How to monitor a website for keyword mentions
Sometimes you don't care about every change on a page, just one word. “Applications open.” “In stock.” Your company's name. A product you sell. This guide covers the ways to get told when a word or phrase shows up, and which one suits watching a single page and which suits the whole web.
First, decide what you're watching
There are two quite different jobs here, and the right tool depends on which one you have:
- A word appearing anywhere on the web, such as your brand being mentioned in a news article or a blog you've never heard of.
- A word appearing on a page you already know, such as “Applications open” on a course page or a competitor adding a product name to its pricing page.
The first is a search problem. The second is a change-monitoring problem.
Mentions anywhere on the web: Google Alerts
Google Alerts is free and built for the first job. Go to google.com/alerts, type the word or phrase, and Google emails you when it finds new pages that mention it.
- Put phrases in quotation marks, like "Brightside Energy", so you only get pages with the exact words.
- Add a minus sign to leave things out, like "Brightside" -energy.
- Use site: to limit it to one website, like "recall" site:example.com.
The limits: it only finds pages Google has found, which can take days, and by default it sends what it calls the best results rather than everything. It also only tells you about new pages. If a word is added to a page that already exists, you usually won't hear about it.
A word on one page you know: watch the page
For the second job you need something that visits the page itself on a schedule and reads it. A website change monitor does exactly that, and the useful ones let you say which changes you care about.
In ChangeGist you add the page, then write a rule in your own words, for example:
- Tell me when the words “applications open” appear.
- Only tell me if they mention our company name.
- Let me know if “discontinued” is added to this product.
- Tell me if the phrase “free delivery” is removed.
Changes that don't match your rule are kept in the page's history but don't send an alert. If the rule can't be checked for some reason, you still get the alert, so nothing slips past.
Watch the right part of the page
Busy pages repeat words in menus, footers and sidebars. If the word you care about already appears in the navigation, a rule about it can be confusing. Two habits help:
- Watch just the section that matters, such as the product description or the news list.
- Be specific in your rule: “a new job title containing ‘Manchester’” is clearer than “Manchester”.
Quick checks by hand
For a one-off look, press Ctrl+F (Cmd+F on a Mac) on the page and search for the word. It's instant, but it only tells you about now. To see whether a word was added recently, our free “What changed on this page?” tool compares the page with an archived copy and lists what's new.
Which should you use?
- Your brand, a person or a topic, anywhere online: Google Alerts.
- A specific word on a page you know: a change monitor with a rule.
- Both: many people use Google Alerts for mentions and a change monitor for the handful of pages that matter most.
Be considerate
Only watch public pages, check at a sensible pace, and respect each site's rules. Most pages don't need checking more than a few times a day.
Comparing services? Read our side-by-side comparisons: Google Alerts alternative, Visualping alternative.