Using Google Web Site Add-Ons
10/26/08
Bradley Caricofe, Server Adminstrator

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Small-business and non-profit web sites can benefit greatly by using free services offered by Google. The following is a short exploration of some of the more popular enhancements that are available.

Google Apps
Google Apps is a free email service we often recommend to our clients. With a few minor changes to your web site hosting configuration, your company's email can be outsourced to Google's servers at no cost. The primary benefit of this is the use of Google's web mail interface, 7+ Gigabytes of email storage per address and their unmatched spam filtering capability.

Users of this service have the option to send and receive email through Google's web mail interface or to use software like Microsoft Outlook. The Google Apps package also includes calendars and document storage that can be shared among your employees.

You can review Google Apps below. However, I recommend speaking with your web developers or hosting provider before signing up, as they may have input that will be needed before creating an account.

http://www.google.com/a

Google Analytics
In April 2005 Google purchased Urchin Software, creators of popular web site statistics applications. Google quickly developed and rebranded one of their products into a free statistics solution now known as Google Analytics.

Setting up Google Analytics is easy; you need only to create an account and then add a small snippet of code to each page of your web site. Once enabled, you will have access to a customizable dashboard (see photo) displaying detailed information about your web site's traffic sources, page popularity, search engine referrals and more.

This information is tuned more for marketing professionals than webmasters and can greatly assist you in making tweaks to your web site that will result in increased visitors and better flow of information.

You can read more about Google Analytics at the link below. I again recommend speaking with your web development professional or hosting provider before signing up.

http://www.google.com/analytics

Google Maps API
You have probably seen or used Google's maps in the past. Google provides web developers with free tools for customizing and embedding maps on their web sites. A Google map is a tasteful addition to most small-business web sites and is useful for displaying location information and as an add-on to any "directions" page.

Usage of Google Maps API to display maps on your web site is free; however, customizing the maps and implementing their code can be a somewhat time intensive process for your web developer.

The homepage for the Google Maps API is listed below; however, a lot of it may be Greek to you unless you're a web programmer.

http://code.google.com/apis/maps

Google Custom Search Engine
If your web site needs a search feature, the Google Custom Search Engine may be a suitable option. Features include a customizable search box and results page, hosted on your web site, and the ability to exclude content from searches. Non-profit organizations can also use this service without any Google advertisements being displayed.

Google also offers a paid search service called Google Site Search with more customization and technical support options.

Google Custom Search Engine (Free)
http://www.google.com/coop/cse

Google Site Search (Paid)
http://www.google.com/sitesearch

Google Webmaster Central
Google Webmaster Central contains a collection of essential tools you can use to track the indexing of your web site within the Google search database. This handy resource can be used to optimize your site's content to be "crawled" properly by Google.

Although more of a resource for web development professionals, you will find a lot of interesting information here, as well as a huge collection of gadgets that could be integrated into your web site.

http://www.google.com/webmasters

Summary
We can thank Google's massive growth over the last decade for funding the research and development that led to these useful free services. The only downside is slim support options unless you upgrade to a paid account. Regardless, Google puts its name on system reliability and uptime, and it shows.

Trio Solutions has enabled and configured all these services for many of our clients. The feedback we've received has always been positive and we fully recommend using any of them to gain needed functionality for your web site and email.

Clients who are interested in obtaining these services for their web site should contact our office.