One of the biggest shifts in business has been the move towards a managed service provider. An MSP is a company that is hired on to remotely monitor a business’s IT infrastructure and to often manage other aspects of their online presence. Though most companies large and small do have their own IT departments, the benefits of hiring a managed service provider has caused the industry to grow by hundreds of billions of dollars. If you own or run a business, consider the services that could be offered through an MSP that might help your business to grow!

Improves In-House IT Services in Austin

The majority of companies that work with managed service providers are not doing so to replace their own IT operations, but instead they are reinforcing it. Typically, the work of the MSP allows the in-house IT operations to focus more on the creative and strategic projects that pertain to the growth of that business specifically. Most IT operations for small to mid-sized businesses often fall on just one or two people, causing them to often be overwhelmed with keeping up with the basic maintenance needed to keep a modern day business afloat and secure. By outsourcing this role, your IT department is able to focus on what really matters for the growth of your company.

Maximize IT Budget

Hiring a managed service provider is one of those investments that you very quickly see the financial benefits from. Even compared to hiring more IT personal alone, a basic MSP package is likely already a more affordable option when you take into account salary, workspace, and benefits. When you start factoring in the various equipment and programs needed to adequately manage the ever changing technology for your company, the weight of the IT budget often starts to become a problem for many companies. This is one of the reasons why many IT departments are so burdened and overwhelmed. By bringing on a managed service provider, you are not only giving some relief to your current IT operations, but you are able to redistribute part of that initial IT budget to other aspects of your business!

Maximize Security

Technology is a beautiful beast that has allowed for so much growth for businesses, but it is still a beast nonetheless. Often times, once you start experiencing the symptoms of a system vulnerability on the user end, your IT structure is already in bad shape. One of the major benefits of a MSP is the proactive aspect of the security services. Managed service providers take it upon themselves to be aware of the new vulnerabilities and tricks hackers are using to infiltrate your system, and they can often dissolve any detected issues before it has the opportunity to slow down operations for your business. Time is money, and a managed service provider’s goal is to save you and your business both! Also, it’s best not to leave issue like security to amateurs.

Looking for a reliable MSP to provide IT services to your business? Contact tekRESCUE, a technology company offering IT solutions, web design, and SEO in Austin, TX, to learn how to take your business to the next level.

UPDATED: 5-6-2020 to reflect changes in the Industry.

Managed Service Providers are Optimization and Stability Champions

There are myriad reasons to use a managed service provider “MSP” in your business but the most important reasons center around optimization and stability over the long term. With an MSP, you can avoid costly down time and make sure your business is running smoothly to ultimately make productivity gains. Driving efficiency and standardization in your business is the key benefit of using an MSP. A system failure that causes a work stoppage for any period of time can cost your business immensely. MSP operators have thoroughly tested their systems with the latest and greatest technology to make your operation runs seamlessly without you having to worry about maintaining stability. That does not mean MSP’s are infallible however. As issues inevitably do come up your MSP will work quickly to resolve them in a fashion that minimizes downtime. Their proactive approach behind the scenes will help on a day to day basis, but when there are problems, you will see them swing into action at a moments notice no matter what time of day.

Cost Efficiency Catalysts

There is a perception in the industry that MSP’s are cost prohibitive. There are some exorbitant providers that are only looking for short-term profits but the majority of MSP’s will allow you to structure a long term contract that will make your operation running smoothly at a rate that is affordable on a monthly basis. This cost then needs to be weighed against your existing budget to see if there are actually synergies that allow other costs to be taken out of the business. As your business grows it becomes much more difficult to manage the pace of innovation and change if you don’t have subject matter experts in house without an MSP. With an MSP you have the luxury of being able to change and mold your use of it to fit your evolving needs as a business.

Security Specialists

Another very important reason to leverage a MSP is the increased security that they bring to your business in a plethora of ways that are both preventive and proactive. Cyber attacks have increased precipitously in recent years and businesses of all sizes are big targets because of the large number of system related vulnerabilities that can be taken advantage of if you don’t have experts working on your behalf to protect you from intelligent but nefarious outside hackers. This is MSP’s have dedicated professionals in technology and security that know the latest threats and how to go about thwarting potential attacks or and least defending your business from unwelcome hackers. They also use the most sophisticated security software to safeguard your data.

Lastly, one of the best things that an MSP can bring you is a good night’s sleep because you can rest assured that you have someone watching over your business and making sure that it stays safe in a dangerous world. MSP’s are partners with you for the long-term that will bring you peace of mind.

Need Managed IT Services Near Austin TX?

Consider the experts at tekRESCUE. As a San Marcos TX managed IT service provider, our team is just down the road from Austin TX. This means we can have a technician on-site at your business in a matter of minutes to set up or troubleshoot equipment. And with our team’s experience working as an Austin SEO company, we’re very familiar and confident working in the ATX market. Contact us today if you’re interested in using tekRESCUE to manage your IT infrastructure.

If you have a business, your number one priority beyond monetary gain is probably going to be growth. There are so many practices that can help you gain recognition in your community, and the rise of the internet has created a whole other realm to conquer when it comes to business strategy. While there was a time that having a great service or product was all you needed to be successful, now a days you have to be intentional with your online presence. One of the most crucial ways you can keep your business at the top of the competitive food chain is by constantly fine tuning your SEO (search engine optimization). If you have a business but are not familiar with optimizing google friendly content for your website, we would love to help get you started with this abridged guide to your SEO. 

What is SEO?

When you type something into the search bar of any search engine like google, in a matter of seconds there are pages and pages of resources for you to click through. The order in which that content is displayed has to do with the relevance and how the content for each of those websites or links is rated. This is SEO. Your goal, as a business, is to be sure that your page pops up on the first search results page and as close to the top as possible. The statistics for where your weblink falls on the google search page and how many clicks it will get are staggering! According to DataBox, there are well over 6 billion daily google searches, and 67% of all clicks following that google search goes to the top 5 search results. Meaning, mastering SEO will mean more traffic for your website as people search for content related to your goods or services, and more online traffic means more business for you!

High Quality Content

When it comes to the content that is shared on your website, it should meet a couple of parameters in order to boost your SEO. Whether this is in the form of regular blog posts, web page content, social media posts, or any other form of writing done for your business site, the information needs to be engaging and relevant. “High quality” does not just apply to writing error free content (which should go without stating), but your posts should be both useful and entertaining and the type of content that others want to read and hopefully share!

Choosing Keywords

When you are writing content for your website, one of the most important aspects you need to lead with is the keywords you use. Planning this prior to writing the content is recommended. Consider what keywords are most associated with the topic and utilize those as much as possible. Knowing the right keywords will likely require you to know the market well and what others in the industry are posting. Your keywords should be chosen based on what people are actively searching for, so catering your posts to the latest trends is highly recommended. If you aren’t sure how to get started on strategic keyword usage, don’t fret! There are dozens of online databases that you can use, like Word Tracker, to help. Not only does this assist you in carefully choosing keywords, but this is also market research that is invaluable to you as a business owner. By choosing your posts based on need and then stacking those relevant posts with the right keywords, you are likely to boost your SEO rating so that more people visit you website, read your content, and subscribe to your services!

Capitalize on Images

We live in a visually driven society, and your online presence is no different! If you are already using images in your content, great! Keep it up! If you aren’t, you should start immediately. If you fall into the camp of people who have been using images regularly in the content that you are posting, be sure to follow some of these basic guidelines in optimizing them, because, yes, refining what you are doing to make it better is what business is all about!

Size and placement – The file size for the photos you use is very important for your SEO ranking mostly because this affects load time. If your photo size is too big and it slows down your page being loaded, this will greatly affect the traffic on your page. 

Title and caption – Giving the photos used for your content a little caption along with a solid title really helps to optimize the image, and in turn, the entire post. Be very intentional with this caption by utilizing the keywords related to it while still remaining very brief in the overall description. 

File name – Be sure that the image is saved with a strategic file name utilizing those relevant keywords. So, instead of a series of numbers and letters that many JPEG files comes standard as, name the photo something related to the content. Your intentionality for the sake of your SEO will do wonders even in these small details!

Make Your Content Shareable 

Now that you have created a well thought out, strategic, and visibly pleasing content, you will want to make it easy for viewers to share it with their followers. One of the most beautiful (and sometimes painful) aspects of social media is how easy and fast information can be spread. With just the push of a button, your content can be shared and made available to a whole new pool of potential clients/followers/subscribers for them to click on, and clicks in the digital world are like gold. There are several resources, like Simple Sharing Buttons, where you can make custom “share” buttons to post to the many popular social media sites. 

When it comes to your business, your online representation and SEO matters a great deal in terms of success. We, at tekRescue, pride ourselves on taking your online presence to the next level while putting the highest priority on network safety. If you are looking to take your business to the next level, consider letting us take care of your cyber presence so that you can focus on the big picture, creative aspects of business that you love!