Google Web Alerts

[iamrussell]

I just found the "Google Web Alerts" thing. What's it good for? What kind of things can you do with it? What's it all about?

[jestep]

Since the SERPS are updates continuously its not really good for search queries. The best I have found are using the link:yoursite.com, which will tell you when backlinks are updated, also you can copy the search query for your sites cache in google if you want to know when the cache is updated.

[iamrussell]

They send you an email everyday with that info?

[bhartzer]

jestep is right, it's great for notifying when Google has found a new link to your site or possibly checking rankings.

[iamrussell]

On the form that ask for a search term. What do you put? "site:mydomain.com"?

[paulhiles]

On my Google Alerts, I have my name, my username, and my website domain. I haven't tried entering a search operator such as site: or link:. Not sure that would be accepted as a valid entry.

Have you experimented with Google Alerts at all, jestep? or were you meaning that you generally check with Google yourself by using the link command?

[jestep]

I use the link:mysite for about 10 sites and it emails me when the backlinks are updated. It lets me know that google is updating or doing something.

[jestep]

You can also use the site:www.mysite.com, to see when google adds pages from your site to its index.

[jestep]

To see whan the cache is updated, you use cache:www.mysite.com, this one was a little harder to figure out, but it works too.

I have tested all of these so I do know that they work.

[cbp]

We have had lots of threads on this:
http://www.webproworld.com/viewtopic.php?t=17284
http://www.webproworld.com/viewtopic.php?t=23461
http://www.webproworld.com/viewtopic.php?t=25279
http://www.webproworld.com/viewtopic.php?t=16760

CBP

[Duncan Pollock]

When cbp tipped us off about the introduction of Web Alerts back in March, Google's own blurb went as follows.
"Some handy uses of Google Web Alerts include:
keeping current on a competitor or industry
monitoring references to your name or company
finding out when people link to your site
discovering new websites on a certain topic."

I subscribe to them and it certainly helps me know how I'm stacking up against my competition.

Duncan