Over the past year, Google has been giving business owners more control over what information is displayed in the search results. At first, the options were limited, but now Google is opening up opportunities for advanced features that greatly improve customer service.

How to edit your business’s Google listing

When someone types your business’s name and location into Google.com, a “Knowledge Panel” is displayed on the righthand side of the search results with information about your office. If your business doesn’t have a Knowledge Panel, you can change that by opening a free Google My Business (GMB) account.

The GMB platform lets you link to your website, update office information (address, hours, phone number, etc.) and choose which photos Google associates with your company. GMB also gives you data about how many people:

• Saw your business’s Knowledge Panel in search results
• Visited your website by clicking somewhere in the Knowledge Panel
• Asked for directions via the Knowledge Panel

What’s new with GMB?

In the summer of 2017, Google announced that business owners could customize “Posts” in their Knowledge Panel. Posts are made up of a 100-300 word caption, an image and a call-to-action button, such as Learn More, Sign Up, Buy, etc. Posts automatically expire after seven days, which makes them perfect for sales, events and content marketing.

More recently, Google added another exciting feature: the ability to schedule appointments from inside the Knowledge Panel. If your website uses one of the 22 accepted plugins, you can connect it with GMB to make it easier for searchers to book a reservation at your location. Google is in the process of rolling out this feature to gyms, beauty salons and restaurants, but a wider release is on the way.

How do I enable Bookings?

Adding this feature to your GMB page is an easy four-step process:

1. Log in to Google My Business
2. Click on the Sign Up For Bookings icon below your business’s profile
3. Choose your booking provider from the list of approved vendors and sign up on its site
4. Check back in a few days and start tracking your appointments with GMB!

If your business accepts reservations, this feature will be an indispensable tool for improving your customers’ experiences. For more information on low-cost technology solutions that add value to your business -- give us a call today.

The post An easy way to accept reservations online appeared first on Complete Technology Resources, Inc..

We truly comprehend the meaning of scarcity when our local disk is running out of space. Trying to sort out which files to keep and which to delete takes time and doesn’t guarantee a desirable outcome. But with OneDrive’s new feature, you can just move them to the cloud and get your storage space back -- in just a few clicks.

Microsoft has launched OneDrive’s new feature called “OneDrive Files On-Demand,” which comes with Windows 10 Fall Creators Update. This new feature allows users to transfer files to Microsoft’s cloud storage, thus saving some space on their local hard drive. What’s great about this feature is that you can open and view the online-only files quickly and conveniently as if you're opening them from your local hard drive.

How to get the new feature

When you upgrade to Windows 10 Fall Creators Update, the OneDrive Files On-Demand feature should be enabled by default. But if it’s not, all you need to do is turn it on by:

• Opening OneDrive
• Clicking the cloud icon on the right side of your taskbar
• Selecting Settings and clicking the Setting tab
• In the Files On-Demand section, make sure the Save space and download files as you use them box is checked

What do these icons mean?

In the OneDrive folder in File Explorer, you’ll see three types of icons (look at the Status column). Here’s what they mean:

• Blue cloud: files that are stored online only
• Green checkmark in white circle: files that are stored locally and will be made online-only when you’re running out of space
• White checkmark in green circle: files that are stored locally even when you’re running out of space

How to download online-only files

You can download files stored online to your local disk by simply opening them, whereupon a green checkmark will appear on the file. You can also make those files always-available offline (white checkmark) by right-clicking the files and selecting Always keep on this device.

How to upload local files to the cloud

Just right click the files -- whether they’re files with green or white check marks -- and select Free up space.

Microsoft’s OneDrive Files On-Demand feature is another proof of how cloud technology can help optimize your IT resources. For more ways to make the most of your technology investment, talk to our cloud experts today.

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