Day 10 of the SITS Girls 31 Days to Build a Better Blog Challenge is about setting up alerts to monitor what’s going on in your niche. There are several alert services available including Twitter, Blog Alerts, and Google Alerts, the service that I currently use. Today’s challenge is to set up these alerts, if we haven’t already done so, and begin to monitor the activity based on the keywords and phrases we choose. This information can provide you with valuable insights into industry happenings, where your site ranks on search engines, and can give you lots of new ideas for future posts, which is what I find really valuable.
Here’s how it works:
Go to Google Alerts. Here you will be asked to type in a particular search term that you’re interested in. For example, if you’re a marketer, you might type in “internet marketing”. You can select what type of information you’re interested in (i.e. blogs, video, news, etc.), how often you’d like to receive alerts and what email address they should be sent to. You can do this for as many search terms as you’d like.
I’ve already been using Google Alerts for quite some time now. The keywords that I’ve chosen to monitor are -
- graphic design
- graphic designer
- website design
- web designer
- virtual assistance
- Theresa Sheridan
- Theresa Sheridan Enterprises
While I haven’t seen any of my content show up in the alerts that don’t directly relate to my brand, I do get great information that directly relates to my business that I can use for Facebook and Twitter posts, as well as information about my competitors and very useful ideas for future blog posts. Any of you that have been blogging for awhile know the challenge in coming up with useful, relevant and NEW information to write about. These alerts are very helpful in providing new inspiration.
Additionally, the alerts I get that relate to my brand have shown me that once I post something on my blog Google is crawling it within 24 hours, sometimes sooner! This is just more evidence that changing your content is key to better rankings in the search engines and vital to your success!
Have you been using alerts to monitor what’s going on in your bloggy world? If so, what are you using and how’s it working for you?
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I guess I need to learn more about alerts before writing them off… I just found them to be more clutter in my inbox.
I have to admit that every now and again I do just hit the delete button because I’m just too busy, but when I’m looking for ideas, I almost always go back through them. Definitely keep a few around for reference if you can.
Being new to this social media thing, I found this very helpful. I didn’t even know about alerts and now I am going to go work on this. Thank you for your help.
You’re welcome Lisa, I hope you find them helpful. I know I did! You can also use the Google Keyword Tool to help you figure out what keywords and phrases you should concentrate on in your blogging, and then set up alerts for some of those. Have fun!
do u have a twitter
Yes, I do! It’s http://www.twitter.com/theresasheridan. See you there!
Great info, Theresa! And I love what you have done with your blog in the last couple of weeks! It’s looking GREAT! Visiting from #31dbbb.
Thank you Beth! I’ve been very busy with the whole Social Media – SEO – Marketing thing and it’s really paying off for me now! I liked your post today as well and left a comment.
Off topic here, but I have an ‘almost’ niece whose name is Beth Zimmerman!
Staying on top of your niche is incredibly important, and you mention the best tools to do just that, Theresa.
I can see you’ve got great support going for you blogging challenge – it certainly helps, doesn’t it?
Best,
Ana Hoffman
PS Pleasure to have seen you on my blog.
Yes it helps a lot, and I’ve been having a great time with it, too! Thanks so much for stopping by, I’ve been enjoying reading quite a bit of your blog this morning as well!
Terrific work! This is the type of information that should be shared around the web. Shame on the search engines for not positioning this post higher!
Keep posting stuff like this i really like it
this is awesome man
trying to follow you on twitter but cant find your name
Sorry, it’s the little twitter bird with the cowboy hat icon in the upper right hand corner…..user name is theresasheridan, and thanks for following!
I would like to add your blog to my blogroll please tell me what anchor should I use?
You can use http://www.theresasheridan.com/blog. Thanks!