What is a Google Alert?

Blogs, review sites, twitter, comments at the end of articles - do you know who is mentioning your business or name? Do you know what they are saying about you online? You can find out with Google Alerts.

Here is an example of an online review. Do the owners of the restaurant know about all the reviews on the YELP page?

Google Alerts are like Google listings that are sent to your email address. You tell your Google Alerts account which words you want it to track. The image below shows tracking 1) thecomputergal.com, 2) The Computer Gal, 3) nora mcdougall.

1. Each Google Alert word comes in a different email.
2. Google Alerts are organized by which types of sites are being searched: News, Web and Blog. This email has no blog listing because there are no new blog mentions of nora mcdougall.
3. This is an irrelevant listing.
4. This listing tells me that Google has cataloged an article I posted on NNFP.org

How to Get Google Alerts

First, you have to have a Google account. All it takes to get a Google account is an email address. If you don't have a Google account, click here and go to Item 4.

In your Google account, the Google Products (services) are separated by 1) the ones you are currently using and 2) the ones you can add to your account. Click Alerts.

You have several options for your Google Alerts.

1. A new search term "Nora McDougall-Collins" is being added.
2. You can search News, Blogs, Web, Video, Groups or Comprehensive (all of them.)
3. You can receive the alerts as-it-happens, once a day or once a week.
4. You can choose which email address receives the alerts. If your words are very common, and you set the alert to "as-it-happens," you could potentially receive hundreds of alert emails every day. In this case, you might want to set up a special email address to receive them.

 

This article is based on a discussion topic from the Search Engine Positioning and Social Networking for Business courses
at The Lifelong Learning Center in Missoula, Montana

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