What To Do If You Clicked The Google Doc

Warning: Don’t click any of the many shared Google Docs you’ve received today (May 10, 2017). A virus is masquerading itself as a legitimate Google Docs link, and it has no warnings from Google about its validity right now. It’s very easy to mistake it for authentic.

If you did click any of the docs, don’t burn your computer. Follow these simple steps to secure your account.

1. Remove the authenticated service from your Google account here. If you see Google Docs listed, delete it. This is an imposter. Google Docs already has access to your Google Account and doesn’t need it specified here.

2. UPDATE: Google officially announced it is investigating this phishing scam. It asks you report your messages as phishing within Gmail.

3. Our friendly web team also recommends changing your password immediately, and being mindful of any password reset links you may see for a few minutes.

Big shoutout to our web team for keeping us safe amid the chaos. Literally the best place for this to happen to an account is within their knowledgable reach. Read Sam’s full post about the virus. Then keep up with the Twitter jokes.

5 Free SEO Tools To Boost Your Rankings

Search Engine Optimization can be an intimidating phrase to companies and individuals who aren’t familiar with everything it entails. From keyword strategies to fixing broken links, it can be overwhelming to try to accomplish everything at once, rather than take it one step at a time. Luckily, there are a number of tools to add more value to each effort. We have outlined five free tools that can help you the next time you want to tackle some digital marketing tasks.    

Google Keyword Planner

This tool addresses the most basic form of keyword research. It shows you what people are searching for and the volume of the search phrases. You simply type in one or more keywords, choose where you want to focus your search geographically and let Google take it from there. Along with search volumes for your phrases, Google’s Keyword Planner will also provide a long list of related keywords and phrases to guide you in the right direction. If you’re interested in a pay-per-click campaign, the Keyword Planner also provides you with the average cost-per-click price for each search phrase.  

Keyword Finder

The Keyword Finder tool goes more in depth than Google’s Keyword Planner. Along with search volumes, this tool shows you the ranking score, or how difficult it is to organically rank, for particular search phrases. This helps you put together a thorough keyword strategy.  

Check My Links

Broken links on a website can hinder any company’s organic search ranking efforts. Check My Links is a Google Chrome extension application that checks for broken links throughout your site. It can be installed directly into your web browser. Once installed, you will notice a small icon in the top right corner of your browser with a check mark. When selected, it will immediately activate and crawl the website you are currently viewing, searching for valid, invalid and questionable links. It will highlight where all of the links are located, making it easier to fix the broken ones.

SEO Quake

SEO Quake  gives users the most on-page search engine optimization value. With the page analysis tool, you can see how the technical characteristics of your website compare to how Google and other search engines want them to look. Meta descriptions, headings and image tags are just a few of the things SEO Quake assesses. The tool also compares internal and external links on your website, as well as generates a keyword report showing the density of each individual phrase. SEO Quake is one of the best all-around search engine optimization tools for any company’s digital audit to improve their overall efforts.

GTmetrix

One of the best pagespeed reporting tools, GTmetrix takes an in-depth look at how long it takes for your website to load. Simply type in a URL and wait for GTmetrix to work its magic. The dashboard will give you a pagespeed score, page load time and a variety of other technical aspects. Modern search engines have made pagespeed a top priority when it comes to organic rankings. Their ultimate goal is to give the user the best experience possible, and if a website takes too long to load, Google and other search engines are going to penalize it.  

These five SEO tools can provide value to you as you modify your digital marketing practices. Search engine optimization doesn’t have to be a big scary monster that seems impossible to master. By taking it one step at a time and mastering the tools above, anyone can face it head on.

What SEO tools do you use?

 

 

How A Sprint Team Can Help Your Agency’s Web Department

Ready, set, sprint! If you’re a marketing agency offering web development services, we have an idea for you. Sprint teams are a great way to alleviate frustrations and stresses with website projects. Clients’ busy schedules can make them hard to contact, timelines are often pushed back and the approval process can turn into a nightmare. All of these holdups create frustration for both parties, hindering the creative and production processes. In order to address these issues and move web projects into a shorter timeline, we came up with the idea of using a sprint team. Read three major advantages we found when using a sprint team for our web projects.

1. More client involvement: One of the vital components of our sprint team strategy is our level of engagement with the client while we build their website. Since our sprint projects typically only last one work week, we encourage our clients to be as involved with the creative process as possible within the five days. Each day, the client comes to our office and spends about one hour collaborating with our creative team to keep everyone on the same page. By the time the site is ready to launch, both the client and our agency have a clear vision of the design and what the website will accomplish for their business.
2. Increase in weekly productivity levels: Often, web projects can get backtracked and put on hold. Whether it’s time spent on approvals and changes or busy schedules getting in the way, it affects the entire process of the project. The more time you spend adjusting timelines, designs and page layouts, the less the team produces. With a sprint team, each member dedicates their entire week to one project only. In combination with heavy client involvement, which keeps everyone on the same page, the sprint team is able to spend a majority of their hours throughout the week in production, which will help the agency’s overall profit margins.
3. Opportunity for more work: This one is fairly obvious. If your agency is able to crank out a website in a matter of a few days versus a few months, it opens up a variety of opportunities for more business. It also gives your sales team a reason to go out and win more business! If your agency is successfully completing web projects in one or even two weeks time, it’s a major selling point sales can use when conversing with potential clients, keeping in mind if the websites are small enough to fit production into one week.

Although our sprint team is a work in progress, the results we are seeing thus far have been positive for our agency. Employees are happier and more productive and the agency-client relationship is stronger. Does your company have a process similar to our sprints for certain projects or clients?

How the New iPhone 7 Features Will Help Marketers

Apple announced an array of new features for the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus in yesterday’s much tweeted about #AppleEvent. Many of the upgrades will help marketing and advertising professionals better manage administrative tasks, create content and deliver better products. We asked our team to answer how the new features will help or hinder their work. Read on for some of the real benefits we’ll see and the AirPod critiques making us LOL:

iOS 10

The release date for iOS 10, Apple’s new operating system, is Sept. 13. MacWorld reports the new OS is heavy on 3-D touch for lock and notification changes. It will also enable live updates within the notifications, letting you continue a conversation within banner notifications on the lock screen. Faster, better communication? Yes!

iOS 10’s new Raise to Wake feature makes the iPhone light up and display the lock screen when you lift it up. This is great for quickly checking notifications and faster responses. You’ll be able to swipe right from the right side of the lock screen to quickly access the phone’s camera, perfect for quickly capturing photos for online content.

Siri is (supposedly) smarter and can also send payments and book reservations through third-party apps. You can also delete preinstalled apps, freeing up your phone for what you use more often. (Goodbye, Stocks.)

iMessages, Apple’s most used app, will display emojis three times larger than they are right now. It will also suggest emojis to replace text. (Cue hilarious autocorrects.) This, plus other new visual effects, aren’t super necessary for marketing and advertising professionals, but 😍.

Wi-Fi and Cellular Service

The iPhone 7’s LTE is three times faster than the iPhone 6 for data downloads. The 7 has worldwide roaming and also lets you to answer WhatsApp and third-party calls like a regular call. No matter if your job takes you all over your community, country or world, more reliable and faster service is always welcome.

Better Camera

The iPhone 7 has a f/1.8 lens to let in 50 percent more light than the one on the 6S, and it has a brighter flash. (Learn how this helps in one of our previous blogs) The new image sensor is faster and more efficient. The front-facing camera has seven megapixels and automatic image stabilization. The 7 Plus will have a dual-camera system, which Apple says will allow for digital zoom without a loss of image quality.

Marketing and advertising professionals can create better, higher-quality content on the go with these upgrades. You always have the option to post clear, interesting images to your social media pages if you have your phone with you. The front-facing camera improvement will also give you better clarity on the amount of food in your teeth when prepping for meetings with clients!

Longer-Lasting Battery

More battery power means one less worry and a thousand additional opportunities to catch up on emails or post to social media. More midnight emails without a charge! Your phone won’t die after using it to find a client’s business and also casting your online Prezi project because the client doesn’t have updated technology. We hate low battery and are all for this one!

AirPods

 

Apple calls them wireless, effortless and magical. We’re not so sure.

• “Fingers crossed that these Apple AirPods are actually designed for human ears.”
• “My ears have always been too small for Apple earbuds. Will they make more accommodating models? I hope third-party headphones catch up fast.”
• “Spend more money? Lame.”
• “No more tangles in my headphones – YAY! No more aux cord in the car – BOO.”
• “I wonder if they built in a feature for Siri to find the AirPods when they inevitability get lost.”
• “What the hell are Earpods? Is that what they call headphones now? When did that change?”

AirPods are available in late October 2016.

New Colors

The iPhone 7 and 7 Plus will debut jet black and black options.

• “Can you imagine what they were thinking in a meeting about the new colors? Boss asks unprepared employee, ‘OK, Bob, what do you got for the new colors?’ ‘I was thinking Black.’ (Boss unimpressed) ‘Anddddddd Jet Black.’ Boss: ‘I like it!’”
• “What the eff is the difference? Most people have covers anyway.”
• “I will wait as long as it takes to get the jet black phone. Black just won’t cut it.”

Finally, in the words of one of our web developers …

“They don’t affect me. #Android4Lyfe”

The iPhone 7 and 7 Plus are available Sept. 17. Which of the new features are you most looking forward to using? What features seem totally unnecessary to you? Let us know in the comments below!

5 Tips For Writing A Blog

Writing weekly blogs for Candeo Creative isn’t always easy. Some days topics rush to mind, while other days we hit a roadblock. How do we stay current and keep our blogs fresh? We have a few top secret techniques that we’ll share with you. OK, they’re not top secret, but they are helpful!

Brainstorming

Brainstorming sessions are underrated. People often think brainstorming takes too much time and isn’t worth it. Wrong! Brainstorming sessions are crucial to get creativity flowing and help come up with new ideas. Before writing a blog, try a brainstorm with a group or by yourself! Pull out some paper to write down ideas or play a game. There are copious amounts of strategies out there. You just have to pick what works for you or keep alternating between a few.

Google Is Your Friend

Google is a great tool to use to find ideas and spark creativity. Even typing in something as simple as “blog topics” will give you endless amounts of ideas. Try putting together random words to see where Google takes you! Who knows, “dogs wearing funny hats” might give you inspiration for a style blog or marketing campaign.

Inspiration

Inspiration is around – you just have to find it. Step away from your computer and take a short walk. You may come across a quote or image that sparks ideas. Try taking a trip (even if it’s just to the grocery store!), riding your bike, watching the news or reading a new book to help you come up with your next big idea!

Trends

What are the latest trends? What is everyone talking about? Figure it out and write a blog about it. Staying current with trends keeps you on pace with your competition at the very least and can even turn YOU into a trendsetter other people will watch. There are a number of sites that send you emails about new trends, such as HubSpot and Social Media Examiner. HubSpot’s marketing blog gives you insights about products, their features and best practices to make digital marketing most effective. Social Media Examiner gives you tips on how to use social media to connect with your customers, increase awareness about your brand and increase your sales.

Interests

Where does your passion come from? Writing about topics that truly interest you makes the process of finding a topic easier. Write a list of topics that you enjoy learning about, pick one and start researching. If you enjoy dancing, figure a clever way you can incorporate it into a blog topic. For example, we could research the ways companies have used dance to create viral marketing campaigns and write a blog about successful campaigns that use dancers. T-Mobile’s Welcome Back flash mob has more than 15 million views on YouTube!

 

What tips do you use to write your blogs? We’d love to hear!