Google’s “Search Off the Record” is a monthly podcast for behind-the-scenes looks at the company and its inner search workings. In last month’s episode, Google veterans John Mueller, Gary Illyes, and Martin Splitt addressed domain names and their impact on organic search rankings.
Category: Technology
How does ransomware get on your computer?
99 times out of 100, ransomware gets on your computer when you deliberately choose to put it there.
You don’t know that’s what you’re doing. You’re tricked into it. But you choose to put it there. You voluntarily, of your own free will, allow it to run on your computer.
Some of the ways this happens:
- You receive an email that says it’s from the IRS. You are being investigated for tax fraud. If you do not pay the attached invoice, an arrest warrant will be issued for you. Oh no! You get a jolt of adrenaline. Fear inhibits the prefrontal cortex. You stupidly click the “invoice,” which has a name designed to fool you like “tax-invoice-11278484-official-government-document.pdf.cab”, and boom, you’re infected.
- You receive an email that says “I paid you the money but I never received my product. I’ve attached my bank statement to prove I paid you.” Same thing. You click on the “bank statement.” It’s not a bank statement, of course, it’s ransomware.
- You’re browsing the web. A popup appears: “Your copy of Adobe Flash is out of date. Click here to update. If you don’t update you will not be able to watch movies.” You click on the updated. Boom! You’ve just infected yourself. (Hint: there are never ever ever any real Adobe Flash player updates ever. Adobe discontinued Flash years ago. I do not understand why this trick still works.)
- You’re browsing the web. A window appears: “WARNING!!!! CRITICAL SYSTEM ERROR!!!! Your computer is infected with 8 COMPUTER VIRUSES! Your files will be destroyed! Click here to download Norton® Mcaffee® Antivirus by Avast® to fix this problem!” It’s a lie, of course. You aren’t infected. But you’re scared, and scared people are stupid, and so you click to install the “antivirus,” which is of course ransomware. Congratulations! You have just been tricked into voluntarily infecting yourself by your own choice of your own free will.
- You want to run Microsoft Office but you don’t want to pay for it. So you Google how to get it for free and find yourself on a site that advertises a cracked version of Office (or a game or Photoshop or whatever). The crack includes a bonus surprise: ransomware!
Basically, almost all ransomware infections are some sort of variation on this idea. Someone lies to you to trick you into infecting yourself.
7 Handy Apps You’ll Use Throughout Your Day
Whether for business or pleasure, you can find a great use for any of these on-sale items.
Everyone uses technology in their day-to-day life. Some of us may use more apps or programs than others, but we all rely on technology to do our jobs. Some apps, however, are a bit more useful than others and are more of a constant presence in our lives. Things like VPNs and cloud storage are a bit more vital than the chess app you use to blow off steam from time to time. As such, we’ve rounded up some great deals on apps and software that you will use throughout the day every day.
1. Hushed Private Phone Line
Everybody is entitled to privacy. That means not giving out your personal phone numbers to potential clients you haven’t met yet. With a Hushed Private Phone Line, you get all the services of a normal phone number, except that it’s completely private.
Get a Hushed Private Phone Line for $19.99 (Reg. $150), a savings of 86 percent.
2. Foreceipt Receipt Tracker App
This time of year, you might be pulling your hair out trying to maximize every deduction you can for your business. Next year, make it easier on yourself by using Foreceipt. This simple receipt tracker app digitizes your receipts so you can organize them and retrieve them easily come tax season.
Get the Foreceipt Receipt Tracker App for $29.99 (Reg. $239), a savings of 87 percent.
3. Elocance Audio Reading App
Not enough time in the day? Multitasking is significantly easier with Elocance. This clever audio reading app will read contracts, documents, emails, and more out loud for you so you can review things you need to review while continuing to get through work.
Get the Elocance Audio Reading App for $34.99 (Reg. $434), a savings of 91 percent.
4. Omvana Meditation App
Everybody needs to take a break from time to time to ensure they’re operating at peak performance. Omvana has earned rave reviews from CBS, The New York Times, and more because it’s specifically designed to help you improve performance, elevate productivity, and relieve anxiety. With a huge array of meditation tracks, you’ll be well on your way towards a happier, healthier life.https://36d628f21445d9c66ed70b0daa01038c.safeframe.googlesyndication.com/safeframe/1-0-37/html/container.html
Get the Omvana Meditation App for $39.99 (Reg. $59), a savings of 33 percent.
5. Knowable Audio Learning Platform
Entrepreneurs like Warren Buffett and Bill Gates contribute their success to continuously learning. After all, if you aren’t learning, you’re moving backward. With Knowable, you’ll get access to hundreds of lectures from experts like Elon Musk and Arianna Huffington on topics ranging from business and marketing to health and wellness, and more.
Get the Knowable Audio Learning Platform for $59.99 (Reg. $249), a savings of 75 percent.
6. Degoo Premium Cloud Storage
Every entrepreneur is bound to need premium cloud storage eventually. Degoo gives you more backup space than Dropbox, OneDrive, and Google Drive combined for a mere $60. Yes, that’s the total price. No subscription fees at all.
Get Degoo Premium for $59.99 (Reg. $1,200), a savings of 95 percent.
7. Windscribe VPN Pro Plan
Windscribe goes above and beyond most VPNs. It’s a desktop application and browser extension that protects your online privacy, unblocks websites, and removes ads and trackers for a more enjoyable browsing experience. It offers unlimited downloads and unlimited simultaneous connections, all while maintaining a strict zero-logging privacy.
Get Windscribe VPN for $89.99 (Reg. $324), a savings of 72 percent.
10 Tools to Help You Build Your Business’s Online Presence
Every business these days needs a solid online presence. But, not every entrepreneur is especially digital-minded. Fortunately, technology that can help you build your brand online abounds, and right now, you can score bonus savings on valuable tools. Just enter promo code PREZ2021 at checkout, and you can save an extra 15 percent off any of these apps and software (some exclusions apply).
1. Blueprints Website Builder
If you don’t have a website, it is essential that you build one. Doing so with Blueprints Website builder is simple. You can easily customize a site with more than 500 ready-made blocks, 200 prototype starter templates, and 30 navigation panels, allowing you to create an SEO-optimized, responsive site without writing a line of code.
Get Blueprints Website Builder for $21.25 (Reg. $149) with promo code PREZ2021.
2. SSEOZI: Your Professional SEO & Web Analyzer Tools’
Improving your site’s SEO is one of the most budget-friendly ways to improve searchability and start attracting more organic traffic. SSEOZI is one of the most budget-friendly ways to improve your SEO. This tool will help you improve your rank on Google and Bing with all of your keywords, identifies competitors, and helps you do a complete website audit to fix SEO issues.
Get SSEOZI for $21.25 (Reg. $49) with promo code PREZ2021.
3. SPYsession Visitor Analytics
The only way to improve how people use your website is to understand how they actually are using it. SPYsession is a simple, legal way to do just that. With this simple tool, you can search and replay high-quality sessions to analyze a customer’s experience across your website to optimize your site.
Get SPYsession Visitor Analytics for $34.99 (Reg. $299).
4. WooCommerce 110+ Premium Plugin Bundle
WooCommerce is one of the most popular online store tools on the planet. If you run your online shop with WooCommerce, you’ll love this plugin bundle. Get one-page checkout and payments, Google Analytics integration, email marketing with Mailchimp, and much more.
WhatsApp: The 6 Big Changes Coming to the Instant Messaging Application in 2021
Several updates were released last year, and now more added functionalities are expected.
Over almost 12 years of existence, the messaging applicationinstantané to, WhatsApp released some updates, like the famous custom wallpapers, the new search tool emoji, just as the ability to mute your chats forever. However, they continue to develop new tools and functionalities that may come to light this year.
Internal announcements on WhatsApp and new terms of use
On February 8 , the application will update its terms of use,which will accompany a tool that the company will use to send specific announcements to users, according to the WABetaInfo portal.
It is worth mentioning that these messages will not be sent through a chat, but will appear as a particular notice in the application, it may redirect to external sites or require specific actions from users.
Holiday mode
The application is currently developing ‘vacation mode’ to allow users to archive conversations and groups for a time to mute and disable chat notifications.
This need arises from the fact that many users do not want to be part of a conversation, but are in turn unable to withdraw for some reason.
Purchases directly from the app
As is already known, a WhatsApp account can be used as a business medium, which makes this option very useful , since, like applications related to it, not long ago they integrated purchases through said messaging app .
Calls and video calls desktop version
As can be done on Android and iOS devices, calls and video calls are the main innovations that WhatsApp will unveil during 2021 for web and desktop versions. The functionality is in beta, however it is one of the most anticipated.
Choice of many devices
The use of the same account on four different devices is expected, although it is not yet known if these include tablets and other electronic devices. However, the application can be used without the main smartphone being connected to the internet, which allows using WhatsApp Web even if the phone remains off.
Self-destruction of certain visual content
The company is working on a function that has the purpose of improving the level of privacy of its platform . It is a tool that deletes any attachment – image, video or animated Giff – sent to a contact after the recipient has opened it. A very useful option that will help you conserve space, although the user has the option to decide whether or not to add the validity of said files.
To find out more: WhatsApp will start showing notices and advertisements; whoever is not in favor can eliminate it
Free Report: A Guide to Engaging Talent in the New Distributed Landscape
How small businesses can find, engage, and retain the talent they need to keep business going-and growing.
Brought to you by Entrepreneur Partner Studio Staff
When it comes to attracting and keeping great employees, the rules of engagement have changed—and potentially for good. An increasing number of companies that largely opted for working from home during COVID-19 are transitioning to hybrid models where some employees spend some time in physical offices while others continue to work from home.
For many small businesses, the shift means rethinking the ways in which employees are hired, onboarded, and retained.
In this white paper, we’ll explore the three inextricably linked keys to doing just that: In this exclusive report, A Guide to Engaging Talent in the New Distributed Landscape, you’ll learn about hiring in this new world of social distancing, creating an onboarding process that builds trust, driving productivity using smart tools and processes, and much more.
How to Delete Your WhatsApp Cache
Your phone does not have to lock when you are on a call or sending multiple messages.
Have you had trouble downloading files? Does it get stuck while making a call? Or you just notice that it doesn’t work as before. Maybe you should consider deleting WhatsApp cache . We tell you why and how to do it.
What is the cache?
The cache is the storage area of a device where all the used and most requested data are stored. In this way, they recover faster when required.
All electronic devices have it, so you access passwords, search results and frequent items faster. And although it is very useful, if the cache memory becomes saturated, it can cause applications and devices, in general, to become slow.
- Read more: How to read deleted WhatsApp messages?
Why clear the WhatsApp cache?
The instant messaging application, part of Facebook , collects information about the texts, emojis, audios or stickers that you sent and received. According to the Remo Software site, the cache should be cleared to improve the app experience. Also, this way you will take care of your privacy against possible cyberattacks and hacks.
If what you are concerned about is your data, don’t worry, it won’t be erased, nor will your photos, information or conversations, it will only make your application work as if it were just installed.
How to delete WhatsApp cache?
To have more space available, that is, clear or delete the WhatsApp cache, follow these steps:
- Go to ‘Settings’ of your phone.
- Select ‘Applications’
- Search WhatsApp
- Go to ‘Storage’
- Clear cache
NOTE: you must select ‘Clear Cache Memory’ and not ‘Clear Data’. If you do this, your account and app chats will be deleted.
Looking for a Web Hosting Service? HotDash Is Worth a Good, Hard Look.
Every business these days needs a website. More and more business is done online, with some retailers reporting online sales growth of almost 300 percent over the past year. Ecommerce is changing the way people shop, and businesses should be ready to adapt. One of the first steps businesses can take is to build a website, but that can get expensive in a hurry when it comes to hosting.
That’s where HostDash Web Hosting comes in. HostDash aims to provide fast web hosting for individual business owners as well as small- and medium-size enterprises. They give companies the digital tools they need to operate a successful online business, whether you’re a web veteran or a complete newbie.
HostDash utilized the market-leading cPanel™ control panel, giving you complete control of your hosting environment from an easy-to-use graphical dashboard. You can manage all of your files through an FTP client and install more than 400 programs to your website with just a click. HostDash helps you manage, download, or restore backups; manage, create, or access unlimited email accounts; and manage databases and import SQL files with absolute ease. You can even view usage statistics and error logs to ensure your site is operating on all cylinders at all times.
When you use HostDash, you’ll get free website migration (if applicable), a free SSL certificate, and unlimited bandwidth, email accounts, and website coverage.
If you want to run a business website, HostDash makes it easy. Right now, you can get a one-year subscription to Host Dash Web Hosting Growth Plan for 87 percent off $119 at just $14.99. Or, if your needs aren’t quite as extensive, you can get a one-year Startup Plan subscription for 88 percent off $83 at just $9.99.
Learn to Get the Most Out of Adobe Photoshop and Creative Cloud for Less Than $50
Marketing in 2020 is all about great design. The world is so saturated with advertisements, it’s difficult for small businesses to cut through the noise to reach the right audiences. That’s why great design is so essential. But it can also be expensive. Designers are talented people and their services certainly don’t come cheap.
If you can, a more budget-friendly option would be learning some graphic designskills yourself. The first step will be equipping yourself with the right tools, and Adobe Creative Cloud is best in class. Right now, you can take a deep dive into the Adobe Creative Cloud for less than $50 in The All-Inclusive 2020 Adobe CC Essentials Course Bundle.
Site Builders
Choosing a Website Builder
Starting a website is much easier and cheaper than it used to be thanks to the wide variety of user-friendly, DIY web builders that consumers can now choose from. We’ve compiled a list of do-it-yourself website builders above, highlighting the features that each of them offers.
When choosing a website builder, you must first consider what kind of site you want to build and what kind of functionality you require. Below is a list of of key decision-making factors you should consider when picking a website builder to help make the ideal personal or business site for you.
Consider the Software Features
There are a lot of great website builders to compare & choose from, but your best option will depend on the features that matter most to you. For instance, Wix and Squarespace are excellent options for users who desire absolute simplicity. Wix and Web.com both offer excellent stock images and photo editing tools. Squarespace and Shopify are equipped with world-class shopping cart solutions.
If you’re just looking for a quality hosting platform that works with WordPress or another preferred CMS, you might favor iPage or FatCow.
A Great Website Deserves a Great Template
Your template is the backbone of your website. It comprises the entire layout, including your menus, colors, background elements, and photo and text alignment. A worthy website builder will have hundreds of templates to choose from, but the quality of those templates is also critical. For instance, Wix and Network Solutions offer fewer free templates than some of their competitors, but the templates they do offer are among the most beautiful you’ll find. Squarespace is another great choice for quality templates.
To Pay or Not to Pay?
Should you go with a free platform like WordPress or a paid platform like Squarespace? That depends on how much control you want over your website and how big you want to go:
Free website builders are excellent on a budget, but they typically don’t allow you to connect your own domain. Also, you’ll have to keep the company’s ads on each webpage.
Paid builders are definitely an investment, but you get more storage, bandwidth, and tools. Also, you can use your own domain and get rid of those pesky ads.
Here are some additional factors to consider when deciding between free and paid website builders.
The Brand Is Important, Too
We know that trust is important when you’re choosing a website builder. All of the website builders featured & compared on this page are industry leaders, and some of them have been in business for over two decades. Register.com has been around since 1994, Web.com since 1995, and GoDaddy since 1997. Network Solutions has actually been in operation since 1979!
These companies have also received numerous industry accolades. For instance, BigCommerce has received two Stevie awards for Best Overall Business. GoDaddy also received three Stevie awards for their sales and customer service and has been recognized as one of Arizona’s Most Admired Companies two years running.
Industry accolades are another great indicator of a brand’s value. Look at Squarespace, for example, which has taken home myriad Webby Awards over the years for everything from Features & Design to Web Services & Applications and Best Practices.
Looking for Design Services?
Yeah, these website builders offer plenty of stellar designs right out of the box, but sometimes, you need something a bit more custom. If you’re looking to have a professional design a gorgeous website on your behalf, your best bets are Wix, Web.com and Network Solutions. These platforms all offer competitively priced DIFM (Do It for Me) web design services. Once your site is built, you can still use their easy content management system to maintain your site.
If your site includes a storefront, BigCommerce is another excellent option. They can connect you with one of their carefully vetted BigCommerce design partners. Best of all, there are hundreds of partners to choose from, so you can compare rates and portfolios and find the option that works best for you.
Don’t Forget About Google
If you want potential visitors, readers, customers, or groupies to be able to find you, you need a site that is optimized for search engines. SEO (which appropriately stands for “search engine optimization”) refers to all of the techniques and best practices that allow a website to achieve prominent search engine rankings.
If you want to ensure that your website builder is SEO-friendly, look for features such as:
- The ability to edit title tags, meta descriptions, and alt image attributes
- Automated XML and HTML sitemaps
- Search-friendly URLs (good: mysite.com/latest-news; bad: mysite.com/349596)
- Keyword density tools and conversion tools
Wix and Web.com are two of the best website builders for SEO. They both offer all of the features mentioned above, and Web.com even employs SEO experts who can optimize your site on your behalf (additional rates apply).
And Then There Are the Hosting and Domain Bundles
Your hosting is like your real estate. But instead of paying for five acres and a duplex, you’re paying for a few gigabytes of storage and enough bandwidth to make your site run smoothly. All of the website builders featured on this page offer hosting services for your website, and most of them allow you to connect your own domain for a small fee. Squarespace is one of the few hosting providers that will give you a free domain when you sign up for a yearly contract.
Weebly and Web.com both have hosting plans with unlimited storage and bandwidth. This is a huge advantage for any website owner. BigCommerce offers these perks as well, but if you have an online store with thousands of products and customers, you may be required to upgrade to a costlier enterprise plan.
When comparing your hosting options, just be aware of the difference between “unlimited” and “unmetered” bandwidth. An unmetered plan isn’t truly unlimited. That is, the hosting provider won’t stop you from receiving large influxes of traffic, but it may slow your site down after you reach a certain threshold.
The Advantages of Using a Website Builder
The average cost of a website built by a designer can range between $1,000 – $8,000, but every time you change your mind, your bill can get larger. You also have to wait until your designer is available to make the changes you requested. And in the end, there’s a risk that you’ll end up agreeing to a website that you’re not actually happy with, just because you don’t feel that you can afford to ask them to try something else.
Using a website builder is much less expensive. The best website builders offer plenty of choices and give you complete autonomy over your project. With Wix, for example, you can choose from more than 500 templates across 70 categories, and experiment with fonts, color schemes, slideshows, galleries, and video backgrounds. The much-celebrated Wix App Market is a huge boon to Wix users, who will find more than 300 apps at their fingertips that they can effortlessly integrate into their website.
With a website builder, you are in control of everything, from the placement of the call-to-action button to the font on your homepage.
What to Consider When Choosing a Website Builder Platform
The best website builder is the one that best fits your needs. Ask yourself some of these questions about your new website:
- What type of site will it be?
- What key features do you need?
- Are you running an online store? If so, how big will it be? Some website builders have Ecommerce plans that limit the number of items you can sell per month.
- What is the vibe of your business?
Ease of Use
The most important feature of a website builder is its usability. Try out the user interface on the 5 best website builders listed above by using their trial site builder. This will give you an idea of which one you find the most intuitive and easiest to use. If you do have some knowledge of coding, check that the website builders give you access to the CSS code, too.
Ecommerce
Hopefully, your business will expand. In this case, you need to ask yourself if you need a website builder that can process more online bookings, reservations, sales, or sales inquiries. Similarly, if you decide to transfer your site to a different hosting option in the future, can you easily download the full site?
Templates
You should also check which templates are available. Take the time to check that they aren’t all just slight variations of the same template. You’ll need templates for your business’ specific category, so a builder with hundreds of blog templates, but none for restaurants won’t be much help if you’re promoting your corner cafe.
Features
All the best website builders offer a number of extra features to make building your website easier and better. Here are some features to look out for:
- Setup wizards which guide you through the building process
- Drag-and-drop, intuitive interface to design your site
- SEO tools such as editing meta tags
- Marketing tools including email marketing
- Built-in analytics to track visitors’ demographics, location, interests, and more
- Ecommerce tools such as multiple payment processor options, inventory tracking tools, product descriptions, etc.
- Integrated social media buttons to connect your social media networks with your new site
- Mobile-responsive sites that update at the same time as your main site
- Mobile-editing tools which permit you to continue tweaking your new website from your mobile phone
Site Speed and Tech Support
Your website loading speed is also important. You don’t want to lose visitors just because your site takes a long time to load. Twenty-four-hour technical support is vital if you’re creating a website yourself and need help when you get stuck, even if that’s the middle of the night. Finally, although pricing shouldn’t be the main yardstick you use to measure a good website builder, you don’t want to pay too much for a mediocre website builder, so compare prices as well.
Is a Free Builder Worth It?
If you just want to build a basic site without an online store, then a free website builder is a solid way to get started. Keep in mind that free plans come with less storage, slower load times, and fewer SEO and marketing tools. If you know that you need Ecommerce facilities, lots of storage space (for high-resolution images, videos, etc.), extra customer support, and/or a lot of webpages, free site builders are unlikely to work for you.
That said, free website builders are ideal for testing the waters and having a ready-made platform to share with contacts and social media followers. And if you decide you’re ready to implement more features, many companies offer easy and cost-efficient upgrades. With Wix, for example, you can choose from 4 premium upgrades that provide increasing amounts of bandwidth, storage, and access to analytics and marketing tools, thereby allowing you to scale up at a rate—and cost—that meets your website’s needs.
Original Article Here.