As frightening as that may seem to many people, it is none the less true.
For better or worst, Google has permeated into almost every aspect of our everyday life. Being Googled is now a common expression and an act carried out by millions of users around the world each day. New Google products and services are coming on stream at a frightening pace, further increasing Google's impact on our lives.
Despite this dominating presence, many people still don't realize Google offers some excellent free marketing tools for marketers and webmasters. Marketing tools which can prove extremely valuable
to any webmaster or marketer trying to promote their sites or products online. Useful tools that will make your promotions easier and much more profitable.
Don't be fooled by the 'free' label, these marketing tools might be free but there are also valuable. One even wonders why Google would be giving away these tools and services for free? It probably makes good business sense in the long run, by providing these free tools Google is fostering a lot of company good-will and building up the Google brand name in the process. Good PR is good business.
Every marketer and webmaster should be taking advantage of Google's good-will and snapping up these professionally run services and marketing tools. Here's a quick run-down of the 10 most valuable free Google Internet marketing tools:
1. Google Analytics
Perhaps the premier marketing tool offered by Google. It will prove helpful to both the marketer and the webmaster. Google Analytics gives you a daily snapshot of your web site. Google Analytics analyzes your traffic, where it comes from and what it does once it enters your site. You can monitor up to three sites for free.
Google Analytics is extremely valuable in analyzing your marketing funnel, it tracks all the steps leading up to your sales or checkout page. Vital information for raising your conversion rate and ROI. You may be placed on a waiting list for this highly in demand service from Google.
LINK Google Analytics
2. Google Sitemaps
Webmasters can use Google Sitemaps to almost instantly place newly created pages on their site into the Google Search Index. This is an XML file that is uploaded to Google as new pages are added on your site. Needless to say this can be a valuable service for any webmaster or marketer who wants to get their information on the web quickly.
LINK Google Webmaster
3. Google Alerts
Be notified when someone or another site lists your site or mentions your name. Great way to keep track of all your online activities. Great way to monitor all your online business interests and products.
LINK Google Alerts
4. Google Froogle
Froogle is Google's price directory! It simply lists all the cheapest prices for different products on the web. For marketers and webmasters who are promoting products, it should be studied and analyzed. Optimizing your site's content for Froogle may prove to be very beneficial.
Follow Froogle or Google directions exactly on how to list or display products on your site. Froogle will spider your site and display your prices and products to thousands of targeted customers. That, as they say, is priceless.
LINK Froogle
5. Google Checkout
Not exactly free but for those marketers who use AdWords --- for every $1 spent on AdWords you can process $10 for free. You can also place the shopping cart logo on your AdWords ad and take advantage of the prestige and trust the Google brand name has built up.
Over time marketers may find this tool to be very effective and valuable.
LINK Google Checkout
6. Google Blogger
Blogging has become vitally important to the health and functioning of your web site. No site should be without at least one blog and RSS feed. Creating a blog (online journal) on the topic of your web site or product will bring in extra traffic and targeted customers. eBlogger is a simple free
blogging service that even lets you publish or post your blog files to your own web site server. Keep in mind, each blog has that all important Google Blog Search bar.
LINK Blogger
7. Google Toolbar - Enterprise Version
Try the new enterprise version of the Google Toolbar for your company or business. Integrates countless features with all your employees or corporate network. These could include a common customer database, company calendar, financial news...
Keep in mind, Google also ranks every page it indexes on a scale of 0-10. While it is important to know the Page Rank of your own pages, it is even more important to know the PR of your competitor's pages. You can use the toolbar to get the PR of each page you're visiting. Extremely helpful information for webmasters and marketers to know when forming online linking or business arrangements.
LINK Google Toolbar
8. Google Groups
Every marketer knows the important of having a large contact list of people with a similar interest. Social networking will play an ever increasing role in your success on the web. Just look at the growing popularity of sites like MySpace and LiveJournal.
Google groups is another form of social and business networking that every marketer should be aware of and pursuing.
LINK Groups.google.com
9. Google AdSense
One simple way to monetize your web content is to use Google Adsense. Just place the AdSense code on your site and receive a check from Google each month. For webmasters who are not really into online marketing (does such creatures exist?) AdSense can be a painless way to earn extra income from your site.
For professional marketers using the AdSense system can supply a tremendous amount of marketing information on the keywords in their particular niche. It keeps the marketer informed on what keywords are being bid on and how much advertisers are willing to pay. AdSense also has an excellent real-time tracking system you can use to keep track of all your
important web pages.
LINK Adsense
10. Google Writely
A recent addition to Google's stable of free products. Writely is a full featured online writing editor with spellcheck and great collaborating features. It also lets you publish your content directly to your blogs. One feature that may be of interest to marketers, it lets your save files in the popular download format of PDF.
Lets face it, until video takes over the web in four or five years time --- the written word is still king on the net. It is the medium that markets, promotes and sells your content or products. Writely will help you write better.
LINK http://www.writely.com
Honorable Mention - Google Trends
This Google program will let you search popular trends, important for marketers searching for the latest hot product to promote. You can also break down these trends by different regions.
LINK http://www.google.com/trends
Final Note
Please take note that signing up for a Google account will usually help you in obtaining most of these free services or programs. Some of these programs may have to be applied for individually. But be assured, all these free Google marketing tools are well worth your time and effort. They will make your marketing easier and they will help any webmaster or marketer run their online business more efficiently.
What Google Products Do You Use?
Most of us use Google for searching on the internet. In fact Google has become part of the vocabulary of many of us. How many of the other products that Google offers do you use - or are you aware of? Some of the products you may have heard of, but do not really understand what you can do with them. You may find that some of the products can really help promote your business. So what products are there in Google?
Search Engine Optimisation Products
We all use Google Search, but do you know how this works? Which of the following products do you use to ensure that your website is featured in Google Search results: Google Keywords (a tool to find appropriate keywords to use in your sites), Google AdWords (display ads relating to keywords, cost is dependent upon keywords chosen), Google Ad Manager (allows you to link the ads displayed to the amount of stock that you have available), Google AdSense (allows you to display ads on your website to generate income), Google Analytics (displays statistics about the visitors to your website), Google Website Optimizer (use with Google Analytics to test different versions of your website and which brought in the most visitors) and Google Alerts (Find out when people are searching for your keywords - or for information about you).
Products to Improve Your Internet Footprint
If you create a bigger internet footprint, your brand, influence and reputation will reach more people. Your website, your social media input and blogs all go to increase the size of your footprint. Not surprisingly Google also has a number of products to help including: Google Profile, Google Local and Google Maps.
Communication Products
The latest development from Google is Google Wave. Wave is described as a real time communication platform. You can bring a group of colleagues together to have a real time discussion, share files using drag and drop or use other wave applications. Parts of a Wave can be played back or embedded on your website. Google Wave will probably superseded business use of Google Groups which is an online public forum facility. Blogger is a tool that allows you to write your blog or online diary. In the US, Google Voice includes voicemail, custom greetings, one single number that rings all phones, conference calls
Office Products
Google has a number of products to make it easier for us to do our day to day work. Google Mail is a popular, free webmail which store emails by conversation. Google mail is reported to have good spam filtering facilities and is particularly good for mobile access. Google Calendar is an online diary or time management system that allows you to share your diary with others. Google Documents is a free web based word processor, spreadsheet and presentation applications that allow online creation of documents and collaboration in real time. Picasa is a great free photo editing and photo sharing tool created by Google.
Products to help on the Internet (other than searching)
Google's own browser product, Google Chrome is advertised as a secure, fast and stable alternative to Internet Explorer and Firefox. It is considered to be the third most popular browser (4.4% of usage share). igoogle ( a homepage where you can display your Google products in one place) can be used on any browser as can Google Reader (see all the news information feeds that you have subscribed to in one place).
Other Products
Other products that are worth exploring include Google Checkout (an online payment processing service similar to PayPal, but not available on eBay) and Google Site Search which allows you to add a Site Search to your website (for a fee). Google Base (an online database, can be used to find products for sale). There are also a number of Google Applications which are being developed all the time by third parties.
Google: Products and By Products
Google Earth
Google Earth is a free to use program that allows users to explore a virtual world with incredible detail. Google Earth streams satellite images over this virtual Earth and allows users to zoom in on any part of the world. All of the major cities are covered in detail and it is possible to zoom right in on a place of interest.
Gmail
Gmail is Google's answer to hotmail, Yahoo mail or any other web based email program. Rather than being your run of the mill web based email service, Gmail offers a number of unique options such as searching emails instead of sorting them, huge amount of storage space and a top notch Spam filter. If you don't already have a gmail account, get one.
Google Calendar
Google Calendar is Google's newest product, and while it may seem to be a strange one, there is no doubt that Google has revolutionised calendars. You can import your Outlook calendar into Google Calendar, Google Calendar has many more features. Among the best feature in my opinion, is the ability to share calendars with friends and family and allow them editing privileges. You can now keep in touch with friends and family from your Gmail account.
Among the other excellent offerings from the Google Plex is the Google Toolbar, Gtalk which works excellently with Gmail and Google Desktop which allows you to search your computer while giving you relevant information such as the weather conditions in your location.
Some of the big or most useful products that I have personally used and have also heard lots of positive results from include:
* Google Alerts - Get updates on a specific keyword or phrase for a specific time frame
* Blogger - Google's blog platform
* Google Calendar - Schedule dates and quickly add events
* Google Docs - Free web-based word processor and spreadsheet
* Google Groups - Easy way to find other people that are interested and discussing in the same topic
* Google Picasa - Software that makes it easy to view, organize, edit and share photos on your PC
* Google Reader - Constantly checks your favorite news sites and blogs for new content.
* Google Notebook - Browse, clip, and organize info from the web in one spot be easily accessible
* Google Sites - Easily create web pages and share info on a free website or group wiki.
* Google Video & YouTube - Watch or upload videos and share across the web
Plus many more, you can also check out Google Labs for more products their working on or have been released from beta. Some other more popular products from Google are Google AdSense and Google AdWords.