You know when a company has reached peak brand awareness when their brand has become a household name. Google is one such company, whose name is so well-known that it is even used as a verb at times. Since it’s launch, Google has become more than just a search engine. It has produced many products such as Google Suite, a collection of productivity apps. These tools have become so useful to students and businesses, offering neat features such as the word counter on Google Docs and data filters on Google Sheets. These are the more common tools Google has to offer, however, there are less known tools that businesses can surely benefit from. Here are a couple of the digital marketing tools Google has in its arsenal that every business should know.
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Google My Business
In this digital age, having a visible online presence is crucial for businesses. This doesn’t just apply to big corporations, but small local businesses should also have a web presence for locals to reach them. Luckily, with Google My Business, you can submit a listing for your business for free. What does this mean for your business? Well, simply put, if people will google your type of business in your area (like the example shown below), a listing of your business will be shown in the results. Google My Business is great since it helps you build an online presence and advertise for free.
Google Analytics
Data and analytics play a vital role in quantifying the performance of a business. By using Google Analytics, you will be able to gather insight on your site’s traffic and see how people are getting to your site, navigating through it, and where they go after. And don’t worry about being overwhelmed by all the numbers and data points, since Analytics will summarize this information into statistics and reports.
Google Trends
If Analytics gathers and shows you data on how your site is performing, Trends, on the other hand, shows you the behavior of certain keywords. As you’d guess from the name alone, this helpful tool allows you to monitor trends. It’ll show you what terms people are currently searching for, and it can even show you a popularity versus time graph of specific keywords and the areas they’re trending.
Google Trends is especially useful for keyword research. Not only will it show you the popularity of a keyword, but it can also show you how the keyword fairs against a similar variation so you’ll know which one’s the smarter choice. It’ll also show you similar keywords or suggestions which you can use for other content.
Google Alerts
This digital marketing tool helps you stay updated on certain topics. In Google Alerts, you can input certain keywords you want alerts from, and Google Alerts will notify you every time news comes up about that topic. You can also put your company name or products in Alerts and be notified whenever someone mentions it online. This will help you see your consumers’ perception of your brand, and if there are any negative views that are of concern and need to be addressed. This will also help you respond immediately if ever such concerns arise. You can also monitor any news regarding your competitors using Google Alerts.
Google AdWords
Google AdWords lets you create an ad for your business. Your ad should have target keywords related to your business, and the cost for the ad will depend on the competitiveness of the keyword chosen. AdWords follows a pay-per-click setup and allows you to monitor how your ad is doing.
Google Keyword Planner
Along with Google AdWords is the Keyword Planner. This tool is useful in generating keyword ideas and suggestions. It’ll estimate a particular keyword’s search traffic and budget. It will also help you create an advertising plan using that keyword which you can save and use in the future.
Google Webmaster Tools
The Webmaster Tools analyzes your site traffic data and gives you information about your site health. It’ll also show areas and aspects of your site that make it harder for people to find it in the search results and offer optimization suggestions. By using Google Webmaster Tools, you’ll be able to better understand how visitors find your site.
Google Feed-burner
Gaining a following for your site is important in the growth of your site’s reach. With Feedburner, your site’s visitors will be given an option to subscribe to your site’s content. By subscribing, they’ll be able to receive regular updates and news about your company, products, or services.
Google Blogger
Another way to gain a better online presence is to have a blog for your business. You can post about your products and updates. You could also write about company news or blog posts related to the industry. Having a blog for your company can help you get indexed on Google search more quickly, and establish a good following from your potential and existing customers.
Google Calendar
Google Calendar is one of the more familiar tools Google has in its arsenal. People commonly use this useful productivity tool to schedule and organize personal affairs. However, businesses can also make use of Google Calendar, especially for marketing purposes. Aside from using Google Calendar to schedule meetings and have an overview of what other members of the team have on their schedule, it can also be used as an editorial calendar. In digital marketing, companies often have a content plan that includes a timeline of what they will be posting and when. And if the business has a blog, they can also use Google Calendar to schedule and organize the posting of their articles.
It’s amazing how far Google has come since its inception, and these are just some of the useful tools the company has to offer. Google has much more to offer for both individuals and businesses alike. But knowing that there are accessible (and sometimes even free) options businesses can use to build their online presence and improve their digital marketing game is one of the reasons people love, trust, and support the brand. And hopefully, with these tools, your business will also gain a good customer following.
Author Bio
Jayson Antonio is an Outreach Specialist at www.wordcounttool.com, a site that offers useful tools such as Word Counter Tool, Character Counter Tool, Scrabble Word Finder, Pomodoro Timer and Mind Map Tool for your creative writing. In his free time, he enjoys traveling, writing and playing mobile games.
