“Is my product receiving positive reviews?”

“What are my competitors doing?”

These are only three of many questions marketing and business managers seek answers to every day.

While there are a number of excellent companies that offer media tracking in Australia there is free beta service from Google called “Google Alerts” that lets you set up free online media tracking.

The Google Alerts service is an email alert system that lets you monitor keywords on the Internet. It works by monitoring media sites and emailing you a summary of when and where a keyword has appeared online.

The application of this simple powerful service is endless… especially in the business ecosystem.

To help you start monitoring keywords through Google Alerts we have written a simple 6 step walk through below.

Step 1. Open http://www.google.com/alerts/ in your favorite browser.

Step 2. Enter the search term you wish to monitor in the search terms field located in the Create a Google Alert box.

Step 3. From the Type combo box select the category you would like to monitor. The default option Comprehensive will monitor News, Blogs, Web, Video and Groups. If you wish to just target news sites select that from the drop down. We recommend selecting the Comprehensive, as this will give you the best cross section of results.

Step 4. The How Often combo box lets you select the frequency you would like to receive updates. We recommend selecting “once a day” as the as it happens option can flood your email box and the end of week can include out dated information.

Step 5. The Email length combo sets the number of records the email alert will contain. For users starting out at Gruden recommends selecting 20 records. Once you are comfortable with the system you can change to 50.

Step 6. The last step is entering the email you wish the alert sent to.

Through completing the above 6 steps you can now monitor any keyword you like for free. While this is a simple powerful system it doesn’t replace media tracking services that track demographic penetration, tv, radio etc… but compliments them by allowing you to keep your finger on the pulse each day.

Compete is a free tool that allows you to look at traffic trends of competitor sites.  One advantage of compete is the level of detail that is available. You can compare up to five sites and filter by various metrics including visits and unique visitors. Competes data is accurate and reliable. Its source is 2 million US based users who have agreed to have their online activity monitored.  However there are a few constraints. First of all it’s not possible to filter data based on a specific country, so when looking at the results remember that you are only getting a US perspective.  Secondly, it’s rather limited in regards to timeframes with only 3, 6 and 12 months available with the free solution.

Finally, data is only available for large sites, ‘why can’t I see my website‘ for more details. The report below compares visits to three sites for the past 6 months; jbhifi.com.au, jbhifionline.com.au and harveynorman.com.au

In addition to traffic trend data, Compete also displays top search terms, top referral sites and top destination sites.

Google Trends for Websites launched in June 2008 has a couple of advantages over Compete. First of all it has a greater level of customisation, allowing you to filter by country specific traffic. For example, you can filter by Australian trafific from the last 30 days or go back and look at trends for a particular calendar year.

Again the data source is reliable and is a combination of Google search data, Google Analytics data, third-party market research and consumer panel data.
The screenshot below is a competitor report of the same three sites filtered by Australian data.

When filtering by country, Google Trends also gives you specific state data, allowing you to analyze the influence of your competitors at a more granular level.

For more information on Google Trends check out this comprehensive post by Avinash Kaushik.

Before we conclude, let me point out that some experts argue that external benchmarking is a waste of time. However, these arguments are largely based on comparing specific metrics such as conversion rates. Avoid comparing specific e-commerce metrics and you’ll find plenty of value in these tools.

In addition to Compete and Google Trends, there are a range of other free tools available that will give you insights into your (and your competitors) online audience. Also checkout Microsoft AdCentre Labs, Fireclick and Alexa.

Have you used these tools before? Let us know your feedback.