For many new people starting out with internet marketing or their first website, often times some of the most important tools are overlooked. The tools I'm talking about are the tools that Google provides anyone with a Google account access to. I'll go over a few of the basics, but the first and most important thing is to make sure you have a Google account.

Once you've signed up for your Google account, there are a few things you should have and a few things I'd recommend. The things you SHOULD have are Google Analytics and the Webmaster tools. Adding Google analytics allows you to embed the code Google provides you into your webstie so you can track how your website is doing (or isn't for that matter). The Webmaster tools will provide you step by step instructions for setting up a Google sitemap on your website. Depending on what software or site builder you use (I prefer Wordpress and Joomla), it will also walk you through how to set this up. With Wordpress and Joomla it's almost as easy as just installing the plugin or extension. And of course if you get stuck, Google has a few of the frequently asked questions listed on the page...just a click away!

The few resources Google provides that I'd recommend are the Google Reader, Google Toolbar, Gmail and iGoogle. The Google reader lets you subscribe to your favorite feeds and puts them right on your home page- which, if you're using iGoogle you can customize your homepage (that's what iGoogle is....a custom home page for browsing the web). The Google Toolbar lets you see the pagerank of whatever page you're on (as well as checking backlinks). And then gmail- it's always good to have more than one email- and this just keeps getting better and better.

So, while this may be brief, it should be enough to get you started on utilizing all of the great resources Google provides to help you drive traffic to your website and build your business.