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 Sometimes our jobs as marketers
means we need to look beyond the obvious. Google, for
example, offers their Google Alerts service. At first
glance, this may seem most useful to companies who want to
track certain searches within their industry, or to
hobbyists who want to stay on top of changes in their
topics of interest.
But Internet marketers can also use Google Alerts to help
keep track of what's going on around the net, and even to
keep tabs on their direct competition for that matter.
Google Alerts, which are email notifications, can be
created based on the top 10 Google news stories, but more
helpful to marketers is the possibility of creating alerts
for the top 20 Google web search results.
By setting up alerts for your competitor's company, web
site, brand, or product name, you can monitor search
results for changes. Some results may indicate a new
product launch, or perhaps a publicity campaign, and you
will be able to make appropriate adjustments in your own
business.
If you want to market an affiliate product through SEO,
you can monitor the top 20 results for a search on that
product. You will know if and when your site breaks into
the top 20 results, and can watch it as it hopefully
continues climbing to that first position.
There are other uses as well. SEO firms can monitor
clients' results. Niche marketers can easily monitor both
industry news and niche search results. You can even
monitor search results for your best keywords and your own
high ranking pages.
Google Alerts, though free, can provide valuable marketing
intelligence to online entrepreneurs who take advantage of
it.
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