If you’re like me you’re working for yourself and need to manage how productive you are. You’ll also be looking for ways to keep costs down, given that you need software to help you out. Google offers a whole bunch of online tools to help you run your business. However you have to sign up to access them. So, today I am going show you how to sign up for a Google account in just a few minutes.
Firstly, I’ll detail some of the tools you’ll have to help you work smarter when you have one set up.
Why Sign Up for a Google Account?
You’ll probably already have a reason to sign up for a Google Account as there may be a Google tool you want to use. If not, here’s a list of some of the free online tools you’ll have access to when you sign up, though there are many, many more!
Gmail (Google Mail)
Perhaps the main reason why people want a Google Account. Gmail is Google’s free web email service and so it’s one of the most popular mail clients in the world:
Google Analytics (GA)
Google Analytics helps website owners to analyze, measure and report upon data relating to visitor interaction with their site. GA is the most popular web analytics tool in the world. It offers incredibly useful insights into visitor behaviour including:
- The pages they’ve visited,
- Bounce Rate
- and Conversion Rate (in the case of ecommerce sites).
For my money, this alone is worth setting up a Google Account!
Google Drive
Google Drive enables you to store files on Googles servers… it’s effectively free cloud storage for up to 15GB of data.
It works in conjunction with other free tools such as Google Docs, Google Sheets and Google Slides. As a result, Google Drive effectively allows you to create documents (word processing, spreadsheets and presentations). You can edit these offline, synchronise them to other devices and share with other people.
A great feature is you can install the Google Drive app to your mobile or tablet device. This means you can download documents when online, to edit without a data connection. You can upload them to your Google Drive Account when you’re online again.
Google Docs
Google Docs is a free online word processing tool. I use this everyday to draft my blog articles. Any documents you create are stored in your Google Drive.
Google Sheets
Google Sheets is another tool I use daily to help me be more productive. I use it to manage my content planner, build keyword lists and generally monitor SideGains web performance over time.
As with Google Docs, Google’s free spreadsheet tool is available as a part of Google Drive.
Google Search Console
Google Search Console is another indispensable tool to help you look after a website. Among other things, it enables you to:
- See the number of people visiting your site and the keywords they use to find you;
- Identify external links to your site;
- and understand potential problems with your site site, such as duplicated content and broken links.
There are many other free tools available to Google Account holders. However, I’ll leave these for a more detailed discussion later.
Have You Already Signed Up for a Google Account?
The first thing to do is check you don’t already have a Google Account!
If you’ve ever set up an account for any of the free Google tools such as Gmail or Google Docs you already have a Google Account!
Can’t remember your login details? Not a problem. Plug your email into the Google Account Recovery form and submit it.
Now… if your email is recognized, Google will send a password reset message to you.
If you’ve forgotten the email address you used to sign up for the account, the Google Account Recovery page might help you retrieve it. Instead of submitting your email address, you just need to click “Forgot email?” and follow the process to retrieve your details. You’ll be asked some identification questions, which hopefully you can remember, to verify your identity!
If you have never signed up for any type of account with Google, then you’ll need to set one up now.
How to sign Up for a Google Account
Visit the Create a Google Account page. You’ll see something like this:
You have to supply your personal name, an account username and a password.
When you click “Next” you’ll arrive at another page requiring further details:
You’ll need to add your phone number here as this will be used for verification. Actually, you can’t set up a Google account without providing this.
Although optional, adding an alternative email address is useful in case you ever forget your login details.
Your date of birth is mandatory. You have to be aged 13 years and over to have a Google Account. However, Google relies on your honesty alone here and you don’t have to supply any formal proof of your age.
Selecting your gender is kind of optional. You have to select one of the choices available, but you can select “Prefer not to say” to opt out.
The “Next” button takes you to the verification page.
Google Account Sign Up Verification
At this point, the set up process will prepare to trigger a message to you containing a verification code. When you click “Send”, within a few seconds you’ll receive a text (cell) or a recorded message (fixed line) containing a 6-digit code.
You’ll also redirect to a page for you to enter the Google Account validation code.
Add your code into the verification field and click “Verify”.
If the code is verified successfully you have the choice to add your phone number to your Google Account. By adding your phone number you can include another layer of security on to your account.
Your phone number is unique to you. If you ever lose your account details or someone tries to hack it, adding your phone number is what protects you.
Now many people don’t like the idea of providing so many details to Google. However, for me losing my Google Account would be disastrous so I’m happy to lock things down. Anyway, you can find out more about what adding your phone number involves by clicking the ‘Learn more’ link at this point. You can decide for yourself if that’s the way for you to go.
Once you’ve decided to ‘Skip’ or opt in to adding your phone number, you move on to the Privacy and Terms page.
Agree to Terms & Conditions
You have two choices: agree or disagree to the terms of the Google Account service. If you disagree, you won’t have an account: simple as that!
When you’ve selected the agreement check boxes and clicked “Create Account” you’ll see the following confirmation pop-up.
This gives you the choice to modify your personalization settings or select “Confirm” to continue. As a note, you can always choose to modify your settings later from within your Google Account.
When you’ve confirmed, you’ll arrive at your new Google Account dashboard!
From here you can manage how your Google Account is set up. So you can modify your personal information, data personalization and security.
Summary for Google Account Sign Up
- When you set up any type of Google service (such as Gmail or Google Docs) you automatically have a Google Account.
- A Google Account gives you up to 15Gb of free data storage to use across all your Google Accounts.
- When you’ve set up your Google Account, you have access to practically every other online tool Google has to offer. All free of charge!
- Google Accounts help you to be more productive.
- As a website owner, a Google Account gives you powerful tools to help you understand how visitors interact with your site (Google Analytics) and how it performs in Search (Google Search Console).
Why not set up your Google Account now?
Thanks for reading!
Paul
Want to know anything else about Google Account sign up? Drop a question or comment below!
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