IT Glossary: SEO

by

IT Glossary: SEO (Search Engine Optimization)

Glossary definition: Search Engine Optimization or SEO is the process of improving your website’s performance and content to reach more people. In addition to other IT services we enjoy helping you with your website development needs.

When setting up an SEO strategy, you want to consider keywords and setup tools to measure it.

First, let’s setup a way to measure your progress. Assuming you own your organization’s website, we will focus on using the tools Google Analytics and Search Console. In this example, we use WordPress for our website so we will use a WordPress Plugin. Yoast SEO provides a great tool for managing your site’s SEO. They offer a free or lite version which will serve our needs just well for now. They also offer a premium version of their plugin which is certainly worth purchasing when you need more features to market your website.

Since Yoast SEO will manage the connection, we will start by installing it on WordPress. Login to your WordPress admin panel, usually at www.yourdomain.com/wp-admin/ and go to the dashboard. Please note that you’ll need to replace www.yourdomain.com with your website’s actual URL.

Next, select Plugins and Add New on the left side bar.

Add WordPress Plugin

Type “Yoast” in the Search field and use the Install Now button.

Install Yoast SEO

To get started using Yoast SEO we need to connect it to your Google Analytics account. Find the new Yoast SEO icon which looks like ‘Y SEO’ and click on it. From there navigate to the Webmaster Tools Tab section and you’ll see a blank area beside Google verification code (marked 3 in the screen below). Leave this here for now, we will come back to it later. Open a new browser tab for the next setup in Google.

We will cover Google Analytics and Google Search Console in our next post, but it you’re an overachiever and want to do it yourself you can click the link in the Yoast SEO plugin configuration called “Get your Google verification code in Google Search Console.”

Quick Tips: Security on the Web

by

Secure Websites with SSL and HTTPS

SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) is a standard protocol for ensuring that your data is encrypted and securely shared with only the people you trust.

  • Get better SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and traffic when you use SSL/HTTPS!
  • Customers and web visitors will trust you more.
  • Check your website’s SSL/HTTPS here: https://www.whynopadlock.com/
  • You and everyone you work or live with should start requesting a proper httpS address and connection for all websites that you use, it’s safer for you and helps everyone online!

Quick Tips: Password Generation

by

 Password Generation

It is best to use a passphrase with multiple common words, letters, numbers, and symbols that is easy for you to remember. Data security expert Edward Snowden recommends using a phrase like: “MargaretThatcherIsAlways120%Sexy” <-Obviously without the quotes and it’s important to note that you should make up your own, not using this nor using words from a known book, movie quote, or song lyrics. Many hackers and their tools know to try phrases from common cultural works like songs or books.

IT Glossary: SSD

by

IT Glossary: SSD

SSD stands for Solid State Drive, and is what modern computers use for storing data. When compared to an HDD (Hard Disk Drive) most SSD’s have noticeably faster data read and write speeds. This is due to having no moving parts that can break. SSD’s are similar to Flash or NAND memory. All current versions of Windows and MacOS are optimized for SSD’s whereas HDD’s will give you much slower performance. Common connections: M.2 ports, PCIe ports, SATA III, SATA II.

Quick Tips: RansomWare and Simple Security

by

Definition | RansomWare : software that is designed to encrypt (basically garble) your files and data with a password that only the malicious hackers know, holding your computer “hostage” while they name a price for you to pay to have the password and decrypt/re-access your own files.

You’ve probably seen the reports of the WannaCry hack and those that have recently been hitting companies all over the world like Merck, Maersk, Ukrainian ATM’s (Cash Machines), and Chernobyl’s Nuclear Power Plant.

Most ransomware attacks are simple enough to evade with some preparation:

  1. Never work with the hackers, always assume that the people hacking your computer have a malicious intent and be especially wary of those who offer you a fix to a computer problem they could have given to you in the first place. Find someone local that you can trust, whether it’s me or your local IT staff.
  2. Backup important data today. It’s much cheaper to purchase an external hard drive and setup a backup now than having to deal with a multitude of problems later.
  3. Do regular backups after the initial one, you can set up weekly, monthly, or what ever frequency works for you.
  4. Once you have your backups, there’s no reason to panic. Some systems can take a while to re-install from that backup, but it’s an easy process and it puts you back in control of your data and computers even if something seemingly catastrophic like a ransomware attack happens. Best of all, a good plan and backups can resolve many other problems like accidentally deleting important files, or even unexpected threats.

Backups are a great defense against many computer problems, if you have any questions, feel free to ask!

Quick Tips: Windows Security

by

Taking a break from work? Gone for lunch? Try this quick tip on your Windows PC’s to increase you and your company’s security.

Hold the Windows Key and Press “L”

+ L

This will Lock your computer while you are away and anyone trying to access it remotely or in person will need your password to log back in. Do this when ever you leave your Windows PC. Added bonus: It keep those annoying cube-mates of yours from playing pranks on your PC!

Thoughts on Security in the 21st Century

by

Hi folks,

The much publicized hacking cyber-attacks over this past weekend have brought this issue up for many people the world-wide.

As an IT geek, I’ve certainly been in-tune to it for a while. It’s a conundrum at times – even to those of us in the know – because perfect security is never possible. That however shouldn’t keep us from improving our security, privacy, and digital protections. I could go into how woefully bad everyone is about cyber-security, but for now suffice it to say it’s really needing help. On the other hand, there’s plenty of room for improvements and I’d like to offer as many quick, easy tips on this blog as I can. Because it’s such a large problem, there’s really no way to tackle all of it at once with a single blog, a single action, or even a single service contract with my business – Oak City IT. While I hope to provide services as I have already to many happy clients that are based out of Raleigh, North Carolina, the facts remain that I simply cannot address all that needs to be done in my professional life and my private life.

There is a distinct lack of technical literacy and it’s effects are growing exponentially as our technology improves rapidly and many of us just give up. Since so much of our lives are negotiated through things like sharing baby photos on instagram, colloborating in a database of clients at work, or even down to mundane things you don’t think about like traffic light controllers and ATM’s at your local bank. Many ATM’s still run Operating Systems that were vulnerable to this past weekend’s hacks, which means you may have had trouble getting cash even if you’ve got the funds in your account. It may seem daunting at times that technology is taking off and we either don’t have the time to learn it, don’t care to, or simply choose not to. But progress marches on and our best way forward is to help each other learn and utilize technology better in our daily lives. Instead of being afraid of the change, we can learn to embrace it and leverage it to continue doing the things we love and find fulfillment from doing.

I’m currently reading Marc Goodman’s book Future Crimes which is a great guide to how hacking and technological crime syndicates are currently using technology much better than law enforcement and the rest of us. He gives great advice after discussing the threats and I’d like to share the practical parts of that once I’m finished. My approach will be to make things easy, and where possible, fun, so that we can all work together to improve our digital lives – even those of us who think we don’t have any data. (Spoiler alert: you do). I’ve often said that “helping everyone helps everyone.” While that seems silly and redundant I mean that it’s actually good practice to help out other folks with things and ends up helping our communities which also include us ourselves, again benefiting from the benevolence. Plus, it makes life more fulfilling and fun!

Cheers,

-Alan