Cooking Up Easier PCI Compliance with National Restaurant Association and ANX eBusiness

Posted on May 21, 2013 by Pamela O'Connor

At the National Restaurant Association (NRA) tradeshow that kicked off this weekend and runs through today, the NRA, EarthLink and ANX eBusiness announced an exciting new relationship designed to make it easier for restaurateurs to meet Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) requirements. The PCI Compliance solutions offered by EarthLink and ANX provide a single trusted source for the IT and communication services they need to effectively run their restaurant and point-of-sale systems while safeguarding customer data. Working with the NRA as the exclusive PCI compliance and secure connectivity solution for their members, EarthLink and ANX will actively market the offering to NRA members, including via email campaigns, educational webinars and blog posts, networking events, and participation in NRA’s educational programs council. Click here to read the press release. EarthLink also exhibited at the event, and the team met with many prospective new customers. Restaurateurs are an increasingly important focus for EarthLink’s retail sector, as our solutions are an ideal fit for multi-site, distributed enterprises.

L. to R: Chad Leedy, ANX; and Chicago-based EarthLinkers Chris Johnson and Amos Biggers..

Restaurants continue to be a primary target for hackers, with the vast majority of data breaches occurring at small operations. Restaurants are targeted for a number of reasons, including outdated Point of Sale systems, operating systems, and security, and because they lack the time and resources to effectively manage security and achieve PCI compliance.

“We are excited about our relationship with the National Restaurant Association, because for the first time their members will have access to simple, affordable, and comprehensive PCI compliance solutions from a trusted source,” said Greg Griffiths, Vice President of Retail Solutions at EarthLink Business. “Together we can strengthen data security, for NRA members, their customers, and for the restaurant industry as a whole.”

Watch for more news and views from EarthLinkers at the NRA show in coming posts!

Using EasySiteOptimizer Pro for Website SEO – Code Validation

Posted on May 20, 2013 by Tom Sullivan

A few months ago in our SEO Basics post, we showed you how to use EasySiteOptimizer Pro – which is free for all EarthLink Web Hosting and Ecommerce Hosting customers – for on-page keyword SEO optimization of your website.

But that’s not all you can do with EasySiteOptimizer Pro. Today we’ll show how to use the Code Validation features to help you improve your website’s search engine rankings.

So let’s get started…

Sign into your Web Hosting Control Center at with your EarthLink Web Hosting domain name, username, and password.
On the Build tab, click the EasySiteOptimizer button.
From the Main Menu window, click the Optimization link. You’ll see an overview of your most recent optimizations, an optimization statistics graph, and page quality rankings (as shown in the screenshot above).
Click the Code Validation link in the left-side navigation or the button at the bottom of the page. Code validation is to identify common errors on your site that can negatively impact your search engine rankings.
Click the checkbox next to the page that you want to optimize and then click the Begin Code Validation button.
On the Code Validation page, you’ll see a list of Notes on the left (Errors, Ignored Errors, Fixed Errors, and Notices). Click on any of the notes or errors to see a description of the problem and solution. For example, it may say that you are missing ALT tags for images, that you have a low density of keywords in a tag, that your page Title is too short or lacking keyword density, that you are lacking enough body copy, that you are missing one or more META tag (such as description or keywords).
For some problems, such as keyword issues, you’ll have a link to click on to go and fix the problem. For others, such as Title problems, you’ll have an opportunity to correct the problem on the Code Validation page and then click the Fix button. Others, such as increasing the amount of body copy on your page, may require you to go back to the EasySiteWizard Pro tool (also within the Build section of your Control Center) to make substantial changes to your page.
When you have finished fixing the code validation issues, click the Done button.

After you are finished validating your code and fixing problems, you may want to move on to the next step within the Optimization tab of EasySiteOptimizer: creating or updating your sitmap and submitting it to search engines. We’ll cover that in an upcoming post.

For more help with SEO problems that turn up in your Code Validation steps above, see our previous post about how to use keywords for website SEO (this includes help with Title and META tags).

Hosted Voice Services – Be Heard

Posted on May 17, 2013 by Scott Yelton

It is impossible to duplicate the power of the human voice via text, email or online chat,and many experienced salespeople swear by the strength of closing a deal (or answering questions) over the phone.

At EarthLink Business we know the value of the human voice and we place a high value on delivery of high quality voice transmission over our nationwide IP network. Whether your business requires Hosted Voice services and mobile devices, or relies on traditional telephony communications EarthLink has a full voice product suite delivered with quality of service second to none. So if you want your voice to be heard loud, crisp and clear reach out to an EarthLink Business representative today.

Google Announcing New Products at I/O Conference

Posted on May 16, 2013 by Tom Sullivan

The biggest Internet news of the week is coming from Google, which just yesterday kicked off its 6^th annual Google I/O developer conference.

The conference, which over 6,000 developers are attending at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, is still going on right now and will conclude tomorrow. But there has been quite a lot of buzz about what Google has already announced.

Here’s a rundown of the biggest announcements from the Google I/O developer conference so far:

Google Play Music All Access: This is a new, unlimited streaming music/Internet radio subscription service. It offers access to millions of tracks, playlists and suggestions based on music you already own and like, and let you customize a streaming radio station based on specific songs or artists (a la Pandora). You can stream music on Web or Android phones and tablets. The service will cost $9.99 a month, but if you sign up for a free 30-day trial before June 30^th, you’ll pay only $7.99 a month. CNET has a review of the new All Access service. Or visit Google Play Music.

Google Play social gaming: Google is launching a new platform that will allow game developers to build in more social gaming aspects as well as take advantage of Google’s cloud storage capabilities, so you could play and pause a game on Android devices, iOS decices, PCs or Macs. See the Wall Street Journal for a review.

Google Maps: The popular map and direction service has been totally rebuilt. The next generation of Google Maps offers a more full-screen, less cluttered view with a search box built into the map itself. You’ll get a lot more options with your map searches: more local points of interest, more business information, street view and satellite imagery options, photo tours, and more. You’ll likewise get more options for directions: car, public transportation, walking, biking, flying. The new maps is available for the Web, on Android devices, or iPhone. Google has a preview of the new Maps and links to downloads here.

Google Search: Google previewed its work on conversational search. When it launches, you’ll be able to say “OK, Google, will it be raining this weekend in Central Park?” and get your answer spoken back to you. You can then ask follow-up questions. Google also announced improvements to its Knowledge Graph, to answer factual questions more precisely and fully. And Google Now updates offer reminders based on time and your current location. See Google’s Inside Search blog for more details.

Google Hangouts: Google launched a new Hangouts chat, video chat and unified messaging app that works across platforms. You can use it to text, send photos, or have a group video conference; SMS integration is reportedly coming soon (but not for iOS). The new Hangouts replaces Google Talk and G+ Messenger. It’s now available on Android, iOS, Chrome and Gmail. Read a review of Hangouts on Techcrunch.

Google+: The social network site has been redesigned to work better across platforms (Web and mobile devices). Google+ Photos also features a number of important updates: Auto Backup, Auto Highlight, Auto Enhance, and the more-awesomely named Auto Awesome. Google has an overview of G+ changes here.

That’s not all. Watch for more updates on Google’s Official Blog.

You can also keep up-to-the-minute on Google announcements and even watch live streaming video of the ongoing developers conference here.