Who’s Talking About You and Your Sites?
Wouldn’t it be great to know when others are talking about you or your web sites? Sure, blogs have pingbacks, but unless there is a link, you won’t know about it. Thanks to Google Alerts you can get a daily update whenever your personal name, business or site url is mentioned anyway. I’ve been using Google Alerts for quite a while now, and I’m sure many of you already know about it, but for those who don’t, read on.
Here’s a quick look at Google Alerts and how easy it is to setup
Search Terms: Whatever search term or web site you want to monitor, just fill it in this area.
Type: Comprehensive covers all areas, but you can change this to just target news, blogs, video etc.
How often and Deliver to are self explanatory. You can schedule alerts in real time, daily or weekly.
Once you have an alert setup, you’ll receive email alerts like the following. A link back to https://zacjohnson.com was featured in a post by Jonathan Volk, so I was sent an alert with the url and post title.
It’s Not Just About You!
Sure, Google Alerts works great to find out information about yourself and what others are saying, but it can also be used as a marketing tool. If you are looking to start a new web site or want to keep an eye on the competition, setup alerts and see how they are getting new backlinks and traffic to their web sites.
There’s no limit to how many reports you can setup, and it’s very easy to remove/add new alerts. If you haven’t already, give Google Alerts a try.