There are plenty of reasons for webmasters, web designers and just people in general to love Google. They offer some of the best "free" services around and most of them are very user friendly. As a web designer, I find myself constantly using Google's services and apps in my everyday life as well as my work life. Here are my top 5 Google services and apps for web designers in no particular order;
Google Analyics - There is no free website statistics services better than Google Analytics and they keep making it better. They've just released a new version in Beta that allows for better dashboards and even more advanced segments.
GMail - The reason other email services like Yahoo and Hotmail are getting better is because of GMail. GMail makes it easy to organize all your mail, they offer the most free space and it's probably the most user friendly email service around.
Google Places - I've already used an entire post to discuss why Google Places is one of the best Google services for small businesses. You can read that post here.
Google Docs - I recently starting using Google Docs when I teamed up with other Windsor web designers to work on specific projects. The files are stored online and can be updated by anyone, anywhere using the Cloud.
Google Webmaster Tools - This one is specifically used by webmasters and web designers. This tool helps you see what type of errors Google gets when it crawls your site. They've also recently updated it to show you how many times your site shows up for certain keywords.
These Google services and apps are great for web designers, webmasters and even everyday people and the best part is... they're all free!
Showing posts with label Google Places. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Google Places. Show all posts
Monday, 30 May 2011
Monday, 9 May 2011
Google Places A Big Help To Small Businesses
It's become very clear in the last couple of years that Google really wants to tailor their ads and search results to where you are in the world. One of the biggest signals of this is in their local search service called Google Places. If you have a Google account and you've added your location, chances are you've already seen these ads.
Anytime you see a little orange balloon type icon next to a result, it's Google Places. They even have an entire section devoted to Places. If you look in the left column, you'll find a link that says Places. This will give you all the place results in your area.
This is a big help to small businesses who have trouble optimizing their site for Google. After you submit your website to the Google Places, they send you a postcard in the mail with a code to insert to verify your Place. After that, you're good to go. Sometimes your result will show up in search results, which is a bonus, but it will always show up in a Places result.
The Google Places account I created for Tony Rauti Luxury Homes, showed up right away in the Places results. Eventually I optimized the site enough that I didn't really need the Places result, however it's always good for a small business to have.
This is a big help to small businesses who have trouble optimizing their site for Google. After you submit your website to the Google Places, they send you a postcard in the mail with a code to insert to verify your Place. After that, you're good to go. Sometimes your result will show up in search results, which is a bonus, but it will always show up in a Places result.
The Google Places account I created for Tony Rauti Luxury Homes, showed up right away in the Places results. Eventually I optimized the site enough that I didn't really need the Places result, however it's always good for a small business to have.
