Google Alerts for software vendors

Likely, you may be aware of Google Alerts.

Google Alerts are email updates of the latest relevant Google results (web, news, etc.) based on your choice of query or topic.

For mISV, Google Alerts is one of most useful tools. It’s free and it saves much time when monitoring your market niche. You must just specify the search query, your e-mail and the alert frequency. Google Alerts will notify you by e-mail when it finds something new for you.

The most handy uses of Google Alerts for mISV are the following:

Backlinks monitoring
Add ‘link:http://www.yourproduct.com’ query to your alert list to know who put a link to your website.

Competitor’s backlinks monitoring
Add ‘link:http://www.yourcompetitorproduct.com’ query to your alert list to know who put a link to your competitor’s website.

Product mentioning monitoring
Add ‘your product name’ query to your alert list to know who has mentioned or reviewed your software.

Competitor’s product mentioning monitoring
Add ‘your competitor product name’ query to your alert list to know who has mentioned or reviewed your competitor’s software.

Web site content protection
Add ‘a specific phrase from your article’ query to your alert list to know who has republished or has stolen (depending on license) your content.

Monitoring your target keyword
Add ‘your keywords’ query to your alert list to know what new resources have appeared in the relevant search results.

Keeping track of the industry events
Add ‘industry name conference’, ‘industry name trade show’, or other similar queries to your alert list to know about upcoming industry events.

Finding link exchange partners
Add ‘industry name “exchange links with us”‘ query to your alert list to find new partners in your industry to trade links.

Finding on-topic forums
Add ‘industry name “post new message”‘ query to your alert list to know what new forums about your industry have recently appeared.

Of course, there are many more possible uses of Google Alerts for ISV. Feel free to post your uses in the comments.