Exit Strategy: Does a Great Website Help Sell a Business?

We launched a new website for Nexus Aircraft Climate Control Systems earlier this week. How this project came about reminded us of the role a great website can play in selling a business.

Back story: This is our second project working with Nexus' founders; we did website design and development work for their last company, which they successfully sold earlier this year. After that deal closed they launched Nexus to bring their next big idea to market. We were engaged shortly thereafter to build a website to explain the breakthrough features and benefits of their new products.

While there are many factors that contribute to the successful sale of a business, we see a great website is an essential element of a sound exit strategy. Here's why: A well-designed website is based on an understanding of business strategy and objectives. It clearly explains your brand, resonates with your target customers, and differentiates your value proposition, while driving the metrics that support real brand equity and (therefore) a higher valuation in a business sale scenario. Sweet.

For more on Nexus and the launch, here's a link to their press release: NexusCCS Announcement.

Questions? Happy to discuss.

Most Small Business Websites are Missing the Boat on Mobile Navigation and SEO

We spotted a Wall Street Journal article ("Missing Out on Mobile") a few days ago and noted a statistic that caught us by surprise: Only 33% of U.S. small business websites are optimized for mobile. It's surprising (and concerning) for two reasons:

First: With the majority of searches are now being made on mobile devices, any website that's not optimized for mobile is driving search visitors directly into their competitors' arms. Why? Because pinching and swiping right and left to navigate a small screen is difficult (and inexcusable) in terms of user experience. People will vote with their feet. In five seconds or less.

Second: Google has been giving clear preference to mobile optimized websites in its search results for the last 18+ months. (We pointed this out in one of our earlier posts.)  Given the clear competitive advantage inherent in better Google search visibility upgrading a business website to work well on mobile devices is an absolute no-brainer.

Here's why: Google's search algorithm is designed (and constantly tweaked) to give its users the most relevant, user friendly, technically sound results possible. (That way, we'll all use more Google services, click on more ads, and grow Google's ad revenue.)  And "technically sound" now includes mobile responsive design.

Based on our 20 years of experience building websites with strong search visibility, we see Google's approach as both reasonable. and, the best starting point for an effective SEO strategy.

Questions about how your website stacks up? Drop us a line and we'll be glad to give it look.

Lessons from Last Friday's DDOS Attack

Analysis of the DDOS attack that took down big chunks of the Internet last Friday provides a reminder and a warning. While the "who" behind the attack remains unclear, the "what" has been traced (largely) to a hack of a Chinese company's IOT (Internet of Things) devices that were shipped with weak passwords, and then not changed to strong, unique passwords by their owners.

That vulnerability led to hundreds of thousands of these devices being infected by Mirai malware and commandeered into a botnet that was used in the DDOS (distributed denial of service) attack on Dyn, an Internet infrastructure provider. (Think of Dyn as a "traffic cop" that gets Internet traffic to where it's supposed to go. As we saw last Friday, without the traffic cops, Internet traffic can grind to a halt.

Lesson #1: Always use strong passwords on anything that connects to the Internet. We recommend passwords that are at least 8 characters in length, combining letters, (upper and lower case), numbers, and special characters (like !#$%*).  Avoid commonly spelled words and numbers in sequence. And don't "reuse" them. Write them down and keep them in a secure place or use a reliable password management service. (I can send you links to detailed reviews of password management services on request.) Strong passwords will help insure your devices don't become part of the next attack.

Lesson #2: Although it's pretty sturdy, (with multiple redundancies), the Internet is vulnerable. Access to services can be lost. It makes sense to analyze how an outage will impact your business and have a contingency plan. Example: If you're relying on the cloud for data or document storage, do you also keep a local backup?  Likewise it's wise to evaluate any cloud services. Can that functionality be duplicated on a local computer or your local network?

One other thing... Has a protocol been developed (and training provided) so your people know what to do next time the Internet goes down? It's a case where the old adage applies: "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure." (As attributed to Ben Franklin.)

Gugi Malware Attacks Up 10X - What You Should Know

An article in The Register on malware caught our attention this week: According to a Kaspersky report there's been a 10X increase in Gugi malware attacks between April and August this year.  The article explains Gugi is a "bank-account-raiding Trojan for smartphones". Not good. 

Worse, this particular malware targets devices running Android version 6; (i,e, Marshmallow). Since version 6 added security measures to block this kind of attack it looks like the bag guys have upped their game. iPhone users would be wise to assume Gugi (or something like it) will be adapted to invade their ecosystem as well.

Here's what you need to know to protect your device: Gugi uses a spam SMS text message that says "additional rights needed to work with graphics and windows" with a button that says "Provide". Don't do it. Clicking the button allows the malware to get to your private data which will be used to try to get to your online banking info, with predictably unfortunate consequences.   

Here's a link to the article for additional details: Sneaky Gugi Banking Trojan

While Gugi originated in Russia, it's rapid growth shows the threat has now expanded well beyond Russia's borders. Forewarned is forearmed.    

Windows 10 Anniversary Update Problems and Possible Solutions

Since the Windows 10 Anniversary Update (AU) started rolling out over this past week some of our clients have had questions and reported various problems with the installation process. We thought it would be helpful to share our observations and a couple of resources on this subject.

Side note: If you've updated your operating system from Windows 7 or 8.1 to 10 then you should consider getting the Anniversary Update. Besides strengthened security measures, this update includes improvements to the Start Menu, Edge browser, Action Center notification system, Cortana, and more.

If you haven't received AU automatically yet, you can start the process manually: Go to Settings (the little gear icon); then click on Update & Security, then Learn More. That should open a page with a box that says Get the Anniversary Update Now. Clicking the box should start the process. Note: Downloading and then installing this update will take a while. Depending on your connection and your computer, it could be an hour or more and will include a couple of restarts.

In most cases, this process unfolds without a hitch. But there have been reports of problems where the process hangs up or fails. The good news is that checking History in Windows Update Assistant will usually give you an error code to help narrow down the problem and find a solution.

For example, when installing AU on one of my own computers the process came to a grinding halt. Checking History I found error code 800705b4 as the likely problem. Doing some online research I found the suggestion to use Media Creation Tool (second option on the page) for the AU installation process and this did the trick. Other suggestions included disabling security software during the install process, but it wasn't necessary, at least in my case.

If you run into a problem, here's a link that will take you to the Microsoft Support site where you can search by error code. For other Windows 10 related issues you can try the Microsoft Answers Community. Just put your question in the search box and you'll get a list of possible answers. These are both very handy resources.

Hope this is helpful!

Windows 10 Free Upgrade Ends July 29; What Should You Do? Our Shortlist of Pros and Cons

With the clock running out on Microsoft's "free upgrade" offer July 29th, we compiled a shortlist of pros and cons to help clients or friends still on the Windows 10 fence decide what to do.  Here goes...

WINDOWS 10 PROS

• Improved security features and automatic "patching" going forward to keep the OS more secure; (this is perhaps the most important advantage to Windows 10 in our view)
• More efficient, faster; (it uses fewer system resources than Windows 8.1)
• IMHO it's more user friendly (i.e. it looks/works like Windows 7 rather than 8.1)
• The early "bugs" (which 10 certainly had) have been worked through with interim updates including a big one last November 12, and several more since then
• Microsoft Edge browser: (you shouldn't be using Internet Explorer at this point; it has big security problems, doesn't render many websites properly and is slow!)
• Cortana provides search and voice controls for many functions
• Task View lets you "simulate" having two monitors on one screen  
• Anniversary Update is coming August 2 for Windows 10 with a slug of improvements to the Start screen, Taskbar, Action Center, and new features for Cortana, Edge and more
• Your upgrade from Windows 7 or 8.1 is free until July 29; after that you'll have to buy it; (free is a very good price)
• If you don't like it, you can roll back to your current OS within 31 days 

WINDOWS 10 CONS

• If you're using proprietary (or very old) software it may not be compatible with Windows 10 
• Some people have "lost" (or had difficulty finding) certain files after they upgrade 
• If you're still using Windows XP or Vista, not only will you have to pay for Windows 10, but you have to do a fresh install; (it's not just a simple upgrade from XP or Vista) 

BOTTOM LINE

For most of our clients, we're recommending they take advantage of Microsoft's largess and get the Windows 10 upgrade before the July 29 deadline, but with the caveat that they back up any important files first, just in case. Feel free to reach out if you have any questions; glad to help. 

Personal Service Takes Spotlight in Latest Website Project

In the increasingly impersonal world of phone trees and autoresponders, our latest website project focused on the extraordinary personal service our client provides for her promotional product customers. (Not only does she answer the phone, she brings samples to your office!)

Of course every business claims to provide great customer service and talk (on this subject) is notably cheap. We understood our challenge as web designers was to clearly make this case for our client in a believable way, without having her sound like a braggart. (That would be way out of character; she's actually very humble.)

Our answer: Feature just one well-worded, credible, customer testimonial, from a real person, at a real organization, up front, on the home page. Here's our solution: www.PamKole.com

But beyond credibility, the new website also improved the website's security, enhanced its SEO capacity, while adding a responsive mobile design that works on all kinds of devices. (No small feat given all the different types and sizes of devices out there.)

Here's a link to the launch press release with more on Pam and her Specialty Connection.

P.S. If you haven't yet upgraded to Windows 10, Microsoft's free upgrade offer expires July 29th. If you have any questions about the upgrade and whether or not it's advisable, just send us a note; glad to help.