Cold weather generally prompts people to break out the space heater at home or in the office for added warmth and comfort. This is a great idea because it can help to save money on heating bills when you only need extra heat in one area of the room. However, the last thing anyone needs is a fire erupting, especially during the holiday season.

According to the National Fire Protection Association, space heaters accounted for 43 percent of U.S. home heating fires and 85 percent of home heating deaths between 2011 and 2015. It is crucial to follow safety guidelines and take precautions to minimize the risk of space heaters causing damage to your home or an office.

It's a crazy world out there, and it's hard to know who you can trust. Not everyone is trustworthy and not everyone is qualified. There's something cool about living in a world full of DIY-ers. The creativity seems to be never ending with people who find joy in learning a new craft. While there are things in life that are great DIY projects, we are here to tell you that web design and development is not something you want to delegate to a DIY-er. You need a website that has the potential to convert viewers to customers while maintaining SEO best practices. 

There are several things that should be considered when choosing your web developer. However, two categories come above all else:

In what seems to have been the blink of an eye, COVID-19 changed the way we live, interact, shop, eat, and especially how we work. It's been a time of tribulation, but also a time of triumph as people across the world are doing things they didn't even know they could do with technology. While providing business IT services to our surrounding community, we have had an influx of questions come in about what needs to be done to make working remotely a smooth transition. While it may not be seamless (as seems to be true with most any dramatic change in life), we have worked tirelessly to provide options and get people connected in a way that allows them to continue to engage and serve customers.

Happy 2020! 

It's a new year, a new decade, and the perfect time for a fresh start. The beginning of the year seems to bring out the best in people. We have new resolve and we're motivated to set goals. If you haven't set your own New Years' resolution yet, we have the perfect idea to share... clean your computer inside and out!

Many of us use digital devices every day. As we complete work tasks, create new documents, download apps and pictures, and multi-task our way through never-ending to-do lists, we also make digital waste along the way. Unlike an overflowing laundry basket, leaves in the yard, or dishes in the sink, digital waste can hide. Chances are your computer needs to be cleaned up. Great news! January is National Clean Up Your Computer Month.

To get ourselves jumpstarted, we interviewed our very own Chief Technology Officer and Co-founder, Scott Lavelle, about his recommendations for cleaning our computers. Join us as we sort through files, review old apps, and break out the compressed air.

Shopping season is officially here! Our team got together and recommended some gifts for that friend or family member that's always looking for new technology. Be prepared for Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, Cyber Monday, and Giving Tuesday this year and be on the lookout for these awesome items for your loved ones.. or maybe even for yourself! On your mark, get set, shop!

Change can be hard, especially when it comes to technology. But in the words of Gail Sheehy, "If you aren't changing, you aren't growing." This holds true as technology shifts and evolves – and the latest shift will be from Windows 7 to Windows 10.

While Windows 7 has been great, all things must come to end, and the sunset of Windows 7 comes in January 2020. So, what does this mean for you? It means that it's time for you to make the big change. Trust us, it will be worth it.

Quality over quantity is a good rule of thumb for almost any industry or profession. Everyone is always on the move, so these days quantity often gets placed above quality, but what if that isn't what's important?

When it comes to writing blogs, you are but a mere drop of water in an ocean of how-to blogs, inspirational posts, and educational content. So, what will make you stick out while gaining exposure for your company? Follow these 6 steps to take your blog writing to the next level!

With the steady increase of social media users, also comes a steady increase of cyber criminals that seek to: 

• Obtain personal and credit card Information
• Gather information to plan a physical attack
  
• Implant malware on computers
  

Have you heard?

Facebook gray verified badges for business pages are officially gone! So, what does this mean for you?

According to a study conducted by Microsoft, the average attention span of a human is 8 seconds, which believe it or not has declined from the 12 seconds reported in 2000. This means users are taking less time to evaluate:

- Is this content relevant?
- Is this content reliable?
- Is this content readable?

So, what can you do to grab the reader in that 8 seconds? 

Google Analytics is a free tool that shows you how well your website is doing and how many visits you get in a day, but it also does so much more. It can tell you how long a visit lasted as well as how many people have viewed your website. And it's seriously free, but you have the ability to upgrade to a paid plan, Google 360. 

Why do you Need Google Analytics?
When you use Google Analytics you have the ability to use Google's Metrics which shows the following information: Pageviews, Bounce Rate, Users, New Users, Sessions and Unique Pageviews.

• Pageviews gives you information regarding which pages web searchers are looking at within a session.
• Bounce Rate is critical for finding out how well your online content is doing because it shows how long a visitor stays on the page before leaving.
• Users tells you how many unique visitors your site gets in comparison to Sessions, and how many visitors your site had.
• New Users is beneficial if you are trying to track visitors who have not previously visited your site or if you are reaching out to, well, new users.
• Sessions tells you how long a visitor was viewing your website in a single visit and in how many total visits, and it is the most common metric used.
• Unique Pageviews tracks visibility of content per Session and which pages were mainly viewed.

The metrics outlined above are the most common Google Analytics Metrics and will give you the greatest insight as to how your website is doing. If you are an ad-based site, Bounce Rates and Pageviews per Session will be particularly useful for upping ad revenue.

Google, being the enigma that it is, seems to subtly remind us how intertwined it is in our everyday lives. Whether it's by showing you an ad for something that crossed your mind 2 hours ago or giving you a suggested search for something you discussed with your coworker yesterday, Google never fails to impress with its…. observant…. abilities. 

However, when it comes down to it, being in Google's good graces is one of the best things you can do for your business. If you think about it from a consumer standpoint, the first thing you do when you are searching for a service is "Google it". From there you look in the sought-after "box". This lists the service providers closest to you in order from closest to the city center outward. You might glance through the reviews, maybe click the company with the most or highest reviews. Then you work your way down the search results, usually stopping when company websites that haven't been updated since 2010 start popping up (maybe around page 3?). So how do you keep out of the Flash Mob era crowds on the web?