Straight SEO Talk

Here are few highlights:

Know where your site is hosted. It could be 1&1, GoDaddy,  StartLogic, etc., but you need to know the name of your website’s host. Some developers even host sites that they build, which in itself is not a bad thing. But you need to think about how it would affect your web presence if your relationship were to end. Suddenly. Badly.

I know, that’s not going to happen, but take a few moments to gather some basic information. Who. Where. Find out your username and password for your site’s dashboard and its main FTP account.

If you’re not accessing it directly, you’ll need to know your Google Analytics, Webmaster Tools, and Places Pages logons. While you’re at it make sure you copy your Analytics Code.

Then if you have a Yahoo Business listing or Bing Business Portal pages you’ll need those logons. And dont’ forget the directories you have accounts with: Yelp, Merchant Circle, Hot Frong, Mojo Pages, Manta Kudzu, YP, etc.

A small business’s web presence can generate a lot of usernames and passwords to all kinds sites and services. Try to keep with them all. They’re your intellectual property.

SEO for Professionals makes sure it clients have all of their information in a central place and are able to access it any time. Gather yours today.

Wall Street Journal article

So what does that mean for cloud computing? Not much. It only points out that, like anything else, the cloud is going to fail for stupid reasons. But that doesn’t mean it should be abandoned. What about air travel? Every now and then there’s a… No pun intended. Are we going to give up airplanes? No. They are safer than driving.

The same goes for the cloud. It’s probably safer than your data center.

But there are risks. And risks can be mitigated.

You’ve heard this a million times, but I’m going to tell you again. Back up your data. Get in the habit of pulling your data down from wherever it’s stored and make a copy. Got a lot of data? Get your IT department on it.

And here’s a radical suggestion. Define a data set of mission-critical files. Then back that data up to a jump drive and put it in your pocket. You can get a 128Gb jump drive for a hundred bucks. Do it.

Now sit down for this – You are responsible for your data. Not the cloud. Not Amazon. Not your IT department. Not your assistant. You.

Something like this will happen again.

You’ve been warned.

Dubbed, “a breathing space in a busy world. It is a place to take time out and consider what is happening and why it matters.

“Think Quarterly is a(n) unparalleled communications tool that bundles together some of the world’s leading minds to discuss the big issues facing businesses today,” the magazine says on its Twitter bio.

“Like most companies, Google constantly communicates with its business customers via email newsletters, updates on our official blogs, and printed materials,” Google writes on its site. “On this occasion, we have sent a short book about data, called Think Quarterly, to a small number of our UK partners and advertisers.”

Okay…