1. Google Analytics
In this digital age, the importance of data to a business/website should never be underestimated. In fact, without proper tracking of website traffic, a business is literally lost, especially when it comes to how to optimize the website and make full use of it.
Whether your website is run in the form of a personal blog, news portal, business or corporate page, e-commerce store, Google Analytics is considered an essential tool for every website. The more you use this highly powerful Google tool, the bigger advantage you have.
Google Analytics is a web analytics service offered by Google that tracks and reports website traffic. You can create goals and conversion tracking to get the most of your analytics information and use it to improve your website’s content, user experience and optimization for better online sales.
2. Google Data Studio
You might be overwhelmed by all the amount of data shown in Google Analytics. Sometimes you just need a simple report with a chart, graph or pie to summarize the performance of your website.
Here is a free tool from Google called Google Data Studio, which gives you everything you need to turn your analytics data into informative, easy-to-understand reports through data visualization.
3. Google Search Console
Previously known as Google Webmaster Tools, now rebranded to Google Search Console, this free web service is designed for webmasters. It allows you to check the indexing status and optimize the visibility of your websites.
This free tool is a MUST for Search Engine Optimization (SEO). The power to track your site’s search performance is the most precious data to understand what the audiences want for your site.
Once the website is tracked by Google, you’ll be able to view your organic search results right alongside the performance statistics for the organic search queries.
This information helps you better understand how paid text ads and organic search results work together. If you analyze deeply enough, you will find many opportunities like identify relevant search queries that have low organic traffic volume and target these keywords in Google AdWords.
4. Google My Business
Are you operating a brick and mortar business? If you are, this free tools from Google are one of the most local SEO strategies to strengthen your website. Google My Business is a powerful tool for businesses and organizations to manage their online presence across Google, like Google Search and Google Maps.
Make sure all the listed information is correct, up-to-date and reflect your business. Remember, that info will appear when people search for your office or physical store via Waze or Google Map. We often see some of the business hasn’t updated their address, phone number and business hours to the latest.
5. Google Keyword Planner
Building a website without keyword research is exhausting and time wasting in long-term. In order to reach the right customers with the right keywords, you should use Google Keyword Planner to discover relevant keywords. Inserting those keywords into your website will ensure your content remains relevant.
It’s completely free, you can find new keyword ideas that are relevant to your product, service and target customers. Keyword planner will show you the search volume data in historical statistics which is one of the most important key factors for your website. The data from keywords ideas is a useful tool for SEO to your website.
6. Google Tag Manager
This free tool helps you update tags and code snippets on your website and the mobile app quickly and easily. You can insert JavaScript and HTML tags used for tracking and analytics on websites in Tag Manager without touching the back end of the website.
7. Test My Site from Think With Google
In order to rank well in mobile Google Search, your website should have fast loading speed and a mobile-optimized website. Use the Test My Site tool from Think with Google to check your website score on mobile performance. After a few minutes, you will receive recommendations on improving website performance across all devices.
8. Google PageSpeed Insight
If you have web developers or web designers that really want to understand the factors to increase your website speed, give PageSpeed Insights Tool a try and check your score on your website’s speed and optimization.
The latest version now shows the data from your First Contentful Point (FCP), the measurement when a user sees a visual response from the page. DOM Content Loaded (DCL), as well as the measurement when HTML document has been loaded and parsed.
9. Google Trends
You can search anything via Google Trends and even narrow down to specific country or category. This tool is used to identify latest trends or viral news in your location.
Ideally, once you identified a trend, you can craft new blog posts, new promotions or ideas that reflect the said trend.
10. Google Alert
If you want to be aware of a particular topic and all the related information you can have them all automatically delivered to you with Google Alert and get notified every time when your keywords or phrases have new updates.
Google Alert is good for simple keyword monitoring, with updated on every mention of those keywords being sent to your email inbox for almost real-time notification. Of course, you can choose the frequency at which you’ll receive them – once per day, once per week or even get them as they just happen.
These are the 10 must-have free Google tools to improve the performance of your website. Make full use of all tools from an analysis, research or monitoring to achieve great success for your website.