The web world is all about keywords and many people have to write and research on particular topics for which data needs to be gathered from the web. Many bloggers have niche blogs that they run based on various keywords. For example John Chow has a targeted keyword Make money online. For all this you need to research on those keywords so that you have the relevant information before you can write your post or thesis or complete your project.

If you tend to focus on few keywords and waste a lot of time researching on those keywords then here is a simple way in which you can save a lot of time for yourself.

What is the tool?

Google Alerts is a real good tool that allows you to receive alerts for the keywords you choose. Once you have entered the keyword and created your alert. Google Alerts will send you a email whenever a new page has that keyword. This really saves you a lot of time as you can concentrate on the information you have while Google Alerts you with any new relevant information based on that topic.

Just a short note using this tool is not just limited to bloggers, you can use this tool to research anything that is searchable on the web. You may want to use this tool to research on a particular subject, find more sources for your thesis etc. Using this tool you are making the best search engine search for you rather than the other way round.

What you need to use the tool?

Before you can go ahead you should have a list of keywords you need to research on. For the purpose of this post I am taking up the keyword technology know how, this is just a example keyword and you can choose one or multiple keywords based on your niche. Once you have your keyword ready with you all you need is a email address preferably a Google Account (non Google Account users skip to the #using a non Google account for alerts) to manage your alerts better.

How to use this tool?

Sign in using your Google username and password. Once you have signed in to any of the service just load the Google Manage Alerts page.

On this page you will see a list of alerts (non Google Account users skip to the #using a non Google account for alerts) if you have already added it or else you will see a empty page like the screenshot below.

Click on the link that says creating one (if you already have old alerts then you have to click on the New Alert button), clicking on this will take you to a new page where you can create the alert.

On this page you will see three options to create your alert.

1. Search terms

Pretty self explanatory. This is the field where you have to enter your search term for which you need to get alerts.

2. Type

In the type you have to choose the source where the keyword has to come from. There are a total of five options you can choose from;

Choosing News will send you alerts for the latest news from around the world that appear in the top ten results of Google News Search for you keyword.

Choosing Blogs will send you alerts for the latest blogs from around the world that appear in the top ten results of Google Blogs Search for you keyword.

Choosing Web will send you alerts for the latest web search results from around the world that appear in the top ten results of Google Web Search for you keyword.

Choosing Groups will send you alerts for the latest Google groups entries from around the world that appear in the top ten results of Google Groups Search for you keyword.

Choosing Comprehensive will send you alerts for a mashup between all the above searches for you keyword.

You can choose any one of the above options to get alerted, I would prefer Comprehensive as it gives you the latest news from a array of choices.

3. How often

The third option asks you how frequently you want to get alerts from Google. The options are;

Once a day will send you a consolidated email once a day.

as-it-happens will send you a email as soon as a new terms lands on the top page for the search term.

Once a week will send you a consolidated email once a week.

Depending on your need choose the frequency for receiving alerts.

A small note should be made that if there are no new results over the period of time you chose to receive an alert, you will not receive a email alert. In simple terms it means that you will only receive a alert once a new page hits the front page regardless of the period you choose. This is fair enough if you track a term for a longer period then you would see the benefits of the alert.

Using a email account other than a Google Account

If you are still not using a Google account and want to get these alerts in your email account then you can do this too, but the steps differ a bit.

1. Load the Google Alerts page.
2. Add in your search terms, type of search and frequency you want to receive the alerts. (#More Details about this)
3. Click on the authentication URL in the email sent by Google.

Once you have done these three steps you will start receiving alerts in your non Google Account.

Summarizing

That’s the only steps you need to do once your done choosing from the options just click the Create Alert button and you will start receiving alerts from Google whenever some relevant results match your search.

It’s a great way to make Google work for you and it does help you save a lot of time if you tend to track heavily used keywords because all the results are sitting in your inbox and you can research in your leisure.

Do let me know if this post was helpful to you. I have been using this service since a long time and see real benefits when I am tracking a particular issue with programming that cannot be easily solved or researching on writing a post that requires me to research a lot.

Your comments are all valuable and I would love you here how you research your subject or post.

[tags]google alerts, get alerts, keywords[/tags]