I Want My Business to Show Up in a Google Search

This entry is about the very simplest of steps to help your website be found on the internet. Here are four simple steps that cost nothing except time and know-how:

1. Your website should have text content that is naturally found by search-bots. Make sure titles and main content is text (not graphics or flash). Think of the phrases that you can envision typing in Google (or any search engine for that matter) and try to incorporate them into the natural text and even better - the titles of your website.
   
2. Use keywords tags in the html code of your pages to make sure its obvious to the bots what you should be identified for, whether its in the natural text of the site or not. This is a great way to fit expressions (including the order of words and phrases) that may not appear in the visible text, but is encoded intot the HTML code of the page itself.
   
3. Register your site at http://www.dmoz.org/ to validate it as a business in that free official directory used by all of the search engines
4. Maintain a blog. You should write about your expertise commenting several times a week on current activities and referencing your main site. The frequency of the page changes helps get noticed in the search engines.

That's it. You'll probably need help from your web designer. I'd be happy to help you make that happen.

Small-Business Part-time IT Contracting

I've contracted with local Pittsburgh businesses essentially since 1997. There are a large number of sole-practitioners, home office users, and even companies with more than 50 employees that need computer help on a regular, but not full time basis. The support they seek usually includes:

• Sporadic advice on everything from purchase decisions to odd messages to email and internet access problems to website design
  
• Tune-ups of existing equipment that may have spyware, virus, or even just mis-configuration issues
• Help with efficient internet access, protection, and even remote access
• Back-up and recovery of business-critical data
• PDA and smart-phone configuration and access to business systems
• Installation of new computers, servers, software applications, and accessories and migration from the old systems.
  
• Strategic help with choosing the right technologies for their business' future
• Pricing that won't make them afraid to call the computer guy for a simple question

While there's no one-size fits all arrangement, I think accommodations can be made to address most of the above for any small Western PA business. Please contact me if you'd like to discuss.

Google Reader -Kevin's shared items

Google Reader -Kevin's shared items

Here's a link to articles I found interesting from blogs that I follow. Enjoy :)

Are you in Control of Your IT?

If you can't answer these questions, you may need to do some homework to prevent problems before they occur:

Internet Issues:

1. When does your domain registration end? (ie - when do you lose rights to "mydomain.com?)
2. Who manages your domain? (ie - when #1 breaks, who do you call?)
3. How can you tell if your internet stopage is in your office or caused by your ISP?
4. When does your anti-virus licensing expire?
5. At what points are your email and files scanned for viruses?
   

General Computer Issues:

1. Did you peek at your backup and security logs today?
   
2. Where are your off-site back-ups? (ie - are there any off-site or do you have them now?)
3. Do you have spare replacements on-site (or nearby) for your critical office machines?
4. If a critical machine was stolen/destroyed would you know what to buy to replace it?
5. Who has your critical passwords should you unexpectedly become incapacitated?
   

More questions and a list of how to get the answers to come...

Small Business Network Management Principles

My objective here is to get the ball rolling on effectively planning and implementing a manageable IT strategy in a small business environment. A good IT plan addresses many components of business operations. This article main purpose is to list those components. Future posts will detail the specifics individually.

Effectively managing the IT interests of a small business requires the right mindset.

1. The goals of the IT services must be in-line with the goals of the organization
2. Business process gets first attention (keep the business' revenue stream flowing)
   
3. Start simple then customize as needed, within common practices.
4. Address security; physical, personnel, back-ups, networking, intellectual property
   

For my purposes, I'll describe a "typical small business" as:

1. 3-50 computer users
2. Operating out of one office
3. Most computer operations are basic office applications, email, and internet access
4. Typically one or two customized databases for core business operations
5. Management occasionally needs remote access
6. Not big enough to justify an internal "computer guy"
   

The primary IT components of such an enterprise "typically" include:

1. Several desktop (and some laptop) computers
2. File server(s) to organize, share, and back-up the company's data
3. Printers: network laser, some local
4. Ethernet network: wiring and switches to provide communications amongst the equipment
5. Software packages/licenses: The programs that run on the computers
6. Internet access, typically shared broadband through a secure "gateway" (firewall)
7. Email server
   

Additional/optional components to address under the IT umbrella:

1. Website management
   
2. Fax machines / copiers / scanning equipment
   
3. Phone system and local phone services
   
4. Company cell phones / cell phone plan
   
5. Postal equipment
6. Wireless ethernet network
   
7. PDA's
8. Surveilance system
   

Blogging is not for everyone or every purpose

This link makes some interesting points about where blogs don't fit. Even more so, it adddresses what traits or expectations do not fit blogging as a means of boosting your cause.

Blog Concepts Help

Here are some helpful links that I've gathered to educate people on blogs:

• Business Week article discussing blogs and their pending impact on business as we know it.
• Article on internal blogging that has good key points to blogging in general.
• blawg: a great starting point for finding blogs on the legal community.
• lexBlog: a paid blogging site catering to the legal community
• Akron Law School law blog pathfinder: a good overview of blog for law
• blogs & PR: Nevill Hobson (good blog) on marketing & PR via blogs
• Blog Tips: blog basics from LifeTips
• Blogmaverick: Mark Cuban's blog; a good example
  

Feel free to comment with your own favorite blog sites

Introduction

I'm Kevin Driscoll. My purposes here are to comment on information technology (IT) issues that impact personal and small business. Key to my insights are the effectiveness, efficiency, and affordability of these technologies.
I've worked on computers since the mid 80's, on networks just a few years after that, the internet by the mid-90's, and PDA's since the late 90's. After college, my work experience was gained in a multi-national corporation, a major university, and finally small local businesses in Pittsburgh (PA - USA).
The ever-expanding "Computer Industry" covers a lot of ground. The "hats on my rack" mainly focus on PC's, LAN's, PDA's, safe internet utilization, and most importantly, fitting them effectively into main stream use.
This is my first experiment with a public blog, so your lenience is appreciated.
Enjoy :)