A few months back, I wrote a post about the usage of Google Reader for bloggers. In case you missed it, you can see it here:
There is one more topic which is very important for bloggers that I forget to add into that post.
In case you don’t know, Google Alerts is a free online service which lets you know what’s happening around the web for a selected keyword.
As a blogger, you should always know when people are talking about you or your brand online.
You can set keywords like “(your name)” or “(your blog’s name)” and have Google send email updates whenever anyone is mentioning these keywords online.
For example, my keywords are “Harsh Agrawal” and “ShoutMeLoud”. This way, I can monitor what people are saying about me and my blog around the web.
To trigger this update, go to the Google Alerts website and enter your keyword(s):
Now, whenever anyone on the web talks about ShoutMeLoud, I will be notified via email.
If you prefer a feed subscription method, you can also subscribe to feeds for such alerts.
In the “Type” section, you can select between different options like Web, Blogs, or Comprehensive.
Do let me know if you find this tip useful and what other practical implementations of Google Alerts you can think of. Share your thoughts in the comments below!
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Thanks Harsh for explaining it in a simple way. I’ll be start using it soon.
Thanks again.
Hi
If you are using Google Alerts, you might want to check out our App, Neuoogle, in the Apple Store. Neuoogle works in a similar way to Google Alerts, but provides the capability to manage all of your searches within a single mobile application. No more switching between a web browser, RSS or email client and then back to a browser to read the article.
Furthermore we utilise notifications, telling you exactly which search has new results, meaning you can choose to either action the notification or leave it until later.
Lastly, we support a additional filtering, including by URL or region.
Neuoogle is free and is currently an iPhone only app. The android version is coming very soon.
Neuoogle Team
@Neuoggle
Just tried your app on my iPhone and I liked the idea. Though, you can refine the UI a bit and make it more webmaster centric.
For example, there are few common terms that we usually add in our Google alerts like
link:domain.com
sitename
And so on.. You can simply add a new column where a webmaster can just add the domain name, select options from above options and set it up in no-time. Additionally you can use it to send eMail notification also, something we set it on Google alerts. Obviously with your eMail marketing tool, as if you get good number of Email subscribe using this, you can use it to monetise it.
What I meant here is, Google alerts are usually used by web masters, journalist and they are one of the best people to have on your eMail list. If you plan a business model around it, it would be beneficial. You can add me on Skype- denharsh, in case if you want to speak more about it. Waiting of next iteration of the same.
Hummm Great idea… Thanx for sharing…
Hehe very good idea, some people told me that google alert can be used to check backlink or monitored new link to our blog, can you tell me how ?
I already used Google Alerts for content ideas but hadn’t thought about tracking mentions of my site. Thanks for the idea! I’ll be subscribing to shoutmeloud to keep up with your tips!
I am using it to know updates in my field of interest. It’s an excellent free service from Google.
Nice tip. Thanks for sharing Harsh.
Wow.. Thanx for d tip!
I use Google alerts to find out if my Posts have been listed in Google properly or not, Works really great,
I knew this.. I am using this since 4-5 months and it is pretty interesting.
Good idea :-
If we subscribe for SMS alerts via Way2sms.com for our incoming mails we can monitor using Mobile phones in our home..
hey great idea. neva thought such thing would exist
another useful tool from blogger
Good idea, I just added this alert.
Thanks for the tip.
Its great and I have Also created lost of Google Alert to stay updated with Blogging world
Liked this Idea Very Much!
i have created lots alerts, its working fine, but now unsubscribed from all. its a nice trick to find popular keywords.
That Quotation marks are so important, else Google throws all alerts that contain words like shout, me and loud in a same page.
Thats really an wonderful idea to track yourself. This is the best tip I have ever read on SML.
Pretty neat. Will be definitely using this in the future 🙂
Why future use it now since you own a blog. I have set it up for mine already 🙂