But what many people don’t realise is just how much more Google is than a search engine.

If you’re a casual Googler, possibly all you’ll know about Google is that you type in a search phrase at google.com or google.co.uk (I prefer the latter – I want my results local, please) and you’ll get a list of (hopefully) relevant results on the left of the page (‘organic’ results), and a list of ‘sponsored’ results on the right hand side (more about these later).

But if you look at the top right hand side of the Google results page, you’ll see some other options that you may not have spotted before.  Specifically, the one that says “sign in”.

When you click the ‘sign in’ link at Google for the first time, you’re asked to create an account. You might wonder why you would want an account with Google – after all, it’s just a search engine, right?

In fact, if you create a Google account not only are you providing Google with really useful information about how its services are used (for example, if you set your country to UK,  this will help Google measure search volumes in the UK compared to the rest of the world), which it can use to improve the services it provides to you and other users; but you’re also able to access loads of other excellent tools – most of which are free – that you’re sure to find useful as a business or as an individual – or both.

But what do all these tools do, and why might you find them useful? Here’s a few of my favourites.

Great Google tools for website owners

Google Analytics – install a very simple code snippet in your website template, and learn how your visitors discovered your website, what they did while they were there, and other really useful visitor statistics. No website should be without some sort of analytics package, and Google Analytics is one of the best free ones you can get.

Google Webmaster Tools – use this to monitor your site’s search engine visibility and use the results to optimise your website for Google and other search engines. You can also see which search phrases trigger your web pages to be returned in Google’s results, and in which position, and find out if you have any broken links or other problems that are making it difficult for Google to accurately index your website.

Google AdWords – these are the ‘sponsored results’ you see on the right hand side of the Google search results page. When set up and managed properly, Google AdWords is a very effective, highly targeted method of online advertising, where you pay only when someone clicks on your ad  (this type of advertising is known as pay-per-click advertising, and it’s something debbidoo can help with if you don’t fancy learning how to do it yourself). Your ads can also be seen on websites elsewhere in the Google network, for example on websites owned by newspapers. You can also manage your campaigns with an external tool, the AdWords Editor – it’s not to everyone’s tastes, but I’m quite a fan

Google Keywords Tool – use this very helpful tool to plan your website’s keyword strategy and your pay-per-click campaigns. This tool will give you a pretty good idea of the search volumes for the keywords and phrases you plan to use in your website’s content, and offers suggestions for related words and phrases.

Feedburner – use this free service to set up and monitor RSS feeds and email feeds for your blog, and to create great little widgets that display your latest blog posts on another website (you can see this in action on debbidoo’s ‘mingle‘ page). A feed is a useful thing to offer your visitors, as they can subscribe to it and be notified whenever you publish a new blog post.

Google AdSense – if you own a website and would like to make some money from it by displaying ‘sponsored ads’, then this is the tool for you! While AdSense ads are customisable in terms of colour etc, they don’t look great on all websites, in my opinion; a serious business website can be spoiled by excessive ads, I think. However, AdSense does work well on news sites and on business sites where the primary income is advertising – for example, one of debbidoo’s websites, Keep Christmas Cheap, is funded by Google AdSense and affiliate ads.

If you don’t like the idea of plastering your website with ads but would still like to get a small income from hosting ads, you could use Google AdSense for Search, placing a search box anywhere you like on your website, with the ads only showing on the results page.

Google Local Business Ads – great free service for businesses, which puts your business literally on the map! Once you’ve registered and your ad has been processed, you’ll show up for searches for your type of business in your area, like in the example below (click to enlarge):

Great Google tools for everyone

Google Mail – even if you have an email address, it never hurts to have a spare one – or more! While there are many different free webmail accounts out there, I’m particularly fond of Google Mail because I can use it to send emails from other email addresses. So say I’m away from the office for a few days and I’m using someone else’s computer – with Google Mail I can send emails from my @debbidoo.com email address, or my @petha-ltd.co.uk email address, or any of the other email addresses I’ve told Google I may want to send from.

Google Docs – this is one of my most recent Google discoveries, and I love it! When I’ve got my Petha hat on, I’m able to share documents with Wyn securely and remotely – so we can both edit documents, print them off, add new documents and so on. It’s really handy if you’re away from your own computer and need access to your important documents; you can upload existing files like Word documents, Excel spreadsheets and so on to your Google Docs account, or create brand new ones (even on a computer that doesn’t have Microsoft Office or Open Office installed), and access them from any computer with an Internet connection.

Google Alerts – receive an email whenever a word or phrase of your choice is mentioned online and indexed by Google. Really handy for measuring brand awareness, if you’re a business user, or just for monitoring absolutely anything that interests you!

Google Directory – search the web by topic, like the giant encyclopedia that it is!

Google Earth – view any place on Earth – including the stars – in 3D from your desktop. Google Earth is a downloadable tool which is loads of fun and utterly addictive.

Google Reader – use this to read all the latest items in the RSS feeds you’ve subscribed to (if you want to subscribe to this blog’s feed, look in the ‘subscribe’ box down at the bottom of the right-hand column).

iGoogle – your own personal Google homepage, which you can personalise with some great gadgets, games, news feeds and lots of other things. Here’s what my iGoogle page looks like (click to enlarge):

Google Chrome – lovely, fast, simple web browser. I personally hate using Internet Explorer – it’s slow, I don’t trust it, and I simply don’t like it – so I use Firefox for the majority of my web browsing. But every now and then, for one reason or another, I want to use a different browser. So Google Chrome is my secondary browser of choice.  Free to download and very easy to use, I highly recommend it.

If you think this is a long list of Google products then you’re right – it is! But I’ve only listed a handful of the great services and products provided by Google – for a list about a squillion times the length of this one, try this article on Wikipedia… now that’s what I call a long list!

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Os hoffech chi gadw i fyny efo’r newyddion diweddaraf o Petha Caernarfon, rhannu’ch ffotos a fideos, a siarad efo ffans eraill o Petha Caernarfon, ymunwch â thudalen Petha Caernarfon ar Facebook.

Don’t have a Caernarfon Things account yet? Then sign up today! To find out more about our great value advertising packages, visit our advertising page, download our advertising brochure, and register your interest.

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Os rydych chi’n aelod o Petha Caernarfon a rydych chi’n rhedeg gwesty, ty bwyta neu atyniad, gallwn ni atodi botwm TripAdvisor i’ch proffil, i ddangos ymwelwyr bod eich busnes wedi’i argymell neu wedi’i pleidleisio’n ‘ardderchog’ gan aelodau TripAdvisor, gwefan mwyaf y byd ar gyfer adolygiadau teithio. Bydd y botwm hwn yn arddangos uwch ardal ‘eich delweddau’ ar eich proffil.

Dim cyfrif Petha Caernarfon eto? Ymunwch heddiw! I ddarganfod mwy am ein cyfrifon ardderchog hysbysebu, ymwelwch â’n tudalen hysbysebu, lawr-lwythwch ein taflen hysbysebu, a chofrestrwch eich diddordeb.

Inigo Jones is a well known brand in the local area and it’s great to have them on board. Check out Inigo Jones’ profile at Caernarfon Things to find out more about the company, and download a copy of the menu for their Welsh Rock Cafe.

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Y busnes diweddaraf yn ardal Caernarfon i ymuno â Petha Caernarfon yw Gwaith Llechi Inigo Jones.

Mae Inigo Jones yn brand enwog yn yr ardal, a ‘da ni’n falch iawn i weithio efo nhw. Ymwelwch â phroffil Inigo Jones ar Petha Caernarfon i ddarganfod mwy am y cwmni, a lawr lwytho copi o fwydlen eu caffi Welsh Rock.

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‘Da ni ‘di atodi tudalennau newydd i Petha Caernarfon a Caernarfon Things, sef mân hysbysebion AM DDIM ar gyfer pobol sy’n byw yn ardal Caernarfon. Does dim ffi i hysbysebu ar y tudalennau ‘ma, ond mae gwpwl o rheolau – plîs gwelwch y tudalennau eu hunain am fanylion llawn.

We’re also thinking about creating a public group at Flickr, so that visitors can add their own photos to our photo stream. Is this something you’d use, if we created it? We could also create a group at YouTube, so that visitors can upload their own Caernarfon videos and have discussions with other group members. Again, if it’s something that visitors would like to use, we’re happy to do it – please get in touch and let us know!

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Heddiw ‘da ni ‘di creu cyfrif Flickr ar gyfer Petha Cyf, sydd yn biau a rheoli Petha Caernarfon a Caernarfon Things. ‘Da ni ‘di lan-lwytho’r ffotos o oriel ffotograffau Petha Caernarfon, a ‘chydig mwy sy ddim yn yr oriel achos mae hi’n llawn yn barod. A ‘da ni ‘di cynnwys ffotos o Glynnog Fawr, sy ddim yn bell o Gaernarfon – ac yn fuan, wnawn ni lan-lwytho ffotos o lefydd eraill yn ardal Caernarfon.

Hefyd, ‘da ni’n meddwl o greu grwp cyhoeddus ar Flickr, er mwyn i ymwelwyr rhannu eu ffotos yn ein ‘photostream’. Fyddech chi’n defnyddio hwn? Gallen ni greu grwp ar YouTube hefyd, er mwyn i ymwelwyr rhannu eu fideos o Gaernarfon a siarad efo aelodau eraill y grwp. Eto, os mae hwn yn rhywbeth y hoffai ymwelwyr ddefnyddio, byddwn ni’n hapus i’w neud o – plis gadewch i ni wybod!

It’s really catching on, both with businesses and social users – but there are still many businesses that haven’t yet caught on to how Twitter can help them promote themselves for free, to a potentially vast audience.

So I’m going to share something with you: a link to a website which is all about using Twitter for business. Make sure you bookmark it – it’s definitely one to keep going back to!

Here’s the link: Business on Twitter

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Mae Twitter yn offeryn ardderchog ar gyfer busnes – a dyna pam, pan ddaeth Wyn a fi i fyny efo’r syniad o Petha, o’n ni’n gwybod y byddai nodweddion Twitter ar gael o’r dechrau.

Mae poblogrwydd Twitter yn tyfu’n cyflym, efo defnyddwyr busnes a chymdeithasol – ond mae lot o busnesau sydd ddim wedi darganfod eto sut all Twitter helpu nhw i hyrwyddo eu hunain am ddim, i audience enfawr.

So dyma rhywbeth y hoffwn i rhannu efo chi i gyd:  dolen i wefan sydd yn canolbwyntio ar ddefnyddio Twitter ar gyfer Busnes. Gwnewch yn siwr i’w bookmarkio hi – dyma wefan sydd yn haeddu ymweliadau cyson!

Dyma’r ddolen: Business on Twitter

If you opt for our premium account you get all these fantastic benefits:

• Create a web presence if you don’t already have a website
• …if you do, use Petha Caernarfon Things to promote it
• Profiles on both sites – one in Welsh, one in English. Be found by local residents as well as visitors
• Links to your websites’ home pages
• Additional keywords, for SEO value to your website
• Downloadable documents – give visitors the opportunity to view your price lists, brochures and menus before they buy or book
• Add unlimited events to our ‘Caernarfon events‘ page
• Your own account at this blog, so that you can add articles and promote your business as often as you like
• Broadcast your news in our customer newsletter up to 12 times a year at no additional cost
• If you have a video on YouTube or a similar video hosting service, we can embed this on your profiles
• You can include your company logo and up to five images on your profile
• A Google map,  showing visitors how to find you (if you have a Google Local Business ad, we’ll include this too)
• Twitter functionality: “follow me” link, “Tweet this page” link, and “latest Tweet” feed

And remember – for a limited period only, we’re giving away premium profiles for the price of basic profiles – that’s a saving of £200! If you have more than one business that you’d like to advertise with Petha Caernarfon Things, get in touch and we’ll be happy to talk about further discounts.

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Mae ein pecynnau hysbysebu yn llawn o fuddion – nid jyst tudalen ar gyfeiriadur busnes ydych chi… gallwch chi hyrwyddo’ch busnes ar y wê heb dalu ceiniog ychwanegol!

Os byddwch chi’n dewis ein cyfrif premiwm, byddwch chi’n mwynhau’r buddion ffantastig canlynol:

• Creu presenoldeb ar y wê os does dim un gennych yn barod
• …os oes, defnyddiwch Petha Caernarfon Things i hyrwyddo hi
• Proffiliau ar y ddwy wefan – un yn y Gymraeg, un yn Saesneg. Byddwch yn weledig i bobol lleol ac ymwelwyr i gyd
• Dolennau i hafan ei’ch gwefannau
• ‘Keywords’ ychwanegol, i helpu efo SEO eich gwefan
• Dogfennau lawr-lwythiadwy – gadewch i ymwelwyr weld eich rhestr pris, brochure neu fwydlen cyn iddyn nhw prynu neu bwcio
• Atodwch digwyddiadau i’n tudalen ‘digwyddiadau Caernarfon‘ mor aml y hoffwch
• Cyfrif ar y blog ‘ma – cyhoeddwch erthyglau a hyrwyddwch eich busnes mor aml y hoffwch
• Darlledwch eich newyddion yn ein taflen newyddion i gwsmeriaid, hyd at 12 waith y flwyddyn, heb gost ychwanegol
• Os oes gennych fideo ar YouTube neu wasanaeth tebyg sy’n hostio fideos, gallwn ni rhoi hwn ar eich proffiliau
• Gallwch chi gynnwys logo eich cwmni a hyd at 5 delwedd ar eich proffil
• Map Google, yn dangos ymwelwyr sut i ffendio chi (os oes gennych Google Local Business ad, byddan yn cynnwys hyn hefyd))
• Nodweddion Twitter: dolen “dilynwch fi”, dolen “Tweet o’r dudalen hon”, a ‘latest Tweet feed’

A chofiwch – am adeg cyfyngedig yn unig, rydym yn rhoi i ffwrdd proffiliau premiwm am bris proffiliau sylfaenol – disgownt o £200! Oes mae gennych fwy nag un busnes y hoffech hysbysebu efo Petha Caernarfon Things, cysylltwch â ni a byddan yn hapus i drafod am disgowntiau pellach.

1. Premium profile for the price of a basic profile
2. One extra month free – e.g. join in June 2009 and your renewals will start from July 2010

We’re also happy to discuss discounts if you have more than one business to promote – if you’d like to know more, please get in touch.

Click the link to find out more about the benefits and costs of advertising at Caernarfon Things.

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Yn ystod y cwpwl o wythnosau cyntaf o’n ‘soft launch’ byddwn ni’n cynnig busnesau yn ardal Caernarfon nid un, ond DAU cynnig arbennig.

1. Proffil premiwm am bris proffil sylfaenol
2. Mis ychwanegol am ddim – e.e. ymunwch ym mis Mehefin 2009 a bydd eich adnewyddiadau’n dechrau o fis Gorffennaf 2010

Rydym yn hapus i drafod disgowntiau os mae gennych fwy nag un busnes i hyrwyddo – os hoffech wybod mwy, plis cysylltwch â ni.

Cliciwch y ddolen i ddarganfod mwy am y buddion o hysbysebu ar Petha Caernarfon.

Please feel free to take a look around. There aren’t many member profiles on the sites at the moment – this is really a ‘soft launch’ period, while we populate the site with members, and the proper launch will follow in a few weeks’ time.

So, what do you think of our new babies? We’re pretty proud of them, and we’d love to hear what you think too!

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Heb unrhyw seremoni, dwi jyst ‘di pwyso’r botymau i wneud Petha Caernarfon a Caernarfon Things yn fyw.

Plis teimlwch yn rhydd i edrych o gwmpas. Does dim lot o broffiliau aelodau ar y gwefannau ar y foment – dim ond ‘soft launch’ ydi hyn, tra bod ni’n llenwi’r wefan efo aelodau, a bydd y lawnsiad go iawn yn digwydd mewn cwpwl o wythnosau.

So, be’ ydach chi’n meddwl o’n babanod newydd? Rydym yn eitha falch ohonynt, a hoffen ni glywed be’ ydach chi’n meddwl hefyd!