| Less than seven years ago, a tiny company
of 10 employees launched a web search engine...
Today, that search engine attracts more than 81.9 million
different visitors each month! Of course, the search engine I'm talking about is none
other than Google.com.
Visitors can access Google's web site in over 100 different
languages (including Klingon, Pig Latin, and, a personal favorite, Elmer Fudd).
Search results are generated from over eight billion
indexed web pages and one billion images. And over 50% of the traffic to Google.com comes
from outside the US.
Google has some impressive financial numbers, too. In
mid-August 2004, they went public with their stock opening at $85; less than one year
later, it is trading at just under $300 a share.
They have been profitable month after month. In fact, in
the first quarter of 2005, they made over $1 billion.
Quarterly profits are not what motivate Google, though.
Google is very much focused on long-term development and will forego short-term revenue
for it.
In fact, it's widely reported that when Google first
launched one of their biggest search products, Google News, they forgot to put advertising
on it! They were more focused on developing a high-quality product with the user's best
interests in mind.
As you can imagine, it takes a lot more than 10 employees
to hold down the Google fort these days. As of the end of 2004, Google employed over 3,000
people.
As the company has grown in numbers, it has also grown in
scope. While Google is staying true to its philosophy of "doing one thing really,
really well," it has expanded its reach in all kinds of different directions.
If you haven't looked beyond the clean, simple interface of
Google's main page, you are missing out on a LOT of great services and tools that can help
you enhance your own business.
Google has a huge variety of services, tools, labs, and
advertising avenues that every online entrepreneur should know about. Yet many people are
unaware that Google is so much more than "just" a search engine.
So let's look at some of the key resources you can use to
benefit your online business.
Enhance your business with Google services
The six most well-known services Google offers are easily
accessed from Google's main page. Beyond the main page, there is a wider world of Google
services that are less familiar to most people.
The "more" link on the main page will give you
access to some of them; for others, you'll have to dig a bit deeper...
We'll take a look at the "big six" from the main
page, explaining what they are and how you can use them in your business, and then point
you towards a few of the other services your business can benefit from.
1. WEB SEARCH: http://www.google.com
When people think of Google, web search is what comes to
mind first. Google has harnessed the power of many computers to index eight billion web
pages and then use a complex (and secret!) mathematical formula to determine the relevance
or importance of each page.
When you enter a "keyword" or search term into
the search box, Google searches for web pages containing those words and lists the pages
in order of importance.
As a web site owner, you need to make sure that your own
web site is optimized with keywords, high-quality content, and inbound links so that
Google ranks you above your competitors in search results. For more information on how to
do this, go to:
http://www.MarketingTips.com/newsletters/?article=art_july04
Use Google search to monitor whether or not changes you
make to your web site are helping you beat your competition to the top of the search
results list! But don't expect changes to take effect immediately -- it may take days or
even weeks for your changes to make a difference to your ranking.
2. IMAGES: http://images.google.com
Google caches over one billion images that are searched in
exactly the same way web pages are. Typing your search term in the box and clicking on
"Search Images" gives you thumbnails of images related to the keyword search
term you used.
Each of the thumbnail images is linked back to its original
page, where you can view the larger size. This can save you tons of time in locating an
image that suits your purpose, since you don't need to sort through the standard search
results to find a web page that might contain the image you need.
NOTE: Make sure the image is not protected by copyright
before you download it. And, if one of YOUR images is protected and you prefer that it
does not come up in Google's search results, you can request that it be removed at:
http://www.google.com/remove.html
3. GROUPS: http://groups-beta.google.com
Within Google Groups, you can find communities of people
discussing all kinds of different topics. Any member can join or start a group. This is a
great way for you to discover what your potential customers are interested in.
If, for example, your products promote natural and holistic
health, you might find some great ideas for new products and markets by reading messages
posted in the Natural Health group. You'll read about problems people have, which might
spark a great idea for a way that you can solve that problem with a product of your own.
You can also get the word out about your products to the
targeted audience in the group.
4. NEWS: http://news.google.com
Google News is a terrific way for you to stay on top of
events. You can customize the news you get so that it comes from a specific region or
source. You can also trace a particular story's history to see how it has developed over
time.
These can be really useful and time-saving ways to do
research in your area. Rather than wading through oceans of news, tell Google to give you
news on specific topics from your target area.
Unfortunately, unless you are a news organization yourself,
you can't add your own news story as a way of marketing your product. Press releases don't
show up on Google News either.
5. FROOGLE: http://froogle.google.com
Froogle is a search engine that looks only for products
that are for sale online. It helps buyers find a web site that sells the things they want
to purchase.
The search results are completely "organic"; in
other words, online sellers can't "buy" a higher ranking in the search results
by paying Google more money than a competitor.
If your web site isn't already listed in Froogle's search
results, you'll want to make sure it gets listed because the people who search through
Froogle are there to buy something! You can submit your site at:
https://www.google.com/froogle/merchants/welcome
You can then use Froogle's "Product Feed" to
automatically update your listing every time you make a change to your site. You can --
and should -- submit your product feed regularly so that Froogle always has the most
current information about the products you are selling.
6. LOCAL: http://local.google.com
Google Local is a quick way of limiting your search results
to a specific region.
When you click on the "Local" link on the Google
main page, you get two search boxes labeled "What" and "Where." You
can quickly and easily search for things like local suppliers and potential business
contacts.
In April of this year, Google integrated Local Search with
Keyhole, a 3D mapping technology that gives a local business a "flag" on the map
that accompanies search results.
The businesses that are included in search results are ones
that are already indexed by Google or that exist in one of the databases that Google
accesses, like YellowPages. If your business is not showing up in search results, you can
submit it to Google here:
https://www.google.com/local/add/login
Now, let's move beyond Google's homepage to the wider world
of Google tools and resources.
7. GMAIL: http://gmail.google.com
Gmail is Google's free web-based e-mail service. It offers
2GB of storage space and the ability to send image files up to 10MB in size, which is much
more than any of the other free web mail services offer.
Gmail also offers new ways of storing, organizing, and
archiving e-mail files. But the really unique thing about Gmail is that it
"reads" each e-mail message it receives and matches ads to keywords it finds in
the message. These ads are then displayed alongside the message.
This is a great system for advertisers, of course, because
their ads are being shown to a highly targeted group. Google's Privacy Policy and
sensitivity filters assure Gmail users that their e-mail messages are secure and that the
ads placed beside them will not be in poor taste.
However, Google cannot guarantee that your competitors' ads
won't show up on an e-mail you send to your customers.
Gmail is still in beta, though, and it is likely that the
number of people on your e-mail list who use it is very small.
8. MAPS: http://maps.google.com
Google Maps works in tandem with Google Local, adding an
interactive element to searches by location. You can toggle between street and satellite
views of an area, and you can get directions simply by choosing "Directions" and
typing an address in the search box.
Your customers will easily find your brick-and-mortar
business or the directions to an event you're sponsoring with a link to your own Google
map right on your web site. All you have to do is navigate within Google Maps to the view
you want your customers to see and click "Link to This Page." You'll get a URL
that you can add to your web site's HTML.
You also have the option to embed the map itself on your
site. To do this, you'll need to sign up first: http://www.google.com/apis/maps/. You can
then add functionality and interest to the map on your site by overlaying information
boxes and directional lines.
9. ZEITGEIST: http://www.google.com/press/zeitgeist.html
Google Zeitgeist is a way of keeping on top of patterns,
trends, and surprises in how people search on Google. It gives you a one-page snapshot of
the top-ranked search terms over the past week and month, with links to the search results
pages. "Zeitgeist Around the World" gives you similar tidbits organized by
country.
If you are interested in tracking keyword use related to
the hottest trends online, this is a useful page for you to bookmark. And there are
archives that go back to January 2001, too!
10. PLUS MORE... http://www.google.com/intl/en/options/
There are a lot more Google services to explore! Just for
starters, have a look at Google Print to search the complete text of books, Google Mobile
to search with your cell phone, and University Search to find links to the web sites of
educational institutions.
Save time -- and money! -- with Google's free tools
In addition to its many valuable services, Google offers
you several really useful -- and free! -- tools. You might be using some of them already,
but you might not have considered how to really make them work to enhance your business.
1. TOOLBAR: http://toolbar.google.com
Google's free toolbar is a great way of adding
functionality to your web browser.
It can be a real time-saver as it spellcheckers your URLs
as you type them, autolinks addresses to maps, and jumps to searched words on a page. It
also, of course, puts a handy Google search box right at your disposal, no matter where
you are on the Web!
2. PAGERANK:
If you're familiar with the Google Toolbar, then you know
that PageRank is the green bar and number that give you an instant sense of a web site's
importance (ranked from 0 to 10).
Google determines the "importance" of your site
by monitoring how many other sites link to you and how "important" they are.
PageRank is just one of the indicators (along with relevant links and high-quality
content) that Google uses to place your web pages in search results.
By monitoring your PageRank -- and that of your competitors
-- you can get a general sense of how well-optimized your pages are for search. PageRank
can also indicate the quality of a site you're checking out as a potential link partner.
3. BLOGGER: http://www.blogger.com
Google's free blogging tool is an excellent opportunity for
you to develop a web presence with dynamic content and an RSS feed. The growing importance
of RSS will change how new pages are optimized -- news goes out to readers rather than
readers coming to look for news.
According to a recent issue of Planet Ocean's "Search
Engine Watch," in the not-so-distant future, it will become more important to have
large numbers of sites pulling your RSS feed than it will to have a high rank in search
results. Blogger is an easy way to get the jump on your competition!
Google, itself, uses Blogger for its own blogs -- have a
look at --
* http://www.GoogleBlog.blogspot.com *
http://www.AdWords.blogspot.com * http://www.buzz.blogspot.com *
http://www.code.blogspot.com
4. CODE: http://code.google.com
If you're a bit of a techie, then you'll appreciate Google
Code! This is a site that Google has for external developers who want to try their hand at
improving Google's products.
There are currently several projects that are being
featured, all related to different aspects of projects that are actively being developed
at Google. Google's engineers decide which ones to release as open source for public
development and welcome knowledgeable input.
5. DESKTOP SEARCH: http://desktop.google.com/
Desktop Search is a free tool that you can use to search
your own computer. You can locate files, previously visited web pages, e-mail, and more by
installing Google's search bar on your desktop.
If your business is growing and you want to be able to
search several computers, you can use the free Enterprise edition of the Desktop Search
box.
6. GOOGLE EARTH: http://earth.google.com
For pure fun, you HAVE to take a look at Google Earth. It
lets you swoop around the Grand Canyon, zip over to your old neighborhood, and have a look
at the area around that resort you booked online.
You can zoom in and out and rotate the view. While you
won't be able to see your dog wagging its tail in your backyard, it will give you a great
sense of terrain, architecture, and landmarks.
7. PLUS MORE... http://www.google.com/intl/en/options/
Google offers a number of other tools like Hello, which is
an instant messaging system with images, and Translate, which lets you view web pages in
other languages.
Get a jump on your competition in Google Labs
Google devotes about 70% of its efforts to developing its
web search and targeted ads, which are the core of its business, and about 10% on
developing products -- like Blogger -- that are fun, interesting, and useful, but only
peripherally related to web search.
The remaining 20% of their time and energy is where a lot
of Google's most innovative development comes from.
The company requires its engineers to spend one-fifth of
their time developing their own projects -- things that interest them apart from their
regular jobs -- and this has led to products like Google's desktop search engine,
"search by location," and Gmail.
Unlike many companies, Google is not afraid to let people
"look under its skirt." In other words, you can get a good idea of what Google
is working on and what direction they might take with the services and tools they offer.
Take a look at Google Labs (http://labs.google.com) for
some current examples.
This is where Google showcases what its engineers have been
up to in their "personal project" time. It is also where Google asks you for
your input.
You can try out tools while they are still in the
development stage and give your feedback on how you think they could be improved or
developed -- tools like...
1. SITE FLAVORED SEARCH BOX:
http://www.google.com/services/siteflavored.html
You can put a Google search box on your web site that will
tailor your visitors' searches according to a profile you have predefined.
You provide Google with information about yourself, your
business, etc., and when your visitors use the search box, Google flags certain results as
likely to be more relevant. You have the ability to block your competitors' sites from
being presented in the search results, too.
2. PERSONALIZED SEARCH: http://www.google.com/psearch
Personalized Search orders your search results based on
what you have searched for before.
This can be a real time-saver for a small business owner
who is trying to do market research. You can store and retrieve previous searches, and as
your search history grows, so will the efficiency of your searches.
3. PLUS MORE... http://labs.google.com
Visit Google Labs to see what else is in the pipeline (or
"recently graduated"). There is a ton of useful stuff, and by getting to know
how Google plans to make things better for you -- and your customers -- tomorrow, you can
be better prepared than your competition to take advantage of all of those tools and
services.
Promote your business by advertising with Google
If you're not already advertising with Google, it's time to
get cracking! Because of the massive number of visitors to Google each day, it is a HUGE
source of potential traffic for you.
1. WEB SEARCH:
Just showing up in your potential customers' search results
is the easiest way to use Google for free advertising. You'll need to optimize your web
site to achieve the highest ranking possible.
You may already be aware that you need to spend some time
getting the right keywords on your web site and increasing your "link
popularity." You might not have known that Google looks at the first block of text it
encounters on your web page and uses that for the few lines displayed about your site on
search result pages.
So if you want to get listed and also catch the eye of your
customers, make your first paragraph of text count: It should be roughly 300 words with
about 8% of them being keywords to be most effective.
2. SITEMAPS: http://www.google.com/webmasters/sitemaps
Google's spiders constantly index web pages, and it is
impossible to predict accurately when they will visit your site.
If you have paid attention to optimization for search, then
they WILL crawl your pages. However, you cannot be sure that they have indexed ALL of your
web pages -- they might index just part of your site on one visit. And since they start at
the top of a page and work down, they might not even index the entire page before moving
on!
One thing you can do to increase the likelihood of your
entire site being searchable is to submit your site to Google Sitemaps. There are several
ways to do this; for an overview go to:
http://www.google.com/webmasters/sitemaps/docs/en/overview.html
When you do this, Google creates and stores an XML file
that allows for instant updates and indexing whenever your site's content changes. This is
like having your own data cable running from your computer directly to Google!
3. ADSENSE: http://www.google.com/adsense
AdSense is one of the two kinds of advertising avenues
Google offers. The ads generated through AdSense are third-party ads that sit on your web
site. The program is free for you to use AND you make money each time someone clicks on an
ad to move off of your web site.
In other words, these ads entice your visitors away from
your site (bad thing), but you are compensated each time that happens (good thing).
Google matches the ads to your site by finding similarities
in the keywords of each. You can set a filter to prevent your competitors' ads from
appearing on your web site, and you can customize the appearance of the ads so that their
background color is the same as your site's, making them look more like informative
content than sales pitches.
Try testing Google AdSense on your site to see if it
negatively affects your traffic and sales. If it doesn't, then you've just found a new
revenue stream!
How much will you earn? That depends partly on how much the
advertisers are paying Google for the keywords and partly on how many people click through
the ads on your site.
You could earn anywhere between $0.03 and $15.00 per click
and up to several hundred dollars a day if you have a well-optimized site that draws lots
of targeted traffic.
4. ADWORDS: http://www.google.com/adwords
The second of Google's advertising opportunities is
AdWords. These are ads that you create to promote your business and that Google places on
other sites for you.
There are three main places that you will see AdWord ads --
* On the right side of the page next to Google's
"organic" search results * On other sites as AdSense ads * Alongside your e-mail
messages in Gmail
When you create your AdWord ads, you are in control of how
much they cost. You decide how much you are willing to pay for specific keywords in your
ads, and each time your ad is clicked you pay that amount.
The amount ranges from a minimum of $0.05 to a maximum of
$100, and you can set a daily budget that will not be exceeded.
Google uses the keywords you chose to place your ads on
sites that have content relevant to yours, so you can be assured that the traffic you are
paying for is highly targeted. AdWords reach 80% of Internet users AND you can define
their target region and language.
If you're wary about using AdWords because of the
possibility of your ads appearing on sites that do not convert to sales for you, you can
apply a "negative filter" when creating your ad to exclude specific sites.
Of course, you'll need to test whether your advertising
investment is making money for you. If the click-through traffic is not converting to
sales, if your traffic drops off, or if a particular keyword is not drawing the traffic --
and sales -- you had hoped for, it is time to rework your ads.
Monitor Google -- and your site's Google ranking -- with
other tools
We shouldn't always take a company's word for it about what
they offer. It's always wise to get a second opinion or look to the experts to see what
the buzz is about a company's products.
Using Google is no different, and there are a large number
of ways that you can discover who is saying what about Google's plans and products. There
are also a lot of people who provide tools and services that supplement Google's, and
these, too, are worth knowing about.
Let's look at a few examples...
1. GOOGLE ADVISOR: http://googleadvisor.org
This is a blog that focuses on AdSense, AdWords, and
PageRank strategies. For information, tips, tricks, and strategies related to Google, this
site is a good first stop.
2. GOOGLE RANKINGS:
http://www.googlerankings.com/ultimate_seo_tool.php
This site gives you a free tool for checking your keywords.
You can enter your site's URL and get a report about your keyword density. You can then
check how highly Google ranks your site for each of the keywords.
3. GOOGLE GUIDE: http://www.googleguide.com
This site offers guides for both novice and experienced
users. Experienced users can find out about creating a web site, including tips on
PageRank, getting listed, and advertising revenue.
In addition, don't forget to "google" for blogs,
resources, and news about Google. That's always a sure way of coming up with great ideas!
Final thoughts
You know you've really made it when your company name is
turned into a verb. "Let me google that" is part of our everyday speech -- and
the verb "to google" has even been added to the Webster's dictionary!
From tiny beginnings not that long ago, Google has had a
huge impact, not only on how we search the Web, but also on how we talk about it. Google
has become synonymous with online information.
And there is much more to Google! In fact, we're barely
scratching the surface of some of Google's most recent advancements here -- not to mention
the complexities of improving your ranking in Google's search results...
There is a ton more information on search engine
optimization with Google in our "Insider Secrets" course. Just go to:
http://www.marketingtips.com/tipsltr.html
Be sure to check out the sections on AdWords, AdSense, and
tips for optimizing your site for Google in particular. We'll walk you through the tricky
bits and point out the hidden gems that you can use to ensure you are coming out ahead of
your competitors.
Above all, remember Google's philosophy: "Focus on the
user, and all else will follow." Every step of your business should be about solving
a problem for your customer.
Google's services and tools will help you achieve that.
Copyright 1996-2005 by The Internet Marketing Center. All
rights reserved. |
