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Understanding Internet Privacy: What Are Cookies?

As an internet user, you've likely heard some of the recent discourse over web privacy, tracking, and changes regarding those topics. Last year, Safari took the first step in blocking third-party cookies, and now other internet browsers are following suit. The death of the third-party cookie is a pivotal moment in the history of internet usage and in the history of internet privacy, but their nebulous description and wide variety of usages has left some in the dark about what cookies actually are.

So, what are cookies, and what are they for?

  1848 Hits

Windows 11 Rolls Out Today!

In 2015, Microsoft said that Windows 10 would be the last versioned release of the operating system. So it came as a surprise to many when the company announced the upcoming release of Windows 11 earlier this year. If you're not inclined to keep up with the latest technology, this may come as a bit of a surprise, and you may be wondering how such an upgrade will affect the IT infrastructure of your business. The tech news world has been aflutter with information and speculation as to the nature of the Windows 11 update, but now that there are more concrete facts, here's what you need to know: 

  2342 Hits

Prevent Disaster and Downtime with Data Backups

If you've ever been the victim of data loss, a hack, malware or similar without a backup, you know the sting of losing hard work and vital company data when things go wrong. Data loss without a backup, at a best-case scenario, can cause the loss of countless hours and dollars spent. At a worst-case scenario, data loss without a backup can lead to irrecoverable damage to a business. Research has shown that after a catastrophic data loss, 40 to 60% of small businesses will never reopen.  

  1107 Hits

Why Update Your Website

First impressions are everything, right? More often than not, your website serves as that first impression for potential customers, helping them decide if they want to choose you as their service or product provider. Since your website holds so much weight on a viewer's decision, it's crucial to maintain a positive, updated image in the public eye. People are more and more tech-savvy – and they expect you to be too! In a world full of competitors, make yourself stand out in the crowd by refining your website design, content, and images – after all, this is the part of your website that everyone interacts with. Make it a good experience!

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Why Video Marketing Should Be Your Next Big Move

Video is a powerful tool that can be utilized in any industry for marketing purposes. Need to put together an explainer video? Advertise your services? Interview an employee on the subject they specialize in? Record an event? Release a how-to video? The possibilities of video marketing are endless, and those that we listed are just a few of the directions you can go in. Our society continues to gravitate towards video content now more than ever. IGTV, reels, Facebook Watch – almost every social media platform has promoted video, and consumers are liking it… 

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June 2021 Google Update: What It Is and How It Will Affect You

You likely interact with Google every day, but your personal experience is just the tip of the iceberg. There are hundreds of guidelines in place for web developers and SEOs to follow – all there to get in Google's good graces. However, it's like playing a game where the rules change every so often. Now, it's not without reason – Google's ultimate goal is to improve the user's experience. While great for the user, it can create some challenges and a list of to-dos for you or your web developer. Starting mid-June 2021, Google released a new update that focuses on Page Experience… 

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Website Planning Process: What You Need

Many moving parts go into designing and developing your website, and a big part of the project is having everything your website team needs from the get-go. While the process may appear to be pretty simple, there are many moving parts and one of the common characteristics of a smooth project is a client who comes prepared with ideas, content, and a willingness to collaborate. No one knows your business like you do, and that perspective is extremely valuable when building out your website. Here are ways you can adequately prepare for the design and development of your website. 

  2631 Hits

Are You Guilty of Sending Graymail?

According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, a gray area is defined as "an area or situation in which it is difficult to judge what is right and what is wrong." This definition proves to be accurate in the case of graymail as it's a problem in the marketing industry that even the best marketers struggle with. Though it's a widespread problem, it's not often talked about so we will dive into what graymail is, why you want to avoid it, and steps you can take to try to remedy its effects. 

  1926 Hits

How to Send Mass Email on Gmail – Don’t

My typical day looks like meandering around the office greeting my TRS family and eavesdropping on their conversations. They're always busy at work providing marketing plans and solutions for clients, a major part of that being email marketing. As I make my rounds, I've more than once overheard them explaining to clients why they shouldn't send bulk mail through their personal or business email accounts. Because I think this topic is a real tail wagger, I thought I would do them a favor and write a blog about all the reasons you just can't send bulk mail through your email account. 

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2020 Technology Gift Guide

Believe it or not, Christmas is right around the corner and you'll want to jump on the Christmas shopping early this year. While many families have the long-standing tradition of going Black Friday shopping the day after Thanksgiving, many stores are shutting their doors on Thanksgiving and promoting sales for months instead of for 24 hours. Though it's all in efforts to keep people safe, this could potentially change the way we shop for Christmas gifts moving forward. According to Clark Howard, we're more likely to see sales in October and November, with a drastic increase in prices after December 11th. To help you get your shopping done early, we decided to release our 2020 Technology Gift Guide early this year. Check out these gifts selected by the whole Technical Resource Solutions team! 

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Google and Joomla! Join Forces Through Sponsorship

It's safe to say that most everyone knows about or at least has heard of Google. It's also safe to say that you probably use it every day! However, if you're not a Technical Resource Solutions website customer, you may not have heard about Joomla, an open source content management system (CMS). We chose this platform over 10 years ago and have spent a great many hours explaining to current and potential customers the many benefits of Joomla, with many of them having never heard of the platform at all. Thanks to Google's recently announced sponsorship of Joomla, we're expecting this platform to become more familiar among business owners. Our team is excited about this new development and we are looking forward to all of the benefits that come with this sponsorship. 

  4460 Hits

How to Sell on Facebook

Now is the time to prepare your business for the #NewNormal and implement proactive marketing and technology strategies so you're ahead of the curve, no matter what comes next. Take the first step and learn some practical steps you can implement right now to offer your services on Facebook.

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Grey Badges on Facebook are Gone!

Have you heard?

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

Essentially, you might have gone through the application process to earn your gray verified check mark. This makes your business page look credible and shows that you are who you say you are. However, with this change comes some extra effort that has to go into maintaining your credibility. 

As Facebook makes this transition and updates their process, we will let you know!
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The Importance of Page Structure

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? 

  3376 Hits

Dig to the Truth about Phishing

My humans bring me to work with them every day; they wouldn't have it any other way. Unlike my humans, I can sit in on meetings, listen to ideas and think about solutions to problems and then I can go take a nap: they can't. Life is good that way. But you know when life isn't good? When a customer comes in angry because they got scammed and wakes me up from my nap - it really raises the fur on the back of my neck. 

You see, I know the various methods hackers use when they are on a phishing expedition and my human's customers need to be watchdogs about it. I'll let you in on a little secret I have learned in this business: if it looks suspicious—it most likely is, but sometimes it can look 100 percent legitimate. 

You may receive a message from what looks like your:
  • Bank
  • Credit card company
  • Google
  • Microsoft Office 
  •  Web design company
  • IT company
  • PayPal
  2674 Hits

How to Filter Data in Excel 2018

Sometimes when you're working on a project on an Excel spreadsheet, you don't need to see all of the information. It often can be more helpful to only show a certain category of data. For example, if a corporation had a massive list of every order they have in the system, they may only need to see the pending ones - which is when it might be helpful to filter data.

Well luckily, Excel can help you temporarily hide all of the information you don't need – see below for instructions on how to filter the plethora of data on your spreadsheet. 

  1253 Hits

Blogging in 2018 - 2019

Beginning of Blogging 

Blogging certainly isn't what it used to be. When blogging first took off in the late 90's/ early 2000's you were sure to be reading more diary like entries on platforms like Open Diary and Xanga. I'm sure if we took a moment to look through all of those entries there would be good laughs…and maybe some serious cringing. Over time blogging became a generally accepted way to share information, news, and also bits and pieces (or maybe more than that) of your personal life. 

Blogging and your SEO 

In today's world of Internet Marketing everyone wants to do everything possible to be found on the internet. According to Search Engine Journal, SEO jobs have soared in the past year with a 43% increase from 2017. I'm sure you've read or heard somewhere blogs are a sure way to keep your website current and an easy way to get keywords on your site. While there is some truth to that it's good to know the whole story. 

  4054 Hits

Google Analytics: Is it the Right Choice for You?

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.


  2861 Hits

10 Reasons Why You Should Invest in a New Website Design

There is no denying that mobile devices are ubiquitous, and it should come as no surprise that mobile internet browsing has now surpassed that of desktop use. According to Statcounter Website Analytics, as of September 2018, worldwide usage stats are as follows:

  • Mobile- 51.7%
  • Desktop- 44.12%
  • Tablet- 4.18%
  3605 Hits

The Google Experience

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? 

  2627 Hits