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Welcome to the Spring 2010 MPS Newsletter sent to our friends and clients.
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How to Rescue your PC When Malware Strikes Hard
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Viruses, spyware and worms, collectively known as malicious software, or "malware", just keeps getting more insidious and harder to remove. In supporting our clients we are seeing more instances when anti–virus software which worked fine in the past to protect a PC from threats is now letting malware slip through, causing major havoc. Often the damage is so extensive that removing it completely is impossible. You might get almost all of it, but it often spreads itself so thoroughly through the hard drive that a piece will elude even a complete scan by a highly–rated, up–to–date anti–virus app.
This leaves you little choice but to back up your data (if you can) and completely wipe and reload the Windows Operating System (OS). And that’s just the start. Then you need to reload all your applications, update the OS, restore your data, and reload drivers for all your peripherals like scanners and cameras. This can take many hours, and still it won’t be quite the same as your previous setup.
Or is there a better way?
Yes! By regularly backing up your entire system (not just your data such as MS Office files and photos), you can avoid the drastic wipe–and-reload route when disaster strikes. So system backups can save you, not only when your hard drive crashes, but also when malware disables your system beyond repair.
There are many backup apps available that can create system images, and most have schedulers for setting up automated backups. We have used Acronis True Image for many years. Macrium Reflect is a newer contender which has received good reviews. You can set up an external drive for scheduled weekly backups, and be prepared for that moment when malware totally disables your computer.
For more information on backing up your data and system, please read this article in our previous newsletter: mangelsdorf.net/mail/1002web_consulting_newsletter.html#IT.
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Web Site Content Management Systems (CMS)
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Web Content Management Systems (WCMS, but usually CMS for short) allow a non–technical user (usually a business owner or an administrator) to manage the modification of content of their web site without needing the help of a web site developer or knowledge of HTML. The content manager may add or delete text and images, and add or remove pages from their web site. For the motivated business owner who makes frequent small edits to their web site, and few changes to the site’s design or layout, a CMS–based web site can be beneficial.
Unfortunately the drawbacks are considerable and may not be so obvious when you hire someone to build your CMS–driven web site.
- CMS sites are based on templates. They can be customized to some extent, but you will always be stuck in that template "box", meaning any changes to the web site still need to conform to the template layout.
- Some developers consider the completed underlying programming code to be their own and therefore make it difficult for a business to get control of the code should they wish to switch developers. Or the opposite, which has recently happened to one of our clients. The developer disappeared, and left our client with code for an incomplete web site. Our client had to scramble to find another developer who they could trust and afford, and had the specific programming skills needed to complete the project.
- Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is not under the control of the content manager, but with the developer. And many CMS templates do not allow for any SEO while others claim to have SEO abilities that require additional programming, at additional cost.
- It takes time for the content manager to learn the editor interface, and prepare text and graphics to post to their site. He or she may also need to purchase graphics editing software and learn how to use it, and understand things like optimizing graphics for web use. Dated web site material needs to be removed (MPS does this for free), and content can rarely be static. Often the time and money spent learning the interface and keeping the site up to date ends up being more costly than hiring a web developer to manage site updates.
- A content manager generally does not know how to manipulate text for good search engine results, even if the CMS template allows for this.
We wrote this article after recent experiences we’ve had with two clients who hired us to recode their CMS site to a normal HTML site for us to manage, and two other clients who have asked us for a quote to do this conversion. Within one month we had four clients either concerned about their CMS experience and looking for options, or completely frustrated with it. We believe that web sites designed and coded based upon our client’s business and goals, rather than a template, and with SEO customized to our client’s online marketing plan, is the best possible web site service we can offer.
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Yelp and Filtered Reviews
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Our clients who have set up a Yelp account, and kept it under their control by frequently checking and updating the content, have benefited from the power of this consumer review site. Yelp is always in the top ten of referrers to sites for which we track traffic data. Monthly, one of our clients gets 500 clicks to their web site from their yelp profile. However, Yelp’s filtering system has caused some grief, to our clients as well as to small business owners around the country. There is a lot of information on this to be found if you use a search engine and keywords, "yelp filter business owner", but rather than get into this, we will stick to our goal with this newsletter and provide our readers with advice.
Tips on Managing Your Yelp Profile and Dealing with Filtered Reviews
First, we recommend every business set up their own Yelp account and use all the free features. If you don’t set up an account, an upset client may do this for you. This did happen to one of our clients who was unaware for months that her business had a Yelp profile, or that she had a terrible review. And if someone else does set up a profile for your business, they could also enter incorrect contact information.
Some Yelp experts recommend you never ask for a Yelp review, even if a client asks how they can help your business. But we also see blog postings with Yelp employees or experts saying this is just fine. If a client expresses pleasure with your business and wants to help you, ask them to give you a review on Yelp. This does not cheat Yelp, but rather helps provide their visitors with accurate information on your business.
If you are not familiar with Yelp’s new Filtered section, take a look at any Yelp profile and at the bottom, you will see a nearly hidden link to the filtered items. The problem for small businesses is that filtered reviews do not get included in the overall business ranking. It pains a business owner to see five star ratings which are not being seen by Yelp visitors, or which could be, but are not, helping their business’ rating. We have looked at these filtered reviews and see two patterns:
- Reviews with dates close together must look to Yelp’s filtering system like "ballot stuffing", and so get filtered out. If you do ask clients to give you a review, spread out the requests. If you have a group of clients (say after you teach a workshop) ask how they can help you in exchange for your excellent service, you can ask a few to give you a Yelp review, and a few to send you a testimonial by email which you can use on your web site or in other marketing material.
- Another pattern in the Filtered section is reviews by people with less than three Yelp community friends and with only a single or a few reviews. These look to Yelp’s filter like made up reviewers and reviews. They allow a few of these types of rewiewers to stay in the main profile and get counted in the overall business rating, and then kick the rest back to the Filtered section. There is not much you can do to control this, unless it’s appropriate to ask clients who want to review your business if they Yelp regularly. If they are not Yelpers, ask them if they would email you a short testimonial which you can use for marketing, or if you have a Google business listing, ask them to review you there.
Frequently look at your yelp profile and respond to reviews by thanking those who gave you a good review, and work your customer service magic on those who gave you a bad review. Often these customers will be grateful for the attention and amend their original review. Also copy and save any new reviews, including the name of the reviewer, to a Word document so that if Yelp does filter or drop this review in the future, you will have it for your records. Yelp reviews can be added to your site’s testimonials page, which is usually one of the most popular pages on a web site. And if you can contact the reviewer and get permission, you can use the testimonial on other marketing material.
Yelp is responding to frustrated business owners by continually reviewing their filtering system and starting a Small Business Advisory Council. However, they do also say that in a situation of a suspicious review, they will side with their site’s visitors rather than the business in question.
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