Keeping Tabs on The Competition in 2009

By Dave Smith Thursday Jan 1, 09

« Observation on Google PR Update Dec. 30, 2008 Previous

First Nugget of 2009:

News Nugget

Set up a Google alert for: “site:www.competitorswebsite.com” With this alert you will get an email every time a new post or page is indexed for one of your competitors and find out what they are saying.

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Post Tags: Google Alerts

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7 Comments

teresa boardman (1 comments.) on Jan 1, 2009

I went one step further my google alert is for “better than T” I am getting a tin of alerts. Need to figure out how to beat the competition.
Kelley Koehler (1 comments.) on Jan 1, 2009

Dave – it’d be easier to just subscribe to my feed… happy new year!
Leon Belenky-One Bal Harbour (6 comments.) on Jan 1, 2009

That is very interesting-a good way to see what topics are getting traffic as well!
Dave Smith (946 comments.) on Jan 1, 2009

Kelley,

Wow you would let me do that? You are too nice.
happy new year
Todd Covington (13 comments.) on Jan 6, 2009

I tried and I think that site is down. Other good sites to check out site competition are semruch dot com and marketleap dot com . I use both.
John Wake (8 comments.) on Jan 8, 2009

Philosophically, I think it’s better to focus your energy on improving what you are doing and not focus too much on the “competition.” I think that can lead to losing your focus.

But I could be wrong. Tell me if you pick up some useful information.
Dave Smith (946 comments.) on Jan 8, 2009

John,

Since setting up an alert takes one a minute one time and then it just sends me emails It really doesn’t expend any energy.

Here is what it does do: I get instant notification of any new content (blog posts) and the link to that post. Several times it kept me from writing the exact same post and looking like I was trying to steal thunder and audience.

That is the main reason I like those alerts. I don’t have to go around and see if anyone has written a new post. I get notice sent right to me. Save a lot of energy and lets me focus on my content.

Thanks for the input. I should have included this in my reasoning for the alert in the post. This is why I love comments that expand the discussion.

Thanks John, appreciate you dropping by the lab.

Dave