Scott Tyler
Google Alerts is a free and easy-to-use option for anyone who wants to receive notifications when a certain topic is mentioned and indexed in the search engine
The amount of information that can be found on Google is really immense: although the company does not release official figures, according to the Statistic Brain website, the number of pages indexed by the search engine was 30 billion in 2014.
So while you can learn some advanced techniques to refine your search, it can be laborious to sift through all the results until you find what you want.
Fortunately, Google itself has already thought about it: since 2003, Google Alerts has been available , a free tool that sends emails to users when it finds new results on terms for which the person has signed up.
Learn what Google Alerts is and learn how to use it in your Digital Marketing strategy
What is Google Alerts
Google Alerts is a service that detects new content indexed by Google – such as web pages, news, articles, blog posts, etc. – notifying registered users by email.
Launched in 2003 from an idea by Google engineer Naga Kataru, the tool was once more popular. In the beginning, it was widely used for clipping news about clients of press offices , for example.
But, although there are more advanced tools nowadays, such as Moz and SEMrush ,Google Alerts remains a free and easy to use option for those who want to know the news on a certain subject.
How to create a Google alert
(1. To create an alert, log in to your Google account and go to the page: www.google.com/alerts .
Detailing the options available on this home page, the first section is “My alerts”, in which you can edit the created alerts, if you already have one, defining the time you want to receive them on by email.
It is also possible to check the option “Digest”, which delivers the news related to the alert in a single email message, with frequency that can be defined between “at most once a day” and “at most once a week”.
The second division, “Me on the web”, suggests that you create an alert with your own name or email already registered. This can be done by clicking on the “+”.
Finally, the “Suggestions for alerts” give ideas of companies, artists, films and other topics that are currently trending and on which you can also create an alert with a click.
(2. To create a new alert, enter the desired search term. Here we will use “digital results” as an example. You may want to write it in quotation marks to obtain accurate results.
(3. When doing this, you can click on “Show options” and configure your alerts, defining:
• Frequency with which you want to receive them: when available, at most once a day or at most once a week;
• Sources: alerts from news, blogs, web, videos, among others;
Language;
• Region: country in which the content was published;
• How many: “only the best results” or “see all”;
• Send to: email address that will receive the notices.
The tool also shows a preview of the latest results for your term that have been indexed by Google.
(4. Once this is done, just click on “Create alert”.
How to use Google Alerts in your Digital Marketing strategy
Understanding what Google Alerts is about and learning how to configure it was pretty easy, right? But how can the resource be useful in a Digital Marketing strategy?
We bring 4 ideas:
(1. Keep track of what people are saying about your company – and the competition
Add your company name or your website’s URL to Google Alerts to keep track of what people are saying and respond to any criticisms or compliments.
In the same way, you can follow the news about your competitors.
(2. To get rich post ideas and materials
With Google Alerts, you can find out what people are talking about on a variety of topics, including in other languages and countries.
Thus, you can detect trends and have ideas for guidelines to produce posts for your blog or even for more extensive content, such as eBooks.
(3. Content for social media
If you still don’t produce a lot of content and update your social networks with texts, for example, that other vehicles publish on subjects related to your business, Google Alerts can help you find news that is worth sharing with your followers, making it easier for you to curation .
(4. Generate links with mentions of your brand and strategic terms for your company
External links are still one of Google’s main ranking factors and generating links by mentioning your brand is the link building technique you can include in your SEO strategy .
One way to use Google Alerts to obtain them is by registering your company name and also variations of it, such as without space or with a specific brand, for example.
When you receive an alert, make sure the mention links to your website. If not, contact the person responsible for publishing, requesting the link.
As you can see, Google Alerts is a simple feature to set up and use. It is a free tool, which can be used to obtain content ideas, to follow the news coming out about your company and about the competition, among other uses.
Do you use Google alerts? Tell us how you do it in the comments.
