Many people have varying opinions on Google. There are many online businesses and websites that rely heavily on Google.in fact I get to speak to many website owners who are in this situation. I have had a few people get in touch with me who are angry that “Google has killed my business” and vow to turn their back on it forever.There is no real point in trying to fight against Google as you will inevitably lose.
1. Google Search Traffic
Whilst Bing, Yahoo and other search engines are great, nothing comes close to the huge behemoth that is Google. Approximately 65-70% of all global internet searchers are done via the Google search engine.
What does this mean? Well simply that if your online business intends to drive traffic, it needs to make the most of Google. That is where the vast majority of people are coming from, so why fight against it.
Admittedly, even if you do everything that Google says, things can go wrong when they make updates to their search settings. This can cause huge variations in traffic (i.e. the Penguin update cause many sites to lose lots of traffic), but unfortunately you just have to grin and bear it. If future updates do have a knock on effect on your site, try not to be angry (as that will get you nowhere), instead just work towards fixing the issues. Believe me, this has happened to one of my sites and the only thing that helped was to work WITH Google.
2. Android
Android devices account for approximately 75% of the global smartphone/tablet market. Since mobile internet usage is dramatically increasing, it is vitally important that websites are “mobile friendly” for people to view whilst on the go.
The Google Play store is also one of the largest mobile app stores online, meaning that if your business intends to make its mark within the app market, it needs to do so for Android devices. The Apple store for iPhone/iPad users and Windows app store are equally as important, but since Android holds such a hold on the market you can’t afford to neglect them.
3. Google Webmaster Tools
If Google Analytics is focused on the performance of your website, then Google Webmaster Tools is focused on the health of it.
Essentially it allows you to keep track of things like;
- Crawl errors,
- Crawl Stats,
- Malware,
- Sitemap stats,
- HTML Improvements,
- Site speed,
- …and much more.
4. YouTube
We have already established that Google is the biggest search engine online, but what would you guess is the second biggest? Bing? Yahoo? Baidu? Nope, it’s none of those. It is actually YouTube!
OK, so technically YouTube is not a search engine, but in terms of the number of daily searches made, YouTube outdoes all of the other search engines. This is one of the main reasons why Google paid $1.65 billion for it back in 2006, which is a bargain for what it is probably worth now.
What does this mean for your online business? Well, there is a HUGE source of traffic to utilize by introducing video to your marketing strategy. Not only can people find you via the normal search engine, but they can find you via videos on YouTube that you have uploaded that point back to your main site. What is even better is that you can embed your videos onto your main site as well, so people can watch them there.
There are many types of videos that you can create for your site, the point is that it helps to market your business. You can even earn money from your videos via YouTube’s partner program. In fact some individuals have been able to ditch their jobs and work full time online making YouTube videos, so it is well worth doing.
5. Google+
Facebook and Twitter tend to grab all the headlines, but Google+ is arguably the most important and influential search engine around at the moment. You could say that it is still in its infancy, but it is, without doubt, growing very quickly.
What makes it so influential is the fact that it is linked with Google’s other products, particularly its search engine. You can now find listings that your Google+ friends have shared in the past or see your friends/colleagues posts in the SERPs when you wouldn’t normally.
Google authorship is also closely linked to Google+, allowing a small picture to appear next to your content in the SERPs (Search Engine Result Pages). This has been proved to increase the clickthrough rate to websites that have this enabled, making it even more important that you set yours up.
You can also setup individual Google+ pages for your business. Not only is this another way for people to find you online, but it also provides additional information next to your main site listing on Google
So Can Your Business Live Without Google?
Google is being incredibly smart by building and linking all of their tools and services together to create a gigantic network. Arguably though, it is because of this huge network that so many people are concerned about Google’s hold on the internet.
Whatever your personal views are about Google as a company, it is this network that is the reason why you should be working WITH Google and not against them, as you wouldn’t get very far without it. It allows you to reach the most people online, with the greatest ease, with the best integrated tools at your disposal. At the end of the day, it makes good business sense.
What are your views on Google as a whole? Which Google tools/services could you not live without? We want to hear your views, so please get in touch below via the comment system.
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