6 Must-Have Elements on any Successful Website

In a recent survey of 1,800 customers, 42% said they’re “very unlikely” to purchase from ugly websites. That’s not so surprising. After all, there are plenty of competitors’ websites that are more visually appealing and user-friendly that they can visit. If your business website fails to make a critical good first impression, it could lose money. You can avoid that by improving these elements on your website.

A variety of professional photos

From pictures of your products to team photos, high-quality images are arguably the most important thing on your website. Blurry, outdated, or irrelevant pictures tell your site visitors that you don’t care about their browsing experience. In-house photos are the best option, but stock images shouldn’t cause any problems as long as they are optimized for mobile viewing and relevant to your content.

Navigation

Aside from subpar images, linking to nonexistent pages is one of the best ways to turn site visitors away. Make sure it’s easy to navigate your site and remove outdated or irrelevant pages. You can’t sell 404 pages to customers, and if that’s all visitors can find, it’s game over.

Clear copywriting

The last thing you want to do is to confuse your customers, so it’s important to keep all of your product or service descriptions as straightforward and simple as possible. If what you’re selling has detailed information such as dimensions or technical requirements, make sure the description is easy to find but not obtrusive.

Promises to site visitors

Any website that ships products should make its returns policy as visible as possible. This establishes trust early. Explicitly stating terms of return is also important because some online shoppers make purchase decisions based solely on the clarity of a return policy.

Even if you don’t run an eCommerce site, you also need to prominently display privacy commitments, such as those mandated by the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

About page

Your brand needs a story behind it that customers can relate to. Every company website should have an About Us page that describes your team, its culture, and what sets you apart from the competition. Whatever your story is, make sure it’s accessible from any page on your site.

Design

Not everyone is a web design expert, but in today’s gig economy, one is never too far away from such a career. If your budget is tight, there are DIY site builders specifically geared toward small businesses. Or with a relatively low monthly expenditure, you can hire a managed website provider.

With more revenue originating online, small- and medium-sized business owners can’t afford to overlook the importance of creating a fully functional website.

For more information on building a modern website, call us today!

Speed up your Windows 10 PC with these 4 easy tips

When your computer shows signs of slowing down, don’t feel compelled to buy a replacement just yet. You can still speed up your machine — and do it for free, too. We’ve listed four effective tips to make your Windows 10 computer faster:

Prevent programs from launching at startup

Windows makes certain programs readily available by loading them at startup. While Microsoft likely has good intentions for doing this, this auto-launch feature slows down your computer. To fix this issue, you’ll need to adjust your settings.

Open the Task Manager by pressing Ctrl+Shift+Esc to see the programs that launch during startup. On the startup tab, you can easily disable any programs you don’t want launching at startup, such as media players and optional accessories that don’t have to be active all the time. But to be on the safe side, keep essential apps, such as antivirus software, enabled.

Get rid of useless applications

Having too many programs installed on your computer uses up valuable memory and hard disk space. This slows down your computer and makes the machine work harder than necessary. Quickly uninstall programs you don’t need by following these steps:

• Tap the Windows key on your keyboard and type “Add or remove programs” (this will show you all the apps stored in your computer).
• A link to the system settings will appear. Click on the link.
• Select the program/s you no longer want, and click Uninstall.

Once you do this, you’ll then be guided through several steps to complete the uninstallation process.

Organize your disks

It’s important to regularly clean out your computer of data you don’t need. Thankfully, Microsoft’s Disk Cleanup tool makes it easy to do so.

To find the tool, tap on the Windows button on your keyboard and type “Disk Cleanup.” If you click on the link, the tool will automatically find files that take up too much memory space, such as temporary Internet and system memory dump files. Just click OK to send these files to your Recycle Bin.

Turn off apps running in the background

You may not know it, but there are a lot of programs running in the background as you use your computer. Microsoft enabled their native universal apps to do this so you can quickly access their features. However, this also slows down your CPU. Disabling them will reduce the burden on your computer and speed it up.

To find out what programs are running in the background, press the Windows button on your keyboard and type “Background apps.” Find the programs you don’t need running and toggle the On-Off button.

By following these four steps, you’ll see a noticeable difference in the speed of your PC. If you want to learn how to optimize your Windows system further or need assistance with your other Microsoft products, give us a call at 216-503-5150.

Collaborate Better for more Successful Workflows

If your business is like many others, you’ve pushed off some of your more capital-intensive plans and focused on efficiency. Now that things are starting to reopen in many places, it’s been made clear that keeping your business running with remote workers is a good strategy, but you can’t keep your projects on the back burner forever. Using video conferencing solutions to help run your projects can be a good stopgap that can give your business some flexibility. Let’s take a look.

Restarting Projects

While your employees were doing DIY home improvement projects, your business’ improvement projects have laid dormant. As the new normal will present situations that were not only rare a short time ago, they are not completely aimed at improving your business’ situation in the same manner as the projects you had planned before this whole thing hit. If your strategy is like many other businesses, you will have to be cautious to not put your employees in harm’s way. With a projected second wave of COVID-19 still possible, it’s going to be important for project teams to forge ahead even if they are being forced to work from remote locations.

One of the best collaboration tools you have at this point is your video conferencing solution. Not only does it give your team the ability to meet with each other from remote locations, solutions today are built with the ability to integrate some of your most important software into the meetings. These integrations can go a long way toward giving your project team members the resources they need to efficiently and effectively complete difficult projects.

Collaboration Strategies

Sad to say, solid collaboration isn’t just the act of people working together. True collaboration is measured in the successful delivery of professional goods and services. If your project teams need to work together to get your offerings out the door, and they are being forced to work remotely, invest in a video conferencing solution that provides both an option-rich interface with the ability to interact as a team or one-on-one. This is crucial because the more time you spend in meetings, the less time is spent being actually productive, even if the contents of the meeting are critical to the success of the project.

Once you have a reliable conferencing solution in place, you can use it to run points over operational difficulties, projects, and even whole staff meetings. Here are some suggestions on how to use your video conferencing solution to get the most out of your team.

1. Don’t be brief to save time – Many people will try to keep meetings as short as possible. That’s actually a good practice, but if your team needs communication on the specifics of a project or task, brevity may be counterproductive.
2. Don’t send too many messages – Do you follow up using instant message, email, and phone? This is complete overkill. With a video conferencing platform, you can quickly address all the issues present for that day at once, not over multiple forms of communication. If things do require a write up after the fact, assign one person to compose meeting minutes.
3. Don’t just use the video conference for work – Part of working for a company is the camaraderie your staff shares. Things like birthday parties and staff meetings can be a respite from the continual flow of work-related information.

Using video conferencing for collaboration means having a strategy that keeps people connected while reducing the feeling of anxiety that comes from being overwhelmed with information. If you would like to talk about video conferencing solutions that can help your business get the most out of your remote staff, call the IT experts at Net Activity at 216-503-5150.

Keep your Mobile Devices Safe with these Tips

Mobile devices are generally less secure than laptop and desktop computers. While there are available anti-malware applications for smartphones and tablets, they aren’t as comprehensive as those for laptops and desktops. Additionally, some mobile devices aren’t compatible with certain security applications or measures implemented by businesses. That’s why it’s even more important to keep track of and manage all the mobile devices your staff uses to access sensitive company data. Here are a few helpful tips to do so.

Ensure mobile OS is up to date

The updates on Apple and Android operating systems (OS) improve overall user experience, but their most important function is to fix security vulnerabilities. Reduce your business’s exposure to threats by installing updates for all devices as soon as they become available. Don’t wait for a few weeks or months to update, as this gives cybercriminals ample time to exploit vulnerabilities on devices that run on an outdated OS.

Install business applications only

Downloading apps seems harmless. But lenient policies on what should and shouldn’t be downloaded on company mobile devices could lead to staff downloading and installing non-business-related apps from third-party stores, most of which are notorious for malicious advertising codes and other threats. It’s imperative that employees download and install only business applications necessary for their work on their company mobile devices.

Be careful when connecting to public Wi-Fi networks

Emergencies may compel you to use password-free Wi-Fi networks in hotels, airports, cafes, and other public places. Connecting to an open network can expose your confidential information and sensitive company data to cybercriminals connected to the same network.

You can avoid this by providing a practical internet data plan, preferably one that includes roaming services, for remote workers. And if you really have to connect to a public Wi-Fi network, don’t use the connection for transferring sensitive data.

Enable phone tracking tools

Losing a company-issued mobile device is unfortunate but inevitable. Devices can be misplaced or stolen, but enabling Find My iPhone for iOS devices, GPS Phone Tracker for Android, or any device-tracking app helps users locate lost phones. Some also have the option to delete data on stolen devices. Downloading and setting up such an app only takes a few minutes, and it will give you peace of mind knowing that even if your phone is lost or stolen, its contents will not be compromised.

Screen SMS carefully

SMS phishing can be used to trick you into clicking malicious links. Cybercriminals send messages purporting to be from someone you know, asking you to urgently disclose confidential information. Should you encounter such an SMS, you can either delete it or alert your IT department. You can also block unknown senders without even opening their message.

Mobile devices are becoming more critical to operations. And with more devices open to attacks, businesses must bolster their cybersecurity efforts. Malicious actors will exploit every possible vulnerability, and that includes those in unsecured smartphones and tablets. Get in touch with us if you need comprehensive security solutions for your business.