Are you tracking websites for changes right now?
It may seem simple, but think about it...
There's a huge amount of information and insight available on the internet that's likely very valuable to you or your organization.
If you could efficiently track all this data as it changes, it could yield big benefits and results.
In this article, I'm going to show you the 7 main categories of information you'll probably want to track, along with more specific examples.
But first, let's talk about why you should bother tracking websites in the first place...
But why though?
At this point, you might be wondering: is tracking website changes really that important?
How much value and benefit could you get from monitoring websites?
Well, for starters, tracking websites will allow you to gather and stay updated on invaluable business insight, data, and information that's important to your organization.
It's also a source of competitive intelligence, allowing you to monitor competitors, markets, and industries to stay ahead of the curve.
It'll allow you to make better, more informed decisions and react faster to market changes.
You can also automate, track, and improve your sales and marketing efforts.
Tracking your own website will allow you to monitor security, defacement, and downtime issues to make sure they are fixed quicker.
All of this will help you grow your organization and make it more successful.
And of course, if you use an automated website change monitoring tool (like AlertBits), then you can save yourself unnecessary time, cost, and frustration.
You won't need to waste your time with slow, boring, and tiring manual tracking.
And instead, you can be more productive, make your life and job easier, and get a high ROI (return-on-investment) in the process.
In fact, we have a quick ROI calculator that you can use here: https://alertbits.com/pricing#roi.
So now that you know the benefits of tracking websites, the next question is: what websites should you track exactly?
What should you track?
Well, you should track any piece of information on the internet that's important to you or your organization.
Any insight or data that is valuable and you want to stay up to date on.
So the websites you should track depend on you, your organization, and your industry.
But the information you'll track will mostly fall into a few categories.
Here are 7 main categories of information you could track:
- Market & competition
- Marketing, SEO & rankings
- News, data, information
- Sales & outreach
- Security & defacement
- Legal & compliance
- Specific use-cases
If you want to learn how to track information from these sources by monitoring website design or code changes, check out this article:
How to monitor a website for design & code changes and catch security/defacement issues
Now, let's go over each of the categories in more detail...
Market & competition
The markets and the business environment are changing all the time, often very rapidly.
Your competitors are making plans, starting new projects, and launching products.
If you want to maintain your competitive advantage and be the leader in your market, you need to be constantly aware of these changes and developments.
And to do that, you might want to track these sources:
Website: Track your competitors' websites to stay updated on any changes.
Social media: Similar to websites, track social media accounts and pages to monitor announcements and activities.
Products & prices: Track your competitors' product pages and their pricing, offerings, description, and images.
If you want to learn more about how to find and track competitors, we have another article that you might find helpful: How to track your competitors, SEO, rankings, and reviews.
Marketing, SEO & rankings
Digital marketing is a fast-paced world.
To excel and thrive in today's markets, you could track:
SEO: Track your or your competitors' search engine rankings on Google, Bing, and others.
Rankings & lists: Track top or best-rated product lists, rankings, and awards.
Campaigns & ads: You can track marketing campaigns, paid media, ads, product placements, and sponsorships on platforms like Google, Facebook, YouTube, etc.
Product launches: Monitor new product launches, announcements, and events.
Promotions: Monitor promotions and offers such as discounts, giveaways, and deals.
Reviews: Track reviews, ratings, and feedback sites.
Backlinks: You can track valuable backlinks from high-authority sites.
News, data, information
Timely business insight and information are invaluable.
To collect the most important data and insight, try monitoring:
News: Track news, media, industry publications & papers to remain updated.
Trends: Monitor new trends and trending topics to uncover new opportunities and understand the changes.
Content: Track blogs, content, and articles related to subjects that are important to you.
Engagement: Track comments, shares, and audience engagement to see how effectively you're connecting and communicating.
Inventory & stock: Monitor the availability, inventory, and stock of products and items.
Sales & outreach
There are other people and organizations connected to your business.
Nurture the connections and grow the relationships by tracking:
Clients & leads: Keep track of clients, leads, and prospects for more effective sales.
Activities: Monitor the plans, strategies, activities, moves, and decisions of important people and organizations.
Suppliers & dealers: Track suppliers, dealers, and partners for better outreach.
Security & defacement
Your online identity and presence are precious.
Maintain an enticing brand presence by monitoring:
Defacement: Quickly catch unauthorized or unintended changes to your website.
Security issues: Monitor for security issues, exploits, bugs, and sensitive information.
Uptime: Track your site's availability and minimize downtime.
Design changes: Monitor your website's design and layout changes to make sure everything is displayed correctly.
Legal & compliance
Regulatory compliance is paramount and noncompliance carries major costs.
To navigate the legal landscape, monitor:
Intellectual property: Track others for IP, copyright, or trademark infringement.
Regulation: Keep up-to-date on new laws, regulations, and archival requirements.
Archival: Discourage litigation by having an archive of your website's changes.
Specific use-cases
There are other, more specific use-cases where automated website change tracking can come in handy.
Here are a few examples for inspiration:
- Tracking logistics, operations, supply chains, fleets, and shipping activities.
- Monitoring charts, metrics, KPIs, keywords, and live updates.
- Monitoring newly posted projects and requests for proposals.
- Tracking jobs, HR, and hiring opportunities.
- Monitoring real estate, property, rent, commodity/asset prices.
- Tracking tickets, fares, coupons, and deals.
- Monitoring major events such as fundraises and board/executive changes.
Conclusion
Hopefully, this article has given you a bunch of ideas for what websites and information to monitor and track.
If you can collect and process valuable insight and information quickly, you'll be able to enjoy some big rewards.
I recommend that you start making a quick list of websites you think are worth tracking for your situation.
And when you're ready, sign up for a free AlertBits account: https://alertbits.com.
If you have questions or want to learn more, just email us at hi@alertbits.com.
