Google tools for SMBs (Part 2 of 2)

Last week, we highlighted a few Google tools that we thought could help address some of the communication needs of small to medium sized businesses (SMBs). In the second half of this series, we'll take a look at tools geared at enhancing your website - Google Checkout, webmaster tools, and the Google Mini.

GOOGLE CHECKOUT
For those who didn't see our post a few months back, Google Checkout™ is a checkout process for your website that enables your customers to buy from you quickly and securely, using a single username and password. Once customers make a purchase, you can use Checkout to charge their credit cards, process their orders, and receive payment in your bank account.

Here are some additional ways that Checkout can be of value to you:

• The Checkout badge on your AdWords ad can help attract more leads by increasing your visibility with potential buyers who are familiar with the Checkout process.
• Checkout offers a fast and secure purchasing process, which helps customers feel comfortable doing business with you.
• For every $1 you spend on Google AdWords, you can process $10 in sales for free.
• Checkout’s fraud prevention tools stop invalid orders from reaching you and the Payment Guarantee policy helps protect you from chargebacks.
  

We also just learned that Checkout will be processing all transactions for free for a limited time. You can find more information about this offer here.

For more information on Checkout or to sign up, please visit the Google Checkout™ website.

GOOGLE WEBMASTER TOOLS
Google’s free webmaster tools offer you, or your webmaster, an easy way to make your site more Google-friendly. Webmaster tools help you see Google’s view of your site, diagnose problems, and share information with Google in order to improve your site’s visibility in Google’s search results.

Webmaster tools can assist you in answering questions such as:

• How can I let Google know about all the pages on my site?
• What search queries bring my site the most traffic?
• Why is my site being returned for particular keywords?
• What page does Google see as the most important one on my site?
• How can I make sure that private information on my site stays private and Google doesn't index it?

If the answers to any of these questions are of interest to you, please visit the webmaster tools website for more information. You can also direct your questions to owners and webmasters who use webmaster tools today in the Google Webmaster Help group.

GOOGLE MINI
In order for a customer to purchase a product, they first have to find it on your website. According to Jupiter Research, 85% of website searches don’t return what the user was looking for and research firm IDC reports that 80% of visitors abandon a website if search functionality is poor. The Google Mini, a hardware and software appliance, makes searching your website as easy as searching for information on Google.com.

The Google Mini can power website search over multiple websites and delivers search results that seamlessly integrate with your website's design. In contrast to the statistics above, AdWords customer Toolfetch.com implemented the Google Mini search appliance and saw a 30% increase in searches on their website and a 15% increase in sales within the first month.

If you think the Google Mini might be right for you and your website, you can find more information here.

We've come to the end of our two part series on Google tools for SMBs. We hope that you found a tool or two that can help address some of your day-to-day business needs. Remember, you can always find information on these tools, as well as a few others we didn't get a chance to tell you about, by visiting the Google Business Solutions page.

Posted by Judy, Inside AdWords crew