Google Alerts is perhaps one of the least known, but definitely one of the most powerful among all Google products. It taps into Google’s powerful crawling search engine.

Think of it as Google results coming to you. Instead of running a search every day for any new updates on the latest gadget, for instance, you can sit back while those news stories get straight to your inbox.

Just like millions of marketers, I’ve used Google Alerts for years, and in this Tips Tuesday session, I have a couple of tips and tricks to share with you to get the best out of it.

What are Google Alerts?

Google Alerts are a way to monitor the search results for a given query. In theory, setting up a Google Alert is a great time-saver because you get an email from Google whenever your specified search query shows up on the web.

These web alerts are useful for a number of reasons especially when running a business, as you get updated on the latest in your industry.

3 Google Alerts you should have set up for your business and why:

  1. Your name. Including any misspellings to let you know if someone is searching for you.
  2. Your business name. Same with your name, an alert should also be set up for your business so you’d know if someone is looking into your business or brand.
  3. Key industry terms. Especially keywords that you would like to be known as a thought leader. This helps you respond with comments, answer questions, or create content to address an issue or a trending topic for your website.
  4. Bonus: Your products names. Make sure you get alerted when your products are searched in Google. In a way, this helps with customer service so that you can be alerted when there is an issue or when someone loves your product.

How to set up a Google Alert:

  1. Go to Google Alerts.
  2. Type in the search query you want to monitor for your business.
  3. Choose what type of results you want to follow (everything from news, blogs, video, discussions, or books).
  4. Choose how often you want to receive updates (as-it-happens, once a day, or once a week).
  5. Choose if you want “Only the best results” or “All results.”
  6. Choose the email address you want your alerts to be sent to or create a feed.
  7. Click “Create Alert.”

That’s it!

Highlights from the video:

[0:00] Introduction
[0:50] Creating Google Alerts for your business
[1:25] How to set up Google Alert
[1:50] What is a Google Alert
[2:10] Three Google Alerts that you need to set up for your business
[3:30] Bonus Google Alert that you should have
[4:25] How Google Alerts work for me

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