It amazes me the amount of functionality Google provides freely to the world. Over the years it keeps increasing and a lot of their services are simply superb. Below I have put together Five Google Tools that I find helpful and useful and maybe you will too!! This is certainly not everything Google offer, just my favourites!

Google One - Google Analytics - Analyze website traffic

When you sign up for this you will be given a small snippet of code that your web developer needs to paste into all the pages on your website. By doing this Google Analytics can then provide you with easy access to your own personal easy-to-understand reports that track visitors to your website as well as visitor origin, length of stay and many other statistics. This can help you to know what is going on to make measurable improvements to marketing campaigns and websites over time.

Google Two - Google Maps - Get listed

Your business can appear in Google Maps, providing another opportunity for potential clients to find you. Visit the Google Business Centre to get listed, and when adding or editing your listing you can add hours, photos, coupons and more.

Google Three - Google Alerts - Be informed

Receive an email alert when your name or business name is mentioned in any online news. Google Alerts are email updates of the latest relevant Google results (web, news, etc.) based on your choice of query or topic. Some handy uses of Google Alerts include:

• monitoring a developing news story
• keeping current on a competitor or industry
• getting the latest on a celebrity or event
• keeping tabs on your favorite sports teams

Go to http://www.google.com/alerts?hl=en to set up your alerts.

Google Four - Website Status report - Check your Listing

Simply go to https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/sitestatus and enter your URL to check if your website has been indexed by Google.

If you have a new website, or your website is not yet listed you can submit it at http://www.google.com/addurl/?continue=/addurl

Google Five - Some fun and helpful tools

Here are some things you can do just with the Google search functionality.

Word definitions: To see a definition for a word or phrase, simply type the word “define” then a space, then the word(s) you want defined. To see a list of different definitions from various online sources, you can type “define:” followed by a word or phrase. Note that the results will define the entire phrase.

Currency Converter: To use Google’s built-in currency converter, simply enter the conversion you’d like done into the Google search box and the answer will display directly on the results page. eg type in 100 AUD in USD to get the conversion of $100 Aussie dollars into US currency.

Looking for a map? Type in the suburb name and the word “map” and Google will return a map of that location. Note that on testing this I found it doesnt bring results for a lot of suburbs, but still handy to know. Clicking on the map will take you to a larger version on Google Maps.

Calculator: To use Google’s built-in calculator function, simply enter the calculation you’d like done into the search box.

Check out all the other cool things you can do simply with Google - http://www.google.com/intl/en/help/features.html

Article by Belinda Jackson

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