Yearly Archives: 2019

The main goal of every website owner is to win the cyber war and emerge at the top in terms of search engine rankings. The Domain Authority (DA) score is there to assist website owners in getting there. Now, what is DA? DA checker is a software developed by Moz that measures how relevant your website is and how it will rank in a search engine result. A DA score ranges from 1-100. Does it affect your website ranking? No, it doesn’t – it predicts your website’s search engine ranking. This score gives you an idea of how strong your website is compared to other websites. So, having a higher score can mean that your website is more likely to rank higher in a search engine result.

Here are some ways to improve your DA score:
CONTENT
Make sure your page has quality and up to date content. Writing content that contains a lot of text doesn’t mean it’s good content. It should be to the point, informative and relevant to the public. Get rid of grammatical errors and sloppiness. Use images and videos to make it look more appealing. No one wants to just see a whole page of text. It becomes monotonous.
INTERNAL LINKING
Within the page content, include links that take users to your older content. But make sure that the older links are related to the current post. This helps users easily navigate through your website and gain more information. When this happens, the engagement time of your website increases. Easy navigation improves User Experience (UX) as well. Furthermore, indexing, done by the search engine, becomes easier.
ACTIVE SOCIAL MEDIA
Make sure that you have social media accounts for your business. Link these accounts to your main website. The social media buttons should be visible to the users. It becomes easier for users to share your content on social media platforms. Try increasing the number of followers on your social media pages. This is likely to improve the number of shares and in turn, boost your website traffic.
MOBILE-FRIENDLINESS
Do not restrict your website to just desktops and laptops. Make sure that your website is responsive and is compatible with any device. If your website isn’t mobile friendly, it majorly affects your DA score and even your search engine ranking. There are almost 5 billion smartphone users. So, if your page isn’t easy to read on a phone, not only does this affect your score, but you also lose out on a large percentage of audience.
TOP-LISTS
Write lists that contain the top competitors in your niche. These experts would love to see themselves being a mentioned in a ‘top – 10,20,30…’ list. Most likely they will share your article on their website or their social media accounts. They might even link your website on theirs. So, you get traffic coming in from their website and this improves your DA score.
TOXIC LINKS
Constantly check your website for broken links or links that lead to unreliable websites. Toxic links decreases UX and increases bounce rate. Users become less reliable on your website. These links hurt your DA score and your search engine ranking. It is definitely an inconvenience to check each and every link on your website, so there are several tools online that do the job for you.
SPEED
Speed of your website affects your DA score and your website ranking. Moreover, it improves UX and even your website’s conversion rate. 40% of users will wait no more than 3 seconds for a website to load. Most of the factors that affect your website speed are technical. So, it is advisable to hire an experienced web developer to help you with the same.
GUEST-POSTING
Provide guest posting services. This increases referral traffic and helps with link building. It also builds a relationship with other companies, increases your brand awareness, secures quality traffic from other websites and improves your domain authority. Guest posting is extremely beneficial to your company.

In conclusion, do not let the DA score get to your head. It just shows you whether you are on the right path or whether you need to improve on your website. There are tools online that calculate your DA score. Be sure to check your DA score periodically and work on your website accordingly.

Top 10 Takeaways From A Google Analytics Report

If you’re a webmaster or a website administrator, the ‘Google Analytics Report’ is a tool that should be quite familiar to you. Google Analytics is a web analytics service that allows you to monitor website traffic and provides graphs and statistics to explain the traffic patterns. Analysing a Google Analytics Report thoroughly can help boost traffic and improve the overall website performance.

Here are 10 takeaways from a Google Analytics Report:

Mobile-Friendliness

We live in a world where the use of Smartphones is extremely common. People are constantly checking their phones wherever they go and browsing the Internet. So, an important key is to make sure your website is mobile-friendly. Google even penalizes website that isn’t mobile friendly. Once this task is achieved, keep track of the numbers from the report produced under the mobile section. Here you can see 3 types of devices under observation, Desktop, Mobile and Tablet. The mobile category can further be stripped down to specific devices. This allows you to see which brand of smartphones are performing the best.

Reduce Bounce Rate

This Google Analytic metric is the rate at which a user leaves your website from the main page without browsing any further. An average Bounce Rate lies in the range of 41-55 percent. Some of the ways to improve your Bounce Rate is to make sure that your website does not contain too many broken links, it uses friendly, there is good readability, not too many pop-ups or advertisements and writing fresh and relevant content.

Always Set Goals

Set Goals. Goals are a pretty useful and simple feature of Google Analytics. There are different goals provided by Google like destination goals (users arriving at a page on your website), engagement goals (amount of casinoluck.ca time a user spends on your website and visits different pages) and event goals (performing an action or triggering of an event). For example, if you run an E-Commerce based website your goal would be for the user to make an online transaction. Setting goals increases the conversion rate of your website.

Analyse Source Of Traffic

Take a look at where your traffic is coming from. This can be looked at under the acquisition section. It contains 4 sub-sections. Referral, Direct, Organic Search and Social. You can see if your website referred to by another website (backlink) is actually bringing in a significant amount of traffic and boosting your search engine ranking under the Referrals section. These numbers can be improved by reaching out to more websites for backlinking and getting rid of websites that aren’t really helping your website. Similarly, the other 3 sections can be closely examined as well.

Appropriate Exit Pages

Analyze the Exit Page section. This section tells you at which page users are leaving your website the most. Make sure the exit pages are appropriate. For example, if a user has finished making a purchase on your website, there is a high chance they’ll leave your website and that’s okay. But if you notice users leaving your website at the homepage itself, it becomes an issue and needs to be looked into.

Fine Tune Website Content

The Pages section in Google Analytics shows the performance of different sections, ex: About Us, Contact, Products, of your website. Based on the numbers observed, changes can be made to the sections that aren’t performing as well as the other sections. Try making changes such that the exit rate is reduced, and sessions are increased.

Focus On Interests

Try finding your field of interest and building a website based on that. Your interest should be the website’s foundation. The Interests section tells you a user’s affinity towards different categories like Lifestyle & Hobbies or New & Politics. Try improving the numbers in a few categories of interest. Do not go over the top and try building on every interest. This metric helps you reach out to a certain part of society and increases the chances of getting revisits.

Focus On Age & Gender

You can segregate your audience further by building a website that attracts certain age groups. The numbers for different age groups can be analyzed under the Age category. See which age range give you the best and worst output. Concentrating on certain age groups will improve your traffic significantly. Similarly, your audience can be segregated by Gender as well.

Target Local Traffic

Incoming traffic numbers can be observed country wise under the Audience section. It is better to gain as much as traffic possible within your country and then work towards an international goal. Keep improving on the Active Users number in your region after which concentrate on gaining international users.

Improve The User’s Journey

Behavioral Flows allows you to keep track of how users interact with your website, i.e. how they travel from the homepage and end up on the exit page. Look at how much time a user is engaged in a particular page and if you achieve any sort of conversion. Observe which pages they click through instantly and the number of pages they click through to reach the exit page. Try making the user’s experience on your website easy and entertaining.

Try taking complete advantage of the Google Analytics tool. Thoroughly analyze numbers such that it satisfies customers and brings in more website traffic.

The World Wide Web became available to the public in 1991 and since its inception, approximately over 2 billion websites have been hosted and this number increments every second. Every website owner wants their website to stand out amongst the vast competition. The Google Algorithm for organic search rankings warrants that the website content is updated frequently.
Here are 10 good reasons to update your website regulary:

1. Making A Good First Impression
It is said that “The first impression is the last impression” and this holds true from the customers perspective. Suppose you get traffic from new people; they’re first going to look at the appearance of your website, then look for the content of their interest and then continue to browse your website. Make sure that your website looks elegant and the content is regularly updated. Customers would want to see content published a few hours or a few days ago rather than months or years ago. A fresh and sleek look of the website and updated content will make the customer want to revisit your website, again and again.

2. Security
Maintenance of your website increases cyber security. This keeps your data and your customer’s data safe thereby making customers feel secure. If your website uses a Content Management System like WordPress, these companies launch software updates or bug fixes. As a website owner, it is your duty to keep up with such updates, else this gives hackers the opportunity to break into your website resulting in data loss of the website and the customer.

3. Improved Search Engine Ranking
Google continually brings out changes to their algorithm and your website needs to be updated and maintained accordingly. Google favors websites that are active and periodically updated. It is also important to add up-to-date content that is interesting and relevant. This boosts your website’s search engine ranking and consequently brings in more quality traffic.

4. Connecting To The Customers
Once you gain customers you have to make sure that these customers become loyal and keep returning to your website. In order to do this, you should find topics of interest and publish content that is not only captivating but up to the minute as well. When this is done, a connection is made between the website and the customer, making the customer loyal.

5. Employing Latest Technology
Technology is continually advancing and evolving. It is better to incorporate technology that is trending, for example, Artificial Intelligence (AI), into your website. This allows you to stand out from competitors and even provides a better User Experience (UX).

6. No More Dead Links
Make sure there aren’t too many broken links or even no broken links at all. If there are too many broken links this slowly drives the user away from your website and makes it an unreliable source. So, continuous checks and maintenance help avoid this issue.

7. Increasing Speed
Optimize and regularly make minute changes to the website’s code to make sure that it is as fast and efficient as possible because speed affects search engine rankings. Better speed means more website traffic and happy customers. If your site takes more than 5 seconds to download you can lose almost half the visitors traffic!

8. Feedback & User-Friendliness
Ask for customer feedback on the website and make changes to the website accordingly. Customer feedback can help your website become more user-friendly and interactive. This periodic update keeps customers satisfied.

9. Blogging
Writing user friendly content on topics that are in the news helps the users engaged and shows that you are well aware of the industry in which you operate.

10. Making Back-Ups
Another essential element is to back-up your website every few days. Technology may be advanced, but it is unpredictable. You can lose all your data unexpectedly. So, it is always good to make cyclic back-ups of your website.

Making a website and launching it is easy. But that is just the first step. The tough part is actually updating it and keeping up with competitors. So, hire a professional website development company to maintain and update your web presence – it plays a vital role in growing your business online.

In today’s day and age most of us are internet users and perform a Google search almost 20-100 times everyday!

Google receives over 63,000 searches per second on any given day. That’s the average figure of how many people use Google a day, which translates into at least 2 trillion searches per year, 3.8 million searches per minute, 228 million searches per hour, and 5.6 billion searches per day!

Every day and on the internet, there is a cyber war going on between websites owners. The main goal of these websites owners is to emerge in the top Google results. This is known as Search Engine Optimization (SEO). But in more detailed terms, SEO is the process of increasing the quality and quantity of website traffic by improving website content and producing organic results rather than paid results and increasing the websites search engine ranking. Organic search results are also known as natural search results. Since Google will never reveal how their algorithm works, website owners have to interact with the search engine and use different SEO tools in order to help their website reach the top.

There are two types of SEO techniques that exist, White Hat SEO and Black Hat SEO. In ordinary terms, the main difference between the two is that White Hat SEOs follow search engine’s rules, care about the audience and ensures to produce quality content while Black Hat SEOs lie on the other end of the spectrum. Black Hat tactics involve breaking search engine rules, spamming keywords or integrating unrelated keywords and care mostly about the number of clicks on their websites. Black Hat SEOs bring in a lot of traffic and get you a quick return, but it is unethical and unreliable as Google keeps updating its algorithm and manages to eliminate latest Black Hat SEO techniques. Making use of such methods may also lead to your website being unindexed or even permanently banned from the search engine. So, it is advisable to stick to White Hat SEO techniques.

There are many tactics and techniques under White Hat SEOs. To start off, website owners should find their niche and add related keywords, add a website description to the meta-data section of their HTML code. The title of the HTML document can also be made to match with relevant keywords rather than just using alphanumerics. Make sure to produce content that is of help to the public, easy to comprehend and contain hard facts that people can really rely on. Content should constantly be updated and polished. Make sure the website has content relevant to your industry or niche. Optimize the code, specifically the JavaScript, to reduce loading time of a webpage and overall increasing its speed. Fix technical issues which would automatically improve User Experience (UX). Make sure to also integrate Machine Learning within the website. This strategy is quite vital in terms of boosting your website search results in 2019 and for the coming years. Another strategy known as Link-Building or Backlinks is extremely essential to the website.

A backlink is a link of a web resource (the referent) that is present in another website (the referrer) that leads back to that website. Backlinks majorly impact a website’s search engine ranking. Your website can either contain links to other websites or your website can be linked on other websites. But when you post links to other websites or if you let other websites link your web resource, one needs to ensure that the other websites are of high quality and have a high domain authority. But that does not a mean you allow a third-party site to keep linking your website. That would be considered as spamming and would not be taken into consideration for ranking. So higher the number of authoritative sites that link you the more traffic you gain. They are directly proportional. Keep writing effective and updated content so that third-party websites are more likely to link your website. Guest blogging is vital to link-building. When you write a blog for another website, the owner of that website allows one or two backlinks to your website. Broken linking is an interesting strategy. Your job will be to find broken links, i.e. websites that do no exist anymore, redevelop and restore those links and finally contact the owner linking to the broken link and ask them to relink your version. Reach to website owners that work in the same niche as yours. Make sure the business has social media platforms, so it is easy for other website owners to contact you.

In conclusion, link-building is a SEO technique that is quite useful for bringing in website traffic and radically affects rankings. SEO techniques will continually update along with Google’s algorithm updates and website owners need to keep up.

Mechanical engineering is a very broad field and its definition is equally broad in that it is the act of designing and developing complex mechanical equipment. These designs can include items as basic as a household appliance or as complex as a component to a nuclear energy plant.

What are mechanical engineers?

Mechanical engineers research, design, develop, build, and test mechanical and thermal devices including tools and machines. They also oversee the manufacture of mechanical products such as medical devices, batteries, power generating equipment such as generators, internal combustion engines, and gas or steam turbines, and also power using machines such as refrigeration.

There are three basic types of mechanical engineering. They are HVAC and refrigeration, machine design and materials, and thermal/fluid systems. Each of these can easily overlap with another during a complex design process. Once an individual chooses one of those three areas of engineering, they usually stay close to that field throughout their career.

5 Main Areas of Mechanical Engineering

Mechanical engineering can be broken down into five main areas of concentration, and each of these areas is well covered by excellent mechanical design firms who have or have access to the various types of engineers required for any particular project.

1.Analyze problems to see how a design can solve a problem.
2.Design/Redesign products by using problem-solving analysis and computer-aided design (CAD).
3.Develop Prototypes to test the playamo viability and effectiveness of a design.
4.Test Designs and Analyze results and modify designs as required based on test results.
5.Oversee Manufacturing of a design.

Mechanical engineers typically have at least a bachelor’s degree. Some of the qualities of a mechanical engineer are creativity, ability to listen and analyze, excellent math and mechanical skills, and perhaps most importantly, problem-solving skills. A master’s degree is usually required for career advancement in the engineering field as it prepares engineers for more complex projects.

It would be an expensive proposition to house an expert in each field. So oftentimes companies will rely on the best engineering staffing agencies to provide the specialized talent that is needed when tackling unique complex R & D, design and manufacturing projects. In 2015 and 2016, more mechanical engineers graduate than any other type of engineer.

Where do mechanical engineers work?

The following list, although somewhat comprehensive, does not begin to cover all of the possible applications of mechanical engineering. However, It provides enough detail to give you a good understanding of the breadth of the field and the many industries in which mechanical engineering is used.

1.Aerospace Industry – This field is an incubator and the birthplace of many leading edge and state-of-the-art technologies such as composites, advanced manufacturing processes, aircraft engines, and aerodynamics.
2.Automotive Industry – Integration of systems and automobile manufacturing processes
3.Environmental Engineering – This field includes HVAC for commercial buildings, hospitals, universities, and airports and often coordinates with other engineering disciplines
4.Chemical Industry – Piping, chemical transport and flow, piping, conveyors
5.Defense Industry – Design of complex weapons and their support systems; 3D modeling
6.Consumer Goods – Product design and the supply network or logistics of product movement and storage
7.Marine Industry – Design of marine craft and powerplants, enforcement of international regulations
8.Materials and Metals – Develop, design and test steam and gas turbines, pumps and valves, piping, coal mills and fans
9.Oil and Gas Industry – Design of compressors, valves, vessels and offshore technology; pipelines
10.Biomedical Industry – Artificial limbs, pacemakers, surgical robotics and heart valves
11.Power Generation – Design structures and systems to collect, contain and transmit energy
Rail Industry – Design track systems, overhead power rail lines, write specifications.

Perhaps one other field that should be mentioned and that is inexorably connected is Project Management. Project Management can span any and all of these interrelated fields and is a career path within engineering itself. It is the art of shepherding an engineering project from its inception through development, design, test and manufacture.

The 12 industries cited all offer opportunity and variety, and each fit within one of the three main areas, e.g. HVAC, Machine & Materials, and Thermal & Fluid Systems. However, a mechanical engineer often will be called upon to cross-functional lines and work with various engineering teams. This is one of the advantages of mechanical engineering as it does provide engineers opportunities to work in numerous disciplines throughout their careers.

If you’ve been receiving suspicious or unknown calls, you’ve likely done some research to try and figure out who has been calling you and why. Oftentimes, you will come across a variety of reverse phone lookup websites which give you the ability to input a phone number and perform a search to discover more information about the caller. But have you ever wondered just how those systems work, and what other information may be able to be accessed using just a telephone number? Here’s what you need to know about performing a reverse phone lookup.

Advanced algorithms power reverse phone lookups

Thanks to computerized algorithms, a reverse phone lookup is a fast and powerful search. That algorithm quickly analyzes the phone number you input and references hundreds of different databases to compare it to millions of potential matches. This type of search is a much deeper dive into public records and associated user accounts than a simple Google search would perform, and as a result uncovers a much broader amount of data than a simple query in a search engine.

Reverse phone lookup provides more than just names

Since a reverse phone lookup search goes above and beyond typical search engines, there is far more to learn about the owner of the phone number than just their name. Thanks to the digitization and categorization of public records, reverse phone lookups provide detailed reports with information like addresses lived at, email addresses, and even publicly available images that they appear in. A reverse phone lookup can also give you demographic information about an individual, such as age, gender, and, in some cases, race or ethnicity. All of this makes reverse phone lookups a powerful tool for learning more about the individual who has been calling you.

You can use reverse phone lookup as a soft background check

Because of the databases that reverse phone lookups search, your reverse phone lookup can also be useful for performing a soft background check on job applicants or potential tenants. A reverse phone lookup can discover an individual’s police and arrest records, as well as any other background checks and even their mugshots if they have served time in jail. You can also cross reference the registered sex offenders list using a reverse phone search. This makes reverse phone lookups useful for anyone looking to get a better idea about an applicant’s status in a quick and efficient manner without going through the hassles of a full-blown background check with fingerprinting and other hoops to jump through.

Social media information is also available via phone number searches

One final thing to remember about reverse phone lookups is that they can uncover other personal information about someone if they are on any social media websites. When most people register for a social media account, they are required to include a phone number, and that number becomes associated with their account, linking it in any searches you perform. This means that if someone is on popular networks like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or Snapchat, you can discover their username and posts using a reverse phone lookup. It even works for accounts like Pinterest and LinkedIn, helping to give you a full picture of the person whose phone number you are searching.

There’s more to a reverse phone lookup than just simple information like somebody’s name. Reverse phone lookups use algorithmic searches to dig through millions of digital records that could be connected to a person, including police records and social media accounts. This makes them valuable tools for discovering the identities of mystery callers, ensuring that your spouse is texting who they say they are, and even performing background checks.

Digital marketing agencies are getting increasingly popular, and for good reason. Agencies can really hone in on your digital marketing goals and execute a plan of action that can accomplish them. Here are four reasons why you should consider hiring a digital marketing agency for your company.

SEO expertise

SEO, or search engine optimization, allows your business to climb up the search engine results and position yourself before your competition. If you are having a hard time getting your team to produce content that falls within your SEO goals, an agency may be your best option. Agencies help businesses with keyword research and implementing effective SEO strategies. With the help of such experts, you’ll be in a better position to fully optimize your content.

Another important aspect of SEO is link building. Link building is a strategy that takes a lot of time and effort, which is why it is common practice to hire agency experts for a link building service. If your site is linked in many places, Google will deem it more important than others with fewer links. If Google’s algorithm deems your site as important, it will rank higher and be seen by a larger amount of people. Link building is a tactical way to build your site’s authority.

Creative strategy

Digital marketing agencies have handled many clients with successes and failures. With that, they know a lot about what works and what doesn’t. They can offer clients tips and implement certain marketing tactics that they have seen success through. Whether it is looking at advertising on social media, production, or other forms of content creation, they know how to get certain kinds of creative content in front of the right audience. The agency fee will get you insight along with expertise.

The strategy that digital marketing agencies provide make it well worth the investment. Their ideas could transform your marketing department into the successful team you have been attempting to cultivate. The greatest agencies work as an extension of your team across the board.

Cuts marketing costs

If you have a full in-house marketing team, you have to account for a manager, an SEO specialist, a social media marketer and many more players. There are so many facets that come with being in marketing that make outsourcing the more cost-efficient option. You can hire an agency for an agreed-upon fee that does it all. With the alternative option of hiring six employees with annual salaries, it makes a lot of sense why agencies are the cost-efficient option.

They have the tools, experience, and the speed to create results

Effective marketing requires the utilization of certain tools and resources. Purchasing these upfront will take a financial toll on a business. An agency, on the other hand, will have all these tools readily available. Agencies will be able to use the expensive tools and software for all their clients and bear the cost, because it’s worth it for them.

They also have access to resources that you might not have known you needed. Many digital marketing agencies whitelabel certain services from other companies. This is a way to have them handle all the complicated stuff while you just have one base cost.

Hiring an agency is simpler, cheaper, and more effective. Look into agencies that align with your company needs and demands. You’ll find that hiring SEO specialists and marketing professionals may be the more affordable option that generates better results.

Owning a small business and trying to get the most out of it can eat up a lot of your time. Thankfully, there are ways to help your business succeed that do not take as much time or energy.

Your digital marketing strategy should be high on your priority list. Here’s why you should start implementing ringless voicemail and SMS marketing.

What is ringless voicemail?

Ringless voicemail drops allow your sales team to leave voicemails for potential customers in seconds. Your team won’t have to wait for the phone to ring and can easily drop a voicemail directly into a customer’s inbox. This lets your team leave more voicemails in a shorter amount of time, which provides you with better results.

You also only have to pay for the voicemail drops that are successful, and the more drops you make, the less you pay per drop. Ringless voicemail drops are a great way to reach more customers quickly and you’ll find that the benefits to your business are huge.

What are the benefits of ringless voicemail drops?

Ringless voicemail is a huge benefit to your customers and potential customers. Because their phones never ring, the customers are able to check the voicemail at their convenience and not be bothered by a phone call. Plus, they will never be billed for the voicemail.

You’ll be able to reach thousands of people in very little time. And when you’re busy trying to run a business, you’ll be happier knowing that your marketing is efficient and effective.

What is SMS marketing?

SMS (short message server) marketing is marketing done through text message. Over half the world’s population owns a mobile phone, which makes SMS marketing is a great way to reach potential customers you might otherwise be missing.

SMS marketing is typically used less frequently than other forms of marketing (such as social media marketing, for example), so you want to make sure that when you use SMS marketing, you’re doing it correctly and efficiently. SMS marketing will not cost you much, especially if you’re able to send out mass quantities of texts at a time, so it’s a great way for you to reach both current and potential customers without any extra hassle to you.

What’s the best way to utilize SMS marketing?

SMS marketing only works if your customers are willing to provide you with their cell phone numbers, which can sometimes be a challenge. Because they are trusting you with this personal information, you want to be sure to only send them texts which will be valuable to them.

Your SMS marketing should be somewhat infrequent and should always provide your customers with important information they would not learn anywhere else. You can provide your clients with exclusive offers only available through text messages, like a discount code or a freebie at their next visit.

This would make your clients feel like they can trust you with their private information, because you are making it worth their time and not inundating them with spam messages. You can also use text messaging to communicate important, personal information to your customers, like the tracking information for a delivery or an appointment reminder.

Ringless voicemail drops and SMS marketing are great ways to increase your business’s potential with little cost and effort. As a small business owner, you want to do everything you can to make sure your business succeeds, and utilizing these techniques will help it thrive.

If you’re looking at purchasing a video surveillance solution, chances are you’ve run into digital video recorders (DVR) and network video recorders (NVR). Both of these security systems offer a centralized approach to video security that seems affordable up front; however, as time goes on, you will likely see increasing costs due to outdated technology and a host of other issues. These are some of the hidden costs of video surveillance systems:

Maintenance and updates

One of the biggest traps you will fall into when purchasing an NVR or DVR security system are maintenance costs. Many NVRs and DVRs use hardware and software that is outdated, and this antiquated approach to video security can wind up costing you as other network and internet technologies continue to evolve. 

In addition to having to manually push through firmware updates, you will likely need a specialized technician to service some aspects of your NVR system — an unforeseen cost many businesses don’t think to budget for. 

The costs of potential cybersecurity breaches

Another result of having an outdated video security system is that it makes your business far more susceptible to cybersecurity breaches. These sorts of attacks can make a major dent in more than maintenance fees, too. Beyond the costs of responding to a security breach, you may also wind up losing vital features of your business as a result of a hacker using your surveillance system as a backdoor to access your network. Since DVRs and NVRs are centralized, this means that hackers can truly wreck havoc on your company, should they find a way in. Especially for larger enterprises, these kinds of risks must be avoided in order to maintain normal business operations.

Expensive in multiple locations

Another weakness of NVRs and DVRs is their inability to scale in an affordable manner. While this may not be an issue if you only have one place of business, school districts and restaurant chains will definitely want to avoid picking either approach when it comes to choosing a surveillance system. As everything will need to be centralized at each location, that means that new equipment and recorders will need to be purchased each time you add surveillance security to another location. 

Beyond material costs, this also costs you time and labor. Ultimately, if you’re looking to expand your company’s reach, it may be more beneficial to pick a different solution rather than incur these costs every time your business needs to grow.

Video security systems that avoid these hidden costs

Thankfully, there are more options than just NVRs and DVRs for security surveillance. One popular newcomer to the field of video security is the hybrid cloud approach, which uses cloud connectivity and onboard storage. This results in a surveillance system that scales easily, receives updates automatically, and is far more secure than traditional surveillance options. Pioneers like Verkada are even introducing features that allow the systems to work while offline, further increasing the value of hybrid cloud surveillance for businesses of all sizes.

As you can tell, even though a surveillance system may be inexpensive, that doesn’t mean that it will always remain that way. Considering how quickly technology is advancing, a system that is only a few years old can still become outdated in a short amount of time. In addition, hackers are becoming more and more sophisticated and having an up-to-date, secure video surveillance solution is in your company’s best interests to combat them. Hybrid cloud video security mitigates many of the above weaknesses of traditional NVRs and DVRs, allowing you to gain peace of mind and save money in the long run.

DUBAI, 24th June, 2019 (WAM) — The Telecommunications Regulatory Authority, TRA, today announced the launch of the ‘UAE National Cybersecurity Strategy’ during a press conference held at TRA offices in Abu Dhabi and Dubai.

The new strategy aims to create safe and resilient cyber infrastructure in the UAE that enables citizens to fulfil their aspirations and empowers businesses to thrive.

Hamad Obaid Al Mansoori, TRA Director-General, delivered an opening speech during the press conference which was attended by TRA cybersecurity officials and directors, as well as journalists and media representatives.

Al Mansoori noted that the UAE is rapidly advancing its artificial intelligence, big data, and fourth industrial revolution tracks, driven by the strong momentum generated by a history of leadership and major achievements. He emphasised on the need for a national cybersecurity strategy as a main element in risk prevention and preparedness for security challenges in cyber space.

“If we want to draw a future perception of the UAE, years from now, we would see the features of the smart city where millions of devices and platforms are connected, producing massive amounts of data, many of which will be at risk of piracy or privacy violation,” the TRA Director-General noted.

He added, “The cybersecurity strategy is based on a well-known reality, that cyberspace provides vast horizons and endless opportunities for well-being, happiness and sustainable development. However, it also provides a gateway for hackers and phishers. It is obvious that the battle between the two sides is a battle of knowledge and technology, a battle of intelligence, perseverance and patience. Yet, in essence, it is a manifestation of the eternal conflict between good and evil.”

The development of the UAE National Cybersecurity Strategy is in line with current developments in the field, which are witnessing an increased number of cybersecurity incidents globally, causing significant losses in global economy. Last year, the number of reported data security breaches increased by 42 percent, while the annual cost of cybercrime reached US$608 billion globally between 2014 and 2017.

A presentation on the main pillars of the strategy was delivered by Mohammad Al Zarooni, Director of Policies and Programs Department. The participants then watched a short film summarising the components of the strategy and its main initiatives.

The new strategy will have a positive impact on all segments of society by enhancing citizens’ confidence to securely participate in the digital world, encouraging innovation in cybersecurity, fostering a culture of entrepreneurship in cybersecurity, enabling SMEs to safeguard themselves against most common cyber attacks, protecting critical information infrastructure assets of the country and building a world-class cybersecurity workforce in the UAE.

To achieve these aspirations, the UAE National Cybersecurity Strategy will mobilise the whole ecosystem to deliver 60 initiatives across five pillars. Among these pillars is enhancing cybersecurity laws and regulations to address all types of cybercrimes, secure existing and emerging technologies and support protection of SMEs by developing essential cybersecurity standard for SMEs, mandating cybersecurity implementation certification for government suppliers, and building one-stop portal for SMEs to enable SMEs to implement the standard.

Moreover, the strategy will enable the ecosystem to capture the huge cybersecurity opportunity and tap into the AED1.8 billion UAE cybersecurity market as well as effectively contributing to the AED18 billion MENA cybersecurity market. It will also work on developing capabilities of over 40,000 cybersecurity professionals, by encouraging professionals and students to pursue a career in cybersecurity, developing necessary cybersecurity capabilities to meet aspirations of the country, and fostering a vibrant ecosystem of cybersecurity training providers.

The strategy will also reward excellence in cybersecurity through a national awards programme, by allocating six awards for entities and same for individuals. These rewards aim to encourage organisations to drive cybersecurity programmes, inspire entrepreneurs to innovate in cybersecurity, support cutting-edge research undertaken by academic institutions and motivate students to pursue cybersecurity careers.

The TRA launched the UAE National Cybersecurity Strategy as the country is entering the fifth generation era. The Authority is developing the UAE’s fifth generation strategy 2020-2025, making the UAE the first in the region to embark on this initiative.