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Do You Use Google Alerts?

Do you even know what a Google Alert is?

Well it’s a really useful little web application to tell you when a certain phrase is used on a web page that Google has indexed.  For instance, I have an alert set for “Frank Haywood”, and if anyone uses my name on a site I know about it within a few minutes.

You can set them up by clicking on Google Alerts.

It’s a very good web application to accompany and complement the tool I posted about the other day.

To go with these, in a few days time I’ll update my free keyword tool Keyword Inspector, and I’ll also shortly be releasing another nice little freebie that I think you’re going to like…

-Frank Haywood

This was written by Frank Haywood. Posted on Saturday, April 19, 2008, at 9:40 pm. Filed under internet business. Tagged , , . Bookmark the permalink. Follow comments here with the RSS feed. Post a comment or leave a trackback.

4 Comments

  1. Amin wrote:

    Frank, a good piece of advice, as usual.

    For anyone who has never seen a Google alert arriving in their email it’s quite fascinating. Seeing who - and where - your name, or website, is mentioned is quite instructional.

    It’s also a very good way of testing how fast your content gets indexed. If you set up a Google alert on a phrase in your content that’s unique, as soon as you get your Google alert notificatin you know big G have found it.

    For testing which methods work best to get them to look at your content, it’s a very valuable free resource.

    Saturday, April 19, 2008 at 9:46 pm | Permalink
  2. Geoff Robertson wrote:

    Hi Frank,

    I have used it for a while now. It announces new articles, blog posts and news feeds containing keywords of interest to me. It is a great tool AND it is free.

    Geoff

    Sunday, April 20, 2008 at 8:38 am | Permalink
  3. Frank Haywood wrote:

    Amin:

    Yes it’s especially good for knowing how quickly your blog posts have been indexed.  ;-)

    For instance I made this post at 9.40pm my time, and at 0:50am I received the Google alert.  I usually get them within about 30 minutes, but I guess it depends on just when the SEs look at your site.

    Hmm, here’s a thought.  I haven’t posted all week (since Monday) - I wonder if that affects how often Google checks your site?

    Geoff:

    It’s funny isn’t it?  You pick these tools up, start using them and forget how useful they are.

    Yet I reckon 99% of marketers (or people interested in making money online) have never even heard of Google Alerts.

    Here’s an interesting thing too.  You both came to my blog and made a comment, yet I haven’t sent an email out to my subscribers yet.

    Which are you using?  The blog update tool or Google Alerts?  ;-)

    Sunday, April 20, 2008 at 10:08 am | Permalink
  4. Geoff Robertson wrote:

    It is the magic of RSS.

    Monday, April 21, 2008 at 1:54 pm | Permalink

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I've installed KeywordLuv. Enter YourName@YourKeywords in the Name field to take advantage.

However, don't take that as I'm inviting you take advantage of my blog for a back link for free. Only those posts that are relevant and contain several paragraphs of relevant content will be approved. A hundred words or so will likely do it if on topic.

My regular readers understand this, but if this is your first visit then you should be aware that this is how most blog owners feel. A "me too" post from someone I don't know or a hastily constructed sentence will get marked as Akismet spam.

So... play the game properly and all will be well. ;)

Thank you.

-Frank Haywood