All the Google tools have one aim and that is to improve the user experience when searching for something.  By using these tools we are improving the user experience on our websites and therefore helping the search engines serve up relevant options for search queries.   There are many tools available but here are a few of the best ones that we all should be using.

Google Analytics

I believe this is the best Google free tool and the one that all website owners should be using.  It’s invaluable for gaining information on who is visiting your website and what they are doing once they are on there.  You can see how many visitors you are getting and if they are coming from organic search or social media.  When they arrive on the site you can see what pages they visit and how many pages they are looking at.  All this data can help you make improvements on your site.

Google My Business

New customers could be looking for your product, if they are looking for you make it easy for them to find you. This free tool is the one to use to get your business details out there online.  Your business name, address, phone number and opening hours are all included.  Get that all important marker on the map and offer directions for people trying to find you.   Google+ is the Google social network and is a great place to share your ideals and news. It’s also a place where you can create circles of likeminded people and share ideas.

Google AdWords Keyword Tool

This tool is normally used when you are formulating an advertising campaign for AdWords.  However, it is a very handy tool when you are trying to figure out what the keywords are for your industry.  You will know the industry norms, but by using this tool you could get some useful suggestions of words that are associated with it.  All very helpful for search engine optimisation.

Google Alerts

Want to know when people are talking about you?  You can use this handy tool to search your business name and see what is being written about you.  You can then set up an alert to be sent to your email every time your business is mentioned online.  It’s also a clever way for you to monitor what others are saying about competitors as well.

Google Trends  

Uncover the trends that could impact your business.  This is where you can enter a keyword and see what the search trends are.  You can see when and how often something is searched for.  Very useful to see if there is seasonality in your product.  Searches can be looked at worldwide or reduced to your region for really insightful information.

Google Search Console

This was called Google Webmaster Tools and is a free web service that allows website owners to check indexing status and optimise visibility of their websites.  I’m also going to sneak in a related tool called Google Page Insights.  This has a nifty domain checker that will check the speed of your website on both desktop and mobile.  It will offer advice on how to fix that which may be broken.

These are only a few of the free tools that Google offer us to help in our business. If you want to find out more about these or the other tools………… just ‘Google’ them!