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When [Delete] Really Doesn't....

Tossing out that old MicroSD card from your phone? Selling your old laptop but you're just positive you deleted all your personal photos and videos? Might want to press [Pause] on your plans for a moment. Here's why:

Can you honestly say you've never done it? Really? You've never stepped out of the shower and thought, "I look rather good at the moment....", grabbed your cellphone and *click*...captured that moment for yourself (or, perhaps, for a loved one)?

It's okay to admit it, even if only to yourself. But what happens when you hit that shutter release on your camera, cellphone, or built-in laptop cam? Where is that data stored? More to the point of this article, what happens when you think, "Nah...maybe I don't look so great, after all.", and hit the [Delete] button? That's the end of it, right? Well...unfortunately for you, no. And, in this age of instant over-sharing, more and more people - predominantly women and young ladies - are finding this out the hard way when they wake up one morning and find their private pictures being shared online.

When data is created and stored on a drive, the operating system automatically maps a path to that file. After all, you have to be able to tell the computer where to physically retrieve that data from the storage device when you click on the icon, right? An entry is made in the system's registry and the file is listed in something called the Master File Table. Conversely, when you decide you want to delete a file, the computer basically wipes away the path to that file. Mark that wording: It deletes the PATH to the file, NOT the file, itself. The file remains in the same place it was created but the file's spot in that Master File Table is now marked as "re-usable". This means that, as more data is added to the storage device, there's a good chance that, at some point, that section of the storage device will be over-written.

Take note of those caveats: "good chance" and "at some point". The overwrite process is not instantaneous. Nor is it even guaranteed on a large storage device where it's likely a user will not even fill up half of the device's capacity. It can take quite a bit of time and, sometimes, several actual overwrites of that storage sector - particularly if the file you "deleted" has been stored for a while. We won't get into all the technical reasons why this is the case, here. It has to do with file indices, registry entries, master file table allocations, etc....Suffice it to say that the lovely image of you in all your birthday suit glory does not, in fact, disappear into history just because you pressed [Delete].

So how do you and your friendly-unmentionables become fodder for unwanted internet attention? Free and user-friendly software such as Recuva is available that, once installed and ran, can scan a storage device's data, locate files that are still intact - just no longer mapped to the user interface area - and recover those files for easy access. Once that process is done, the original files can be used just as easily as any other file. They can be recovered to any drive or storage device and, more concerning, they can be shared online.

On the other hand, such recovery software can also be quite useful when catastrophe strikes. When your cat finds your keyboard nice and warm and accidentally deletes those work reports you've spent days compiling. Or when you break up with your loved one and delete all your cute vacation selfies only to get back together the next day and realize you behaved rashly. These are the kinds of reasons such software was created. However, like all good things, there is always a shadow on the sunniest days. So be careful. When you're absolutely certain you want to delete data, use a secure deletion tool (a simple Google search will provide you with dozens of great software products for this), and educate your loved ones on this important topic before they simply toss out or give away their data storage devices.

Is Your Business Rockin' Google's Search Results?

With all the focus put into SEO these days, one of the expectations is that a properly-managed SEO campaign will automatically take care of your actual presence within the search results (i.e. how dynamic those results are). Unfortunately, however, this is not an assumption any business owner should make lightly and there is still some back-end work you should be doing to give your customers the most complete information about your business in the most direct way.

Working within Google for this example, let's take a walk through what a customer sees when they search for our business, 603 Media Group:

As you can see above, there are a number of elements that are represented within these results. Each of these elements is controllable and configurable by you and your search engine optimizer.

The first listing you should see when doing a direct search for your business name is your OWN website - not a social media page, referral link site or business listings aggregating site. After all, you don't want a customer to look for your business and then lose that potential conversion to a competitor because the result they click on gave them - ack! - choices....

Underneath your website listing, assuming that your website has been properly coded using the "title" and "description" tags, you will see neatly listed and described summaries of different pages of your site. This is especially useful to potential clients because it allows them the opportunity to jump right to the product or service they are seeking without having to first navigate through your site. Remember, design for quick conversions and short attention spans!

The next thing you want your customers to see is your Google Places information. Now, you're a business owner so, of course, you've already created a Google account, uploaded and updated all of your information, added photos, hours, services offered, etc...right? Right? If not, we would strongly encourage you to talk to your optimizer and get the ball rolling on that.

One of the things that Google has been very clear about this year is the importance of using their social media platform, Google+, if you want to improve your rankings within their search algorithms. Their goal is to seamlessly integrate all of your Google-based activity into one comprehensive user experience. So take advantage of that! In this example, you can see a snippet of the last blog we published and shared on our Google+ account just a few hours before this screenshot was taken. We've accomplished two things with this: Our search results now contain dynamic content that engages our customers before they even leave the results page and we are turning that engagement into increased traffic towards our blog. Win-win!

Finally, the next several results that you want to see under a direct search for your business is as many of your social media channels as possible. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, Flickr, Instagram, etc. With frequent use of your social media channels, you can improve the ranking of content that is directly related to YOU, thereby providing customers with a better and more engaging search experience and hopefully turning those searches into sales.

As you can see, with the right application of time and effort, you can ensure that your customer engagement within Google's search results page is as dynamic as possible. And, if you need a little help...give us a call! It's kinda' what we do.

About the Author: Jeremy Jones is the Senior Marketing Strategist for 603 Media Group. Primarily tasked with the challenges of keeping our small business running, Jeremy also occasionally branches out into public speaking, blogging, website design and raising his ten-year-old son to not be another one of "those damn kids".