google-birthday-doodles

Google may be known for search exposure but there’s much more that Google can help your business with. There’s a huge array of info that can help you gain exposure and just help make your business better.

Gmail

Now you can sign up for a Standard account which allows you to use your domain name as your email address. It comes with Google Tools such as Google Docs, Calendar, Chat, Sites, and much more. Here’s some directions to help you get started

Google Alerts

Want to use keywords to help you keep in touch with your industry or products or even watch your own business and how its trending. Google Alerts have so many great uses and applications, it’s truly endless!

Earlier this year, I highlighted some great way to use Google Alerts: http://www.bluedeerblog.com/2010/01/how-to-use-google-alerts-to-track-your-business/

Google Checkout

A great way to process credit cards and allow customers to make purchases. It’s perfect if you are a small business and aren’t selling a lot of items right away.

Google Products

Once knows as Froogle – Google Products is now under the Google Merchant Center. Google has made shopping results more prominent on its search pages. If you have an online store – you should have a Google Product Feed so your products will show up in Google Products Search. Here’s some directions to help you get started!

Google Analytics/Google Webmaster Tools

An awesome free service that provides valuable stats about how Google views and looks over your website. You can see common keywords Google associates with pages or text linked to your site.

Need more tools, checkout this guide to the Top To Google Services for Ecommerce: http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/1696-Ten-Google-Services-to-Help-Your-Ecommerce-Business

Related Posts:

• Google+, is it catering to small businesses and ecommerce?

I promise you, after using Google Alerts, it will change your life – Google Alerts are a simple and free alert that will update you  about something that interests you. Google will send you an email any time a new web page appears in the top 20 web results or top 10 news results for the terms you specify.

Here’s some good things to keep track of:

1. Track your business – I have Google Alerts running for “Blue Deer Designs” and my name. It seems to pop up tweets, ads, and content associated with them.

2. Want to see who is coming to your blog? You can track incoming links to your site.

3. Track your products – this way you can see if there are reviews or tweets about your products and are able to respond to them, if needed.

4. Advanced Searches are a great way to track topics you want to keep your pulse on.

5. Watch your competition. It’s important to see who is writing about them and what kind of news they are sharing.

The following blogs go into more depth and can be handy for setting up your alerts

http://foodblogalliance.com/2009/04/how-to-use-google-alerts—5-quick-ways-to-get-news-about-you-your-blog.php

http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/4203/How-to-Use-Google-Alerts-to-Monitor-Your-Company-s-Online-Presence.aspx

Related Posts:

• A handmade business made from scratch, an inspiring story!