Setting up and using Google Alerts

If you are the owner of a web resource and decide to optimize your resource on your own, then you need to know what Google Alerts is and how you can use this service to increase your ranking in search engines. For successful work, it is important not only to understand the principles of the tool, but also to be able to effectively use every opportunity that it provides. In this article, Seotools specialists give some tips, which can be used to achieve successful promotion.

What is Google Alerts and what is it for?

The main task of the Google Alerts service is to search for material in accordance with user requests. There is no need to regularly enter a query into a search engine – as soon as new information that meets the query criteria appears on the Web, the user will receive an email notification.

Although the product we are considering was released by Google at the very beginning of the 21st century, not everyone knows about its existence. The service should not be ignored for many reasons, the main ones are:

• Efficiency and ease of performing the necessary settings;
• Efficiency and ease of performing the necessary settings;
• The service tools can be used as a complement to other applications.

Before we begin to understand the basic principles of the Google Alerts product, it is necessary to clearly define the purposes for which we are going to use it. It is important to understand what result is expected:

• discovery of resources with blogs that can be considered for posting their content;
• the ability to be aware of what information resources are talking about your brand or company;
• the ability to detect negative reviews in time and respond to them in a timely manner;
• receive the latest news about important events in your field of activity in order to keep your site in the trend of events.

Before you start using the service, you should also know that it will not be possible to obtain statistics and analytical reports from social networks in this way. Therefore, you will have to use other applications and tools.

Setting up Google Alerts

Setting up the service is so simple and intuitive that even a person who is far from SEO-promotion can handle it. Just follow a few simple steps:

• enter google.com/alerts from your Google account into your browser. it is desirable that this be an account that will be used to work with the application in the future;
• enter a keyword or phrase in a special line;
• indicate how often you want to receive information from the Google Alerts service;
• select from the list of sources for obtaining information;

• set the language and region for which data is important to you;
• provide the service with a postal address to which notifications will be delivered;
• click the Create Alert button.

If you follow all the steps correctly, you will receive an email containing a link to confirm your intentions to track updates on selected resources using the Google Alerts service. There are times when changes need to be made in the process. There is an “Edit” button for this.

Common mistakes when working with Google Alerts

The key to success when working with any program or service is the correct execution of all steps. Quite often, novice SEO specialists and business owners make common mistakes. As a result, something goes wrong, false information arrives, time is wasted. What not to do:

• set too many keywords. Choose a few of the most important and work with them;
• ignore the limit of 1000 requests per account set by the service;
• ignore generalized notices, focusing only on the brand name.

How to use Google Alerts to promote your business

Using the service can help a business owner grow their business online. The main thing is to correctly use all the tools and opportunities. Before you start, explore all possible types of alerts. Seotools experts recommend paying attention to these.

Brand Analysis

Thanks to the use of this tool, you can collect information about new business ideas, find reviews about products or services, and gather a company of fans. To set up this type of notification, you need to enter your name or the name of the brand of interest in the corresponding line.

Tracking competitor activity

An integral part of the marketing strategy for promoting a brand is monitoring competitors. Google Alerts will help you find out what your competitors are up to, all you have to do is set your keyword alerts accordingly. You will know what users think about the product or services of competing businesses. To receive this kind of information, you need to make requests in accordance with the schemes:

{link to competitors website}+ {competitor brand name}

“I think” + {competitor brand name}

“Who used” + {competitor brand name}

Prompt cleaning of reviews from spam

The presence of useless information on the resource hinders its promotion in search results. To control everything that happens on the pages of the resource and looks unnatural, you need to properly configure the Google Alerts tools. Make a request like this:

{link to competitor’s website} advertising inquiries OR inquiries about prohibited topics left by visitors.

Maximum information on a given topic

The market situation is changing very quickly. The dynamics of modern life is such that you should never yawn if you want your business to stay afloat. And if you want to be a successful, profitable enterprise, then you must constantly keep your finger on the pulse and analyze everything that happens in your line of business. Google Alerts can help with this if you set up receiving appropriate notifications on topics of interest.

Content quality information

Of course, every business owner makes sure that only high-quality information is posted on his website. Whether it’s text, video, or audio, content should be interesting and useful to the user. However, each person has a subjective assessment. What if users do not agree with your opinion about the materials posted on the resource and the site does not advance in the TOP of search results? How to find out? Thanks to the corresponding alerts in the service, you can find out what the visitors of your pages think, what content they like and what content they leave indifferent. With this information, you can remove unpopular information from the site, leaving only the best and continue to work only on popular topics.

New for users

Information technologies are developing rapidly and users want to regularly see some new items on the sites. You can diversify the resource with the help of guest posts and comments. Thus, you can attract the attention of users of competing resources to the site. To find them, create an alert with the wording:

“Write for us” + {one of the important key phrases}

“Create a guest post” + {one of the important keywords}

“Publication exchange” + {one of the important key phrases}