Google Alerts is a great way for business owners to keep on top of what’s being said about their brand.  So what are they, and how do you use them to your advantage?

What are Google alerts?

Google.com/alerts are automated email messages sent from Google.  You register at Google alerts and tell them to send you messages about a particular term or subject, and you’ll receive an alert email every time there is a mention of the word
in any site appearing in the Google search results. These are likely to be new web pages appearing on the web, like a news alert or a new story.  Whatever it is, whenever there is a mention of the keyword you requested, you get an email.

Even better, there are quite a few customizations possible such as sending you an alert as and when your term is indexed or sending you an alert on a daily basis.  You’re in control of how often you’re notified.

Why should I care and how do I use this to my advantage?

Let us count the ways… 

• Manage your online image & company brand
• Stay on top of reviews written about your business
• Learn what bloggers are saying about you
• Find media mentions of your company
• Be the first to learn of new information releases on a topic
• Track a news story relevant to your industry
• See how popular a particular search term
• Follow niche markets
• Track incoming links to your site (In the “Search terms” field enter – link:www.yoursite.com where ‘yoursite’ is literally your website address and in the “type” option, select “web”)
• Increase traffic and search engine rankings!  This one is a little time-consuming, but cash-FREE.  What you do is set the alert for a particular keyword phrase/term with “type” blog articles.  You’ll get alerts about sites who use that term in their blog.  Go there and make a useful comment about what they’ve written.  If the blogger likes your comment, they’ll approve it and you will likely get a link from their site to yours.  This is REALLY GOOD link strategy.  If it sounds interesting but you need more info, you know how to find us!  webmaster@beachdog.com