When you creating your new blog it is always nice to know how you content is being spread through the Internet. And Google Alerts are the best way how to do it.
What it is? Well “Google Alerts are email updates of the latest relevant Google results (web, news, etc.) based on your choice of query or topic”.
What it basically means is that the minute Google search engine finds your blog or article or your name it will notify you about it! Isn’t that cool?
Why it is good for you?
- you can follow your blog and blog posts, how they are showing on the net, who is following you, who mentioned your blog or post etc.
- you can add your name to the Alerts, so you know when someone writes about you
- when you see your name on someone else’s blog, you can react immediately, add additional comments, add more value
- you can create Alerts on all your websites and blogs or any other term you’re interested in
Couple of examples:
- When I first created my blog and posted first comment (automatically also posted on Twitter with Twitter Tools plugin) and mentioned my name in Garry Parke’s blog, my blog was found by Google after 6 days. Without any other advertising, anything…
- When I posted a new blog post with all the students of Alex Jeffreys, the blog post was found by Google after 1 day!!! And I knew about it right away thanks to Google Alerts!
- And when I posted my blog post The biggest problem you could ever have at 19:32. At 21:07 same day I received Google Alert about it! So Google actually recognized (indexed) my comment after 2 1/2 hours! That is the power of social marketing!!!
- When somebody mentions my name in his/her blog, I know it as soon as Google finds about it, so I can comment back. And of course, if Google knows about that blog, the site and comments there are relevant already.
So here is how to do it:
- Create your account with Google, if you do not have one. If you have Gmail, Google Analytics or any other Google service, you already have an account
- Go to http://www.google.com/alerts where you can create your alerts
- Create a Google Alert:
- Add your Search Term, e.g. your name or name or address of your blog. I find it better to use phrase match e.g. “Jozef Antony” not broad match e.g. Jozef Antony, because it gives more precise results.
- Choose Type: Comprehensive is just fine (Alert will monitor everything)
- Choose How often: once a day is usually enough
- Choose Deliver to: type your mail address where you want to deliver the Alerts
- Hit “Create Alert” button and that’s it!
Google Alerts Example - Jozef Antony
If you prefer a video tutorial, here is one (thanks Jeff Sargent for recommending the site) – http://www.101marketingvideos.com/ (there is a lot of other great videos there too!).
Correction: the videos are no longer free there 
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{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Hey Jozef!
Thanks for sharing this I’m going to try this out. It’s getting difficult to keep up with everything that is going on.
Hope you have a great new year and much success in the coming year too!
Dave
http://www.davedunnonline.com
Hi Dave,
thanks for stopping by!
Have a great and prosperous new year!
Jozef