Wouldn’t it be awesome if you could monitor Google and receive an email notification every time the search engine finds a topic that interests you?
For example, you could get updates about a product you like, find out when people post something about you, or keep up with news stories.
Well… With Google Alerts you can!
Google Alerts are extremely powerful for business as it allows you to quickly detect and respond to any sort of feedback regarding your business, enhancing your online reputation dramatically.
Most businesses are not aware of Google Alerts and therefore do not know when people are talking them online, allowing negative comments to stay on the web forever without the chance for them to respond…
There are various reasons why you may want to monitor Google but this article will focus on the business benefits.
How To Monitor Google For Specific Keywords
1. Go to https://www.google.com/alerts
2. In the box where it says Create an alert about… enter the keyword(s) you would like to monitor Google for.
Please note that this box is exactly like Google’s search box which means you can use Search Operators if you want your alert to be more defined.
For this example, I’m going to enter “peterstavrou.com”.
This allows be notified whenever Google finds a new page from my website or when someone posts something that contains my website’s URL address.
The quotation marks is a Google Search Operator that searches for the exact phrase.
To get a better understanding of how quotation marks work, you can try entering your keyword(s) with and without them.
You will notice that without the quotation marks the search a little more broad.
Before you create your Google Alert you can also see a preview of the type of content it will look for.
All the pages listed in preview have already been found by Google but after your Alert has been created you will be notified each time Google finds new content.
3. Click on the blue CREATE ALERT button
4. Once your Alert has been created, you can modify the settings by clicking on the Pencil icon.
5. The settings are pretty self-explanatory but I have added a screenshot below of my standard settings as an example.
How I Monitor Google and Why
To help you get a better understanding on how to use Google Alerts to monitor Google, I’m going to share with you how I personally use this system.
1. To monitor how quickly Google finds new pages from my website.
This allows me to see which pages have been found by Google and which pages I need to pay more attention to so Google finds them.
It also enables me to see how often Google sends it’s Crawlers to my website which gives some indication on my SEO.
2. To monitor my website URL address.
It is a great advantage to be notified when someone makes a post about you online.
As my business is a personal brand I can’t simply set-up an alert for “Peter Stavrou” because there are so many posts made that contain my name but are unrelated to me.
Setting up a Google Alert for my URL address allows me to be notified when someone mentions peterstavrou.com.
3. To be notified when people ask questions that I have already created a post about.
If you are creating content that helps people solve a problem then creating an alert to be notified is a very good idea.
Why? Because you can go to their post, give them a short answer and then provide a link to your blog post.
This is a great way to market your website and gain more traffic.
Keep in mind that your answer will be seen by others who are searching to solve the same problem as the initial poster.
For example, I have an alert setup for “best wordpress popup plugin”.
When someone asks this question or posts about it, I add my opinion and link to my Thrive Leads – The Best PopUp Plugin for WordPress blog post.
4. To see if anyone is sharing my private content.
If your website uses a membership system that provides exclusive content ONLY to your members then it is useful to monitor Google to ensure that no one is sharing your private content to the public and if they are you can take action.
I have setup this type of Google Alert for my SEO Training Course.
5. Monitor your competitors.
Even though I personally do not use Google Alerts to monitor my competition, it may be something that you would like to do.
By monitoring your competitors you can see what they are posting and what people are posting about them.
You will most likely come across customers who are complaining about your competitors in which you can come to the rescue by recommending them your product/service instead.
What do you think of Google Alerts? Do you use them to monitor Google?