Do You Google Alert?
Someone wrote about our business today and Google sent me a note. Do you know when you or your business is mentioned on a website, forum or blog?
Google Alerts is a free service provided by the Worlds leading search engine. A testament to the speed of the Google bot is the speed in which Stuart’s blog entry today was indexed.
I received this alert at 8:45 PM today, the same day that the blog entry was written.
On 1/28/08, Google Alerts <googlealerts-noreply@google.com> wrote:
Google Blogs Alert for: link:www.ekzact.com
Leading IT Companies come together to help Calgary Small Business
By Stuart R. Crawford(Stuart R. Crawford)
A new group of leading IT companies in Calgary have recently come together to help out the needs of the Calgary Small Business community. Technology needs in Calgary are becoming more and more complex and Calgary businesses need a group …
Calgary Small Business IT Blog – http://calgaryitblog.blogspot.com/
Google states that some handy uses for alerts include:
- monitoring a developing news story
- keeping current on a competitor or industry
- getting the latest on a celebrity or event
- keeping tabs on your favorite sports teams
I monitor our company domain names, trade names and some keywords that are important to us. The use of Google Alerts for search engine optimization and testing is invaluable. You may want to setup an alert on your business name or personal name to see what people are writing about you!
You can sign up for Google Alerts at this location — http://www.google.com/alerts
Cheers,
David A. West
PS – Thanks Stuart
Wil Kriski on April 5th, 2008
Great point – the alerts are very useful. I use it for keywords in my industry, then I can add a comment to the article/blog post. It also usually results in finding new blogs to subscribe to which also give you real-time information to respond to or new ideas for blog posts.