Friday, February 27, 2015

Living with Kids and Pets: Keeping a Clean Home

Pets are part of the family. They provide joy after a long, tiring day at work, guard your home from intruders and always make playtime an extra fun time for the kids. But pets can pass on infections and diseases to the family, especially kids. If you have a pet at home, make sure that they are clean and healthy so that your kids are safe from illnesses.

Practise Hygiene

It’s important that you keep your pets clean and well groomed. This is not just to keep the family from catching diseases and infections, but also to ensure that your pet enjoys good health. Wash them with hypoallergenic pet cleaning products regularly so they will not have the odour and skin problems. Schedule a day of grooming and stick to it. If you have a dog, experts generally recommend that you bathe your dogs once a month. Consult a veterinarian, though, if you have dogs that have skin problems.

Part of the pet’s hygiene is frequent nail trimming. If your pet has long nails, your kids may be scratched and wounded. Take your pets to a groomer and have their nails trimmed to ensure the safety of the kids.

Infections from Pets

Pets carry germs and bacteria that can be caught by your kids when they play with them. Dogs and cats may carry roundworms and if ingested, they can impair body organs. When your child touches your pet or helps in cleaning the litter box, tell them to wash their hands after. Toxoplasmosis is an infection, caused by a parasite that may come from getting in contact with infected cat faeces.

Teach Children 

If your kids are still toddlers, it’s better to keep an eye on them when they play with the pets. Remind them as well to wash their hands after touching your dog or cat. Teach them how to care for animals by involving them in washing and cleaning your pets.

Having a pet doesn’t have to mean a cluttered and chaotic home. Practice good hygiene habits on the pets and teach them discipline. Your kids will see what you’re doing and they will learn from you. With this, you can have a clean home, healthy pets and caring kids.

Friday, January 9, 2015

Beyond Google: Why Other Search Engines are also Important

For companies that are keen on developing a strong online presence, search engine optimisation is not optional. While ‘search engine’ is a collective term for dozens, or even hundreds of others, the first site that comes to mind is Google, with Yahoo and Bing coming as a distant second.

This now begs the question: is it important to optimise for these other sites or just stick to requesting for Google marketing services?

The easy answer would be to optimise your online channels to rank at the top of these search engines. Given the difference between these engines, however, you might encounter contradictory techniques to rank on one or the other. For most people, the solution is simple. Do whatever it takes to make Google happy.

Of course, this is not a universal solution

A fair amount of market research still needs to be done. Google may have the majority, but certain places may prefer one engine over the other. This is especially crucial for small businesses employing local SEO techniques. To optimise your website for Google when Bing is the most popular engine in your area limits you from reaping the maximum profits of this technique.

While you can concentrate your efforts on marketing strategies to rank on a specific search engine, authentic and excellent content remains the most important strategy of all. Only high quality content will keep visitors on your website, hopefully long enough to retain your services or purchase your product.

All optimisation efforts should revolve around the visitors and to make them happy. Optimising for search engines, even Google, should only be secondary to the satisfaction of your future patrons.

Successful marketing strategies always involve a well-rounded scheme. Don’t put all your eggs in one basket, as they say. If you’re going to invest in SEO, invest in other methods of advertisement and PR as well.