But first, let’s talk Google Search.
We’re all familiar with Google the search engine. We use it each and every day to search for news, images, answers to questions, products, videos etc.
It humbly started in a Stanford dorm-room in 1995, and soon became a global success. Today, Google is the leading search engine delivering more than 3.5 billion search results a day, with a Net worth of $320 billion.
Google has a portfolio of online tools: search, maps, Chrome, translate, images, scholar, email, books, video, earth. So, it’s definitely more than the white screen, text field and bright logo we’re used to seeing – especially for businesses.
So, here’s how Google could benefit your business…
Google Alerts is a service from Google that monitors and generates search engine results, based on criteria set when the alert is created. These results are then sent to your email.
This service is very useful if you want to monitor the web for information relating to your business, products, competitors, areas of interest. It saves you time and keeps your finger on the pulse of your industry.
In a nutshell, Google Ads is an online advertising service for businesses.
There are two ways you can advertise with Google Ads:
When a user clicks on an advert, Google charges the advertiser (you). This can be costly, which is why it’s important to know what you’re doing or seek expert help. However, the ad service does enable you to put in place constraints like maximum cost-per-click (CPC), daily budget etc.
The CPC is determined by the popularity of the keyword or search term that you’re after, along with the total number of bids and quality score.
Your quality score is a ranking, determined by the likelihood of your ad appearing in the sponsored section of the Search Engine Results Page (SERP), its position and the overall campaign cost.
Gmail is a free email service, which is easy to use and secure. It offers a large amount of storage space, which is impressive for a free service.
It is available across all devices and enables you to collaborate and call directly from your inbox.
If your business has a physical location, then ‘Google My Business’ is for you.
‘My Business’ is essentially an online business directory. It’s a free online business profile which can help increase the visibility of your business and generate business reviews.
Your profile will appear in Google searches with your local business reviews, offering potential customers greater insight into your business.
Think about when you purchase an item online. You most probably check reviews or look at the number of stars associated with the item before purchasing. So, in the whole buying process reviews are very important when it comes to closing the deal.
Google Reviews offer you and potential customers valuable information about your business. To potential customers they help your business stand out in the crowd. As a business owner they can help improve, develop and grow your business.
When you have received a review on Google, it will appear alongside your business listing in Maps and Search.
You can request reviews from customers via a short URL, specific to your business. Another great way to generate reviews is to review other businesses. It helps you learn the system and, in some cases, the other business owner may reciprocate.
Google Analytics is a free web analytics tool that tracks, analyses and reports on website traffic. It works by placing some tracking code into the code of your website – it doesn’t affect your website in anyway.
This code then records activities completed by a user on your website. It also tracks various visitor attributors such as; age and gender. Information which is valuable when it comes to running targeted campaigns.
When a user exits your website, all of the information gathered is sent to Google Analytics. It is then collated and segmented based on:
A website is central to most businesses, so it’s important to understand how people are navigating your website, how they’re interacting with your content and what’s contributing to conversion (sale).
Analytics can also attribute website traffic to source and channel, which is very useful when it comes to running marketing campaigns. It also provides keyword stats, which can help with keyword selection in Google Ads.
There are multiple touch-points before purchase, reflective of where a consumer is in buying process. So, it’s important to get the right information in front of them at the right time. The overall aim of this intelligence is to convert these users into customers.
That’s a lot of information to take in and a lot of opportunities to grow your business profile online. As always, we’re here to help and support you – so if you need any further advice get in touch.
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