Google provides many free and useful tools to support the development of your website. These services can help improve your business’s visibility, analyze website visitors, and reach new customers.
After establishing your business, one of the key factors for success is engaging with existing and potential customers. This is where your website becomes crucial, acting as a channel to be visible online, reach customers, and provide them with information about your services and products. Google offers several tools that make it easy for entrepreneurs to enhance their websites. While Google’s tools might seem overwhelming at first, understanding the basics lays a solid foundation for online success, even if your website was built by an external party.
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The key Google tools in a nutshell
To get started, understanding the basics of the five most important Google tools is essential. In our view, these tools are Google Business Profile, Google Analytics, Google Ads, Google Search Console, and Google Trends. These tools are free and easy to integrate into your Google account. While Google Ads requires payment for advertising, the use of the service itself is free.
1. Google Business Profile
Google Business Profile (formerly known as Google My Business) is a free tool that helps manage your business’s visibility on Google services. When potential customers search for your products or services, they can find your business on Google more easily and access essential information at a glance. Users can, for example, view your business’s address in map applications or call your business with a single click. Additionally, the profile displays opening hours and customer reviews among other details. Think of this tool as a digital business card that consolidates key information about your business.
Keeping your business profile up-to-date is crucial as it can immediately impact perceptions of your business. Google Business Profile not only enhances customer service by providing essential information conveniently but also boosts your business’s visibility in search engines. Moreover, this tool allows you to easily update and manage your business’s information on Google.
Learn more and start creating your Google Business Profile here.
2. Google Analytics
Google Analytics is a tool that helps you better understand the traffic, visitors, and behavior on your website. You can see how visitors navigate your site, which pages are popular, and where your visitors come from. This information helps you improve your website’s user experience and learn more about your customers.
If you’ve used Google Analytics before, note that starting from July 2024, Google Analytics 4 will fully replace Universal Analytics.
Explore Google Analytics here.
3. Google Ads
If you want to start paid advertising online, Google Ads is a great option for search engine marketing. Google Ads allows your ads to appear on Google search results and other platforms when potential customers search for your products or services.
Paid advertising in Google Ads operates on a competitive basis for ad space. This competition is conducted through an auction where advertisers bid the maximum amount they are willing to pay per click or impression. Ad visibility, therefore, depends not only on the bid price but also on the relevance of the ad. Even small businesses can achieve cost-effective visibility on Google with relevant ads.
Although advertising costs money, creating and maintaining a Google Ads account is free. You only pay for ads based on impressions or clicks within your specified budget.
Learn more about Google Ads here.
4. Google Search Console
If you want to monitor your website’s performance in Google search results, Google Search Console is the right tool for that. However, this service is slightly more technical and requires more effort to set up compared to other tools.
In Google Search Console, you can see how well your pages perform in search engine results. You get detailed information about when and how often your pages appear in search results and how many clicks they receive. Additionally, Search Console identifies potential issues or errors on your site that you might not otherwise notice, such as broken links or mobile usability problems. It generates reports to help you improve your performance in search engines.
Read more about using Google’s recommendations for Search Console based on your role.
5. Google Trends
Google Trends allows you to track the popularity and trends of searches on Google. It gives you insights into what people are searching for online at different times and in different regions.
Especially for new businesses, Google Trends offers the opportunity to understand the interests of potential customers. Using this tool, you can examine keywords that are important to your business. If you operate locally, you can also check the popularity of keywords in specific areas. You can compare the search volumes of different terms and decide which terms to use on your website. Google Trends does not require signing in.
+ Bonus Tip: Google Tag Manager
Google Tag Manager is technically more challenging to implement but understanding it is useful even when managing websites through external parties. Once Tag Manager is installed on your site, it significantly simplifies the use of various tracking codes and advanced features of Google Analytics.
Google Tag Manager allows you to manage website tracking codes. It facilitates adding and updating tags and tracking codes on your site, collecting data about your website visitors and their actions. Using Tag Manager is beneficial as it allows you to share account access, for example with advertising agencies, without sharing all credentials.
Learn more about Google Tag Manager here.
Get started with the tools
Understanding the basics of these tools is the first step towards improving your business’s online visibility. Once you grasp the fundamentals of Google’s tools, you can start implementing them one by one. Creating a Google Business entrepreneur profile, for instance, is a great start towards enhancing your online visibility.
If your business uses external digital marketing services, we recommend creating accounts in your own name and acting as the primary user. This approach simplifies tool management from the outset and reduces issues when collaborations end.
We also recommend exploring Google’s free training courses, which support entrepreneurs in developing digital skills.
Everything you need for creating websites
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Author Virpi Ollitervo, Marketing Coordinator