I tried using this Google News Alerts technique for my backlink campaign for a couple of my business sites. Essentially it involves adding alerts to your existing google gmail account which you can do by:
google alerts video" title="using google alerts video" width="163" height="114" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-1269" />- Signing in to your gmail account, then
- Among the left-topmost links, click on ‘more‘ (right next to ‘Web’).
- In the dropdown menu, click on ‘even more‘ (the bottom-most menu entry).
- In the resulting new page, click on the ‘Alerts‘ link (the one with the bell icon).
- In the ‘Create a Google Alert‘ box, enter your keywords.
What is supposed to happen is that as soon as some webpage containing the keywords you asked to be alerted about gets indexed by google, a google news alerts email is sent to you giving you the link to that new page. If it’s a page which allows you to leave a link, e.g. through comments, then your goal of leaving links in pages related to your keywords is served.
The first time I did this, a few google alerts started pouring in within the hour. I expected to be able to instantly make links out of each alert I received but I soon discovered that not all pages returned by google alerts are from blogs on which you can comment on. Pages from commercial sites (e.g. Amazon, Ebay, Insurance companies, etc.) also get scooped up by Google Alerts. But there are numerous alerts that I was able to use effectively for backlinking purposes. And so far, there’s never a day that I don’t get alerts.
First to Comment
Normally, I’d be typing in my keywords in google to search for webpages to leave my links in. These returns existing pages, some of which are old and already have some PR ranks. The use of Google Alerts is an excellent supplement to this method as it allows you to effortlessly discover new opportunites for backlinking as they happen. If you are one who makes a big deal out of being the first to comment in a post, then this might give you a better chance. (But regular readers of a particular blog don’t wait for a post to get indexed before reading it, so they’re most likely to be able to comment first).
Effective?
Having tried it just 3 days ago, I think it is too early for me to evaluate how effective google alerts is for me. I have, however, satisfactorily contributed some entries on time on Yahoo Answers because of Google Alerts. I also found that a particular keyphrase gets repeatedly involved in questions submitted in Yahoo Answers, so you can also repeatedly input the same answers there. I think people submit questions without even bothering to check if the same questions had been thrown before.
Additional Free Traffic
I think Google Alerts is good and will work to gain me more traffic in the long run. My business sites (which I was able to confidently come up with using MNF) already have its share of traffic coming from the search engines. With the kind of links I’m leaving, thanks to Google Alerts, I also tend to draw a percentage of the traffic from competing pages out there.
Right now, I’m only asking to be alerted whenever my keyphrase is encountered by google. They say I can get even more razor sharp targetting by converting my keyphrase into several variations of question phrases instead.
Have you tried Google Alerts? How has it helped you in your SEO work?
I haven’t tried it in the way you’ve suggested James, but I reckon I will give it a shot. Not for Wassupblog because that is doing nicely, but for my topsexualaids blog as that needs a lot more help. Thanks for the post mate.
.-= Sire´s latest blog ..Kissing 101 – Women Want a Man Who Knows How to Make Their Toes Curl =-.
I’ve been to your top sexual aids blog Sire. Is this the proper url? http://topsexualaids.com/ . I have at times been tempted to order something, but the wife says she prefers no aids at this point. 🙂
.-= james-mdeo´s latest blog ..Calories In An Egg New Data Collection =-.
Sorry James that it’s taken so long to reply but like they say better late than never.
Yes that is the right url and yes you should always listen to the wife if you know what’s good for you 😉
Sire´s latest blog post ..The Good The Bad & The Ugly of Lists & List Building
I’ve not tried it. Wait for more few days. The results will come =)
I like that you have given steps for Create a Google Alert.I will try for this.Its good that you have given such information in detail.I have also checked that video.
I really like this idea. I think it’s great not just for SEO, but simply for getting direct targeted traffic. Being one of the first commenters on a busy page on your topic means people are exposed to your website and some will click through and find your site.
Hi, Anne. Thanks for dropping by my humble blog. 🙂 I’ve just begun using Google Alerts and I think it works.
Great tips James. I’ve been using this method for sometime now to track particular keywords, competition and mentions of my name and domain. You can find some great places to get links this way.
.-= Karl Foxley´s latest blog ..How A Small Business Built An Email Subscriber List Without A Website =-.
Google Alerts is a cool google feature, indeed Karl. It’s funny that after almost a year of blogging, only now am I beginning to discover these supposedly basic seo tools. I have a feeling that I have yet a long way to go to really be able to call myself seo-educated.
.-= James-mdeo´s latest blog ..HTML For Kids =-.
Nice touch on your post here, thanks. Is completely true that google and yahoo are great engines for checking your backlinks / InLinks (and a little more)…anyway I used to do the queries manualy untill i found this free tool: http : / / mini status . com which also alows one to download the results in pdf file and also generates the free badge price for each and every queried websites.
Okay, thanks. Hmmm, I’m thinking how this one works. 🙂 and what is this all about,:) but thanks for the share.