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Despite this dominating presence, many people still don’t realize Google offers some excellent frëe marketing tools for marketers and webmasters. Marketing tools which can prove extremely valuable to any webmaster or marketer trying to promote their sites or products online. Useful tools that will make your promotions easier and much more profitable.

Don’t be fooled by the ‘frëe’ label, these marketing tools might be frëe, but they are also valuable. One even wonders why Google would be giving away these tools and services for frëe? It probably makes good business sense in the long run, by providing these frëe tools Google is fostering a lot of company good-will and building up the Google brand name in the process. Good PR is good business.

Every marketer and webmaster should be taking advantage of Google’s good-will and snapping up these professionally run services and marketing tools. Here’s a quick run-down of the 10 most valuable frëe Google Internet marketing tools:

1. Google Analytics

Perhaps the premier marketing tool offered by Google. It will prove helpful to both the marketer and the webmaster. Google Analytics gives you a daily snapshot of your web site. Google Analytics analyzes your traffíc, where it comes from and what it does once it enters your site. You can monitor up to three sites for frëe.

Google Analytics is extremely valuable in analyzing your marketing funnel. It tracks all the steps leading up to your salës or checkout page. Vital information for raising your conversion rate and ROI.

You may be placed on a waiting list for this highly in demand service from Google.

LINK: http://www.google.com/analytics/

2. Google Sitemaps

Webmasters can use Google Sitemaps to almost instantly place newly created pages on their site into the Google Search Index. This is an XML file that is uploaded to Google as new pages are added on your site. Needless to say this can be a valuable service for any webmaster or marketer who wants to get their information on the web quickly.

LINK: https://www.google.com/webmasters/sitemaps/docs/en/about.html

3. Google Alerts

Be notified when someone, or another site, lists your site or mentions your name. Great way to keep track of all your online activities. Great way to monitor all your online business interests and products.

LINK: http://www.google.com/alerts

4. Google Froogle

Froogle is Google’s price directory! It simply lists all the cheapest prices for different products on the web. For marketers and webmasters who are promoting products, it should be studied and analyzed. Optimizing your site’s content for Froogle may prove to be very beneficial.

Follow Froogle or Google directions exactly on how to list or display products on your site. Froogle will spider your site and display your prices and products to thousands of targeted customers. That, as they say, is priceless.

LINK: http://froogle.google.com/

5. Google Checkout

Not exactly frëe but for those marketers who use AdWords – for every $1 spent on AdWords you can process $10 for frëe. You can also place the shopping cart logo on your AdWords ad and take advantage of the prestige and trust the Google brand name has built up.

Over time marketers may find this tool to be very effective and valuable.

LINK: https://checkout.google.com/

6. Google eBlogger

Blogging has become vitally important to the health and functioning of your web site. No site should be without at least one blog and RSS feed. Creating a blog (online journal) on the topic of your web site or product will bring in extra traffíc and targeted customers. eBlogger is a simple frëe blogging service that even lets you publish or post your blog files to your own web site server. Keep in mind, each blog has that all important Google Blog Search bar.

LINK: http://www.blogger.com/

7. Google Toolbar – Enterprise Version

Try the new enterprise version of the Google Toolbar for your company or business. Integrates countless features with all your employees or corporate network. These could include a common customer database, company calendar, financial news…

Keep in mind, Google also ranks every page it indexes on a scale of 0-10. While it is important to know the Page Rank of your own pages, it is even more important to know the PR of your competitor’s pages. You can use the toolbar to get the PR of each page you’re visiting. Extremely helpful information for webmasters and marketers to know when forming online linking or business arrangements.

LINK: http://toolbar.google.com/T4/enterprise/

8. Google Groups

Every marketer knows the importance of having a large contact list of people with a similar interest. Social networking will play an ever increasing role in your success on the web. Just look at the growing popularity of sites like MySpace and LiveJournal.

Google groups is another form of social and business networking that every marketer should be aware of and pursuing.

LINK: http://groups.google.com/

9. Google Adsense

One simple way to monetize your web content is to use Google Adsense. Just place the Adsense code on your site and receive a chëck from Google each month. For webmasters who are not really into online marketing (do such creatures exist?), Adsense can be a painless way to earn extra income from your site.

For professional marketers using the Adsense system can supply a tremendous amount of marketing information on the keywords in their particular niche. It keeps the marketer informed on what keywords are being bid on and how much advertisers are willing to pay.

Adsense also has an excellent real-time tracking system you can use to keep track of all your important web pages.

LINK: https://www.google.com/adsense/

10. Google Writely

A recent addition to Google’s stable of frëe products. Writely is a full featured online writing editor with spellcheck and great collaborating features. It also lets you publish your content directly to your blogs. One feature that may be of interest to marketers – it lets you save files in the popular download format of PDF.

Lets face it, until video takes over the web in four or five years time – the written word is still king on the net. It is the medium that markets, promotes and sells your content or products. Writely will help you write better.

LINK: http://www.writely.com

Honorable Mention – Google Trends

This Google program will let you search popular trends, important for marketers searching for the latest hot product to promote. You can also break down these trends by different regions.

LINK: http://www.google.com/trends

Final Note

Please take note that signing up for a Google account will usually help you in obtaining most of these frëe services or programs. Some of these programs may have to be applied for individually. But be assured, all these frëe Google marketing tools are well worth your time and effort. They will make your marketing easier and they will help any webmaster or marketer run their online business more efficiently.

About The Author
The author is a full-time online marketer who runs numerous web sites, including two sites on Internet marketing. For the latest web marketing tools try: BizwareMagic.com. Everyone is profiting from Google, why not you? Go here: www.bizwaremagic.com/Google_Cash_File.htm.
2006 Titus Hoskins. This article may be freely distributed if this resource box stays attached.

1. Good Old Fashioned Networking

The first thing you should do is contact the webmasters of the sites in question with a polite request for removal of negative comments. There’s a good chance they’ll be willing to co-operate. Note that, even if they do remove the listing, the cached pages may remain in the search engine indexes for some time. But users who clíck through the search engine results will land on a page with the comments removed.

Chëck out some of the sites that already have something good to say about you. Send them an appreciation note, and offer them a link back from your site. You could even create a special page called “Gary’s Garage On The Web” (if that’s the name of your business) or “Press Room.”

2. Tap Into the Power of Wiki

Wiki websites allow users not only to add their own content, but also edit pages. They get their name from the Hawaiian word “wiki wiki” meaning “rapidly.” There are many wiki pages like AboutUs.org and LoveToKnow.com that you can use to create content about your company. If your company name is “notable” enough, you might also be able to create a page in Wikipedia.

3. Raise Your Profile

Some websites like PR.com allow you to post your company’s profile. An annual fee might be required. It’s not easy to find these sites, but you may find some opportunities by searching your competitors’ names and discovering where they are listed.

4. Become A Socialite

Using social bookmark sites like Netvous and Del.icio.us is an easy way to add content through the web. You can create an account for yourself that bookmarks all of your positive press, and anything interesting on your website, such as articles or videos. Or create a photo gallery in Flickr. The links themselves are not given much weíght by search engines, but you have an opportuníty to use your company name in the titles and descriptions of your bookmarks and photos. Make sure you make good use of the tagging feature, using general keywords as these will also begin to rank for your name. For example, Gary’s Garage should tag: “Garys Garage,” “garage,” “autobody,” “mechanic,” “mechanics,” “body shop,” “car,” “auto body” and so on.

5. Become A Lensmaster

A company blog is certain to rank well, and it’s easier than ever to create one with Squidoo.com. When you create a “lens” for your site, you can easily upload pictures and also make use of tags. Unlike other blogs, Squidoo won’t show the posting date, so your lens won’t look neglected if you ever stop posting. You can build your blog’s link popularity by submitting it to blog directories like LSBlogs and BlogHub, and linking to it from your site.

6. Write!

Articles can help you kill three birds with one stone. Not only can articles rank for your company name, they also build valuable backlinks to your site and position you as an expert in your field. You can use your company name in the resource box at the end of an article along with a link back to your site. Using your company name in the article body gives it a better chance of ranking well. You can research potential sites to submit your article to by searching for one of your industry keywords in a search engine like this: “car mechanics” + “submit article.” Or submit it to various article directories like Article Alley.

7. Encourage Testimoníals

If you have customers who have given you positive feedback or provided testímonials for your site, you could ask them to write a review for you on a website like Epinions.com, CoffeeGeek.com or ConsumerReview.com.

8. Explore Shopping Engines

If you sell products online, consider listing them in comparison shopping sites, or “shopping engines” like Shopping.com, Bizrate or Nextag . If you are not ready to manage a new e-commerce channel for many products, you might consider listing one product in one engine to start.

9. Use Directories For Deep Links

Search engines still consider a page’s number of relevant backlinks to be a strong indicator of quality and relevance to a search term. Octopedia, WorldSiteIndex and Microsoft’s Small Business Directory are a few examples of solid directories that allow you to link to deeper pages of your own site, like your About Us page, to help raise their rankings for your company name.

10. Post An E-Help Wanted Sign

Leverage the strength of sites like Craigslist.org to post your company’s current job offerings. Make sure you use your company name first in the posting headline: “Gary’s Garage Now Hiring Junior Grease Monkeys,” for example. This will ensure the title tag for that page is optimized, which is very helpful for SEO. And make sure to describe your company in the ad, repeating your name three or four times.

Tracking Results

I strongly recommend setting up an account with Google Alerts (free) which monitors the top 50 results, or with Google Alert, a professional tracking system that will monitor the top 200 results for you for as little as $4.95/month. You will be notified daily when new references to your name have been found in Google – not only to see when your articles, profile pages, blog posts and so on get indexed, but also to keep on top of any new negative or positive references to your name outside of your own reputation management efforts.

How Long Will This Take?

Results may vary but they won’t come overnight. You will get out of your reputation management efforts what you put in. It could take anywhere from a few months to a year.

Conclusion

These ideas are not exhaustive. You may come across your own tactics on your own through competitor research or your own ingeniousness. If you are not familiar with SEO, consider hiring a consulting firm skilled in copywriting and public relations. The key is to look at reputation management as a long term activity and to take advantage of all the options you have to keep the search engine results positive.

About The Author
Linda Bustos is the Marketing Director for Image X Media, a Vancouver web design and Internet marketing firm.

1. 404 Error Pages

The dreaded 404 page is something that almost everyone has encountered in their online journeys. The most common reasons for landing on a 404 page include:

- a mis-typed URL
- an out-of-date bookmark
- a search engine link that is out-of-date
- an internal broken link that the webmaster hasn’t noticed

Surveys suggest that approximately 40% of users who run into a 404 Page Not Found error will leave your site, nevër to return.

However, as a webmaster, these pages should be customized in order to help the user find their way back to your website. To create your own customized 404 page, keep the following guidelines in mind.

• Provide an explanation of what went wrong. A nice way to apologize would be to offer them a frëe report. By using this technique, your visitors will not only be impressed by your creativity, but you can also collect their name and email adress at the same time.
• Provide a link to the site map. By redirecting them to your sitemap, they should be able to quickly and easily find what they are looking for.
• Provide a search box for users to target in on exactly what they originally came for.
• Use minimal navigation. This is not the place to put your entire site navigation. You simply want to pull them back into your website so that you are not losing any of your potential customers.

Some Good Examples of 404 error pages can be found at:

http://www.lockergnome.com/404
http://www.fool.com/error

2. Exit Strategies

Did you know that on average only 1 – 2% of your visitors will actually buy your product. This means that approximately 98% of your visitors are leaving your website without buying. Most of them will nevër return.

Fortunately, there is a way to tweak your website in order to take advantage of this lost traffíc.

You can salvage much of this traffíc through the use of exit pop-ups. Now, you may feel that these are outdated and annoying, but testing has shown that they work.

So, the next time that your visitor clicks on the back button, present them with a pop-up that will offer them a frëe report. By implementing this technique, you will be able to capture the name and email of many of your website visitors, allowing you to contact them in the future with additional information and product offers.

You can also use an exit pop-up to survey your visitors. Find out exactly why they didn’t buy or what type of information would have made them more interested. This priceless information can help you to improve your marketing techniques and increase your conversion rate.

3. Thank You Pages

Did you know that the “Thank You” page (the page you display after someone subscribes to your newsletter or buys your product) is one of the most responsive pages on your website?

The Thank You page provides a prime opportuníty for promoting some of your other products and/or services.

You can use this space to easily increase your online profíts. For example, why not use the following message on your thank you page after someone has subscribed to your newsletter.

“Thank you for subscribing to my newsletter. Remember to chëck your inbox for your first issue.

In the meantime, I would like to introduce you to a product that I highly recommend for increasing your website traffíc at ….”

This is an easy way to send traffíc to an affilíate link so you can earn some additional revenue from what is often unused advertising space.

You can use this same technique for your order form confirmation pages. Thank the customer for their order and recommend they chëck out a related product. You could also offer an upsell to a higher-end version of the same product. Don’t take this space for granted. Order confirmation pages are some of the most highly responsive real estate on your site because the customer already has their credít card in hand.

Another great technique is exchanging thank-you pages with other web sites.

For example, if you have a website about fitness and you know of another website that caters to a similar audience, you can partner up and exchange advertising. To do this, you would promote the other person’s service or product on your own thank you page. By partnering together, you can both attract many more clients and/or additional salës.

4. Email Messages

If you are not regularly sending out an email newsletter, then you are failing to capitalize on existing traffíc. Delivering your own ezine allows you to make additional profít from the traffíc you are already receiving. Simply place an opt-ín box on your website and start collecting the names and addresses of your website visitors.

Of course, you will also need to offer them some valuable info in exchange for their name and email. A frëe report often works extremely well for this.

However, starting your own newsletter is just the beginning. You must also use this priceless space to optimize your revenue streams.

To produce additional profít from your email campaigns, simply place a small text box in each of your outgoing emails promoting one of your products or an affilíate product.

This is very similar to advertising, except you are placing your own internal ads instead of advertising for others. This is an extremely simple technique that many people miss out on. This one change can instantly produce additional salës, increased affilíate commissions, and more opt-ins for other lists you want to promote.

A small ad can be placed in a number of spots, including:

Order Confirmation Emails: Anytime someone orders from you, they should be receiving an email receipt to confirm their purchase. This is also the perfect time to promote a related product or service. People are much more likely to order when they are in the buying mood and already have their credít card out. This is why upsells and thank you page offers are so powerful.

“Thank you” emails: Whenever you send out a confirmation email to people who subscribe to your ezine, you should also be including some sort of promotion or ad within the email.

This is also the perfect time to offer them some “recommended reading” (i.e. affilíate links) If they have subscribed to your ezine, then they are obviously looking for additional information about a particular topic, so why not offer them some additional resources to help them in their quest for knowledge. These recommendations can be ebooks, membership sites, or even another newsletter that you operate.

Remember, your prospects are looking for products to fill their needs. If they don’t buy from you they will simply buy from someone else.

Unsubscribe emails: Do you send an email to confirm that someone has been unsubscribed after their request? If not, you should. This is a great opportuníty to make one last offer. Or, if you simply want to find out more about your departing subscribers, you could set up a survey to find out why they unsubscribed and how you can make the newsletter better.

Take a close look at your own web site and marketing process and start finding places that are not optimized to their fullest potential. Almost every website online has wasted space that could be optimized for promoting additional products.

Take action now so that your space no longer goes to waste.

About The Author
Kim Roach is a staff writer and editor for the SiteProNews and SEO-News newsletters. You can also find additional tips and news on webmaster and SEO topics by Kim at the SiteProNews blog. Kim’s email is: kim @ seo-news.com