Google is far more than just a search engine.
They have developed a massive integrated ecosystem of online tools that will help you be more productive, grow your business, and make your life easier.
And the best part is that most of them are completely free!
Whether you’re looking to-
There is a Google tool to help you do it!
The truth is that Google is constantly launching new tools and retiring old ones, which makes keeping up with all their changes hard work.
That’s why I created this curated list of Google tools that will help you be more productive in life and business.
Let’s get into it!
What Will I Learn?
Want to grow your business?
This first section of Google Tools has everything you need to understand your current site visitors, find new prospects and convert them into customers.
Google Analytics 4 officially replaced Universal Analytics on July 1, 2023.
And it brought some massive updates, including improved event-based tracking and predictive metrics powered by AI.
Google Analytics 4 is one of the most powerful tools you can have as a business owner.
Why?
It tells you all about one of the most important parts of any business:
Your audience.
You can learn so much about your website visitors and how they are engaging with your site:
One of the powerful features I love about GA4 is better integrations with Google Ads and BigQuery.
You can essentially use Google Analytics 4 as a data aggregation platform to capture quality information, marketing data, and improve your overall results.
Who doesn’t want that, right?
Google Analytics 4 is one of the best free Google tools available for any business. When used correctly, it does more than just track basic information about your site visitors.
Don’t trust Google? Check out my list of Google Analytics alternatives!
Need a boost to your organic traffic?
You might want to consider a paid search traffic campaign.
Google Ads allows you to run paid search campaigns to feature your website at the top of any search result for any keyword.
You simply add the keyword you want to target, write an ad and set it live.
You will only be charged when someone clicks on your ad.
Bidding on the right keywords can bring significant traffic and high-quality conversions.
The best thing about Google Ads is that the traffic is actively looking for the keyword you are bidding on.
That means that the traffic is high quality and the ads can produce higher conversion rates.
When you are ready to take your Google ads up a notch, you can use the advanced targeting options even experiment with Performance Max campaigns.
Performance Max lets Google’s AI take over your campaign.
You simply upload-
And Google will choose the keywords and placements where to display your ads to maximise leads and sales.
Run a local business?
Don’t underestimate local services ads.
You can run an ad on Google Maps that displays when users are searching for services/products you offer.
It doesn’t get much more powerful than that!
There is a lot that you can do with Google Ads, and it can quickly become an effective way to grow your business.
Google Keyword Planner is probably one of the most underrated keyword tools.
Why? …Because it contains data directly from Google themselves. Which other keyword tool can claim that?
Google Keyword Planner was built by Google to help advertisers find and bid on profitable keywords for their Google Ads campaigns.
But in the right hands, Keyword Planner can be a treasure trove of valuable data.
You can use Keyword Planner to:
And so much more.
You can filter all of the information that Keyword Planner provides for specific locations.
So if you are running a local paid search or organic search campaign, you can see the details related to your target location.
Check out my Google Keyword Planner guide to learn how to get the most out of this awesome free SEO tool.
Looking for more keyword research tools? Don’t worry I got you covered. Check out my list of free keyword research tools.
There are so many valuable ways to use Google Trends – especially when it comes to business.
As it says in the name, Google Trends provides trend data around almost any topic you want. Think of Google Trends as a massive data source.
You can get data on:
And more. You can filter each result by country and in some cases Google Trends can provide data for specific regions and even cities.
As business owners there is nothing more important than making sure you are on top of your market.
You don’t want to wake up one day and realise you have been left behind.
You can compare different topics and see how they differ in popularity over time. Dive deeper into the results and spot up and coming trends you can take advantage of.
I’m constantly looking through Google Trends to see what topics are popular so that I can create content on them.
The only limitation on Google Trends is YOU.
Be creative and get real insights that you can use in your business.
It is a highly underrated tool.
Have a nice website or blog that you would love to monetise?
If your website gets even a moderate level of traffic, Google AdSense is worth looking into. It’s one of the easiest ways to earn passive income.
Google AdSense is Google’s advertising affiliate network.
You simply place some code into the following:
Of your website and allow Google to show display ads.
Google then matches your website to relevant advertisers and as visitors browse your site they will see Google display ads.
You have complete control over where ads are displayed on your website so that you can optimise them for maximum income.
Google has been consistently developing the AdSense platform for years. One of the best features they’ve added is contextual ad targeting.
This essentially means that Google matches the ad with the content on your page. That typically means the advertiser is willing to pay more to display their ad on your site at that moment because it’s directly relevant to the content.
Bottom line – You earn more with a higher RPM.
RPM stands for Revenue per Mille, which is the amount you earn per 1,000 website visitors.
The amount of money you earn will depend on your website niche and how many visitors you get. Typically, the average RPM ranges from $3 to $10.
While earnings will differ from site to site you can use the Google AdSense revenue calculator to estimate how much you can earn.
You probably won’t get rich with AdSense but it’s completely passive and doesn’t require much work from you.
Want to get your product in front of millions of shoppers?
Google Merchant Centre is a platform that allows you to show your products across:
It works like this…
Let’s say someone searches “men’s running shoes” on Google.
Your products display right alongside the Google SERPs, complete with images, prices, titles, and storefront information.
Google can even include filters that essentially turn Google Search into a direct ecommerce store, funneling customers directly to your products.
Cool, right?
But here’s the cool part…
Google Merchant Centre is free. You don’t need to pay to have your products displayed in the Google SERPs.
When you’re ready to scale up, you can always start using the paid ads side of Merchant Centre to get even more reach (and sales).
The setup is surprisingly simple:
Create your free Merchant Centre account, add your business information, and upload your products or have them sync automatically.
Google handles the rest!
Pro Tip: Make sure that your product images are clean, modern, and high-quality. Don’t forget to also add detailed and optimised product descriptions.
Google rewards complete, accurate, and detailed product information with more visibility.
Do you run a business with a physical location?
Google Business Profile should be your best friend.
Google Business is Google’s own local business directory.
The difference is that Google Business is featured right in the Google search engine result pages and on Google Maps.
No other site can compare to what Google Business offers.
45% of all Google searches have local intent. More importantly, 80% of all local searches done on a mobile device end up converting into a sale.
Google Business Profile is your ticket to being highly visible in the local search results and on Google Maps.
All you have to do is claim your free Google Business Profile listing and fill out each detail in the listing.
You will need a physical address that Google will verify by sending you a physical postcard with a verification code in the mail.
I also love that you can add advanced call tracking to your business phone number so you can actually track how many calls directly come from your Google Business Profile each month.
If you run a local business and you aren’t taking advantage of Google Business…
You’re leaving free money on the table.
Google Alerts has a lot of applications for your business.
For free and without needing to do much, you can get thousands of targeted pieces of data delivered directly to your inbox. Google will spoon-feed you information on anything you want to help you stay ahead of the competition.
Sounds too good to be true?
Google Alerts allows you to monitor the web for mentions on anything.
You simply add a keyword or phrase that you want to monitor and Google will alert you anytime it is mentioned online.
You can monitor things like:
The list of things you can do with Google Alerts is limited only by your imagination.
No matter what your business does or what industry you are in, there is a Google Alert to help you make better decisions – faster.
Follow this guide to learn how to set up Google Alerts that grow your business.
If you create content or are a marketer…
This next part of this list of Google tools could quite literally change your life.
With all of the changes with AI, content marketing, and search, these are a must-have for the future of business growth.
Google was caught sleeping at the beginning of the AI race.
But when they entered, they came out swinging hard.
Gemini (formerly Bard) is one of the most powerful AI models right now. And it’s completely free to use.
Here are some of the cool things you can do with it:
And more! The sky is the limit with what you can do with Gemini. You could even code an entire landing page for your site and deploy it in seconds.
AI is only going to get better and better.
So, you might as well take advantage of Gemini because it’s free, powerful, and can help your business grow in tons of different ways.
Want to dominate the video market in your niche?
YouTube is the second-largest search engine in the world. It has 2+ billion monthly active users.
Impressive, isn’t it?
Creating YouTube content is a great way to increase your business’s visibility online and grow your website traffic.
People learn in different ways:
Having both video and written content helps you reach both types of people.
If you are already creating written content you just need to transform that into video content.
You already have the niche, topic and you know what you need to say.
YouTube has been working hard to consistently update its tool suite for video content creators. There are lots of tools within YouTube to help you get the most out of the platform for your business.
You can even use Gemini to draft scripts for your YouTube videos, which makes them that much easier to shoot!
Note: If you have a Youtube channel, don’t forget to check your rankings with a Youtube tracker tool.
If you want to start a blog but aren’t ready to commit to a fully self-hosted blog on a platform like WordPress – Blogger could be a good option.
Blogger is Google’s free blogging platform.
Simply launch a fully customised blog within just a few minutes.
They have a variety of themes and it’s very easy to make the blog look just the way you want it.
Google has also made it easy to write content and publish it.
Within the content you can add:
And anything else you want to make your blog look good.
If you want to create great content but aren’t yet ready to set up a full-blown blog then Blogger is worth a second look.
The best part?
Because Blogger is owned by Google, it has a native integration with AdSense.
It takes seconds to start showing optimised ads on your Blogger site and earn some passive income.
If you need to collect data from:
…Google Forms is a free and powerful drag-and-drop form builder to help you do it. Honestly, it’s one of the most underrated tools on this list!
Let me explain:
It takes minutes to create professional-looking forms, surveys and even quizzes.
There are tons of different types of questions like short answer, drop-down, multiple choice and more.
This allows you to collect high levels of data and use that information to grow your business.
I know of large multi-million dollar companies that use Google Forms because it’s robust and integrates with the entire suite of Google products.
For example, you can have users fill out a Google Form, and when they click “Submit,” the data automatically populates in Google Sheets.
No manual data entry required!
You can even customise the forms to match your brand and Google offers a solid analytics platform to analyse the data you collect.
See patterns, trends, and outcomes without any extra work.
I’ve used Google Forms for:
And more! There are so many features packed inside Google Forms it’s a must-have Google tool for all businesses.
Need a new site but don’t want to deal with complicated hosting and website builders?
Google Sites is a free, no-code website builder that allows you to create professional-looking websites in minutes.
The big benefit of Google Sites is that it’s simple to use.
No coding or technical skills are required.
You simply drag and drop elements such as:
…and more onto the page. Then add your content and media assets to bring the site to life.
The customisation features are really solid, and all sites are optimised for mobile devices. And because it’s Google – You can be confident that your site will be SEO friendly!
Probably one of the best features is that you can host your site on Google’s cloud servers for free!
That means your site will load fast, be very secure, and Google takes care of all the technical stuff.
You can even buy a custom domain and set the site up on it in minutes.
If you get stuck, buy a premade template from the Google Sites template store and get a turnkey design that’s ready to go.
Whether you need a new landing page or an entire small business website, Google Sites is a great free option.
SEO is one of the best investments a business can make for their marketing and long-term strategy.
If you have a website this next list of Google tools are for you.
Google Search Console is an essential tool for all website owners.
You get access to valuable information with a click of a button.
Google Search Console provides information on:
Google Search Console is one of those tools that I use almost every day. It has unmatched content insights and all the data you need to improve your SEO.
Combine it with a free tool like Google Search Console Rocket, and it will become your new SEO best friend.
You essentially get complete reports on how Google sees your website.
It makes it much easier to identify areas of improvement for your site and optimise it for higher rankings.
If you have already set up Google Analytics 4, you can easily set up Google Search Console as well.
Google Tag Manager is a very powerful tool for measuring and tracking the right data on your website.
Tag Manager was created by Google to make implementing JavaScript and HTML tracking tags super easy. And they did a great job of it.
You can implement tags to track:
And so much more.
You can even set up other tracking tools like the Facebook Pixel and Google Ads conversion tracking directly in Google Tag Manager.
This makes it super easy to manage all of your tracking tags from one dashboard.
And everything that you track is easily viewable within Google Analytics.
For even more accurate results, you can implement Google Tag Manager for server-side tracking. This means you can move third-party tracking pixels off your website and make your website load even faster.
Google Tag Manager has a ton of powerful use cases for website owners and marketers.
Although it is easy to use, it will take some time to fully understand everything you can accomplish with it.
Website load speed is one of the most important Google ranking factors.
Google PageSpeed Insights analyses your web page content and generates a detailed report on making that page faster. It breaks down individual elements on your web pages and provides a score out of 100.
A perfect Google PageSpeed score is the best way to ensure that your site loads rapidly for your visitors.
Slow websites will:
Since Google retired their dedicated mobile-friendly testing tool, PageSpeed Insights is now the go-to tool to ensure that your site is mobile optimised.
Fixing your page speed is very important and Google PageSpeed score will help you do it faster.
While we are on the subject of rich snippets…
The Rich Results Test is similar to the Structured Data Testing Tool.
It analyses your website page and sees what rich results (rich snippets) can be generated from the structured data on your page.
Ideally, you want to ensure that you have the correct structured data to appear for as many rich results as possible.
With the Rich Results test you can:
Winning a rich result in the Google SERPs is a great way to get more real estate online. It will give you more visibility and more importantly…
…More quality traffic to your website.
As a fallback, you can always use the Schema Validator tool (originally built by Google) in conjunction with the Rich Results test to identify any issues you’re facing with structured data.
Ready to increase your productivity?
Google has long been the king of helping people and businesses get more done with a suite of powerful online productivity and collaboration tools.
These are the ones you should be paying attention to.
Gmail is one of the most popular email providers on the planet.
Over 1.8 billion people use Gmail worldwide, and Google has a massive 30% market share across all email users.
And there is a reason Gmail is so popular – especially amongst business owners. Gmail has been intelligently designed to help you manage your emails better.
Some of their best features include:
If you struggle to keep your inbox clean, Gmail has a ton of great features to help you. Plus you can easily integrate Gmail with all your other favourite Google products like Google Calendar.
Want to up your Gmail game? Check out these Gmail hacks.
Here’s the truth:
It took ages for me to get the most out of using a digital calendar. But once I learned how to use one – I have never looked back.
Google Calendar is one of the most versatile calendar applications out there.
It integrates with almost anything you need and can be used natively on any device.
Organising tasks and keeping on top of meetings is important for any business owner. Google Calendar is an intelligent calendar that allows you to organise your days with ease.
Keep track of all your:
And so much more. Connect Google Calendar with Gmail to get AI assistance and automatically schedule relevant events.
If you are yet to find a calendar tool you love, you need to try Google Calendar.
Want a place to share and store files online?
Google Drive is definitely worth a try. It is one of the best online file storage and synchronisation services available.
You can easily store:
And the best part is you can access them anywhere from any device – you just need an internet connection.
Collaborating with someone online?
Easily share anything you create with anyone within minutes. You can also invite people to collaborate with you in real-time.
With all Google accounts, you get a free 20GB of Google Drive storage.
You can then sign up for a paid Google Drive plan to get more online cloud storage as you need it.
You could pay for Microsoft office or you could use Google Docs, Sheets and Slides completely free.
Google Docs makes it easy to create:
That can easily be shared with others.
You can also invite others to collaborate and work with them in real-time.
The best part?
Everything you create in Google Docs is automatically saved to your Google Drive account in the cloud.
That means you always have a saved copy of every document that you can access from anywhere.
Google Docs is a complete office and word processing tool suite perfectly designed for businesses.
You never know when a good idea will strike.
Think of Google Keep as a digital sticky note app for your:
Capture any thought, task, or idea instantly with real-time syncing across all devices.
What I like is that you can capture ideas however you want:
…or even take pictures.
Voice notes are automatically transcribed, so you can easily take notes or record ideas while on the go.
The user interface is great.
You can create different sticky notes, colour code them based on the information, and even assign priority levels for tasks.
If you’re working with others, it’s easy to share a note and collaborate in real-time.
The location-based reminders are a cool feature that automatically pings your phone when you arrive.
For example, you could capture a grocery list and get a notification when you arrive at the grocery store.
What I like about Google Keep is that it combines innovative note-taking with a robust suite of productivity features. And like all Google products, it integrates with tons of other Google tools, making it a great option for business owners.
Google Meet is the biggest competitor to Zoom.
It’s a quality video conferencing tool that is designed for quick one-to-one meetings to large business presentations with up to 1,000 people.
Here’s the truth:
Video calls have become an essential part of modern business.
Google Meet gives you all the features you need-
And I like that Google Meet is completely cloud-based – no software download required!
You can even start a meeting on your laptop and switch to your phone seamlessly without disconnecting from the call. Google has continuously built Meet into an incredibly powerful video calling platform!
The cool thing is that the basic version of Google Meet is completely free, and if you have a paid Google email account, you get most of the premium features included in your plan.
Tired of endless email chains that never end and actually stall productivity?
Google Chat is a modern professional messaging platform designed to improve business communication.
It has a lot of similarities to Slack, but you get the power of Gemini’s AI features built in.
You can:
You can even find files in Google Drive and attach them through the chat without having to manually search.
And if you need to jump on a quick call with your team, it’s as simple as one click to create a call.
Chat is an incredibly useful business communication tool, perfect for teams or working with clients on projects.
Google Assistant is Google’s AI-powered virtual assistant.
It can help you manage tons of day to day business activities efficiently, saving you time and helping you get things done.
Google Assistant can help you:
You can even set up voice-based AI reminders.
For example:
You can ask Google Assistant to remind you of something when you arrive at a specific location.
The biggest benefit of Google Assistant is that you can simply speak to it. There is no need to fiddle around or manually type something.
Just talk to Google Assistant and tell it what you need.
While Google Assistant still has a long way to go there are already a number of impressive things it can do that will save you time.
Google Contacts is a contact address and management tool that makes it easy to save all of your contacts in one place.
You can add important details for each contact:
And more. You can even add an intelligent labelling system to segment each contact based on your own chosen parameters.
Online contact address tools are usually frustrating to use.
Google Contacts has a clean user interface and a smart search bar built in to make it easy to find the right contact whenever you want.
You can integrate Google Contacts with all of your other favourite Google tools.
A new tool on my list is Google Voice.
Google Voice allows you to create a digital phone number to make and receive calls and texts on.
You can get a personal number or business number. Google Voice also allows you to port your current number over depending on the phone carrier you use.
Google Voice has a ton of great features.
One of the best is that you can receive texts and calls anywhere as long as you have an internet connection.
That means if you travel overseas you can still make and receive phone calls. You can also add data to be used in certain regions.
Want a smarter phone number for your business?
Google Voice has smart AI (artificial intelligence) built-in:
A little Google Voice hack: Set up a number just to test marketing campaigns.
For example, you can set up a separate Google Voice number just for your website and track how many calls you receive throughout the month.
This allows you to test the:
…Of your phone number on your website or landing to maximise the number of calls you can get. Google Voice also has basic analytics to help you understand if your site’s improvements increase the number of calls you get.
Pro Tip: Most US mobile and business phone numbers can be ported to Google Voice from your current carrier, so you don’t have to change your number.
These last 3 tools of the list can help all marketers get more reach and visibility online.
Take a look at each of them and think about how you could use them to grow your business.
Google Translate is the most popular translation tool in the world.
If you have ever run into a language barrier problem – the chances are high you’ve likely turned to Google Translate to help get you past it.
You can now translate over 249+ languages worldwide. The cool thing is that Google is using AI to power a lot of the language translations.
Why is that a good thing?
AI understands context, which means you get much more accurate language translations. It’s able to choose the right type of words and phrasing for the context of the translation.
Google Translate can help your business in two important ways:
While Google Translate is far from perfect, it does enough to get the job done.
Want to create content for a different language?
Google has been working on their Translate API. This allows you to automatically translate all of your written content into any other language.
Not only will it help you get more readers from other countries, but it allows you to rank in the Google SERPs in a different language.
Search ranking difficulty is usually significantly less competitive in languages other than English.
It is easier to rank for targeted keywords and increase your global visibility.
And yes…
The Translate API is much better than the standard Google Translate tool.
If your business or blog is read by people who speak a different language, the Google Translate API for websites can save you hundreds of hours of time.
There is a lot of news out there.
Keeping up with all the latest updates about your industry and how that impacts your business is necessary. Google News makes this more accessible than ever.
Google News is a news aggregator service developed by Google.
It displays a continuous feed of news and magazine articles from thousands of new websites from all over the internet.
But that’s not all it is. You can customise the Google News feed so you only see articles about topics you are interested in.
Take this a step further by narrowing it down to a specific location.
In other words, you can create your own curated flow of news articles directly related to your business and nothing else.
This makes it super easy to:
All of these articles can be saved in your profile so you can come back and visit them any time.
Learn how to get on Google news step by step.
The best way to describe Google Looker Studio is an all-in-one dashboard for almost anything data related.
Unlock the power of data in your business and create interactive dashboards that provide you with insights on important business metrics.
You can create SEO dashboards for:
The list is almost endless. If you have any tool that collects data in some capacity, you can likely display it on Google Looker Studio.
There is a huge range of free and paid dashboard templates to choose from. Or you can create your own dashboard just the way you want it.
Google Looker Studio has a number of native integrations with different tools and there is API access to build out your own.
The biggest use case for me and my team is Google Analytics and Google Ads data.
Think of GA4 and Google Ads as data aggregators, whereas Google Looker Studio is a data display platform. Combine them together you have everything you need to understand essential data for your business or clients.
As they say…
“Whatever gets measured gets done.”
With Google Looker Studio, you can stay on top of all the important metrics with powerful customised dashboards.
This list of Google tools offers lots of great solutions to increase your business productivity and grow your online presence.
But before you jump on and start using them, decide what you need help with first.
Tools are great but applying them to your situation is where you will get value from them.
Think about what part of your business you want to improve or automate, then use the appropriate tool above to help you do it.
Did I miss one of your favourite Google tools?
If there is a Google tool that you use and it isn’t on the list, let me know what it is and why you love it in the comments so I can put it on here.
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Great idea about Google News feeds – I did that with Google Alerts but hadn’t thought about Google News Feeds – it’s a better way to get everything I need in one place and get ideas for newsletters and emails too. Thanks
Wow amazing! Thanks!
Hi. I’m unemployed and getting a job looks like a not possible thing since I have been at home, since 2022, I want to know if there is a way Google can help me change ma life?
Not sure about Google but have you heard about Fiverr? Fiverr is a marketplace where anyone can sign up and sell services: https://www.searchlogistics.com/learn/blogging/how-to-make-money-on-fiverr/ – You shoudl check it out!
This post is super informative! I definitely didn’t know about some of these Google tools. The video editing tool sounds particularly interesting—can’t wait to give that a try! Thanks for sharing these hidden gems!
No worries – Glad you found the list helpful!
Great post! I had no idea there were so many Google tools available that can help with SEO, marketing, and productivity. I’m definitely going to start using Google Analytics to track my website’s traffic and Google My Business to manage my local search presence. Thanks for sharing these valuable resources!
Glad it was helpful