Google Tools

by Maggi Hall, E-Commerce Adviser staff (rev030508)

Search Engine Optimization Tools

Google Adwords -- Keyword Tool External This keyword tool supplies information about the competition for keywords and phrases, plus the frequency of searches for keywords and phases. While the tools is related to Google's Adword, which is a Pay Per Click (PPC) program, it is also useful for getting an idea of keyword in general. When the competition for top PPC positions is tough, it will also be for top "natural" search page positioning.

The tools can work with keywords you enter or can generate a list of keywords from a specific web page and web pages linked a specific web page. This tools is useful for analyzing your existing website, proposed text for a new web page and your competitions website.

Google Search Trends Search trends will show the change in popularity of keywords and phases of time and by location.

ROI and Activity Monitoring Tools

Google Analytics This free tool allow you to monitor website activity. Some of the features are similar to hosting service activity reports, such as Awstats and Webalizer. In addition, Google Analytics offers goal conversion tracking. That is, it measures primary metric to determine how well your site fulfills business objectives. A goal is a website page which a visitor reaches once they have made a purchase or completed another desired action, such as a registration or download.

Google Webmaster Tools: Tools to make your site more Google-friendly. Get Google's view of your website, and diagnose potential problems. See how Google crawls and indexes your site and learn about specific problems we're having accessing it. See how your site is performing. Learn which queries drive traffic to your site, and see exactly how users arrive there.

Translation Tools

Google Web Page Translations Google includes the web page translations in its assessment of a website and provides this tool to create translations.