The benefits of Google Tasks
Small- to medium-sized business owners or managers deal with many different tasks from day to day. Having to do many things at once can be tough, but Google Tasks can help. This app can make accomplishing everything on your to-do list simple and easy. Here’s a quick look at the benefits of Google Tasks. What is Google Tasks? Google Tasks is a to-do list application that’s linked to your Gmail account and Google Calendar. With Google Tasks, you can create to-do lists for the day, week, month, or year. You can also add notes to provide more detail to each task as well as set reminders so you never miss a deadline. All lists you create are stored in the cloud, ensuring that you can access them on any internet-connected device whenever, wherever. How to use Google Tasks On your PC, you can easily access Google Tasks through your Gmail inbox. When you open Gmail, you’ll see a sidebar on the right. Click on the blue icon with a white diagonal dash at the bottom of the sidebar to launch Google Tasks. To create a new task, simply click Add a task. To edit the details of the task, add a subtask, or set a due date, hover over the task and select Edit (represented by a pencil icon). You can also right-click on the task and select a specific action from the menu. Once you finish a task, hover over the circular icon next to the task. This will transform the circle into a checkmark, and clicking on this will mark the task complete and remove it from your list. If you accidentally strike a task from your list before it’s done, simply click Undo at the bottom of the window. You can also install the Google Tasks app onto your smartphone or tablet so you can check and edit your lists even while on the go. Other useful features These helpful features of Google Tasks will make managing your to-do lists even easier: Create multiple lists. Click on My Tasks at the top of the window to open a dropdown menu. Select Create new list and enter a name for the list. Click Done. Select Add a task to populate your list. Rename lists. Click on More (the icon with three dots) and select Rename list. Change the order of tasks. Click and drag each task up or down the list. Move a task to another list. Right-click on the task and select Move to another list from the menu. Add reminders to Google Tasks from Google Calendar. Copy existing reminders from Google Calendar by clicking More and selecting Copy reminders to Tasks. Sort your to-do lists. You can sort the lists you make either by the order in which you made them or by due date. Click on More, and under the Sort by menu, choose My order or Date. If you would like to learn more about using Google Tasks or any other Google app, reach out to our team of experts today. Published with permission from TechAdvisory.org. Source.
Be more productive with these 5 Gmail hacks
Do you need to reevaluate your approach to email? We’ve collected our favorite productivity hacks for Gmail so you can make email work for you again, freeing up valuable time that you can use for running your business. #1. Customize your email address and harness filters Did you know that Gmail lets you customize your existing email address? Whether you have a regular @gmail.com or @company.com address, you can adjust your username depending on who you are giving it to and what you are likely to receive. For example, if your email address is theboss@company.com, you could give theboss+friends@company.com to friends and use theboss+blog@company.com to invite blog comments. Combine this feature with Gmail’s native filters to label and group messages according to which address they are sent to or from. If you don’t want to see Facebook email notifications, just change your profile to use the email address theboss+spam@company.com and set up a filter to direct those messages to the trash. These compartmentalize your email and let you see what you need to, when you really need to. #2. Create templated responses to save time Do you ever feel like you’re writing the same email over and over? If you pen a fresh reply to each new message, you can save yourself a heap of time by using Gmail’s built-in Canned Responses function. This allows you to store messages that you frequently send so you can reuse them at the touch of a button. Enable Canned Responses from the Advanced tab of the Gmail settings page. Then, when composing a new message, just click the three-dot icon in the bottom right-hand corner of the screen and select Canned Responses. From here, you can use an existing canned response or add a new one. Then just hit Send. #3. Schedule emails and reminders You can set your emails to be delivered at a specific time and date. After you have typed your message, click on the down arrow button beside the Send button. Click Schedule send to open a pop-up where you can find options to send your email the next day, on the afternoon of the same day, and the next week. You can also pick a specific time and date by clicking on Pick time & date. Once you’ve set your desired schedule, click on Schedule send. Gmail will send your emails even when you are away from your desk. You may also use this feature to send emails to yourself as reminders for tasks or events. #4. Quick question? Chat instead Don’t underestimate the value of Gmail’s chat system, Hangouts. You can avoid a lot of tedious back-and-forth between recipients by penning a brief chat message when all you need to do is ask a short question. In most cases, you’ll also get a response much quicker by sending a chat rather than an email. And best of all, Hangouts conversations aren’t limited to just two people. Open a chat with one colleague and then click the + icon beneath their name. You’ll see a list of contacts that you can add to the conversation. #5. Treat your email like a relay race Of course, the best way to spend less time writing emails is to simply set limits. Mail Timer is a nifty add-on that allows you to set yourself a maximum amount of time — say two minutes — to respond to each email. Once your time is up, a pop-up message will encourage you to continue to your next message. Mail Timer is a great way to get into the habit of swiftly clearing out messages that only need a brief reply. You can use Gmail’s Snooze feature to remove emails from your inbox until a later date or time. If you’d like to learn more about using Gmail or any other Google app, please get in touch with us today. Published with permission from TechAdvisory.org. Source.
Site engagement: Why you should measure it
Is your site getting a large amount of traffic, but you’re not seeing a product or service sales boost? Many small business owners face this dilemma at one time or another. The fact is that a large number of visitors doesn’t necessarily translate into engaged customers. A crucial metric that you should look into is engagement. Here’s how Google Analytics can help. How do you measure engagement? Just because a page receives a large amount of traffic doesn’t mean it has quality content. Half of the visitors to your most trafficked blog post or service page can easily bounce within seconds. Find out which pages your customers like by measuring engagement. And the easiest way to do that is by looking at the amount of time a visitor spends on a page. Generally speaking, if a visitor is on a page for five minutes or more, they’re likely reading, watching, or listening to some form of content you posted. Of course, it’s also possible that they took a bathroom break after landing on your page or forgot to close it and continued surfing the web in another window. But if a consistent number of visitors are spending several minutes on a given page, it’s likely that most of them are engaging with the content. Why does engagement matter? Simple: The more your visitors engage with your content, the more likely they’ll visit your website again or — even better — become a loyal customer. You can measure engagement by following these four steps in Google Analytics: 1. Track engagement over a long period of time We’re not just talking a month or two, but years. This will show you which pages are performing best in the long run. To do this, open Google Analytics. In the top right corner of the screen, input your date range then click Apply. 2. Measure all pages You need to look at time spent on all your pages to see what’s performing best. In the navigation bar to the left of your screen, click on Behavior > Site Content > All Pages. 3. Compare the average time visitors spend on a page To do this, click on Behavior > Site Content > Content Drilldown. Under the main graph that displays visitor numbers to your site, you’ll see a search box with the word “advanced” next to it. To its right, you’ll see five buttons. Click on the second button from the right — the Comparison button. To be sure you’re clicking on the correct one, hover your mouse over it to see if the word “comparison” will pop up. Slightly below the Comparison button and to the left, choose “Average time on page” as your secondary metric. 4. Mind the green bars After you’ve followed the above steps, green bars will appear to the right of some of the pages displayed. The higher the bar, the greater amount of time a visitor is spending on a page. With this data at your disposal, you can now understand what content your customers find valuable — and then focus on enhancing or creating more of it. Want to know more about how to gain valuable insights from your business data? Give us a call today. Published with permission from TechAdvisory.org. Source.
Why Google now prioritizes mobile searches
Google recently made changes to its search tools to prioritize mobile searches over web searches. Why has Google done this and what does this mean for businesses and users? Get the answers by reading on. Google search works by using ‘bots.’ These bots are responsible for trawling through the web and sorting and categorizing websites based on the content, location, and other factors associated with the site to give users the most relevant search results. Google has long used the same algorithms and search tools for all search platforms. However, the newest Google search updates will move in a new direction. A mobile-only search index — available only to users accessing Google search from mobile devices — will be the primary search index. Essentially, this means that mobile users and web users will get different search results even if they input the same search terms. Mobile users will have better filtered, more updated, and more relevant search results than desktop users. The primary reason for this change is simple. Google has found that the majority of searches are now performed on mobile devices. The company is merely catering to the bigger user base by making their user experience on smartphones and tablets as responsive as possible. Another thing that led to the mobile-first priority is the context of people’s searches. People on mobile devices often look for quick information about business hours, addresses, or the weather, or for immediate answers to whatever questions they might have. Google wants to ensure that these users get what they need when they need it. What does this mobile-first search tool mean for your business? A lot. With this new algorithm, Google will prioritize websites that have responsive designs, and will put those sites on top of the search results page. If your business’s website isn’t responsive — if it doesn’t change depending on the size of the screen — Google will assume that it has low relevance to mobile users. Your site might land on page 82 of search results, leaving you with no clicks and no potential customers. But it’s not enough that your business’s site is responsive. Google also takes into consideration a website’s ease of use when users interact with it. As such, you must make certain processes like user login verification and online payment easier and more efficient via mobile devices. Site speed is another consideration in mobile-first index searches. Your website must load quickly or it will turn away users. And as more users click away from your site, your rank in the search results also goes down. Google has made changes to its search index algorithm — but can your business keep up? To make sure your enterprise is ready for this transition, contact us. Our knowledgeable experts are ready to help with your Google-related needs. Published with permission from TechAdvisory.org. Source.
Gmail strengthens anti-phishing features
Phishing is a social engineering attack that never grows old. In fact, cybercriminals know that it’s still easier to trick people into giving away their personal information or clicking a malicious link than to break through several layers of protection. To help in the continuing fight against phishing, Google has improved Gmail’s anti-phishing security features. Machine learning Google uses machine learning technology to further enhance their email security. Phishing scams usually follow a predictable pattern, so Google experts developed an algorithm that analyzes such patterns and updates Gmail’s security database in real time. When the same phishing attempt is made, Gmail flags and quarantines potentially dangerous messages. According to Google, around 50% of emails sent to Gmail accounts are spam and phishing emails, but with the new detection algorithm, Gmail has achieved 99% accuracy in detecting them. Click-time warnings Google has also added precautions for suspicious links. When Gmail detects an incoming email from untrusted senders containing either encrypted attachments or attachments with scripts, Gmail automatically flashes a warning message. Gmail also identifies and scans links to external images, and prompts a warning if the links come from untrusted domains. Although Gmail does not completely block access to the link (in case of false positives), it advises you to be extremely careful if you do decide to proceed. Or you can choose to quarantine the message or send it to your spam folder. External reply warnings Another enhancement focuses on securing reply messages to prevent employees from falling prey to email spoofing. Spoofing is when a cybercriminal impersonates someone’s email address. Gmail warns users when they are about to send a reply to an address that is not in their contact list or company domain, from an unauthenticated domain, or one that’s similar to an authenticated domain. This improvement prevents users from being fooled into giving away sensitive information to third parties. Every Gmail user can take advantage of these new security controls today, but keep in mind that these can’t replace security awareness. Even Google has emphasized that these Gmail features are complements to existing security systems and best practices. Being able to identify what is or isn’t a scam goes a long way in protecting your business. To find out more about the latest from Google, get in touch with our experts or watch out for more Google-related posts. Published with permission from TechAdvisory.org. Source.
4 Free Google apps you need on your device
Did you know that Google offers more than just Gmail, Maps, and YouTube? A quick browse through Google Play will introduce you to a host of apps that can make your life easier. Window shopping at the Google store, however, means an inundation of productivity-destroying entertainment apps, and you probably have no time to sift through them all. But we do, so make room on your device for these four extremely useful Google tools. Chrome Remote Desktop This cross-platform app gives users a highly reliable level of support. If you need remote assistance, you can grant someone temporary access to your desktop through this app, and revoke it once the issue has been resolved. The app also lets you access your own desktop from any of your mobile devices (smartphone, tablet, Chromebook) so you can work on your files or use programs. Simply install the Google Chrome extension, assign a pin for remote access, and start sharing. Trusted Contacts It’s a dangerous world out there, which is why location-sharing apps such as Trusted Contacts are heaven-sent. With Trusted Contacts, you can request location information from, or share yours with, a contact who’s also using the app. Location sharing has long been part of most apps with a GPS functionality, but what sets Trusted Contacts apart is its ability to send a person’s location even when offline. In instances when a person’s location is requested and there’s no answer within five minutes, the app automatically sends the contact’s last known location. Google Handwriting Input Typing on smartphones isn’t easy for everyone, and that’s why enhancements such as Swype are a welcome feature to touchscreen keyboards. Google Handwriting Input works like Swype, but is more flexible and doesn’t require precise strokes. You can handwrite your IMs and text messages, perform searches, and even create emojis using your finger or a stylus. This app may not seem like much, but it can be quite useful for those who communicate in languages with special characters. Google Trips Organizing business or leisurely travel is taxing and having to use multiple apps just adds to the chaos. Google Trips reduces the hassle by putting all data — such as itinerary, hotel location, available transportation, and other trip-related information — into one app and letting you access it online or offline. It also provides recommendations on popular attractions, day trips, and things to do based on the itineraries and other travel-related information you’ve stored in your Gmail. The answer to some of your business’s most pressing needs may be hidden in plain sight in the App Store. We’re constantly on the lookout for process-enhancing apps and tools, so we know which solutions are best for you. Contact us today for advice. Published with permission from TechAdvisory.org. Source.
Get a load of these neat PDF features in Google Drive
Google Drive keeps improving as a productivity suite. And yet for reasons unknown, its time-saving PDF management features have gone under the radar — features like scanning documents with your phone and saving them as PDFs without switching out of Google Drive. Here are some of the other underused PDF features in Google Drive. Save PDFs to Google Drive Google Chrome’s PDF viewer can do much more than just read your PDFs. Like other web browsers, Chrome lets you save web pages as PDFs by right-clicking on the web page, selecting Print… from the menu, and selecting Save as PDF from the Destination drop-down menu. However, if you’re logged into Chrome, you can save PDF files into your Google Drive. To do this, go back to the Print window, click the Destination drop-down, and select Save to Google Drive. This will save you some time from having to go to your Google Drive and manually uploading the file from your local disk. Convert docs into PDFs If you have a Google Doc that needs to be sent out as a PDF, you can do that without using any third-party applications. On your doc, go to File > Download as > PDF Document (.pdf). Google Drive scan and search On Android devices, you can access a Google Drive app feature that is normally unavailable on iOS devices. Google Drive on Android gives you the option to scan a document with your phone’s built-in camera and convert it into a PDF. Once scanned and saved to your drive, the contents of the document are searchable by using Google Drive’s search tool. Unfortunately, handwritten documents cannot be detected. Only typewritten text is searchable within Google Drive. This feature is great for scanning and recording receipts, certificates, and signed official forms. To create scanned PDF documents in Google Drive you have to: Access the Google Drive app on your Android phone. Select the plus (+) button on the screen to create a new project. Choose Scan. This will open your phone’s camera application. Take a picture of your document. From here, you can choose to rescan the page or create another PDF file. If you’re happy with the scanned document, tap the checkmark button to save it to Google Drive. Electronically interact with PDFs While PDFs are compatible across a wide range of platforms, they don’t give you the option to edit. Luckily, third-party services like Kami or HelloSign allow you to electronically interact with a PDF document. Kami is a Google Drive extension that enables you to draw, highlight, strikethrough, underline, and add text and comments to a PDF. On the other hand, HelloSign gives you the ability to add check marks and signatures to your PDFs. Consider these add-ons if your business needs to edit PDFs. Merge PDFs If you want to combine several PDF documents together, we recommend using PDF Mergy. This is another Chrome add-on that allows you to simply right-click on any selected PDF files within Google Drive and open it by clicking Open with > PDF Mergy. Your selected PDF files will be immediately imported to this third-party application. You can also rearrange the order of the PDF documents as well as add more files from your drive. Select Merge, if you’re satisfied with the changes, then you can either save the new PDF to your local disk or back in your Google Drive. Google Drive has become a strong cloud-based tool that not only lets you export PDFs but helps you interact with them in various ways with native functions and third-party applications. The next time you have to manage a lot of PDFs, have a go with these underused and underappreciated time-saving features. Want to know more about helpful Google Drive features? Contact us today. Published with permission from TechAdvisory.org. Source.
Increase your company’s reach with Google Posts
As a small- and medium-sized business, you can’t miss out on this opportunity to leverage Google’s search results. With Google Posts, businesses can create content highly ranked in Google search results for their names, even without having a website. Here’s how this works. What they can do Google Posts allow users to communicate directly in the search results. This differs from the Knowledge Panel since you can highlight content, information, products, or services. Google Post can appear on the search results, Knowledge Panel, or both. Google simply describes it as “up-to-date posts from verified people, places, or things, directly in search results.” These posts can be text, images, videos, events, or even animated GIFs. You can even add links on the posts to drive traffic to a particular page, service, or product. This enhanced format enables searchers to get information directly from you while complementing existing search results across the web. Postings Your posting instantly shows up in search results on both mobile and desktop platforms. You can then schedule the time and duration of the post with ease. This is a great feature that provides immediate access and can be particularly useful when you are planning to launch a product, open a pop-up store, or run a promotion. Also, Google Analytics will give you updates on how many people have seen and interacted with your content. Move over Google+ Google is finalizing the transition of businesses from Google+ to Google Posts. Once part of businesses’ social media strategy, big changes came to Google+. April 2, 2019 marked the official shut down of the consumer version of Google+. Small business will still be able to use Google+ to interact with customers, but only those who are G Suite Android users. Those same businesses can now use Google Posts as an easier way to communicate directly with prospects and customers in Google’s search results. Availability Google Posts is available to everyone with a Google My Business account. Log in or create a profile for your business. Once you’re in your account, Posts will be an option on the left hand navigation. It doesn’t take a lot of time to create a Post, so you can make it part of your social media promotional strategy. But you will have to create one in real time, since Google doesn’t allow third party tools like Hootsuite to post for you. Will Google Posts increase your SEO? Only time will tell if it will be as impactful as we hoped. As with Google + and Google Authorship, Google likes to test out new features, which sadly don’t always catch on. However, Google is always hungry for fresh content. As the number one driver of traffic for business, Google Posts makes sense. Published with permission from TechAdvisory.org. Source.
How to set up your G Suite dashboard
G Suite is Google’s all-in-one computing, productivity, and collaboration tool. It comprises of Gmail, Hangouts, Calendar, Google+, Docs, Sheets, and more, allowing for better collaboration, data sharing, and work efficiency. Here’s how to configure it. Allow display views inside and outside your business Activity dashboards typically provide limited details on file activity that one can view. Not so when you enable G Suite’s view history. With this function, you can determine which users have opened the file and the time and date they accessed the file. What’s more, G Suite can also provide the details of external users who viewed your file, and whether they used a non-office-issued device. To access these data, you have to:Open Google Slides, Docs, or Sheets.Select Share.Type in the email address of the external user. People outside your organization can access your files only when you authorize them, and at the same time, you can see their viewing history. Note that you won’t have access to external users’ viewing history if you share files using the Public or Anyone with the link settings. Keep in mind that view history is available only once you are authorized by your administrator and after you make changes to G Suite’s privacy settings. Limit view monitoring If you’re using the latest version of G Suite with the activity dashboard, the administrator can change the settings by logging in to the Admin console, where they’ll be redirected to the Apps section. In the Apps section, click G Suite > Drive and Docs > Activity dashboard settings. From the Activity dashboard settings, you can set dashboard permissions via the Access to Activity Dashboard. Meanwhile, if you wish to adjust view monitoring settings (files and user accounts, all user views, or none), you can do so under Users’ view history. If you’re unable to decide, we suggest allowing people to have access to the activity dashboard and enabling view tracking for all users. Google constantly adds new features to its G Suite platform, so stay in touch with us to know how you can use them to boost business operations and productivity. Give us a call today and we’ll introduce you to a suite of Google tools that can help you achieve your business goals. Published with permission from TechAdvisory.org. Source.
Search like an expert Googler with these tips
Everyone knows how to do a Google search. After all, we use it every day to find the information we need. Ironically, not a lot of people know how to make the most out of this search engine. Include and exclude keywords Google will understand most of the search terms you type into it. However, at times the search engine will match only some of the words you typed, showing limited results. To avoid this, just point out which keywords are the most important by adding a plus symbol (+) in front of words you would like Google to include in the search results. And if the results you’re looking for get pushed off the first page by similar-yet-irrelevant articles, adding a minus symbol (-) in front of keywords you don’t want to see will keep them from showing up. For example, “+virtualization -vSphere” will provide search results about different virtualization services while excluding results related to VMWare’s virtualization product, vSphere. Additionally, searching a phrase within double quotation marks guarantees to retrieve results that include only the word-for-word phrase that matches your query. Do a website search Ever need to look for information from a specific website? Instead of visiting that website and sifting through different pages, Google makes it a breeze by allowing you to add “site:url” to the end of your search query. For example, if you want to find what Forbes has written about security, simply head to Google’s homepage and type “security site:www.forbes.com.” This makes sure Google includes only pages from Forbes that are about security in your search results. You can also limit search results to university and government websites by adding “site:.edu” or “site:.gov” to your search query. Combining this with the keyword manipulation trick above will further narrow your search. Search by time period Google has been indexing the web for decades in order to add web pages into its database. Because of that, it could be quite time-consuming sifting through countless search results to find an old website or page, or even recent stories, too. Time period search helps by allowing you to specify a date range so you can find recent stories or archived news faster. Just run a search like you normally would. Then click on Tools under the search box and hit the Any time drop-down menu. From there, you can choose the time period parameter, such as the past month or past week, or fill in an exact time period. Use Google to locate files While Google mainly focuses on indexing web pages, it also indexes publicly available files like PDFs and spreadsheets. To look for them, just type in “filetype:” after your search query. For example, typing “report filetype:pdf” will provide PDFs with “report” in the title. Advance your search Advanced Search can be accessed by clicking Settings from the toolbar located under the search box. This gives you more ways to refine your searches, such as by region or language. By default, search results are prioritized based on your location, so you should adjust that according to the topics you’re searching for. These tips will help you optimize your search habits so that you get the information you need each time. Optimized Googling means less time is wasted manually sifting through links you may not need and more time accomplishing actual work. For any questions on how to use Google products to streamline your daily routine and increase productivity, feel free to drop us a line! Published with permission from TechAdvisory.org. Source.