What is Google Alerts?

Google Alerts is a free service that notifies you whenever Google indexes a new page that contains a keyword or phrase specified by you.

Google Alerts is as good as getting real-time updates on important issues from all over the web.

Google Alerts is a very useful tool. You can get a notification every time for your name, company, or your most important keywords mentioned somewhere on the web.

Google Alerts is a service that generates search engine results based on criteria decided by you and it delivers the results to your email address on a suitable frequency.

Google Alerts is a free information system that sends an alert to your inbox when a new search result is created based on a particular topic.

Google Alerts send an email based on your set delivery times which can be as they happen to daily or weekly. You can see these alerts in a timely manner which allows businesses to have a glimpse of public perception.

Google Alerts is a great way to find the hottest topics in your area of interest and it’ll allow you when people are talking about you or linking to your pages.

You can easily drive traffic to your money website by using Google Alerts. It’s a content monitoring service that allows users to track keywords and automatically notify when new online content matches the keywords.

Google will look into a web search, blog search, and news results. You’ll receive notification alerts if your keyword or phrase is mentioned in those searches.

You can have up to 1000 alerts. You can select the delivery rate of notifications (daily, weekly, or real-time), the source of the search (web, blog, news, or all), and method of notification (email, RSS feed, exported CSV file).

Benefits of Google Alerts to Boost Your Business –

Google Alerts can be effectively used for your business. Google Alerts has a huge list of potential applications for marketers.

Here are a few important ways where Google Alerts can help to boost your business:-

# Track Mentions – You can keep track of who is talking about you, or somebody else.

You can set up alerts for the names you want to track and can catch mentions. It’s a great way to stay on top of your reputation. It’ll allow you to monitor your company or client’s name, product, or branded term.

# Track Brands & Reputation – Google Alerts can notify you when people are talking about your company online whether it’s positive or negative.

You can set up alerts for your business name, website ad blog names, product names and any other names unique to your business or trademark.

It gives you an opportunity to respond, express thanks and give links to your work. It’s a great way to keep tabs on your online reputation management (ORM).

The online reputation is everything today and the first thing to monitor within Google Alerts is the brand or business name.

# Track Competitors – You need to know what people are saying about you and your company. It’s a great way to see why and when your competition is trending.

It’s equally important to monitor new developments that involve your closest competitors. You can gain valuable ideas and notice trends if you’ve set up alerts for other brands in your niche.

It’ll allow you to monitor the interest of your niche audience. Doing an Internet search for your company is a great way to see your competition and how customers think of your business.

You can enter the names of your top competitors to rack marketing initiatives, new product or any service introductions.

It’ll help you keep tabs on what competitors are doing online and develop an informed picture of their possible next steps. Google Alerts also creates opportunities for you to reach out to places writing about your competitors.

When you have insight into your competition, you can create a stronger marketing strategy to help your business perform better.

# Monitor Keywords – Google Alerts can help strengthen your keyword strategy by showing how other people are using your main keywords.

Your industry is changing whether it’s new technology or a new style of working. There are always going to be changes and breakthroughs.

You need to ensure that your business is on top of those changes so that you don’t fall behind in your field. You can see how it’s changing by tracking industry keywords using Google Alerts.

You’ll be notified about the latest news and allows you to keep up with changes that occur in your field.

# Track Website Links – If you set up alerts with the format link e.g. www.abigidea.in, you’ll be notified of any new links going to your website.

These backlinks are very valuable in helping your website rank in the SERPs. It’s a great way to see what other websites have referenced your client’s website.

It’s very important to pay attention to the links coming into your website. It may help you identify new partnerships, new websites in your industry, and to promote content.

# Trends and Opportunities – You can keep an eye on industry trends that can help you identify opportunities. It may lead to new or enhanced products or services.

You’ll discover new information that could be shared with customers and prospect and it’ll create an invaluable touchpoint.

Your business could stay on top by setting up Google Alerts to notify you when news for your industry appears on the Internet.

# Track Negative Content – People are always going to have negative opinions about your business. You should stay on top of that negative feedback to maintain or to improve your brand image.

You can monitor negative content surrounding your business. It’ll help you see what people say about your company and pinpoint any negative perceptions of your organization.

It’s not always bad to have negative opinions or reviews of your business. But the important part is how you handle those negative reactions. You can get on top of the negative responses quickly and fix the issues.

How to Setup Google Alerts –

Setting up Google Alerts is almost as easy as opening your web browser and it can be an incredibly useful tool for your business.

It’s easy and quick to setting-up Google Alerts.

# First visit https://alerts.google.com/. You can set and manage all your alerts from this page.

# You can type your desired search term into the box.

# Now click “Show options” to customized your alerts. You can filter your results by delivering frequency, sources, language, region, and quality.

##### How Often – You can pick how often you’d like to be updated. It’s where you can select how often you want to receive Google Alerts.

##### Sources – You can choose from news, blogs, discussion, etc. You should always choose “Automatic” so that all online mentions about you are monitored.

##### Language – You can choose anyone out of multiple languages. But you should choose English.

##### Region – You can select your country from the drop-down list. If your target market is global, you should select Any Region.

##### How Many – It’ll determine what mentions Google should send to you. You should choose All Results for the most extensive level of monitoring.

##### Deliver to – You can choose either an RSS feed or to sent alerts to your Google email or any other email address.

# Click “Create Alert” and you’ll getting notifications for your alerts.

# You can edit and alert or change its settings at any time at the Google Alerts page.

Tips to Get Best Out of Google Alerts –

There are few tricks to get as much good information from Google Alerts as possible.

# You should include common misspellings of your search terms and you’ll need to cover all your bases.

# You should use quotation marks around multi-word search terms to include only the exact phrase in results. You can use common search results symbols to refine your search.

# You can create multiple alerts to cover different variations of common search terms. You can make up to 1000 alerts with each email address.

# You can use an RSS feed to get alerts instead of your email and it can prevent your email inbox to get clogged up.

Alternatives Tools of Google Alerts –

Google Alerts is a great tool for those who want a continuous flow of custom curated content relevant to your industry. It’s also helpful for monitoring social media and maintaining an alert on the competition.

You can also look for the alternatives tools of Google Alerts for content monitoring:-

# Talkwalker Alerts – It allows you to monitor the Internet for new content featuring your name or brand, competitors, or another relevant business topic.

It’ll take mentions from websites, forums, blogs, and Twitter and it delivers them directly to your inbox in a single relevant email.

You can use the intuitive filter option to view the formats that are most relevant to you and your business. It offers free service with simplicity and far more functionality.

# Mention – It’s a powerful tool for monitoring your media mentions that offers advanced tools such as real-time activity monitoring with access to statistics and reports.

It has the ability to respond to social media alerts. You can see and respond instantly without jumping through any additional loops.

It allows your business to monitor any keyword across a wide array of sources which includes all social media websites, blogs, forums, and other web properties.

Mention is accessible from web platform for PC, Mac, and Android and iOS apps mobile platforms. It offers a free version with limited capabilities and unlimited features with the pro version.

Conclusion – Google Alerts is one of the easiest tools that marketers can use. It’s important to be aware of what people are saying about your business on the web. It’s a great way to track all the positive things being said. It can also create awareness about the negative comments so that businesses can correct and adjust business practices.