SEO Cork

 Getting your site to rank on Google is difficult and needs lots of work.  Just having the website is part of the puzzle.  Having an SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) plan is a key part of a Cork business' plan for SEO Cork domination in their area.

It is usually a tiered plan of content, media and technical expertise.  Hiring a company with digital marketing expertise and the SEO knowledge will help.  Grange Web Design does this and is a company you can rely on to get improved rankins through a steady pace of work and SEO planning.

Search Engine Optimisation is the process of improving your ranking on the Google results pages

Approximately 50 percent of all internet traffic is organic. People who do not know about your business will not arrive to the website so SEO planning is important.

Kill Paper

This morning I sat down at my desk and looked at a scrap of paper that I had there that basically said Stop Sign on it scribbled.   Next to it was a phone number and that was it.  I had no idea what it was related to.  However since I started using Evernote this is happening less and less as I made a conscious decision to become more and more electronic with my notes and data as I move around a lot.  I also have started to use Dropbox more and more as I am collaborating with more and more people.  The secret however is consistency and developing a filing and writing style that allows you to keep your life both work and social organised.  Time is precious these days and having lots of dirty post-its and scribbled notes just does not help you make the most of your time.

My goal is to be 5% more effective this month through use of tools and effective note taking.  I am also now using the Pomodoro technique to focus on improving my project note taking and overall approach to my work day.

Firefox 8 is Released

I left Firefox some time ago when I started using Chrome as I liked the light ue of Chrome over the cluttered (mostly caused by me of course) mix of add ons that had made it quite a best to use. But now there is a new release available that disables add ons when you install it and that is something that attracts me from the start. might give it a whirl or perhaps wait for Firefox 9!

Dropbox

Dropbox is by far one of my favourite tools these days. It is easy to use offers cloud storage and is perfect for sharing on projects with friends. David Pogue wrote an excellent article on this recently that shows how it dropbox can be used for writing a book. Check it out on http://www.dropbox.com

Upgrade Your Browser Today - Its Free!

I notice more and more these days that there are more and more browser versions now spread across the market.  From the dreaded IE6 to the latest Chrome or Firefox.  this means that you may see different things depending on what version you have.  It is a simple task to keep your browser up to date.  I tend to stay one version behind the latest one available to allow me be up to date but not with a browser that may show times that others may not see.

I am a firm believer that browsers should expire like bad food.  If you had a car for 10 years it would be on its last legs but there are many people out there with browsers of that age that should now be long gone.  

Upgrade today - it costs nothing and you will be amazed if you are a few versions behind at the feature set available.

Switch Off Friday

Today is switch off Friday.  Resolve to move away from any technical device. phone or laptop.  Put it down.  Avoid the TV.  Grab a book put your feet up and develop the powers of concentration that tech can often take away from yo.  I was reading about the Pomodoro technique recently and its premise is to do 25 minutes tasks without interruption.  I think it is great and even find this hard to keep with.  I have terrible focus in the past number of years and I firmly blame spending too much time in front of a computer.

I Alt-Tab, flick from pager to page, pound out a quick blog and forget where I was.  I wrongly call it multi tasking but in the end it isn't it is just doing a lot of things poorly.  There was a lot to be said about VT100s where you had one screen and had to tap away and changing focus took a lot of time to do as it involved many combinations.  

Take a break and look at http://www.pomodorotechnique.com/  for information on this fun and valuable method of concentration.

iPads Galore

I know now for sure that the tablet is here for sure.  I was in line to board a plane last night and I was third in line.  All three of us had iPads.  First person was watching a movie.  Second person was playing Sudoku and I was reading a book.  Not an Excel spreadsheet in site.  There is now endless opportunities for companies to develop apps and tools for such devices and this area is exploding.  Banks funnily enough are the furthest behind and must be rushing to catch up.  Mobile payment methods for in store are also galloping along and soon (as in the next 6 months) we will see a plethora of apps for smartphones that will allow you to use a code to pay and it will be billed like a debit card to your account and a proper receipt sent to you via email like in the Apple stores in the US at the moment.

Now off to open my App book.