Setting up and using Google Alerts (google alerts)

If you are the owner of a web resource and decided to optimize your resource on your own, then you need to know what Google Alerts is and how you can use this service to improve your ranking in search engines. To be successful, it is important not just to understand the principles of the tool, but to be able to effectively utilize every opportunity it presents. In this article, specialists of Seotools provide a few tips that, when applied, can help you achieve a successful promotion.

What Google Alerts is and what it is for

The main task of the Google Alerts service is to search for material according to the user’s requests. There is no need to regularly enter a query into a search engine – as soon as new information that meets the criteria of the query appears on the Web, the user will receive an e-mail 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 being:

• accessibility – the product can be used completely free of charge;
• promptness and ease of making the necessary adjustments;
• service tools can be used as an add-on to other applications.

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

• Discovering resources with blogs that you can consider for posting your content;
• The ability to be aware of which information resources are talking about the brand or company you own;
• the ability to detect and respond to negative feedback in a timely manner;
• Getting the latest news on important events in your field to keep your website up to date.

Before you start using the service, you should also know that you cannot get statistics and analytical reports from social networks in this way. So other applications and tools will have to be used.

Customizing the Google Alerts service

Setting up the service is so simple and intuitive that even a person far from SEO-promotion will be able to cope with it. All you need to do is follow a few simple steps:

• type google.com/alerts from your Google account into your browser bar. Preferably, it should be an account that will be further used to work with the application;
• enter a keyword or phrase into the special line;
• specify how often you would like to receive information from Google Alerts;
• select from a prepared list of sources of information;

• set the language and region for which you want the data;
• provide the service with a mailing address to which notifications will be delivered;
• click the “Create notification” 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 Google Alerts. There are times when some changes need to be made in the process. There’s an “Edit” button for that.

Common mistakes when working with Google Alerts

The key to success when working with any program or service is to follow all the steps correctly. Quite often, novice SEO specialists and business owners make typical mistakes. As a result, something goes wrong, inaccurate information comes in, and time is wasted. What not to do:

• set too many keywords. Pick a few of the most important ones 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 company

Utilizing the service can help a business owner grow their business online. The main thing is to use all the tools and opportunities wisely. As you begin your work, explore all possible types of alerts. Seotools experts recommend paying attention to such.

Brand Analysis

Through the use of this tool you can gather information, about new ideas for business, find reviews of products or services, gather a company of fans. To set up this type of alerts, you need to enter your name or the name of the brand you are interested in in the corresponding line.

Tracking competitors’ activities

An integral part of the marketing strategy for brand promotion is competitor monitoring. Google Alerts can help you find out what your competitors are doing, all you need to do is set up keyword alerts accordingly. You will know what users think about the product or services of competing businesses. To get this kind of information, you need to compose queries according to the schemes:

{link to competitor’s website}+ {name of competing brand}

“I think “+ {competing brand name}

“Who Used “+ {name of competing brand}

Prompt cleaning of reviews from spam

The presence of useless information on the resource interferes with its promotion in the search engine. 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 using this template:

{link to competitors’ site} requests of advertising nature OR requests on forbidden topics left by visitors.

Maximum information on a given topic

The market situation is changing very quickly. The dynamics of modern life are 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 is happening in your line of business. Google Alerts can help with this if you set up to receive relevant notifications on topics of interest.

Information on content quality

Undoubtedly, every business owner makes sure that only quality information is posted on their website. Whether it’s text, video or audio, the content should be interesting and useful to the user. However, every human being has a subjective evaluation. What if users do not agree with your opinion about the materials posted on the resource and the site is not moving to the top of the search results? How do I know that? Thanks to the corresponding alerts in the service, you can find out what visitors to your pages think, what content they like and what content leaves them indifferent. With this information you can remove unpopular information from the site, leaving only the best and further work only on popular topics.

Novelties for users

Information technologies are rapidly developing and users want to see some novelties on websites on a regular basis. You can diversify the resource with guest posts and comments. In this way 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 key phrases}

“Sharing Publications” + {one of the important key phrases}