Top 5 Ways Google Can Help a Blogger – Other than Searching

Google is the undisputed ruler of the internet. What started off as a simple search engine has now developed into a gigantic octopus, spreading its tentacles in many different directions. Google has helped people coming from all walks of life in one way or another, same goes for bloggers.

The big G has a lot in the offing for bloggers. It offers a number of services that can help a blogger’s in many different ways, from content development to traffic generation.

Let’s take a look at the top five Google products that can be of great helps for bloggers.

1). Google Search

No matter how successful or unsuccessful its other products are, Google will always be known as the search engine that ruled the search market for years (and the tenure is not over yet).

Google Search holds the answer to almost everything, but here, I am not going to talk about the “searching made easy” by Google, instead I am highlighting the invaluable traffic and unique visitors sent to your blog from Google search, only if you can manage to rank for the right keywords, which is, easier said than done, but still Google deserves accolades for winning the trust of searchers, and making it worthwhile for bloggers to try and rank on one single platform.

2). Google Alerts

Want to keep a tab on the latest events and developments in the industry you are blogging on? Use Google Alerts! It’s critical for bloggers to stay updated and aware of the latest happenings in their sphere. For this purpose, there’s nothing better than the Google Alerts, a simple service that provides updates and new stories on the topic of your interest, right into your mail box.

All you have to do is enter the keyword you would like to monitor and the desired frequency, and you will never miss a noteworthy news, thanks to powerful Google crawlers who rarely miss anything on web. Google Alert is particularly helpful for bloggers covering topics like to technology, gadgets, mobile phones, real estate, or even SEO.

3). Google Reader

Google Reader is not some .pdf or ebook reader like Adobe Reader, It’s actually an aggregate service that lets you read the newly added articles, stories, and blog posts on your favorite websites, without having to visit each and every website you like to keep an eye on. All you need to do is, subscribe to these websites and let Google Reader do the rest.

It’s like an RSS feed that presents the latest information from hundreds of blogs at one place, and you can quickly scan through the titles and decide, which story is worth reading. Apart from the stories, it also provides more than enough inspiration and ideas to write on, which makes it a Godsend for those who find it difficult to come up with different titles on regular basis.

4). Google Plus

Finally! A social networking platform from Google that delivered, the network has already garnered 20 million users, which is no mean feat. This new social network provides you an excellent platform for networking, which is a must for bloggers for many reasons.

To start with, it lets you get into the circle of bloggers covering similar topics. The best thing about blogosphere is that there’s no professional jealousy or rivalry going on between bloggers, so this networking will benefit you in many ways.

For example, you can keep track of fellow bloggers and get the inspiration to write more, and write better . By occasionally writing guest posts for these blogs, you can get free yet very effective publicity for your blog, and last but not the least, you might even get some back links when some of your fellow blogger refers to your post in their article.

5). Google Keyword Tool

Google Keyword is a very powerful tool that is used primarily in PPC (and SEO) campaigns. For bloggers, it helps you identify keywords or key phrases, which are most searched, along with an idea of the competition. The numbers might not be accurate, still it gives you an idea of the topics people are looking for, and the topics that you need to write on.

So, there you are, five ways Google can help bloggers achieve the success, recognition, and inspiration they’re looking for. Please chip in with your ideas on how bloggers can make the most of other Google products not discussed in this article.

This is a guest post by Misheal, you can check out the guidelines to guest post here.

Image Credit: Will Lion