theIT support, website, and marketing news from EZSolution / MAY 2015

Designed & Published by EZSolution Corp.

111 Centerville Road • Lancaster, PA 17603

Web: 717.291.4689 • EZSolution.com

Tech: 717.291.0370 • EZSolutionIT.com www.facebook.com/ezsolution

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Recently Launched Websites:

Company City Website

Ziegler Auction Company Hummelstown, PA zieglerauction.com

Berner Construction, Inc. Gap, PA bernerconstruction.com

Lancaster Parking Authority Lancaster, PA lancasterparkingauthority.com

Lancaster Parts and Equipment Lancaster PA lancasterpartsandequipment.com

Schafco Packaging Company Strasburg, PA originalcosmoline.com

HR Resolutions Harrisburg, PA hrresolutions.com

Meadow Creek Welding New Holland, PA meadowcreekbarbecue.com

Physician Support Systems Mount Joy, PA PSSbilling.com

Cassel Signs Manheim, PA casselsigns.com

Which of these “old age” records is made up?A. The world’s oldest clam: 507

years old.

B. The world’s oldest tortoise: 185 years old.

C. The world’s oldest whale: 211 years old.

D. The world’s oldest koi � sh: 226 years old.

Winner of April’s Quiz:This Month’s Quiz:

Email your entry to Stacey Snovel (stacey@ezsolution.com). She will put all of the correct answers in a hat and draw the winner on May 15. The winner will receive a $25 gift card to Isaac’s or Amazon.

Chelsea Stein of Dutch Gold Honey won a $25 gift card.

Last Month’s Question:Lancaster County is not considered home to the nation’s � rst…

The Correct Answer Was: A. Amish immigrants.

On April 21 Google rolled out an  algorithm update, which has been deemed “Mobilegeddon,” that dramatically changed the way sites are ranked. The new algorithm causes websites that are not mobile-friendly to be listed far lower in the search engine results page when doing a search from a mobile phone. This does NOT impact the search results when you search from your computer.

Over the coming weeks, we’ll see how signi� cant the impact is. We suggest that all businesses check their websites for mobile friendliness and make the necessary changes as soon as possible, to minimize the impact on their websites’ rankings.

There’s no scale for mobile friendliness—your site is either mobile-friendly or it isn’t.Your website must match the criteria Google puts in place in order for you to be considered mobile-friendly. When GoogleBot crawls your site, here’s what it looks for:

1. Your website avoids using software that doesn’t translate to most mobile devices (for instance, Flash).

2. Your website uses text that is easily readable without the need to zoom.

3. Content is sized to the screen automatically so that visitors don’t have to zoom or scroll.

4. Links have enough space between them so that the correct one can be easily tapped.

Check now to see if your site is mobile-friendly!

www.ezsolution.com/google

Just because your site is “mobile-friendly”  doesn’t  mean you’re set for higher rankings.There are more than 200 factors used to determine a website’s rankings on the search engine results pages. If your site doesn’t provide a great user experience, a “mobile face-lift” will not help you in the rankings. Remember, Google wants the highest quality content on the web to reach people when they perform a web search. If your website isn’t providing the best experience for your user, Google won’t favor you—mobile or not.

If you’re concerned about your website’s design or your mobile presence, get in touch with us today! Give Chris DeMeo a call at 717.291.4689 and learn about options for making your website mobile-friendly.

Register NOW for this EZAcademy/SVCC Session

The Marketing Process

May 19, 2015 at 8:30 am

at Garth Gallery, Columbia, PA

We’ll lead you through the process that professional marketing agencies use to make sure their clients’ strategies and tactics are on target. Learn this process at our seminar and begin seeing results and ROI from your marketing.

The seminars are designed to be both educational and actionable, o� ering real tools to implement in your business. There are a limited number of seats available, so claim yours while you can!

www.ezsolution.com/SVCC

Honoring Those Who Have Died in Service to Our Country.

EZSolution is proud to partner with the Susquehanna Valley Chamber of Commerce to o� er a series of 4 FREE Educational Seminars designed to help small- to medium-sized businesses spend their marketing dollars wisely and achieve the maximum return.

MobilegeddonDid It Crush Your Website?

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With 94% of people using a mobile phone to get local information, it’s critical for businesses to ensure their mobile presence is leading customers to them, not to their competitors.

Hershey Equipment has 50 years of experience of designing and building turnkey agricultural operations. The company serves the farming community across the New England, Mid-Atlantic, Southern, Central and Mid-Western states, while utilizing their expertise to meet the growing demands of microbreweries, gas drilling operations, and alternative energy producers. EZSolution recently partnered with Hershey Equipment for a new website. We caught up with Doreen Dickson, vice president of the company, to discuss the project.

“Our philosophy originally was to just have a place on the internet that people would get to know who we were,” said Dickson. “It wasn’t really to market anything because we always felt like we were in this specialty industry where we know who our customers are, and we know the market that we’re in.”

A growing client base demonstrated a need for marketing services, however. Dickson said, “As we began to branch out and do other things like providing equipment for microbreweries, we realized these people were not our usual customer.”

Dickson teamed with EZSolution to better reach and market to her target audience, whether they were the “usual customer” or not. “Really being able to reach out and � nd those people that want to know, ‘Who can sell me this and who can come install it for me?’ was our goal,” Dickson said. “We felt a new website would help show we’re the ones best-equipped to answer the question.”

The new website has been a success for Hershey Equipment. “What I love about our new website is how it acts as a business card, in a way,” said Dickson.

“It’s a little introduction to who we are. We have this really nice marketing piece that shows ‘this is what we’re doing.’”

Dickson attributes someof the business’s recentsuccess to their new marketing e� orts. “We’re doing an incredible amount of business this year,” she said. “Your sta� has been wonderful to work with. I’m seeing from your reporting that we’re getting a lot more hits and attention to our website.”

“I like having EZSolution involved and on top of things,” Dickson said. “It keeps me thinking about our marketing, it keeps it in the forefront of my mind. As we continue, I know we’ll remain fresh and relevant to our customers.”

Thanks, Doreen, for taking some time to chat with us! Visit the new site at www.hequip.com, and for more on how some fresh marketing strategies can help your business, give Chris DeMeo a call at 717.291.4869!

Branching Out Means Reaching Out

IN THIS ISSUE:MAY 2015

the

Take the MayQuiz and Win a $25 Gift Card

Mobilegeddon–Did It Crush Your Website?

Tips to Keep Your Server Safe

“ Luck? I don’t know anything about luck. I’ve never banked on it and I’m afraid of people who do. Luck to me is something else: Hard work — and realizing what is opportunity and what isn’t.”

~ Lucille Ball

Quote of the Month

Presort First ClassU.S. Postage

PAIDLancaster, PAPermit #23

111 Centerville Rd.Lancaster, PA 17603

“What are you waiting for? Look at your website right now to see if it contains all the information customers will need to buy from your business!”

Tom Malesic President

Your server is the heart of your business network. When something goes wrong, you lose access to key resources while productivity, customer service, and your bottom line su� ers. Here are a few things you may be forgetting that could be compromising your server’s security.

Back up your server. While most businesses understand the necessity of backing up their important documents and � les, many don’t think to create a backup of their entire server. Without a complete image of your server, all of the software, permissions, and server settings will be lost in the event of a server crash. Avoid this by using imaging software to create a complete image of your server’s installed software, settings, permissions, printer con� gurations, and much more.

Test your backup. Many companies that have a server backup system in place don’t test the backup process and often � nd out too late that the system is not working as it should be. Scheduling periodic tests for your backup system is a wise investment of time and resources. If you have an image backup system as described in the last tip, you should also test the entire system restore process to be sure it is working as expected.

Configure server security settings. Many businesses have a single set of administrator permissions setup on their servers. This means everyone in the company

can potentially access � nancial records, social security numbers, salary information, and additional sensitive data from other employees. The best practice is to set up a tiered permission structure, giving access to each user based on what they need to know.

Perform regular updates. One of the best things you can do to ensure the security of your server is to download and install operating system and software updates as they become available. Failure to do this leaves your server open to vulnerabilities that hackers can exploit to gain access to your system. Get in the habit of performing regular updates as soon as they come out to ensure your server is protected.

Use a reliable battery backup. A commonly overlooked area of server security is the addition of battery backup. Battery backup systems are inexpensive and usually provide � ve to ten minutes of power during an outage. If the power is out longer, the server will shut itself down properly, performing all necessary functions to keep your data safe.

A little bit of foresight goes a long way to keep your server safe—so don’t wait to implement security measures. The most expensive disaster is the one you’re not prepared for.

Have more questions about server security? Just call Tim Crouser at 717.291.0370 for more information!

Tips to Keep Your Server

SAFETips to Keep Your Server

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