Most webmasters are aware now that Google is the most widely used search engine and that the aim is to appear high up in their results for your chosen keywords. However Google have set up a lot of free marketing tools to help webmasters and if used properly are a valuable aid to any marketing campaign. The aim of this article is to give webmasters some information on the free tools available and how they can be used to your advantage.

Google Analytics

This is one of the best tools that Google has to offer and is something all webmasters should be using. This will allow you to see how many visitors you get, how long they spend on your website and how people find your website.

Using this tool is vital to improving your sales conversions. For instance, if you have an E-commerce website then you will be able to track the path that people take to get to your basket and checkout. Using this information will help you to make changes to your site so that you get more people taking this path and purchasing your products.

Google Sitemaps

This will enable you to get new content indexed by Google immediately. This can be really useful if you regularly add new news stories or information to your site that you want to appear in the search results.

Your sitemap is basically an XML feed that is uploaded onto Google's systems every time a new page is added to your website.

Google Alerts

This will allow webmasters to be alerted whenever your website is listed on another site or the name of your company is mentioned somewhere. This is a great tool for seeing your popularity and also keeping track of the online activities you are involved with.

Google Froogle

This tool lists the cheapest prices that Google can find on the net for a whole host of products. If you are selling products on the net you can use this to see how your prices compare to your competitors and help you to get an edge.

There are a lot of instructions on Froogle detailing how to list your products and this will allow your products, services and prices to be viewed by the internet community.

Google Toolbar

One of the best features of the Google toolbar is that it will allow you to view the PageRank of websites you visit. After all it is not only important to know the PageRank of your website but also to know how your competitors are doing. This tool will very easily help with this.

If you use the Enterprise version of their toolbar you will also be able to integrate features with your employees which include calendars and customer databases.

Google Groups

As many webmasters know social networking is becoming one of the most important forms of marketing. Google groups is another form of social and business networking that should be explored.

Google Adsense

This is a very easy way to earn money from your website. It is very easy to set up and you can get adverts on your website within minutes of adding the relevant code to your website. If you are looking for a quick and easy way to earn money from your website this is a great thing to use. One of the biggest advantages to it is you do not need any previous history or minimum number of visitors.

You will also find that there is a great control panel that comes with this system which will allow you to view the clicks you are getting and the money you are making.

Google Trends

Using this program will allow you to view recent searching trends. This will give you an idea of what people are looking for the most and enable you to target your marketing. You will also be able to break down your results by region which will give you an extremely accurate view of what your target audience is looking for.

So if you have a website and you are serious about marketing then explore Google and find out what they can offer you. They are forever adding new tools that will help webmasters, so keep an eye out for what they are doing and take advantage of the free help.