printed forms.

Stay 2D

As sophisticated as 3D designs look like, a 3D logo doesn’t add much value rather than making it look a bit too cluttered than needed. Keep your dimensions to 2 and it will work its magic nevertheless!

Don’t Overdo

You want the logo to seem simple yet deliver its message. Keep its orientation as standard as possible. Adding bevels, gradients, etc. everything that could limit the avenues in which your logo works out, is definitely not a good choice. Be creative and try to follow a minimalistic approach. Explore the trends in industry of the company you are working for. See concurring trends and you will find most logos actually are very simplistic in design and offer a lot of value as well.

Not so Photogenic

photogenic

You might be inclined to import a picture and use it somewhere in your logo that you think works really well. It is generally not a good idea to include pictures in your logo. This sometimes causes you to compromise on quality. Try out your logo in a vector form to ensure it is re-sizable and reusable everywhere without a lost to quality. Having pictures in logos will be a hurdle here so better not to use them at all.

Negative Spaces

This is an interesting part of logo designing. You can use the spaces between texts on your logo to add more value to the logo itself. For instance, FedEx logo has a subtle rightward arrow that is made through the negative spaces. It is an innovative way of utilizing your negative spaces. Otherwise, they can be a bit problematic when the logo is used, for instance, on a darker or lighter background that the one it was originally intended for.

How To Market Your Online Business

Bill English

How Can SEO Help

SEO is a new trend for most businesses today. SEO, or the Search Engine Optimisation, is the way of increasing website traffics with the use of carefully planned keywords and titles. The use of SEO is rampant nowadays because it has proven its effectiveness in increasing revenue of businesses.

Why SEO is important

SEO experts in New Zealand gathered to form SEO companies to help businesses in boosting their sales. Aside from this, SEO experts also promised to drive more traffic to a business’ website, that includes ranking and analytics.

SEO is important so as to meet the business’ expectations in terms of profitability and online exposure. SEO has been a great impact on a business’ success.

SEO Products/Services

SEO does not focus on effective keywords and titles alone, like what we usually think of SEO. SEO companies in New Zealand offer much more than that. These are companies that offer SEO services in New Zealand:

  • Search Engine Optimisation
  • Adwords Management
  • Web Copywriting
  • Reporting & CRO
  • Social Media Marketing

These services produce different kinds of results. When you choose a certain service, be sure that you already know what your business needs in order for you to get your expected outcome.

There is a great demand for SEO Specialists in New Zealand. With a great number of businesses who have never adapted to this new trend, surely, there’s a room for an SEO Specialist to extend their help. Here are the following in-demand SEO jobs in New Zealand:

In-house SEO

In-house and/or SEO agencies are composed of Directors of Search Marketing, Managers of Organic Search, SEO Leads, Campaign Managers, and SEO Specialists for links, content, and research. On an average, in-house SEO specialists are paid at a range of $45,000-$350,000, depending on the position and length of experience.

SEO Agencies

SEO agencies are composed of SEO Directors, a Search Marketing Consultants, Link

Builders, Content Writers, SEO Researchers, and Client Relations Coordinators. On an average, SEO agency employees are paid at a range of $35,000-$120,000 per year.

In-house SEO vs. SEO Agencies

There is a big difference in becoming whether an In-house SEO or an Agency SEO. In some cases, In-house SEO is more advantageous rather than SEO agencies, but there are also instances where going through an agency is more preferred over In-house SEO. Here is a clear comparison of the two options:

Integration

If you’re looking for someone who’s a call away, In-house SEO is the best. You would know that their goals are aligned with your business’ goals. Also, when speaking of branding, they will never have a hard time in doing such because all of their works and skills are solely focused on your business alone.

Talent

Looking for excellent skills? Then an SEO Agency is what you need. Since these SEO experts are working for other companies, their skills and knowledge on the job are enhanced. Therefore, you are ensured of the quality and the way they work.

Which one is right?

We cannot absolutely say that the former is better than the latter. A business should assess which of the choices seem to be more capable of doing the job, but with the least cost possible. Compare again the cost versus the benefit.

Why Use Payment Gateways

Bill English

What to Note about Payment Gateways

A payment gateway is described as a form through which customers make payment through credit cards for online retailers, clicks and bricks, regular mortar and regular brick business and e-businesses. This type of payments is connected to local banks from where customers are able to access their money due to the connection between the bank itself and the respective website or mobile device of the user. This type of payment gateways is a compulsory process for anyone who wishes or carrying it. The payment details made by the customer reflects both on the bank account and the user website.

These categories of payment gateways play a vital in the online market towards ensuring satisfaction to both the customer and the owner of the business. Their main big role is authorizing the transaction made by the customer. Without this payment gateways, the perspective transaction can be regarded to be invalid. This makes the payment gateways to be of great benefit since they allow the payment information to be transferred from your respective website to the payment gateway page at a faster rate minimizing issues associated with hacking.

A correct payment gateway must keep the security of your details. This is necessary as it will reduce risks that can occur as result of unauthorized transactions from those who got access to your details. Choosing the correct type of payment will make an online business operator to satisfy customers in matters related to security and allowing them to make credit card payment easily.

What are the Uses of Payment Gateways?

Payment gateways have a number of uses in the online market as discussed below.

  1. Payment gateways are used to minimize errors by allowing customers to carry out the payment process themselves.
  2. Are used for offering 24/7/365 services with a website that is so secure.
  3. They are used for eliminating issues of making payments by use of credit cards for transaction declines.
  4. They are used for processing incentives found on level 3 for the purchase card and the GSA smart Pay card.
  5.  Are used by customers who do have a specific time of making bill payments. Payment gateways allow making a bill payment at a convenient time.
  6. They are used for giving customers an easy way of making their bill payment by simply integrating with the website payment key.
  7. They are used for those who want to carry out a secured transactions by either using their mobile devices or a computer.
  8. Are used by those who do not want their bank account details and credit card details to be handled by their employees. This is because payment gateways have improved data security.
  9. Payment gateways are used for the purpose of implementing payments made through online for e-commerce initiatives.
  10. They are used because of their ability to comply with PCI standards that are vital when it comes to data security.
  11. They have used also because the request for payment through an email link that demands an immediate action hence reducing paper work.
  12. The payment gateways are used also because of the carry out the payment transactions in a manner that is more secure and in a cloud-based atmosphere.
  13. Moreover, they are used because of their ability of interfacing with a secure and a cloud-based storage of the cardholder information for those customers who have multiple accounts.