Digital Economy

Cybersecurity for Small Businesses: Conducting business online runs the risk of being a target of hacking. Cybersecurity is the protection of data from becoming compromised through unauthorised access and provides the security as it relates to the risks of being online. A businesses assets and information, stored on smart phones, computers and hard drives, are all potientially at risk. Small businesses have to be cost-effective and operate within strict budgets to cover expenses such as salaries, utilities, equipment costs, and advertising. This can restrict the needed investment in cybersecurity software and staff, which leaves businesses open to vulnerable attacks that larger businesss might resist more easily. One common bugeting method used by busineses is the 50/30/20 rule: The 50/30/20 Rule 1. Expenses 2. Growth 3. Profit Salaries Innovation Eme...

Search Engine Optimisation is the method businesses use to align their website content with a search engines ranking algorithm so that it can be located as high as possible in a Search Engine Results Page ( SERP ). The higher up on the SERP a website is, the more traffic it will get. In most instances search engine users will only peruse the first one or two pages of their result searches. Site architecture is the layout of navigation,  breadcrumbs , URLs, and sitemaps that form groups and connections throughout a website.  It consists of the proper arrangement of information and designing so that users can readily access all options and features offered by the website.  A well-defined structure creates relationships between webpages and allows search engines to crawl and understand website content.  Examples of webpage results appearing on a SERP are pages the search engine has indexed; pages that have been manually added to the search engine directory; and ...

The first iteration of the world wide web, known as Web 1.0 or the Static read-only Web , was  created in 1990 by computer scientist Tim Berners-Lee to meet the demand for information-sharing between institutes around the world and became a library of online brochures and information. Three technologies introduced under Web 1.0 were HyperText Markup Language (HTML) - The formatting language used to structure a website; Uniform Resource Locator (URL) - A unique address to identify websites; and HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP) - A machine-to-machine protocol to load websites using Hypertext links. As the first websites were read-only, with no other way of interacting with the content, users were passive observers rather than active participants. The limitations were evident in the one-way flow of information as websites posted as Digital Billboards   presenting information without encouraging or inviting feedback.   With the arrival of  Web 2.0,  the S...

Data analytics is the process where a business analyses its raw data to make conclusions and implement actions based on the information provided. In cloud computing the data processing and storage operations are hosted on a platform by a third party that manages the flow of information and provides access to powerful analytics tools. Cloud-based analytics provide small businesses with a cost-effective platform to transfer, manage and interpret their data, the service also eliminates the traditional overheads required for a business to host data on its own hardware infrastructure.   Google Analytics,Tableau  and   Microsoft Power BI  are affordable cloud-based platforms where a small business can integrate data, optimise operations and scale the use of the platforms as the business expands and grows. Google Analytics is a ser...