If you have not experienced a sudden and severe hard drive crash where all precious data is lost, you have heard a horror story from someone who has. Often the obvious preventive measure, to back up your computer system and data regularly, doesn’ t seem to make it to the high priority list as it deserves. In the past it was quite a hassle to backup files regularly using CDs. Nowadays it is so much easier since large capacity external hard drives can be purchased for less than $100. Why take a chance that your business and personal data could vanish forever at any moment? Implement a backup solution now!

There are two types of backups: full system and data only. System backups, sometimes called system images, are backups of everything on your hard drive, including the Operating System (OS), all the applications that have been installed, and all of your data. The other type backs up just your data, which includes all your emails and contacts (Outlook data files for example), your documents and spreadsheets, and photos, music and video files. System backups take up a lot more space, and take more time to complete, but don’t need to be made as often as data backups, which should be scheduled weekly or daily, depending on how much data you generate.

I have tested and used many backup software applications over the years, and am always looking for the best solution for the particular purpose, be it enterprise–wide backup systems, home networks or individual PCs. In this article I am focusing on just workstations and laptops, so my recommendation is a fairly easy–to–use app that is free for non–commercial use called Macrium Reflect. It beats other popular backup programs such as Acronis True Image and Norton Ghost even though they have been around for a very long time.

When you have your external hard drive and your backup software installed, make a complete system image (and verify the image) so that if your hard drive crashes you can clone the system to a new hard drive. If you do this you will avoid the agony of having to reinstall the entire OS, all your apps, all of the updates, and restore all of your data from scratch. Then you can schedule weekly backups of your data at a time convenient to you. If you have a laptop you can set a reminder on your calendar to have your external drive plugged it. If it’s a workstation, new external drives automatically turn on when you start your computer and shut off with your computer, so there’s no harm in just leaving it plugged in.

For ultimate data security, you can use two external drives and keep one in a safe location offsite, and rotate the drives regularly.

Don’t wait for disaster to strike, get your backup system in place today. An hour or two of effort can avert the misery of lost data and dead PCs!

For our Spring Newsletter I will review how Network Attached Storage (NAS) devices—basically networked hard drives—can be used as a central repository for data and computer backups.

Our resolution, New Year’s or otherwise, is to try to provide the best services we can to our clients. We had been happy for a long time using WebTrends software to generate web site traffic reports, but it’s time to upgrade from the techie approach to a more marketing–friendly model. Google Analytics (GA) has reached a quality level which compels us to recommend switching to them for web site traffic analysis.

For those who are not familiar with site success reporting, it provides information on how users are finding and using your web site. Rather than a long article here describing web site analysis, check out Wikipedia and the Google Analytics home page if you are interested. Of course we are happy to talk any time about how your business and your web site can benefit from traffic reporting.

The best results come from having the most data, so even if you do not think you are interested in site reporting now, we recommend you begin collecting data as soon as possible. To begin collecting data, you need a GA account and you need tracking code added to each page of your web site. For our existing clients – even if we did not develop your web site – we are offering to do the account set up and add the code to your site for no charge until the end of February. Google does not charge (as of right now) for their site analytics service. Once the account is set up, we will give you the login and password information so you can check out your business’ GA interface at any time. If you prefer not to deal with GA’s interface, which can be daunting, we offer ongoing monthly or quarterly reporting providing a succinct report geared towards your business and web site which includes traffic reports as well as suggestions for improving your web site’s search engine results. Ask us for a quote.

Contact Rachel if you have any questions, or would like to have us set up your GA account and add the code to your web pages.

An excellent marketing resolution for the New Year is to set aside time each week to work on growing the number of incoming links, from credible web sites, to your own site. Each new incoming link adds to your site's "score" which will help your organic (unpaid–for) search engine results. We suggest you allocate half an hour each week and that you keep a good record of all the places you have links so it is easy to make edits in the future.

Ask your business partners if your site can be linked from their site in exchange for their site being linked from yours. It is especially important that you have your site linked from manufacturers whose products you sell, as people often look to these sites to find local retailers. Other ideas are to ask to be added to a Client List, Recommended Links, or Testimonials pages.

You should have a listing for your business on the main search engines: Google, Yahoo!, Bing, and Ask.

We recommend setting up a listing on Yelp as it is often the site people visit to check out a business. One of our clients gets about 200 hits to her web site a month from Yelp.

Use search engines to find directories and add your business. Besides getting an incoming link to your site, you increase your chances your site will be found. Make sure they are free, and note your logins and passwords. Find directories specific to your industry as well as larger phone–book–type directories. Link to a page on your site relevant to the directory you are on, if that fits better than linking to your home page. Search engines index by individual pages, rather than by whole sites, so this can boost your web site’s sub–page success.

Comment on online postings, especially blogs. Of course, include your web site link!

Half an hour a week quickly builds incoming links to your web site to improve your organic search engine results.