Google's top 10 tools to help IMPROVE your seo
If there’s one thing Google does really well, it provides free tools for marketers and business owner alike to help optimise their websites. The best thing about using Googles free services, besides the fact that they’re free, is that they’re operated by Google, which means only one login!
We’ve put together this list of Google’s top 10 tools to help improve your SEO. If you’re a small business owner looking to maximise your website’s performance or you’re an agency wanted to get the most out of Googles services take a look at our 10 favourite Google tools.
- Google Analytics
- Google Keyword Planner
- Google Trends
- Google Page Speed Test
- Mobile-Friendly Test
- Google Search Console
- Test My Site
- Google My Business
- Google Adwords
- Youtube
Possibly one of the most powerful tools that Google has to offer is Google Analytics, you can learn everything you need to know about your visitors and how to best optimise your site; Google Analytics can provide:
- Audience information – their location and country, their language
- What device their using; mobile or desktop for example
- What operating system they are using
- Keyword performance
These are just some basic bits of information you can get from Google Analytics, plus like most of Googles services, it’s free, so there’s not an excuse!
If you are struggling to come up with some ideas for keywords, then let Google do the hard work for you. When you enter a keyword into the search bar, it automatically generates keyword suggestions for you to choose from and tells you their popularity in addition to how much competition there is for that keyword. For example, we have used the keyword ‘SEO’ and can see that other keywords could be ‘SEO Marketing’ or ‘SEO services’.
Trends is one of our favourite tools to use from Google. Once you have some ideas for keywords that you would like to use, you can test them against each other to see which ones are most popular. Keeping with the SEO example, we can see that ‘SEO Services’ consistently ranks better than ‘SEO Marketing’, we might choose to use this keyword first.
Whilst Google hasn’t told us everything about how their algorithm works, one thing we know for sure is that speed matters, all you have to do is enter your websites URL, and then Google will produce a report or how good your site speed is, they also give you plenty recommendations of how to fix any issues.
A little snippet from Google developer docs “To simplify, we’ll be switching to mobile-first indexing for all websites starting September 2020”. As a result, websites need to make sure they are mobile-friendly to stand any chance at climbing up to search engine ranks. Luckily Google has a free tool to check exactly that, all you need to do is enter your URL and you’ll get your answer.
Google search console is another great analytics tool that Google provide for free. Search console allows you to monitor and maintain your site’s performance in the search results, as well as show you any issues that you may have encountered.
Another really easy to use tool that takes your website URL and produces a report right to your inbox. The report is heavily focused on page speed so this is an awesome too, to use alongside the Google Page Speed Test.
GMB is an absolute must-have for any business wanting to maximise search engine page results. It is a local business directory that will significantly improve your local SEO, for example, if Google knows your email, phone number and address they can provide it seamlessly with searchers. GMB is particularly important for mobile device users. A search on a mobile device in London for “Local Plumber” will return plumbers that are local to London. That’s because those businesses have told Google, via GMB that they are based in London, hence, better local SEO.
Okay, so these are actually two completely different services but we’ve combined them as they both relate to ads.
Have you ever wondered if you could make some extra money displaying an add at the top of your website? Well, that’s Adsense! The amount you earn depends on the topic and the amount of traffic but if used correctly and not too overpowering, adverts could be a great additional income.
On the other hand, if you’ve ever thought about advertising your services you’ll need Adwords. Google make setting up ads a breeze. All you need to do it choose the right keywords and bid on them. Then sit back and watch the visitors come rolling in!
Video marketing has boomed in recent years, and if you want to dominate the video market. Not only does a video on YouTube have the potential to be viewed millions of times, videos that answer specific search queries get prime real estate on the results page, usually raking up the top spots!
There you have it, our list of Google’s top 10 tools to help improve your SEO. If you would like more help with improving your SEO check out our FREE SEO Analyser.