Google Tools You May Not Know About and Some You Should Stay Away From

Posted on 18. Sep, 2009 by Beth in Web Ready

We are pretty sure that most people know Google offers a wide variety of applications from Adsense to word processing. Some of these are heavily geared towards larger businesses but many are geared towards smaller businesses. While most of these are really great and should be used by any business, there are a few out there that should not be. Chances are you have no idea which ones are which.

Everyone knows Google as a search engine. Chances are just as many know that they have launched into much more than that offering all kinds of services and applications to anyone who would like to use them. So many in fact its hard to keep track of them all or even know some even exist. Well, we are here to help out and point out a few (not all) and let you know if you should be using them as a business or not.

A quick note: All Google products share data back with Google. Google is always tracking how you use it, who are you using it with etc. Not that this is all that bad but in some cases, it can be more beneficial to you as a company to avoid it.

So lets start with the 2 that you should be using, especially if you are a small business.

Google Analytics: Google Analytics is an exceptionally powerful Web metrics package that offers a great range and depth of information about who’s visiting your site and what they’re doing after they arrive. It offers more information, I think, than many small businesses need. It’s also free, which is music to anyone’s ears.

Now the thing to remember about Google Analytics is its Javascript-based. That means if someone is looking at your site with javascript disabled you won’t be tracking them. Is that a huge percentage? No, not necessarily but it is something to keep in mind.

While we recommend Google Analytics for most small businesses, the bigger you are, the more you spend on Pay Per Click Advertising (PPC), and other Search Engine Optimization (SEO), the less likely we’d recommend it. You can probably afford a different metrics program that doesn’t share all your data with Google. Also FREE analytics packages should be available with your hosting package. There are also packages out there that focus more on social media which should be considered if your web site is a blog of information-based site.

Google Maps/Local Business Center: If you’re interested in acquiring local search traffic, this has to be first on your Google to-do list. Google wants to know who you are, where you are, and what you do … so sign up and tell them! Beyond your basic business data, you can also upload coupons and photos, which may help catch a searcher’s eye.

You have to remember the information Google has comes from a variety of different sources. Many of which can be very inaccurate. By entering in your information and verifying it you have more control over that information. This means if you enter in your business and go through the steps to pinpoint it on Google’s map that information will translate to anyone searching Google for your business.

There are a few additional tools that Google offers that are great but may go a bit beyond your typical business owner’s ability to use or understand.

Google Base: This is Google’s hosted database platform, where you can upload just about any type of data imaginable and put it into Google’s system. Many local real estate agents are using this heavily. Tis gives them a better shot at visibility when searchers make real estate queries on Google. If you have products or other structured data, this may be a good way to let Google know about it and potentially drive traffic to your site.

Google Website Optimizer: Optimizer is a tool that lets you test various combinations of content on your Web pages. It’s a free tool that lives inside the AdWords system, so you’ll need an account there to use it. What it does is bring the previously high-end mechanics of A/B testing and multivariate testing to small businesses.

As useful and fun as this sounds, chances are you have no idea how to swap content out of your site in this manner to make it effective. This tool is best left to developers and SEO specialists that know what they are doing.

Google Events Calendar: This tools technically falls under Google Apps (something we suggest companies not to use) but it can be pulled out and used separately. Because you can use Google API’s to present the events calendar on your own web site, it becomes a great tool to use. Especially if you company needs to let the customers know where its gonna be. Getting it to work on your site will require some development and a Google Account to request use of the API’s needed. Once its up there it is very very easy to maintain and has a lot of functionality built into it free that you would typically pay for.

With that said, the cost to integrate the calendar into an existing site may not be less than putting a custom calendar into the site with the same functionality.

Google Adwords: This is paid SEO. You can purchase ads, keywords etc. Typically this is just a part of a bigger SEO campaign and is best left to those who know what they are doing. However, it can be done by the company itself. The Adword tools are very simply to understand so just about anyone can pump money to Google for better page positioning. Its the understanding of why and knowing how and where to put your money that makes the difference. If you don’t have any experience or don’t understand SEO tactics, you should probably not use Adwords.

Now that we have gone through the Google offerings you should use, what about the ones you shouldn’t? We are in no way saying these are bad. In fact they are the best things you could get your hands on for Free. However in as a business these should be avoided.

AdSense: If your business is online content publishing, blogging, etc., AdSense can be a great way to earn money. However, thats not we are talking about. We are talking about using it on your companies site to make some extra dollars. This does two very negative things:

* Makes your company look cheap and untrustworthy
* You can’t control the ads so the potential for conflicting ads is high

The idea of selling ads on a corporate/company web site is a big time turn off for users. It shows to them that you really don’t have any idea where or what your web site should be doing and that greatly effects their decision to do business with you. Very rarely are their areas on a company web site that this would work without causing a negativity. Also, with the content on a typical company site being so specific and it never really changes the ads will be “Link” ads which have a very low return. So the money you think you would be making, you really won’t be.

Google Toolbar and Google Reader: These are two different products that are both very popular. Google Toolbar adds functionality to your Web browser, including letting you see the Google PageRank of every page you visit. That alone is reason enough to not use it — small business owners have more important things to worry about than green bars. Google Reader is an RSS feed reader with some cool functionality. But in both cases, each product can be replaced with non-Google products that are plenty adequate, if not better.

The functionality these two give you is built into the latest Browsers and Email Software. You don’t need to add extra weight to your application that potentially slows it down further. The same can be said for the Yahoo Toolbar or tool bars for social media web sites.

Blogger: Small business owners continue to realize the power of a strong business blog. It puts a more human face on your business. It opens up conversations with customers. It’s a great SEO tool if your blog has great content and attracts links. Many small businesses can benefit from starting a company blog. Just don’t do it on Google’s Blogger platform. Why? Because it pales in comparison to WordPress, Movable Type, and other blog software platforms.

You can host Blogger on your site or on blogger.com. This is the same for Wordpress as well. If you are a business using a blog, you must host it on your site and not somewhere else. You don’t want it batched up with everyone’s personal blog or spam blog.

We use Wordpress. We chose this because it worked on our hosting seamlessly and it has a large development community that continually improves the application.

Google Apps: The Web-based collaboration that Google Apps offers can be a real benefit to many small businesses. It’s convenient to have corporate documents available to anyone, anywhere via the Web. But that convenience has a flip side: security/privacy/trust.

Many businesses simply shouldn’t store sensitive company data, customer data, research, etc., on servers owned and maintained by Google (or anyone else). How would your customers react to that? Does your industry even allow it? If you’re wondering how Google protects and handles your data, you can read the “Information Sharing” section of their privacy policy, which outlines the cases when Google might share your information with others.

This includes Gmail, Googles email client. As a company that has a web site your email should be that of your web site domain and not Google. With that said, you are required to have a Gmail account if you are going to use any of Google’s services.

The Wrap Up
Google offers a great deal of services and applications that are incredibly useful to individuals and businesses. However, as we tried to point out in this article they aren’t always beneficial to both. There are a number of Google “things” we didn’t touch on here. We would love to hear from you on which of these you would like us to teach you about. Leave a comment here on this article or send us an email.

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