News Archive

Assigning an Image to Multiple Folders

Sometimes you aren’t sure where to file an image in your image folder because it “fits” in multiple locations.  For example you might have a folder per website page but also want folders set up “by use.”  Here is how you can get the same image into two folders. Right click on the image in the media library and you will see this pop up that offers “Move to / Multi folders.” A listing of all your folders appears.  Check every folder’s box you want the image to show up in. Now, when you visit the checked folders the image appears in each one.  Yet if you choose the button “Display all files” and search for the image by its title, only one copy of the image is offered. Assigning an image to multiple folders is the best strategy for organizing your media library.  It’s a great time saving trick that cuts the bulk out of your media library with multiple copies of the same image.

Website Analytics

Google GA4 Replaces Google Universal Analytics.  Does Fathom Replace Them Both? Many clients set up Google Analytic accounts when they first published their website.  Some clients actively use the analytics data and others have forgotten they even had the data available to them.  As of July 1, 2023 Google stopped gathering data from their Universal Analytics and now only support their new, still free, analytics product called GA4.  GA4 has a new ID number that AccuNet must add to your backend if you want Google’s analytics to continue to capture data about your website. Google has become quite robust and confusing over the years.  For this reason we no longer consider AccuNet experts with the Google product line.  However, we do have a user’s guide that can help you migrate your Universal Analytics account to the GA4 platform.  Let us know if you need this guide by emailing julie@accunet.us and requesting the 2-page guide.  Remember, if you have not given us your GA4 Measurement ID (starts with G-) then you are not currently capturing data. We have another option for capturing analytic data for you to consider.  Clarity Cloud now offers a totally different analytics company, Fathom Analytics for $60/year. It isn’t free like Google’s GA4 and it reports less data.  This might be a good thing and it’s harder to get lost in the details. Fathom Analytics lives in the back-end admin of your website and reports the following data for a time period of your choice. Pages Which pages were viewed How many times that page was the entry to the website The number of people on the website that saw that page Total number of views of that page Referrers What website sent the viewer to your website.  This can be a search engine, social media or website that links to you. Device Types Number or percentage of Desktop vs Phone Browsers Number or percentage for each browser that was used to find your website. Countries Number of visitors from every country that visited your website

New Standard Features

Clarity Cloud has four new features to announce, each is available at no cost to install. These are very specific purpose features.  Since we want to keep your backend uncluttered with items you don’t plan to use we are asking that you request us to add them to your website. Timed Content Expiration Broken Link Checker Simple History Google Translate Timed Content Expiration We now offer the ability for website editors to add timed content for posts. When content expires, it is not deleted, but put on hold in Draft Status. The expiration ability can be added to other post-created areas of the website as needed. Broken Link Checker If you have a lot of links, especially linking to pages off your website, you’ll want to use this feature to make sure all your links are up to date. Simple History – 60 Day Limit As websites become more valuable to our customer’s marketing efforts, we have seen more requests to offer short term user editing history. The most common reason is to observe third party vendors work time and movement on the website.  Simple History will show, by login user name, all activity done within specified dates, up to 60 days in the past. Google Translate Google currently offers a free service to translate your website to many other languages.  We will add this icon to your website upon request.  Click on the icon in the top row of navigation at demo.civiclarity.com to see the translation bar appear.  Choose a language and see your content instantly change. Please fill out this very quick form to formally request AccuNet to add any or all of the features added to your Civic Clarity website. REQUEST TO INSTALL

Website Form Spam Settings Upgrade

Earlier in the spring we received reports from a few customers that messages from their online forms were landing in the website form’s spam folder and not being emailed to them. After working with our spam security service vendor to troubleshoot the issue we decided we needed to upgrade to a different provider. We have completed testing and implementation of our solution and are happy to report that the previously growing false positives has now virtually disappeared. What is a false positive? This is a message that someone fills out on a form of your website’s, submits, and you never receive it. Instead, it is falsely identified as spam, and moved into the form’s spam folder for review. Does this mean I do not need to log into my website to check the online form spam folder? No. This task is still recommended and necessary. Although the spam security filter is robust, good messages might be caught in the spam folder and you don’t want to miss them. Another reason to check this folder regularly is because the spam folders for your online forms are cleaned out each week of any messages older than 30 days. We understand how vital it is to protect your website from unwanted submissions and ensure that your online forms remain reliable and effective. With this upgraded spam filter in place, you can rest assured that your forms are further fortified against spam, fraudulent entries, and other malicious activities. We are committed to providing you with the best possible user experience, and this enhancement is just another step towards that goal. Thank you for choosing our services, and we are delighted to offer you this added layer of protection.

Document Library Now Counts Document Downloads

As of Friday, March 24th, the document library now displays the number of downloads for every document. The download information is only seen in the backend within the Document Library feature. You ask for it and we deliver! We added this feature due to client request.

Clarity Cloud Tackles Spam from Online Form Submissions

My tech manager thinks I should explain the importance of your Clarity Cloud website service’s online form submission spam catching process, and why you need to check your form’s spam folders.  Here is a quick summary of what you’ll learn if you read the whole thing.

One – education.

Two – a request for you to check your website’s spam folder on a regular basis. By marking a messages in the spam folder as NOT SPAM you are training our system on what is considered spam. It also puts the message into your form’s inbox where you can send it to your email mailbox if wanted.

Three – we are considering creating a way to email you a notification that a form submission has been put into the form’s spam folder. For some, you’d get numerous notifications daily. We could not show very much revealing fields of these emails because if they are spam, the message would ultimately be marked as spam and not get to you.  

Calendar Feature Updates

Based on client feedback, we’ve made a few updates to the standard calendar for your website. All Events When you first view your “All Events” tab you will see a new option, month-a-time calendar format option. This new view allows you to quickly drill down to find the event you wish to edit. You can switch back to the old list view by using the toggle on the top left.  (See image in this article.)  And, the last view will be remembered, so the last view you used will be the view that opens next time you use the calendar. Recurring Events A single event in a recurring series can be uniquely updated.  Now have the ability to create different event descriptions for different dates of recurring events.  For example, if you have a recurring, monthly meeting, now each meeting date can have a unique description, such as an agenda, or links to download files relevant to that meeting date only. Calendar Event Retirement Calendar events will be set to automatically delete off your published calendar, and the back end event list after 24 months from EVENT START DATE.  If you have a recurring event set up that you plan to use going into the future, all you need to do is edit the Start Date of the Source Recurring Event before it expires. Instructions for all these updates can be found at https://clarityhelp.com/docs/general-display-modules/calendar/  

Consider Adding GA4 to Your Google Analytics Account

Google has announced they plan to retire their current Universal Google Analytics in July 2023, replacing it with their new GA4 Analytics.  We recommend that you install GA4 sooner than later in order to get used to the new data.  It is very different.  To help you we have created a short cheat sheet at Clarity Help. You should be able to follow the directions and add GA4 to your account in around 30 minutes.  If you prefer to have AccuNet add it, we charge $120/hour. Once GA4 is added, you need to give AccuNet your G- Measurement ID number. We will add it to your tracking in the back end of the website so that you will start to see results within 24-48 hours. In case you want to take a class in GA4:  Discover the Next Generation of Google Analytics