Category: Digital Branding

If you market your business online, you may want to consider hiring an agency that specializes in this area. However, keep in mind that choosing the right digital marketing agency can be complicated. It’s something you definitely want to get right but this isn’t easy to do. Besides the fact that there are thousands of these agencies, they are all the best! Or, at least, that’s what their marketing says.

In addition, there are a lot of different aspects of digital marketing, such as search engine optimization, email marketing, social media marketing and on and on. How can any digital marketing agency be experts in all of them? So with that in mind, how are you going to make sure you pick one of the best Boston SEO companies for your business?

Here are five key things you can do when searching for a digital marketing agency that will help you narrow down the search and pick the agency that is right for you.

1. Discuss It With Those You Know and Trust

When you are making a huge decision, like choosing a digital marketing agency to help grow your business, one of the best things you can do is talk to those you know, respect and trust. Talk to other business owners you know who work with an agency. Someone you trust isn’t going to send you to an agency that they don’t believe in or want to work with themselves.

When it comes to such big decisions, most business owners make their decisions based on referrals. In fact, 84% of these types of business to business decisions are based off of referrals from other business owners.

After all, a decision like this could make or break a business. It’s not something you want to leave to chance. If you want to know the truth about how good or bad an agency is the best way to do it is to talk to business owners who have worked with that agency.

Keep in mind, as mentioned above, there are many aspects of digital marketing. When you ask other business owners be sure you discuss what specifically you are looking for in an agency. If you have decided you want to focus on social media to generate leads, you don’t want to hire a digital marketing agency that focuses on search engine optimization.

2. Who Are Their Clients?

Who else works with this agency? While talking to other business owners is a great way to narrow things down, it’s also important to find out about other clients of the agency. You don’t want to hand over a big check and find out the agency is a one person shop run by the niece of the person who gave you the referral and that business owner is the only client. At least, until you that is.

Check out the agency’s web site. It’s a digital marketing agency, they most certainly should have a web site of their own.

If they don’t have a web site, or if the web site has no information from other clients, such as case studies, or testimonials, it’s quite possible this agency is not going to be able to handle what it is you want them to do for you.

If the referral was from someone you really respect and trust and you still want to meet with the agency, be sure and ask them for other clients with whom you could speak to about the work they had done for them.

While many clients make agencies sign a non-disclosure agreement,an agency should be able to give you at least a few clients or case studies. If they can’t, you may want to move on to the next agency on your list.

3. The Agency Needs To Earn Your Trust

So you’ve checked out their web site and they have some big clients, or some clients in your industry that all seem very happy with what the agency has done for them. But sometimes you need to dig a little deeper. Of course the agency is going to put their best foot forward on their web site.

If the agency touts some great case study results, ask if you can speak with the agency’s contact at the company. This way, you can verify the marketing results on your own instead of just trusting the agency on their word.

If they are willing to tout case study results, they should be willing to give you a contact so you can verify those results.

4. Ask The Questions That Matter For Your Business

When you interview an agency, be sure and go into it prepared. Have a list of questions that are relevant to your business, the type of digital marketing you want to do, and the results you are looking to achieve. It’s important to also have an idea as to the answer you are looking for so you can focus on what matters.

After all, all good salespeople can give you an answer that sounds great without ever actually answering the question.

If this is the first time you’re hiring an agency, you may not even know where to begin with questions. Go back to your friend that referred you and talk to them. They should have a pretty good idea of what questions are important for you to ask.

5. Listen To The Questions That You Are Being Asked

A good agency likes to work with certain types of clients, just as you want to hire the right agency. That means they are interviewing you as well.

They are looking for signs that you might be more trouble than you are worth. They won’t work with you if they feel there are red flags that indicate it would not be a good working relationship.

This means a good agency will be asking you questions as well. They will want to know about your digital marketing plans, what your goals are going forward, who you consider your competition, etc. They need to know all the details to be able to determine if they can even help you grow your business.

Put these five tips into action when choosing a digital marketing agency and you’ll greatly increase the chances of hiring an agency that can help you reach your business marketing goals.

In the digital world, when someone says “Apple,” you’re more likely to think of the brand that gave us the Mac, iPad, and Siri, instead of the fruit. 

That’s how effectively a brand name can leave a mark in our minds.

Now imagine having that kind of brand power for your ecommerce business.  

Although the journey to establishing a successful brand can be unique to each business, there are techniques you can use to get your brand to your target market successfully. 

In this post, let me share with you four strategies to build brand awareness for your ecommerce business. 

Let’s dive right in.

1. Share Your Brand Story

The concept behind why storytelling can be an excellent marketing technique is simple: people love hearing a success story. 

Your brand’s story gives your brand more depth and something your audience can connect with, which makes it an excellent element to add to your marketing efforts. 

For instance, technology company GoPro wrote on their website how the company founder Nick Woodman “started with a 35mm camera and a wrist strap made from old wetsuits and plastic scraps.” 

Now, the company has grown internationally and “has sold over 26 million GoPro cameras in more than 100 countries.”

Weaving this kind of narrative into your marketing strategy lets your audience “feel” the experience in your story, which helps build a connection and establish trust with them. 

When people trust your brand, they are more likely to come back, buy again, and tell other people about you. 

Your brand’s story can be anything. 

It can be a narrative of your product development journey, founder, or how the idea for your product was born as a solution to a problem.

People like hearing stories, and you can use that to your advantage with a narrative that gets your message and brand across to your target audiences.

2. Develop Your Brand Identity

Your product can leave a lasting impression on your customers even after they make the purchase and your brand identity shapes that impression.  

For instance, when someone mentions M&M’s, you’ll immediately think of those red and yellow button-shaped characters frequently shown in their commercials.

Through their iconic characters and marketing campaigns, M&M’s brand personality presents their product as fun, creative, and witty, plus, it’s something that people can easily relate with. 

There are plenty of ways to put a “face” to your brand, but one of the best ways to establish your identity is through your logo

If you’re on a tight budget, you can use online logo generators to help design your logo, or you can hire professional designers to do it for you.

Here’s a tip: If you want to tap into the creativity of the people on the internet, you can get your logo through design services such as LogoMyWay Designers.    

Through the service, you can run a logo design contest and select the best design of your choice. 

Your logo is also crucial for your other marketing efforts – such as using it for your ecommerce website and ads – since customers associate it with your brand and products. 

When designed appropriately, your logo can help you leave a good impression on your target audience, build trust with your potential customers, and ultimately lead them to buy. 

3. Create Interactive Content

In today’s digital age, there are many things to consider, such as building an effective business website, your customers’ needs, and the latest trends. 

More and more people prefer using visual mediums to communicate and interact. 

Thus, you need to shift your brand awareness strategies to cater to this kind of customer preference and improve how your customers interact with your brand.    

An excellent strategy to engage your target audience is through interactive content like videos.

With videos, you can create interactive and fun product demos that show your target audiences how to use your products and the benefits they can get.

For example, makeup brand FentyBeauty posts “Tutorial Tuesdays with Rihanna” on their YouTube channel, which shows viewers makeup looks that you can do with their products.

This is a great way to engage your target audience, offer them value that your products can give, and raise your brand awareness by giving them a unique experience with your brand.

Also, through videos, you can convey your message creatively and interactively that help make your target audiences feel like you’re talking to them personally, which helps you build a relationship with them.    

4. Run Social Media Contests

With social media, running a contest to boost your brand visibility can be easier now more than ever. 

Picture this.

You’re scrolling through Instagram to see what your favorite celebrities are up to and suddenly you find a post that asks viewers to “tag a friend” to win a contest. 

That got your attention, right?

From scrolling through your newsfeed, you’re suddenly interested in the brand, what the contest is all about, and what you can win.  

Now imagine applying that same strategy to your target audiences. 

With a social media contest, you can draw your target audience’s attention to your brand without being too promotional.  

It’s also a good marketing tactic because it offers the chance of getting value with the least amount of effort. 

After all, who wouldn’t want to win a contest just by sharing a post and tagging a friend, right?

You can use hashtags like #tagafriend for your social media contests, have the social media influencers your work with share the post, and run your it across your multiple social accounts.

That being said, social media contests can spread like wildfire, which makes them effective marketing tactics for your brand visibility throughout your social media accounts. 

If you want to target specific audiences or know the kind of content that they are looking for, you can use social media monitoring tools to improve your social marketing efforts.

Social media contests are also highly effective at creating user-generated content (UGC) from customers, which holds a lot of marketing power. In one study, consumers say they trust other people’s recommendations more than they believe in curated content by marketers.

That is why UGC is essential for any business’s marketing campaigns. Whenever you promote a new product or seasonal brand custom packaging, generate a buzz around it by organizing a social media contest where customers create content featuring the product.

What’s Next? 

Building your brand awareness for your ecommerce business requires more than just the strategies in this post. 

However, by employing these techniques, you are on the right track to raising your brand visibility, building trust with your target audience, and establishing relationships with your potential customers.

We all know how difficult it is to reset a WordPress database completely. If you are looking for options to instantly reset your WordPress website and are a non-developer who is trying their best to manage their WordPress development, the WP Reset Plugin is your ideal companion. We know that tasks like Debugging, testing and developing often raise the requirement of hiring an experienced developer which might be not feasible or possible at all times. This is where the WP Reset plugin is going to help you out.

The WP Reset plugin is specially designed by developers for the non-developers to help them debug, test, and develop the features of their website. In short, the plugin is pretty helpful for the plugin and theme developers.

The Functions of the WP Reset plugin

The WP Reset plugin is a fast, secure, and premium WordPress development tool. This plugin serves to help you instantly reset your WordPress installation. Once installed, the plugin quickly resets the site’s database to the default installation values. It speeds up testing and debugging by providing a quick way to reset settings and re-test code.

As opposed to the common action where a reset often causes the loss of data which was not intended, the WP Reset plugin has its multiple fail-safe mechanisms in place to protect from this accidental loss of data. Here is a detailed breakdown of what the WP Reset plugin resets and what elements it skips.

• The reset deletes all customizations and content but does not modify any files. 
• The Reset will delete all posts, pages, custom post types, comments, media entries, users
• The Reset deletes all default WP database tables
• The Reset deletes all custom database tables that have the same prefix table prefix as the one defined in wp-config.php and used by default tables
• The Reset does not delete any media files. These media files remain in the wp-uploads folder untouched but will no longer be listed under Media in admin
• The Reset does not fiddle with any files, plugins, themes, uploads 
• The site title, WordPress address, site address, site language, and search engine visibility settings remain
• All the currently logged in users are restored with the current username and password after the reset

Setting up the WP Reset Plugin

Setting up the WP Reset plugin is a very easy process. Here are the directives: 

• Open WordPress admin > Plugins > Click ‘Add New’
• Enter “wp reset” in search and locate the plugin. 
• Click “Install Now”
• Now activate this plugin
• Access WP Reset admin page via the “Tools” menu

You can also upload the WP Reset plugin manually:

• Download the plugin version from downloads.wordpress.org/plugin/wp-reset.latest-stable.zip
• Now you must unzip this and upload to /wp-content/plugins/
• Go to WordPress admin > Plugins > “WP Reset”
• Click “Activate” 
• Open plugin’s admin page located under the Tools menu

Once you are in the zone to reset your WordPress website in an instant, you can click the ‘Reset’ button after setting up this plugin. Once you click on the ‘Reset’ button, the plugin will ask you to confirm the action. You will find the two options; ‘NO’ and ‘UNDO’ button. However, once you click on the ‘Reset’ button, the actual Reset will take place.

Features of the WP Reset Plugin

The WP Reset plugin comes with some great features to help you work with full-fledged features. Let’s check them out.

1. One-Click Site Reset: The plugin makes website resetting such an easy task with its one-click site reset experience. All you need to do is click on the reset button to reset your WordPress website instantly.

2. Post-Reset Setup: The WP Reset plugin remains an absolute favorite for its users because after resetting the database, it reactivates all your themes and plugins.

3. WP-CLI Compatible: If you are someone who is looking to speed up their process, then the WP-CLI support is of great use to you. You can access the WP-CLI commands of the plugin via wp help reset.

4. Database Snapshots: You can employ the database snapshot feature of this WP Reset plugin to save some demo data or custom tables before resetting your site if you would like. You can use snapshots to find out what changes a plugin made to your database. This feature also helps you restore the development environment after testing database related changes.

5. Database Diff Viewer: Using this feature, you can find with one click if any plugin or theme has changed anything with the database. You can find complete information through the visual representation of the data.

6. Selective Reset Tools: The plugin lets you partially reset certain elements such as choosing to reset only transients, plugins, themes, custom DB tables, wp-uploads folder, .htaccess file or your site’s media. You can also delete .htaccess file. If you are looking to edit .htaccess without FTP, you can use the free WP Htaccess Editor plugin.

7. Webhooks Integration: WP Reset is fully integrated with WP Webhooks plugin. The Webhooks plugin lets you connect your WP to any 3rd party systems and enables you to initiate actions both from WPs end.

8. Plugins & Themes Collections: Once you are done with the reset, you can collectively install your favorite plugins & themes using this plugin. Just make sure that you already have a collection of these themes and plugins.

9. Multisite (WP-MU) Support: If you are going to be using this plugin for resetting your multisite, you can carefully do that with the sub-sites.

10. In-house Support: The support facility for this plugin is top-notch. Hence, if you ever get stuck, you will be able to ask your questions and have them resolved.

11. WP Version: The WP Reset plugin also lets you downgrade or upgrade WordPress to the older or a new version with just one click. In this manner, you will be able to test your themes or plugins on various WP versions.

The plugin is also testing a ‘Nuclear Reset’ feature. The onset of this feature will help you delete all files, all custom database entries, and tables. This feature is still under development.

You can download the WP Reset plugin, here.

Every business looking for a top SEO company to improve their rankings should know that just as a good company can make your business thrive, a bad one can make your traffic crash and burn. With so many SEO companies offering their services, choosing the right one can sometimes turn into a real minefield. Fortunately, we’ve compiled a list of tips that will help you navigate it and ensure you always pick the right SEO company for your business.

What to Look for

Many high-quality SEO companies will have similar features that make them stand out from the crowd. These can help you identify when an SEO company is a good match for your business.

They Have Specific Ideas

A good SEO agency will treat the work they do for your business as a partnership. This usually means that they will suggest improvements you can take to increase your ranking, but you will have to be open to suggestions and actually implement these changes.

These suggestions will hopefully come in the form of concrete, fleshed-out ideas. An SEO company will often ask you to add or improve a part of your business website. And if you’ve chosen the right company, following these suggestions will see your organic traffic and ranking increase.

There are a number of things a good SEO company may recommend:

• Opening social media accounts and integrating them into your website
• Adding a blog section
• Adding or altering content on your homepage
• Creating a network of internal linkbacks
• Optimizing the SEO performance of your content
• Improving site speed and performance
• Doing a link audit and removing spam links

They Use Transparent and Proven Methods

The first and most important thing you can ask a prospective SEO company is exactly how they will improve your rankings. Even though you’re basically asking them to describe their whole job, the answer should still clear and concise.

A good SEO company will answer in a way that describes all the things they will do, how and why they will do them, how long it will take, and what results you can realistically expect.

They Deliver Concrete Results for Known Clients

As mentioned above, a good SEO company will be able to show you the results of their work. Even though that work won’t always be amazing (remember, even the best can’t really offer any guarantees), their work should show a clear impact on their clients’ rankings.

Here are some of the things you can expect to see from a good, well-prepared company:

• A list of sites that can add backlinks to your webpage
• An audit of your website with actionable suggestions for improvement
• Recommendations for new content
• Regular reports with clear results of their work

In addition to this, be sure to ask an SEO agency for a list of their previous clients. Although you shouldn’t expect to get their entire contact book, they should be able to name a couple of high-profile clients on the spot.

What to Avoid

Of course, all SEO companies weren’t created equal. Sometimes you’ll run into a company that simply isn’t the right fit for your business. Any of the following points could be a huge red flag and you should avoid a company if you spot them.

They Offer Bought Linkbacks

Touching on what we mentioned earlier, if an SEO company offers a pitch containing a ‘secret method’ they use, you should look for someone else. By now, SEO is mostly a level playing field, where the best practices are widely known and are based on Google’s search algorithm.

Mentioning a secret method is usually just an evasive way of saying the company uses ‘black hat’ methods. These are the methods that go against the Google algorithm’s rules and include things like buying a large number of backlinks. Sure, you may see a temporary increase in traffic, but eventually, Google will catch up to you and your site will get penalized.

Also, Google is under no obligation to regularly report on any changes they make to their search algorithm. This is simply a time-saving measure since they can make as many as two changes per day. Therefore, the SEO company’s ‘secret method’ could very well become obsolete tomorrow.

They Don’t Ask for Your Website Info

Every good SEO company will do their prep work and ask for access to some of the vital information about your website. This info will let them identify strong and weak points and let them for an SEO strategy to increase your rankings.

They will usually ask for things such as the credentials to view or edit your Google Analytics, Google Webmaster Tools, CMS or social media accounts. An SEO company might also ask for a list of target keywords or reports and audits done in the past.

If an SEO company asks you for access to this type of info, it usually means that they’re taking the work they do for you seriously. On the other hand, if a company asks for complete admin access to all your data, logins and reports, beware. They might be trying to trap you by holding your data and credentials hostage in order to keep the contract going in the long term.

They Guarantee Top Results

No SEO company worth their business can guarantee you the top spot on the Google search results page. The ones that do are either flat out lying to you, or are simply exaggerating the fact they can get you on the first page of a Google search.

The Google algorithm is an ever-changing math equation devised by a machine learning AI that analyzes our searching habits. This very fact makes it so no one can guarantee to get you to the top spot of the results page. And if they do, you should give them a wide berth.

Conclusion

Hopefully, the tips above have helped you on your journey to finding that perfect SEO company that will unlock your website’s full potential. If you know any useful tips and tricks we may have missed, please post them in the comments below.

There are numerous features of Instagram coming up over the last few years. One of which is the shoppable posts of the photo-sharing platform, among others. The feature will take your e-commerce business to another level and boost your sales. The shoppable post option helps brands in tagging their products on sale within an Instagram post. It will make the life of online shoppers easy because they can shift from your Instagram post to your e-commerce website’s ‘Add to cart’ section with a few simple clicks. 

According to an article published on https://www.inc.com, big brands like Vogue, GS as well as Elle USA will test the tagging products option in their posts, which can be purchased via Instagram. Read on to learn about the three benefits of shoppable posts for your online store. 

1. Beneficial for small e-commerce businesses

The photo-sharing site will benefit small e-commerce brands if they use one-off and bespoke content. Make sure you post simple but appealing pictures and videos relevant to your business. Your shoppers will love viewing such posts. Apart from photos or videos, interesting or funny captions interacting with your prospects will help you grow your e-commerce business. The use of apt and related hashtags that your customers use will boost engagement level for your e-commerce business. Use not more than 4-5 hashtags! It will help in growing your community and once you realize your business objectives, including a couple of shoppable posts into your feed. It will result in a better fan following and leads. Besides, you can gain накрутитьлайки в инстаграм. What more do you want? 

2. Improves your storytelling abilities 

Shoppable posts will boost your sales, especially if you are into the beauty, food, furniture, art, crafts, and décor business. Spend some time creating attractive Instagram posts related to a context that will enhance your natural storytelling cachet. Moreover, the story will make sense to your targeted audience. You need to build a narrative with your Instagram shoppable posts. All you need to do is collect products you want to sell, brainstorm ideas, and create a narrative theme for your shoppable posts. 

Weaving a good story will drive user engagement, thus piquing consumer interest to shop for your products. 

3. Positive impact on your audience 

Instagram’s new shoppable posts feature will help you outshine your competitors in the e-commerce landscape provided you know the rules of the game. Then, determine what your potential customers want from your e-commerce website. Reap the benefits out of Instagram Stories in a creative way to produce a positive impact on your current and potential customers. Consult with micro-influencers, test with video content, including a couple of vertical video content. 

Try testing every Instagram feature to help you to expand your e-commerce business and improve the bottom line. The top brands are doing it and so can you. It will take some of your time and effort to see positive results. 

Conclusion 

Shoppable Instagram posts are the best that can happen to any e-commerce business, small or big. Make the most of this new feature to generate leads and turn them into your loyal customers. 

Author Bio

Ariya Stark is the owner of a fashion brand, and she has admitted to using her social media profiles for gaining website traffic. She also visits накрутитьлайки в инстаграм for getting more likes on her posts.

Ecommerce is one of the most revolutionary transformations ushered on the internet. It has streamlined the virtual exchange of goods and services across different industries globally. Because of its capacity to streamline business processes, many established and budding entrepreneurs have shifted the majority of their transactions online.

However, given the volume of ecommerce websites in the market today, it’s crucial for you to develop an effective marketing strategy to stay top-of-mind with both existing and prospective clients. If designed correctly and with the help of the right ecommerce marketing agency, such an initiative will help you optimize your advertising and sales process.

In this article, let’s learn surefire tips on creating a marketing strategy for your ecommerce business.

Sign Up for a Google+ MyBusiness Profile

One of the primary ways to establish a web presence for your ecommerce business is Google’s My Business Profile. It’s the internet giant’s free web platform that streamlines the dissemination of information between business owners and their customers. It provides an outline of your business right when people are searching for you on Search or Maps. Among the critical information your customers can access instantly are the product’s price, reviews, and location if you have a brick-and-mortar counterpart for your online business.

Google prioritizes listings uploaded on Google+ My Business Pages in local searches. Thus, optimizing your profile will help boost your local search results ranking.

Here are other vital ways of how this platform can help you enhance your marketing strategy:

• Having a Google+ My Business Profile increases your chances of getting into Google’s most sought-after local three-pack. These are the search results that appear even before the organic results, thus increasing web clicks for your business.
• Aside from having a fuss-free platform on top of your website, you also get to enjoy creating content in the form of texts, photos, and videos. It also has an Insights feature that’ll allow you to track your customers’ essential site activities, such as inquiries, calls, or web visits.
• Since Google runs multiple verification steps before allowing businesses to get listed for local searches, potential customers can make sure that your company is trustworthy.

Educate Customers with Useful Blog Content

Content is king when it comes to ecommerce marketing. However, in a data-saturated marketplace, you need to ensure that the content you put out adds value to the lives of your potential and existing customers.

With thousands of blog posts being published and circulated online daily, how do you intend to win the hearts of your target audience?

• Showcase your expertise in the industry by creating content that’ll help your audience make informed decisions. Remember to write for humans and not merely for keyword ranking.

For example, if you’re running a clothing website, outline tips that’ll help users find the right fit and style for their budget. Don’t make it sound like your shoving down the products you sell to your customers’ throats. Ensure that your brand voice remains friendly and reliable, not intrusive. You can also publish easy-to-follow hacks that’ll guide your customers, or inspire them to produce some organic user-generated content.

• Play with relevant visuals. Given a person’s diminishing online attention span, it’s essential to capture your audience’s attention through compelling visuals. Whether you’re into B2B (Business-to-Business) or B2C (Business-to-Customer) business, you can bank on appealing and useful infographics to simplify complex topics relevant to your brand. With the right ratio of text, image, or moving graphics, you can establish brand authority across different market segments.
• Remember to write blogs with high EAT (Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness). These three principles are significant benchmarks by Google’s content raters, as indicated in their Quality Rater’s Guidelines.

Reach Out to Relevant Online Influencers

Suppose you already have the right product and service, a functioning website, and a smooth distribution channel. How can you then outshine competitors who promise the same marketing offerings as you?

• Although in-house content marketing for your ecommerce business is a good step towards attracting quality leads, it’s also essential to enhance your content distribution channel to achieve maximum exposure.
• Today, people hold in high regard online influencers’ reviews on specific products and services before making a purchase. Many people, especially the millennial market, find their candid first-hand experience reliable and value-rich as opposed to the outbound content most brands distribute.
• With the level of influence these so-called “everyday experts” have over your potential buyers, it’ll undoubtedly play to your advantage if you consider tapping them to create and publish content for your product or service.
• Look for online influencers that’ll best represent your brand. As a rule of thumb, remember not to rely on the number of their following alone. Instead, choose an influencer that you think will generate quality engagement for your product or service.

In a Nutshell

When finding ways to create an ecommerce marketing strategy, remember not just to sell but add value to your customers’ overall experience. Kick-start your campaigns with concrete, realistic, and measurable marketing plans today. Define your goals and develop tactics that’ll help you achieve it!

 

There is no denying that the Internet has made doing business easier, more convenient, and faster. However, the sad fact is that while you also want to ensure that all that speed and convenience also comes with safety and security issues. There are so many websites that are scams, fraudulent, or fake. The ease and speed of the Internet has given rise to so many cybercrimes that it has ballooned into a $1.5 trillion (yes, with a “T”) industry.

There are many types of cybercrimes, such as third-party content injection (where external parties can “inject” content into your system where you connect to unsecured WiFi connections), fraud ($40 brand new iPad anyone?), or most commonly, phishing.

 

What is Phishing, exactly?

Phishing is a type of cybercrime where a scammer will try to gain your sensitive information, particularly financial information, by providing false pretenses. There are various methods of phishing, such as sending out fake emails about your bank account getting hacked, or websites asking you to “validate” your account. Usually these messages have a link attached that will lead you to another website where you will enter your financial information, thus making it available to the scammer. These messages will often appear as legitimate emails from banks, online payment portals, or other financial companies, luring you into a false sense of security.

When you try to buy checks online, you are a prime target for these scammers because you will need to provide your financial information in order to complete the ordering process!

How Can I Protect Myself?

While there is no 100% guaranteed method of protecting yourself from scammers online, there are ways to avoid websites that can make you a more vulnerable target. Here are some tell-tale signs that you can look out for, and if you see even one of them, you should immediately close that window.

1.     The URL is your first clue

You might think that a suspicious URL would be a dead giveaway, but you would be shocked how many people don’t take the time to actually check the address bar when they visit various websites. Trusted and reliable websites will have a URL that begins with “https://” and there is a small padlock icon on the right side of the address bar. Google will even do a lot of the work for you; if the site is safe and trusted, it will highlight the URL in green. If there is something suspicious about the URL, it highlights the whole address bar in red and you might even get a warning message!

There’s even a concept called “The Line of Death”, which is an idea that an Internet user should not trust anything below a certain point on your browser, as it is easy for a scammer to make the website appear legitimate. In the case of websites where you will give sensitive financial information, the “Line of Death” is as early as the address bar.

2.     Trust seals should be available

Many companies that handle sensitive financial information for their clients will go out of their way to show that they invest in their security protocols, so you will most likely find trust seals on top of their website. These can include logos from trusted anti-virus companies such as McAfee or Norton, or even an accreditation from the Better Business Bureau. However, it is also quite easy to just copy-paste these seals into a website’s layout, so make sure to click on these seals to see if they are legitimate.

3.     The content CAN be a red flag

In the past, it was quite easy to spot a website that was fraudulent. These websites often used stock images, the layout was cheap, and the grammar of the content was horrible. These days, however, scammers have gotten more sophisticated, and you can find fraudulent websites that are difficult to distinguish from the real thing at a glance. If you are in doubt (some websites do use generic images and content while still being actual businesses), try looking for other details such as a physical address for the business, contact numbers, a policy page, or customer reviews. Most scam websites won’t go as far these details because they simply won’t have the time, manpower, or resources to create such a detailed scam website. They want to be able to scam as many people as possible in the shortest amount of time, so they go for quantity over quality.

4.     Google can be your best friend

Google can be a useful, if not completely foolproof, tool in determining if a website is legitimate or not. You can use their Google Safe Browsing Transparency feature. Simply copy-paste the URL of the website in question, and Google will give you an idea whether or not you can trust a website. However, the simplest way is still the most basic way: if in doubt, just close your browser and look for another website.