14 replies to this topic

[haggisv]

I run a forum that ranks well for related terms, and could well be considered an authority site. For searches on any related topics, it always ranks very highly, often first, and new topics are often indexed in Google within minutes.

However I've got Google alerts setup for related terms, but it's never listed under "web results", even though other much smaller forums on the same topics, as well as many other very small sites are listed there. The topic matches are often very close, and topic titles are set to be the first term of the 'page title'.

I know you need to meet special requirements to be listed under "News" or "Blogs", but there are obviously no such requirements for "Web results", as one of my other sites is listed there sometimes, as well as small or remotely related sites.

I don't know if this actually matters, or if it's significant source of traffic, but I can't help thinking that perhaps my forum is missing something verty simply but vital, that I should address.

Does anyone know what it takes to improve chances of getting shown up in "Web results" for Google alerts?

Thanks a lot!

[Jill]

The "Web Results" is just the regular search results, which you said you're already ranking in. So nothing to worry about.

[Michael Martinez]

There could be all sorts of reasons why you're not seeing your forum in your alerts. I run a Web forum that has seen gradual improvement in Google traffic over the past few months but it's not showing up in any of the alerts I have set up. That just means it's relevant for other keywords. I'm more concerned about my traffic performance and user experience. Looking at keywords and setting keyword targets or goals is helpful, but you sometimes need to move the markers rather than assume you're failing.

[haggisv]

Thank you Jill and Michael!

Yes I'm not too concerned about it, but since it's THE main keyword of my site, I would expect alerts to come up when a new post containing this same keyphrase has been posted. Considering the crap that DOES come up in alerts instead, I can't figure out what possible algorithm they could be using to exclude mine and include theirs. This is why I was looking for 'perhaps something missing'.

[Jill]

If other pages from your site are already in the serp for that main phrase, your new posts are unlikely to show up. They will show up for different phrases as Michael suggested.

[Michael Martinez]

You've piqued my curiosity now to see if it's possible to coax alerts into reporting on new content (sort of a passive subscription). I have set up a test and will let you know in the next few days if I think it works.

[Jill]

If you use your company brand name as the Google alert and that is also in the Title tag, you'll likely start to see the new content show up.

[Michael Martinez]

So I don't think my experiment is going to work. I created a Google Alert using the "site:" query operator for a forum that adds content on a fairly regular basis. I have yet to see any alerts come through for that query.

If anyone else wants to try this, I will be interested to learn about your results. It could be that a site which is crawled more frequently may trigger such updates. At most I would expect only random notifications. I don't think this would be a good passive subscription method.

[Jill]

I see them for this forum, but it's mainly been recently since we upgraded.

[cfreek]

My coworkers and I tried adding a site: alert for Craig's List a while back, with specific search terms used, and no emailed alerts were received.

[Michael Martinez]

I see alerts for the forum name, too. I don't think the "site:" query operator works with the Alerts. Still, if anyone has been able to do this, I would be interested in reading about when it worked.

[Jill]

Oh I see what you're saying. Yeah, I would imagine that the site: command isn't compatible with google alerts.

[haggisv]

So I guess there IS something different about search results compared to Alerts, and I'd love to know what it is. My forum gets hundreds of new posts every day, so the frequency may impact it, although a similar forum that's even more active (same topic) does get in the Alerts.

What could explain that the recent upgrade could make a difference to the Alert results Jill? Has the upgrade changed anything SEO related that may have affected it?

[Jill]

What could explain that the recent upgrade could make a difference to the Alert results Jill? Has the upgrade changed anything SEO related that may have affected it?

Yes, the URLs were all made "clean" with the parameters removed.

[haggisv]

Ahhh, so perhaps that does make the difference, as my forum still include the parameters in the URL...