Tools for Online Tracking
by Sharon Housley
In order to determine which advertising and marketing efforts are effective you
must have ways to measure the results of those efforts. Alerts and instant
notifications can be instrumental in monitoring search engine position,
trademarked terms, monitoring competitors and staying abreast of online
occurrences. And, of course, the notification can be used for "ego searches".
Ego Searches
What is an ego search? Find out where your name or company is mentioned, view
forum posts or online articles that mention your name or company.
Trademarks
The best offense is a good defense. By monitoring newsgroups or search engines
for trademarked terms, you often head off a future conflict. As a trademark owner,
it is your responsibility to actively protect your mark. Otherwise, you could
lose your trademark rights. Monitoring tools send immediate notification should
any suspected trademark infringements occur.
Search Position
Statistics show that more than 85% of Internet users find web sites with the
help of the search engines. Therefore, a website's search engine position is
crucial to its success. Prudent webmasters regularly check their search engine
position. Monitoring fluctuations and re-indexing of major search engines affects
keyword terms and phrases. Monitoring of positions will alert webmasters to any
shifts before sales decline.
Competitor Watch
Monitoring newsgroups for mentions of competitors may allow you opportunities
to chime in and offer an alternative solution in a helpful, friendly way.
Knowing exactly what your online competitors are doing provides a competitive
edge that can be used to your advantage.
Website Downtime
Accessibility is the most critical measure of your website's performance. If
customers can't access your site, they can't shop; and if they can't shop, they
can't buy. More important, your business could gain a bad reputation among your
customers, which translates into negative word of mouth and even worse, if
you're highly visible, negative press. So regardless of what else you monitor,
you want to monitor websites for downtime.
Take a look at the various tools available and how they can be used to keep
you current on relevant issues.
WebAlerts Recieve email
updates of the latest relevant Google results based on your choice of query or
topic. Alerts can be sent based on information in Google News, Google Searches or both.
PubSub matches your requests
against new information as it appears real time. Searches can be categorized
to search, blog entries, SEC/EDGAR Filings, press releases, news group posts
or flight delays.
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