Online entrepreneurs and business builders alike – there is a suite of free online tools that’s as powerful as any, and perhaps the most relevant. In fact, if you didn’t at least learn about them – you’d be a fool!

I’m referring to the tools that Google offers, a wide variety of resources for anyone looking to succeed online. Where else could you get such a powerful suite of tools? Only from the most diverse and by far the most used search engine, Google.

The Tools You Need for Successful Online Marketing

Google Analytics

This is the first service any webmaster should add to their arsenal. Google Analytics provides tracking and monitoring of website traffic, including a wide array of important data – like sources, referring urls, network locations and even geographic maps.

Tracking and understanding the visitors your website is often the key in tweaking your content to perfection. Learn where they come from, why they are there, and find out what they like and dislike through trial and error. Google Analytics is more than just a way to track visitors – its feedback, and everyone can use some feedback.

Google Keyword Tool

I love the keyword tool, it makes my life endlessly easier. Let’s pretend you’re building a new webpage or blog that we’re going to base on “Small Business Marketing.” Imagine knowing the exact number of times that “small business marketing” was searched in Google, as a monthly average – in addition to all of the related keywords. That is the power of Google Analytics.

One main reason for conducting any marketing research is to gain confidence in your marketing decisions. When you’re competing online, this can be one of the most powerful marketing research tools you’ll ever come across. Check out my comprehensive post for more information: Your Guide to Google AdWords Keyword Tool – Defining Your Market Online

Google Webmaster Tools

If you want to take your website to the next level, and effectively research the optimization of your site – this is a must have. The webmaster tools are really effective at giving feedback on your site, from the view of a Google spider.

Using the webmaster tools allows you to optimize your site for indexing, explore your search queries and link backs, and even submit sitemaps. If you plan to ever achieve a top position on Google, you will find this to be a key step in your journey.

Google AdWords

Whether you’re looking for a boost to your visitor base or jump start a new blog, you can target your customers though keywords and demographics using Google AdWords ads. This service is not free, but it’s based on a pay-per click model that will deplete your account balance based on results.

There are complete reference guides on optimizing your AdWords ads to be cost-effective, countless articles and blog posts on the net – all of which you need to take advantage of. Mastering a pay-per click method of advertising is a great way to reach new audiences, boost sales, or market your new clients product-based website.

Google Trends

This service is still in development at the Google Labs, however its current state is nothing short of insightful – providing an in-depth look at keyword and demographic trends in Google. I’m not sure – since I don’t keep a tally – but dozens of my niche ideas have been generated from rising trends, breakthrough keywords and demographic search trend data.

It Doesn’t Stop There - There is Probably a Google Product to Meet Your Need.

These are my favourite Google tools, and you owe it to yourself to check them out. In addition Google provides numerous tools, and they are continually developing innovative products in the labs. Other tools in the Google suite that you can check out are:

- Google Adsense: Put AdWords ads on your site, and you can earn a portion of the revenue generated through the PPC (pay-per-click) model.

-Feedburner: Google’s acquisition of feedburner is a welcomed addition to the suite of tools. Track your audience, the number of bookmarks, times your page was shared, and how many people have subscribed to your RSS feeds.

-Google Insights for Search: With Google Insights for Search, you can compare search volume patterns across specific regions, categories, and time frames. This particular service is still in the beta phase of development, but look for big things from this one.

-Google Mail(Gmail): While I’ve never used the Google Mail server for my websites, I have worked for companies that have. If you’re looking for a great way to launch company email accounts, this is your answer. It’s free, reliable, and you can easily setup the email to synchronize with your Outlook Express or other email software.

The message is pretty clear, Google is a big search engine. They have lots of data, a massive group of cutting-edge developers and programmers, and they have the ability and the budget to offer powerful resources for free.

Why would they offer these for free? Maybe it’s for brand awareness, maybe it’s to keep visitors or maybe it’s simply to stay ahead of the game – but one thing is for sure, I’m not going to miss out.