June 27th,2009
SEO..for the uninitiated is Search Engine Optimization. A method of, in its simplest form, to get a website noticed in the vast wasteland of the Internet. I just signed up for yet another web site that should enhance my standing on the web, Technorati. In the process of enrolling I am prompted to add this code,jbpma7dz25, to my site to verify that it is indeed a legitimate site. So now that its done...lets get on with this. I'll try to explain SEO and the things I personally have been doing to increase the traffic to my site and thereby, hopefully, increasing my customer base and in the process,perhaps, helping someone else thru the very time consuming process of getting your web site noticed.
Doing a search for SEO will bring up a myriad of websites all promising the Holy Grail..top listing on Google. Well, so far I have managed to increase my presence only slightly, but perserverance will prevail and that, my friend, is key! Now, my area of expertise is primarily, desktop/server support and I haven't touched anything remotely resembling HTML coding (HyperText Markup Language) since I first began to get involved with computers. So this has been a "learn as you go" propostion.
Now, anyone with a minimum of knowledge can create a website. With all the WYSIWYG web design applications out there it is quite easy. But what a WYSIWYG(what you see is what you get) application cannot do for you is to make sure your code is W3C complaint. W3C is the World Wide Web Consortium and they dictate standards for the Internet. I have spent a great deal of time toggling between my web site code and the W3C validation web site at Markup Validation Service to make sure I am compliant. Why is this important? When search engines crawl the web looking for new websites and they come across yours, one of the things it does is to check your site for errors. Why is that important? Researching the subject I found a very good article on the W3C website that exlains it, Click Here.
So now your site is error free..what now? Begin to register your site with the search engines. Search engines crawl the web looking for new sites,but that can take some time, I recommend visiting each search engine and manually registering with them and requesting they crawl your page.
Hello, and welcome! I hope you find this site to be useful in helping keep your PC running great.
Many times in the course of supporting people with their computer problems I ask, "And how long has this been happening?" and invariably they will say, "Quite a while" or something along those lines. Your PC is not unlike people and their health issues, when things aren't working right the longer it is left unattended the more problems you may have down the line making effective troubleshooting more difficult.
Troubleshooting your PC
No one knows better than you when their PC is running right. From startup to shutdown and everything in between, you are the best judge when "things aren't working right". Does startup seem to be taking longer than usual? When opening applications do they seem to hang before opening? And what about when you shuts it down..are you seeing pop up boxes telling you something is amiss? These are all tell tale signs that some attention is required.
Computers are methodical. While it may seem like the things they do defy logic, rest assured there is always a logical reason for it's behavior. With that in mind, you must be methodical in your troubleshooting.
Troubleshooting Checklist
Gather Information
- Your tech (or yourself, if you accept the challenge!) will want to know details. And that includes EXACTLY what did that box say when it popped up! Write down that missing file name!
- When did the problem begin? Has it happened before?
- What applications were runing when the incident occurred? Does it happen when running other applications?
- How long has the system been running?
- Can you duplicate the problem?
Identify Possible Causes
- Have any new hardware or software changes been made on the system?
- Was it working correctly before?
- Did you try to uninstall the hardware/software?
- Do you have a network?
- Does it occur if you detach from the network?
- Has the system been moved or dropped?
- Has anything changed about the enviroment where the computer is used?
- New lighting, any new devices with motors added nearby ..lets not discount EMI...electromagnetic interference!
Possible Solutions
- What have you done to correct the problem? Reboot? Reload the software..uninstall and re-install?
- Have you checked for malware, virus, spyware or adware?
Routine system maintenance will also help keep things running smoothly..defrag your hard drive,run periodic malware scans and ALWAYS,ALWAYS have Anti Virus software installed! And when things have gotten out of hand...
Call YOUR TECH TEAM!!
1-727-289-1840 in Tampa Bay
or 888-591-9873 outside the local area.
Have you ever wondered why....
OUTLOOK EXPRESS
You're using Outlook Express and suddenly you can't send or recieve email?
MS Outlook Express has limitations to the size of the files it stores. The maximum size of the database file in OE is 2Gb..now, thats a LOT of emails. What happens is that , every time you send an email, it moves the sent email to the..you guessed it..the Sent Items folder. Once that folder reaches the max size limit and you send another email, OE cannot move the sent item to the "Sent Items" folder and the email isn't flagged by OE as sent,but it DOES send the email! Each time OE performs "Send and Recieve" (default is 30 minutes) it resends the email that it finds in the "Outbox".
That results in a very annoyed recipient recieving duplicate emails every 30 minutes! You may see messages from OE that the email could not be sent. If you find yourself in this situation, simply right click on the "Sent Items" folder and delete all the emails in there...if it's grown to the maximum size and you haven't needed them by now, there's no point in keeping them.
TASKBAR TROUBLE
So you say your taskbar has disappeared or it has moved to some unfamiliar location on your screen..not to worry. The taskbar is designed to be hidden and also to be placed at any location..that is to say left,right top or bottom of your screen. If the taskbar is missing, just move the cursor to the very bottom of the screen and it should re-appear, when it does, right click on properties and under "taskbar appearance" uncheck "autohide the taskbar". It's always a mystery how things like that get set accidently, but it does happen. Now, if the taskbar is anywhere but where you are accustom to seeing it, place your cursor on the taskbar left click and hold the button down and drag it to where you want it. And to prevent it from happening again you want to right click on the taskbar,select properties and check the box that says "lock the taskbar" NOW..if your taskbar is missing and the above solution doesn't fix it, you may be the victim of malware and a system scan would be in order.
INTERNET EXPLORER
Why does Internet Explorer open in a window rather the full screen? If IE is closed using the "X" at the top right of the screen then it wasn't "officially" closed,that just exits the program quickly. The fix is to open IE, maximize the windows to full screen and then when you're ready to close,click "file" and then "close". Now if you want IE to open links you click on to open full screen, that takes a few more steps. First, open IE, then open a second instance of it (so you have two IE windows open), in the second instance,right click a link and select "open in a new window" If the new wiwndow doesn't open full screen,resize the window by grabbing it by the edges and dragging it out to full screen..DO NOT USE THE "MAXIMIZE" button! Close the first window..remember..file..close..not the "X", Now close the window you just dragged out to full size. But close it by holding down the Control key and selecting File, then Close. Do not release the Control key until the window is closed. Now close the last window, you may have to reboot depending on which operating system (what flavor of Windows,ie.,Win95,Win98,XP etc) you are using.
Contact Link Here
or the form below. I would be more than glad to help!
Adobe Reader
There was a time when Internet Explorer(ver 6 to be exact) was the target of choice for malware programs to attack because it was so filled with security issues. Well, step aside IE, Adobe Reader seems to be in the crosshairs these days. While they do not go into detail about what exactly the vulnerability is, they do recommend turning off javascript in Adobe Reader until a patch is available. Adobe's website acknowledges the vulnerability and states that from the current version back to version 7.1.1 are vulnerable to attack. Follow these steps to turn off javascript in Adobe Reader.
- Launch Acrobat or Adobe Reader.
- Select Edit>Preferences
- Select the JavaScript Category
- Uncheck the ‘Enable Acrobat JavaScript’ option
- Click OK
It cannot be emphasized enough that you keep updated anti virus and anti malware software installed on your PC. There are many good free antivirus programs available online. I use and recommend Avast Antivirus,available at Download Here it's free for personal use and is very easy to use. Another good choice is AVG Free, Download Here . Again free for personal use, a little more complicated but still very good. The heavy hitter against malware, that is adware & spyware is Malwarebytes. Malwarebytes is so effective that many malware programs,once installed on your PC, specifically target the Malwarebytes website making it unavailable for you to download the program! Get it here. While programs such as Spybot Search and Destroy and Lavasoft's Ad-Aware still do a pretty good job, I have seen too many malware programs slip under their radar. Which is not to say they are'nt useful. Personally I run two different malware programs and suggest you do the same. As long as one of them is Malwarebytes!!
I hope this was useful to you..I will update this column once a week, more often if anyone has a specific problem they would like addressed in this forum.
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This was very helpful, Thank you
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