Want to be notified every time someone talks about you on the internet?
Creating a google alert for your business will help with just that.
As some of you may know, I am quite a perfectionist.
The thought of having someone comment about me online, whether positive or negative, and not being able to reply to them because I didn’t even know about the existence of their comment sends chills down my spine.
Not kidding.
Pin me, fellow entrepreneur?
So without further ado, here’s how you can set up a google alert for your website!
How to set up Google alerts for your business
It’s not difficult to set up google alerts for your blog. Here are the steps:
- Head over to https://google.com/alerts
- Type in the phrase that you want to be alerted for
- Click on “show options” and toggle how often you want to get alerts.
- Choose a source: web, news, blogs – I recommend automatic.
- Choose your language, region and whether you want to receive all alerts about your term or only selected results.
- Enter the email where you want to receive alerts at
- Click on “create alert”.
And there you go! All done.
Here's how you can set up Google alerts for your blog & business!Click To TweetWhat is Google Alerts all about?
Some of you may not have heard of Google Alerts before.
Basically, Google monitors the internet for any mentions of your selected keywords.
This can be your blog name, your brand, or your personal name. The sky is the limit.
It then sends a digest-style email to your inbox to inform you.
You can set for the email alerts to come in real-time, once a day, or once a week. It is pretty handy!
Here are some tips I have for you to use Google alerts to its fullest potential:
1. Set up Google Alerts for your name (or brand name)
Here are 2 of many alerts I have set up:
- My URL: raelyntan.com; and
- My name: raelyn tan
Aside from these 2, you can also set up alerts for related keywords in your niche.
2. Get more link opportunities
At times, you may be alerted of people who have mentioned your website but did not actually link to your website.
Head over to those sites, and then politely email them to ask for a link!
Since they have already mentioned your site, it is a no-brainer for them to link to you as it actually helps their readers.
Boom! An initially untapped SEO opportunity has been fully leveraged on 🙂
3. Thank people who mention your business
Never underestimate the power of 1:1 relationships.
Whenever I see that someone has mentioned me on the internet, I make sure that I comment and personally thank them.
I don’t believe in the whole hog-wash of being an “authority that is high up on the mountain”. While I do have limited time and many people requesting for a piece of it, having a personal touch in everything I do in my business means a lot to me.
People aren’t moved by how much you know, but how much you care – and I want my readers to feel cared for…
I must say, it’s getting exceedingly harder, but I’m trying my best, guys!
Extend your personal thanks to as many people as you can – and Google alerts can help you with just that.
4. Set your Google Alert frequency to once a week
The problem with Google alerts is that you will be getting a ton of emails. So, I recommend that you set your alert frequency to be either once a day or preferably once a week.
Google will then compile a list of mentions and send them to you digest style at your chosen frequency.
5. Avoid generic keywords
You don’t want to add generic keywords like “blog”, “health”, etc. If you want to do keyword monitoring, add in more specific keywords.
Otherwise, you may find yourself flooded with alerts.
We’re all busy entrepreneurs trying to run an empire here – most of us won’t have time to read through hundreds of alerts!
Set Google Alerts only for more specific keywords you really want to be alerted for.
6. Monitor for negative mentions or complaints
To monitor for negative mentions/comments about your brand, you can set up alerts as such:
Create alerts for your brand name alongside certain words that are usually unkind:
“Your brand” + hate
“Your brand” + worst
… and other negative keywords that you want to keep a lookout for.
7. Stalk your competitors
You can also set up alerts for your top competitors and see where they are newly mentioned at.
Perhaps they are included in a round-up somewhere – you can start networking with this person so that they know about your existence and will include you in their next round-up.
Perhaps your competitors are mentioned on a particular podcast or are interviewed. You can also pitch for you to be interviewed as well!
Sites that mention or feature your competitors will probably be willing to mention you or allow you to guest post at their site as well!
Personally, I like to be alerted of new articles that my competitors are putting up. Just so I know what’s going on.
8. Monitor for theft of your courses
There are people who steal courses and put them online.
They usually purchase, ask for a refund – and then the next thing you know, all your course materials are up on the internet for people to use for free.
I’ve become so wary of people who request for a refund for my courses because of this.
With Google Alerts, you can set up alerts such that you are alerted to such theft as soon as possible.
You can use these keywords: [brand] + “product name” + (download|torrent) -site:yourdomain.com
This will notify you as soon as someone tries to upload your content online so that you can send the relevant legal notices to take them down.
9. Guest post opportunities
You can use Google Alerts to get notified of any potential guest posting opportunities using these search terms:
“write for us” your topic
“submit guest post” your topic
“bloggers wanted” your topic
“become a contributor” your topic
“this guest post” your topic
“become an author” your topic
10. Follow your favorite expert
Someone I am learning a lot from recently is Russell Brunson, founder of Clickfunnels.
I love his take on funnels – which is basically mapping out the logical steps you want customers to take to guide them towards the sale.
You can set up Google Alerts so that everytime an expert you want to follow is mentioned somewhere on the internet, you are informed about it.
That way, you can be informed if the person has written a new guest post or has been featured somewhere.
This can be a book author, a celebrity – basically, anyone that you want to follow.
10 advanced tips on how you can leverage Google Alerts to its fullest potential in this blog post! Click To TweetSummary
I hope that you’ve found this guide about Google Alerts helpful!
Check out my free blog + business resource library for online entrepreneurs if you haven’t already:
All signed up? Now it is time for you to go forth and set up your Google Alerts.
Please share this post if you have enjoyed it.
Till the next post, have a blessed day ahead!
xx Raelyn
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