Google Alerts

ewdowney · #1 (**permalink**) 08-30-2008, 08:14 AM

Hi Folks,

I think I have the right area for this question. Has anyone worked with Google Alerts? Setting one up was easy enough but I'm interested in knowing what everyone is using them for.

TechieGuy · #2 (**permalink**) 08-30-2008, 08:45 AM

I use Google Alerts for two things:

1. To track which pages from my blog are indexed by Google.

2. To track duplicate content, while not perfect it does work. I wrote a post about this on my blog.

ewdowney · #3 (**permalink**) 08-30-2008, 10:38 AM

I'm very interested in #1. How do you do that?

TechieGuy · #4 (**permalink**) 08-30-2008, 10:48 AM

You can use: inurl:[your domain URL] as your search term.

ewdowney · #5 (**permalink**) 08-30-2008, 11:53 AM

Yep, ok. I think I understand. But does this only show pages that are being found by people who are searching via google? When are the alerts sent?

TechieGuy · #6 (**permalink**) 08-30-2008, 12:19 PM

This shows the pages that contain your domain name in the URL. Only pages that are added to Google for the first time will be sent through alerts.

So this means that you will be notified when any new pages from your domain are added to the Google index.

Great Elephant · #7 (**permalink**) 08-30-2008, 12:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TechieGuy

I use Google Alerts for two things:

1. To track which pages from my blog are indexed by Google.

2. To track duplicate content, while not perfect it does work. I wrote a post about this on my blog.

I haven't taken a look at Google Alerts yet but how do you track duplicate content? and have you caught anyone yet?

TechieGuy · #8 (**permalink**) 08-30-2008, 02:05 PM

Duplicate content is a little more tricky because you need to search for words in your documents.

I would create a link form one post to another within my blog. I will then create an alert that will tell Google to alert me when someone links to my blog (search term: link:[domain name]). This should pick up the links in my posts.

For the most part I will only receive information about people that have linked to me, but once in a while I may get content that matches mine, but it isn't on my blog. I caught one person doing this.

This isn't perfect, but at times it does work.

NewMama · #9 (**permalink**) 08-30-2008, 10:41 PM

I use Google Alerts to receive notification on any blogs or forums in my niche. Then I can post useful comments. Most blogs provide a space for you to fill in your website address.

I believe most blogs have a no-follow when you post your website on them, but I've noticed that it has increased my link popularity anyway.

Great Elephant · #10 (**permalink**) 08-31-2008, 06:17 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by NewMama

I believe most blogs have a no-follow when you post your website on them, but I've noticed that it has increased my link popularity anyway.

Excuse me for my ignorance

but whats no follow?

TechieGuy · #11 (**permalink**) 08-31-2008, 07:11 AM

Most blogs do have a nofollow, and blogs that are hosted on Blogger have nofollow by default. If you own a blog, however, it can be changed easily.

NoFollow instructs search engines to now follow the link to the linked site. For Google, this means that the link won't help with regards to pagerank.

I'm sure someone else can explain it better.

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