A Growth Hacker’s Guide to Google

‘Google it’ has become the catchphrase of my generation. When you forget what a word means, when you’ve found a gap in your general knowledge or even when you want to see what your house looks like from street view, ‘ Google it.’ The site is used for 100 billion searches every month and from a marketers perspective this couldn’t really get more exciting. If your webpage reaches the top of the results for even a fraction of these searches, your prospects are looking good.

But when you start thinking about digital Marketing, Google has much more to offer than its search engine. With 90% of its revenue credited to advertising it’s no surprise that there is a galaxy of Google products ready to help your business grow.

Here are my top ten:

1. Youtube: The second largest search engine after guess who? No surprises there, google. I’m embarrassed to say I didn’t realise that YouTube was owned by the company, however with 1 billion different users every month this is definitely an area to expand into. Promoting, creating, and sharing videos whether to showcase your products or to simply give tutorials adds diversity to your marketing strategy.
2. Google Analytics: This was one of the first pieces of software I was shown as a marketer and is used by around 50% of websites. It will give you the data you need to ensure you’re going in the right direction: bounce rate, page views, metrics, etc. From this you can pinpoint which areas are in need of improvement and begin to move forward.
3. Google Adwords: Despite the potential of getting a tad costly ppc is a great way to boost growth. Create adverts with keywords corresponding to your business, these will show up in search results and you’ll pay depending on how many people click on your advert.
4. Google My Business: By signing up you’ll make it as easy as possible for customers to find you. This tool puts you and your business details on the map increasing your visibility.
5. Google Drive: This is more for behind the scenes but remaining organized is essential to a growing business. With the drive anyone of your choice can access your files from any device without jeopardizing the security of the site.
6. Google Trends: By finding out what people are searching for at the moment you can create a foundation for the content of your webpages and build a larger audience. When used effectively you’ll be able to search for and harness emerging trends and whether you’ve chosen the right keywords across your site.
7. Google Alerts: Keeping updated with the topics that interest you and equivalently those that attract your readers is vital for a contemporary website. Google will send email notifications when new information has been found; this is great for new blog-posts.
8. Google Calendar: Scheduling is key to your marketing strategy. Logging when and what you are going to post will keep you organized and up to date with any progress.
9. Google FeedBurner: This tool gives your visitors the opportunity to subscribe to any updates you make; usually on a blog. Through doing this you can maintain a loyalty among your user base and hopefully entice some new customers.
10. Google Webmaster: By signing up you’ll be able to analyse how your visitors are finding the site. From this you can adjust your SEO techniques so that you appear in the way you want.

Learning how to work Google and its galaxy of products is central to enhancing your SEO techniques. With 65% of the global search engine market, it hosts a world of opportunities for digital marketers; the list above as only a fraction of these. So go ahead and ‘Google it’.