Google will play an important part in the success of your website. Using their online services can help move that along in several ways. Setting up a fresh Google account on the following services is ideal when you are first getting started. Below is a list of Google’s services and the reasons we recommend that you use them.
Gmail
The first account you will want to set up is a new Gmail account. All of your other Google services below can be connected to this one address. We won’t be using this email for general business use. We want to be using our own branded domain name for company correspondence, not Google’s. Instead this this Gmail address will be used to log into Google tools, domain name registrations and hosting accounts.
Why Gmail?
Setting up domain name and web hosting accounts will require an email address. You want to use a new Gmail address for all of that correspondence because it is relatively permanent and not dependent on any other services in the chain. You do not want to use an email address that would become inaccessible if a problem were to arise with the domain name registration it belongs to, or the hosting account where it resides. If or when those accounts run into trouble, the first thing you’d most likely lose access to is the email and any correspondence required to recover your accounts. Using an email address provided by your home or office Internet provider is also a gamble. We have run into many cases where people change Internet providers, but forget to update their domain registration or hosting account details before they lose access to that old email address. Managing hosting accounts or domain name registrations without access to the email address on record can be a nightmare.
Google Search Console
The Google Search Console (fka Webmaster Tools) will connect you as the owner/manager of your website. Through the Search Console, Google will provide you key information including:
- Search Engine Optimization suggestions
- Errors on your site that need to be corrected
- Notifications if your website has been compromised
- Alerts when your website software needs to be updated
- Number of times your website showed up in the search results
- Keywords being used and your average search results position
- and lots more.
Google Analytics
This is a statistics application that Google provides for free. In addition to the valuable information in the Google Search Console, Analytics goes even deeper into segmenting how people are finding and using your website.
Google Ads
Although this is Google’s paid advertising service, you will want to establish your free account as soon as possible so you can get full access to the Google Keyword Planner Tool. This tool will give you a huge advantage as you research the keywords that people are using to find the information that you be offering on your website.
So head on over to Google at https://www.google.com/accounts/NewAccount to set up your account. Be sure to keep your account information in a safe place, because this will become your base contact point for the next steps in your website setup.