Over two years ago I wrote about using Google Alerts to find content thiefs. It’s still incredibly useful for that. But there’s another reason to use Google Alerts, and that’s to find new authority sites.
There are many definitions of what an “authority site” is. For the purposes of this discussion, an authority site is a site that Google thinks is an authority. (Some would argue that this is the only definition that matters…)
To find new authority sites, just create some Google Alerts for some of the core keywords related to your topic/niche. Every once in a while you’ll be sent an email with a list of new pages/posts that match those keywords. Those sites are authority sites in Google’s eyes. They may not say so, but it’s implicit. After all, there’s a ton of content being added to the Web at any given point in time. Google would spend all of its time mailing updates to everyone without some kind of filtering. That’s why this works. If a site’s made it through Google’s filters, you know that Google thinks the site is worth looking at. And so you should.
Why care about authority sites? Well, many of them are blogs, which is an opportunity for you to leave an insightful comment or two and get links and traffic back to your site. Some sites offer link exchanges. Or maybe sell links. (Oh, the horror! The horror! — Matt Cutts) Or look for interesting news/tidbits/articles/whatever that you can contribute. And some sites are useful just as case studies to learn from.
Setting up a few Google Alerts is trivial. Do it today!
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Eric Giguere is the author of Uncommon AdSense and the award-nominated (that just means it lost!) blog Make Easy Money with Google and AdSense.