How To Get More From Google Alerts
As a small business owner, I prefer simple tools. I like having one tool that I can push to the limits over a slew of them that I have to manage. It makes my life a little easier and m processes more streamlined. Which is why I’m a huge fan of using Google Alerts.
You’re probably already very familiar with Google Alerts. Google lets you set up as many Alerts as you’d like on as many different topics as you’d like. You tell them what to track, what kinds of content to track (News, Blogs, Video, Groups, or Comprehensive ), how often you want it and they’ll create you a list every day and send it to you via email or RSS. Google Alerts have always been a super easy way to track brand mentions and listen in to conversations, but that’s not all they can be used for. I thought I’d break down a few of my favorite ways to use Google Alerts and see if maybe some of them could help you as well.
Here are six ways I use Google Alerts.
Track Keywords
This is how most of us start out using Google Alerts. By creating Alerts based around your most important keywords you’re able to find new information about topics you’ve told Google you’re interested in. Doing this can help give you food for blog entries, guest articles, newsletters and help you stay better informed overall. Keeping on top of what’s happening in your industry will help you make better decisions in your business and alert you to new products or strategies that can help you do things smarter. Using Google Alerts to track relevant information is great.
The problem with tracking broad keywords is that Google often finds information that’s not as relevant as you’d like. To help cure this a bit, you can use advanced search operators to help you filter out bad results. For example, last week if you were a florist interested in what flowers were hot for Valentine’s Day, you could have set up an alert for [Valentine's Day + flowers]. This would make sure that you only received flower-themed Valentine’s Day articles, instead of everything being published about the holiday. In the same way, [Valentine's Day -flowers] would omit any mention of Valentine’s Day where the term [flowers] was present, while [Valentine's Day OR flowers] would show mentions where at least one term was included. It’s all about making your results more relevant.
Track Yourself
An obvious offshoot of tracking broad keywords is to use Google Alerts to also track your brand name, the names of all of your employees, the name of your blog, your domain name, any product names, etc. Anything that is associated with your company and is unique enough that it can be tracked, should be tracked. Being able to quickly spot conversations taking place about you on the Web allows you to become part of them. Whether the mention is someone giving you props, asking a question about your product, or even someone taking shots at your brand, knowing about it means you can respond. In the days where small miscommunications can become big online reputation management nightmares, the ‘knowing’ part has become increasingly more important.
Track Competitors
A few months ago I wrote an article offering up 11 Competitive Intelligence Tools for SMBs. The first tool I mentioned on that list was Google Alerts. Use Google Alerts to track mentions of your competitors, their products, and anything else you know about. The same way you’re tracking your own mentions, you should be tracking those of your competitors. It’s just good business. 
Track New Links
As a small business owner, it’s really important to pay attention to the links coming into your site. Sure, you want to find the conversations and the people talking about you, but links are important for lots of other reasons. They may help you identify new partnerships, new sites in your industry, places to guest post or promote content, or even the pages on your site that most connect with users. And of course, if you’re tracking links to your site, do I even need to tell you to track links to competitors’ sites as well? If people are linking to them, then there’s a good chance they may be up linking to you, as well. Find ways to duplicate their success.
Find Content Stealers
Another way I use Google Alerts is as a low maintenance way to find content stealers. I used to work for a company that had its entire Web site stolen on a daily basis. Someone would come, copy the whole thing, and then slap it on a new domain and change the contact information. Now as a blogger, I have folks who, sometimes well-intentioned, will take complete blog posts and repost them on their own blog. And then, of course, we all know about scrappers who will take whatever they can get in order to throw ads on it. If you know that you have a piece of content that gets stolen often or there’s a flagship piece on your site you really want to protect, take a unique selection of that post and create an Alert for it. If anyone posts it on their site, you’ll be notified and can go about getting them to remove it.
Find Customers
Another interesting way to use Google Alerts is to get Google to track down potential customers for you. If you run a local bakery, set up a Google Alert for the phrase “who sells a, Yahoo Answers, Flickr Groups, Google Groups, and other question/answer-types sites. If people are out on the Web talking about a need that your business fills, Google can help you find it.
Are you using Google Alerts in any cool or exciting ways?
About the Author
Lisa Barone is Co-Founder and Chief Branding Officer at Outspoken Media, Inc., an SEO consulting firm that specializes in providing clients with online reputation management, social media services, and other Internet services. 
President of Conduit
Winner of the Global Award for Entrepreneurship Research
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This post was mentioned on Twitter by petervis: How To Get More From Google Alerts http://ff.im/-g96gU...
Most people outside of internet marketing will be ahead of the curve just by setting up some basic alerts and actually monitoring them regularly (don’t let it get like my reader with tons of unread stuff). Take the hint from Nike and Just Do It!
Thank you for the great list. I think a lot of people forget to track their competitors? Got to love the vast number of good tools.
A bit off topic: which of these social media tools is your favorite and why?
[...] lets you set up as many notifications as you’d like, for as many topics as you’d like. Small Biz Trends has even highlighted six ways to get more from Google Alerts – advice which includes tracking [...]
check out http://www.trackle.com…its google alerts in steroids….I am sure u will not regret..
I’m not understanding how to use Google Alerts to “track new links” to your site. It’s a great idea, but just not sure how to do it.
For those interested in setting up a listening station with Google Alerts where you can get all of the things you want to track all in one place read this: http://zephyrmarketing.net/2010/02/11/how-to-create-the-ultimate-listening-station-on-igoogle/
Lisa,
I’m unclear on your Finding Customers point. You right:
If you run a local bakery, set up a Google Alert for the phrase “who sells a, Yahoo Answers, Flickr Groups, Google Groups, and other question/answer-types sites.
Exactly what is the Google Alert phrase you are suggesting? “who sells a”? or the whole sentence? Please clarify.
Thanks.
I am also confused with your suggestion for finding clients using alerts.Exactly what are you saying for saying in terms of setting up the alert,for instance, in yahoo answers?
I’ve been reading a lot of books on seo and Internet marketing an several have suggesting implementing Google Alerts into your marketing plan. This is definately a valuabe tool.
[...] couple of weeks back I raved about Google Alerts and all the different ways that I used them. I mentioned that I use them to track keywords, identify content theft and even to track links [...]
[...] the internet for a particular term or phrase. Some of the smart suggestions made by
I have been using Google Alerts to track online marketing jobs in Seattle & mentions of me on the socialspher, It works well for Jobs tracking, but it lacks when it comes to twitter & FB. For social media I recommend trackur. They just rolled out a free version of their paid service & it works well for me.
Great post. I’ve used Google Alerts for simply tracking my brand name to see when my pages are indexed, or if anyone is talking about my business, but this has given me many more ideas for using Google Alerts.
[...] pages are being indexed by search engines.
[...] lets you set up as many notifications as you’d like, for as many topics as you’d like. Small Biz Trends has even highlighted six ways to get more from Google Alerts – advice which includes tracking [...]
I read an e-book on Google Alerts yesterday. I just use it to alert me whenever someone asks a question.
[...] USE GOOGLE ALERTS? Lisa Barone recently wrote a GREAT blog that emphasizes why organizations
Hi,
Is it possible to group Google Alerts? I mean I want to follow lots of things but I want to group them so that I can track and edit them easily.
[...] tracking people, your company, conversations, blogs, even potential customer, etc., subscribing to Google Alerts is a great way to keep up to date. Have your alerts mailed to you daily, weekly, or as they come [...]
Hi,
I have just read it.It is a great blog. Its also very informative.
But I
[...] so basically anytime you do a post find another blog site to submit it too.. I am getting a lot of Google alerts by doing this.. Sharing is caring and I love to hear your Feedback. Have a awesome [...]
[...] also need to know how to find the conversations they need to be part of. They need to be able to wrangle Google Alerts like it’s their job, they need to understand how to work a company social media dashboard, and they need to know what [...]
[...] and introduce people to your product or service. By setting up a simple Google Alert (Remember, I love Google Alerts) it can help you stay abreast of important industry topics and conversations. Once you’re in on [...]
[...] How To Get More From Google Alerts [...]
[...] How To Get More From Google Alerts [...]
[...] are talking about you online. You can choose to set it up for a weekly or daily alert. Most businesses can survive with a weekly alert, but if someone posts something negative you won’t be able to [...]
[...] Google Alerts Sure, you’ve got Google Analytics (right?), but are you also taking full advantage of Google Alerts? It might sound like PR 101, but just because something is simple doesn’t mean it isn’t valuable. In addition to tracking keywords about your brand, have you ever thought about using Google Alerts to track competitors or find new customers? There are all kinds of interesting and unusual ways to get more from Google Alerts. [...]