The Google Alerts tool is excellent for marketing purposes: it allows you to create personalized alerts to be notified as soon as the subject appears on the internet. We will see below that it is useful in different cases and how to create one.
Contents
- What is the Google Alerts tool and what is it used for?
- How to create an alert on Google Alerts?
Google Alerts is a free monitoring tool that allows you to receive alerts every time a predefined keyword is mentioned somewhere on the web. It is a kind of monitoring tool, which however quickly shows its limits compared to some more advanced tools, which integrate for example the number of mentions, the reach of social media, the score of the influencer, etc.
Google Alerts allows you to follow keywords mentions on different websites, including social media and blogs, news sites, forums... This tool also allows you to keep an eye on new trends, your e-reputation or that of your competitors and on the indexation of your new pages. Here are some ideas to make the most of Google Alerts.
Monitoring the competition
Google Alerts is a fabulous little spy! By setting alerts on your competitor's name or brand, you'll be able to see all their activities very quickly, sometimes even before anyone else. You will be able to monitor the launch of new products or services, the publication of a new article on the blog... As the saying goes, you have to be close to your friends, but even closer to your enemies!
Anticipating new trends
Google Alerts allows you to stay on top of new trends and identify new opportunities. In addition, you may also discover new information about your business that can be shared with your customers and prospects, creating a powerful touch point.
Manage your brand image
Some social media platforms allow you to know how many times and in which context your company or brand name has been mentioned. But that's not enough, because it's not only on social networks that people can talk about you. Google Alerts fills this information gap. You will be able to have a global view on all the comments that are made so that you can react in case of negative comments. You will be able to take the necessary measures quickly to mitigate the impact and the potentially damaging effect to your company.
Find inspiration for your content
In today's SEO world, the key to success is content. Unfortunately it's not always easy to find innovative topics (or topics at all). With Google Alerts, you can find inspiration by analyzing the topics that have resonated with the public. Then you can set up alerts around keywords related to those topics. When new content is published, you can quickly react and write about the same topic. However, be courteous and keep in mind that there is a copyright law. So use your own words, ideas and phrasing.
Find opportunities for your marketing events
There are thousands of events and it is not always easy to make an exhaustive list of all those that could be beneficial for your business. With Google Alerts, you will find opportunities to make yourself known on events in your field (conferences, trade shows...). You just have to set up an alert on your business field (or a related keyword) with the type of event that you are interested to attend. For example: "car show".
Find opportunities for guest blogging
Some bloggers, companies or associations are looking for guests to feed their sites. Create a Google Alert to find these opportunities when they are announced so you can take advantage of them before the spots are taken!
Recruit
This is the last thing a recruiter would think of, yet Google Alerts can play an important role in recruiting new talent. By setting up alerts with the position to be filled, you will be notified when a new resume is posted on job boards. Not bad!
Find spots to comment
One of the most well-known netlinking strategies is to post links from article comments. With Google Alerts, you can find blogs that cover relevant topics.
Follow the evolution of your marketing actions
The ROI of some actions is sometimes difficult or impossible to measure, especially when they aim at improving brand awareness. With Google Alerts, you can measure the results of your efforts. For example, if you send out a press release, you will be able to see the number of sites that distributed it.
Protect against plagiarism / duplicate content
Have you just spent hours writing a quality article and are afraid that it will be copied without your consent? Then set up an alert with the keywords related to your article in order to be notified when a page dealing with this subject is published. You will be able to quickly check if these sources have taken over your work or not.
How to create an alert on Google Alerts?
Setting up alerts is easy. Just go to https://www.google.fr/alerts and follow these instructions:
In the "Create an alert about" box, enter the words for which you want to receive email notifications.
Display the options by clicking on the small pencil, to indicate how often you receive alerts, what kind of results you want, language, regions etc.
Enter your address and click "Create Alert".
Once your alert is set up, you will start receiving emails as soon as Google finds new search results for your keywords.
The alerts you receive will look like this (example for the "unusual car" alert):
The tool also offers suggestions for the most popular topics. You can create an alert by clicking on the topic.
Note that by logging in with your Google account, you can access your data and add two other settings (Delivery time and Digest).
Conclusion
Google Alerts is a tool that doesn't look like much at first sight, but if it is well used and configured, it can become a very powerful monitoring tool.
