April 29th, 2010 by Nick

There are many SEO tools available to help you get the best out of your website and achieve the highest search rankings. Search engine optimization tools are available online in most cases, and whether you are using the services of a particular website or downloading some software, there are not many companies who will not benefit from using some of these tools.

When measuring performance, it is just as important, if not more important, to monitor your competitors’ activity as well as your own, and one tool which is fantastic for doing this is Google Reader. Google Reader is basically an SEO tool which makes online periodical checks on your chosen websites to identify when new content has been published. This is great for checking when a competitor has launched a new press statement, given details of new products or simply written a new blog. Google Reader enables you to stay up to date on activity, without having to check every other site individually yourself. You can simply tell it your favourite websites, and it will check them for you.

When Google Reader first launched, it could only pick up new information via a feed from the website, however technology has advanced and now Google Reader can identify when new content has been added even if there is no feed from the website. This is great news as it helps cover any areas which would be missed from standard feed checks which most companies make regularly anyway.

One of the major things that Google Reader is good for is sharing information. This facility is used on a personal level quite frequently, however from a business point of view; it also enables any relevant industry information to be shared with other business associates quickly and easily.

The ability to recognise and respond to new content in an instant means that companies are on top of their game and not getting left behind.

Another advancement which Google have been working on with their Reader tool is its mobile accessibility. Using Google Reader from a mobile is now much easier to use than it was originally and is good for online reputation management. Previous applications and downloads which were only available when accessing the web as standard are now available to mobile users. Google Reader have also tidied up their page a little and compacted menus to give mobile users as much freedom as possible.

Keeping an eye on your competitors’ moves is not only crucial from an industry point of view; it also helps towards maintaining your search engine ranking position. When any new content is added you can check for keywords or links which could push you off your spot within SERPs. Google Reader is also useful in terms of checking real time searches, as updates are so frequent.

Using Google Reader alone is a good way of checking for fresh content, however if used alongside Google Alerts you can really get a decent insight into what your closest competitors are up to and take action before any damage is done.

Link to us

If you want to link to this blog, copy and paste the following HTML code to your website.