How To Add A Google Alert For Your Business
If you have someone saying awesome things about you or your business, wouldn’t it be nice to know about it quickly and be able to thank them in a timely manner. On the other hand, if you have a disgruntled customer posting comments about your business, wouldn’t it be great to be able to immediately respond to the comment and take steps to correct the problem. With Google Alerts you can do just that.
Google Alerts is a free tool offered by Google that let’s you easily monitor your online presence. By setting up search queries, you can be notified whenever Google notices your name (or what ever query you want), mentioned on any webpage.
Setting up a Google Alert for your business is pretty easy and can be completed in just a few minutes. Here’s the step by step instructions.
NOTE: Before starting, I suggest that you have a Google account and are logged in. While you can create a Google Alert without an account, you will be able to manage your alerts and modify them as necessary if you are logged in.
- Go to www.google.ca/alerts.
- You will see a form that looks something like this:
- In the box next to “Search query“, enter the words or phrase you want to search for. Enclose the phrase in quotes for an exact match, for example “Mark Pridham” or “Mark Pridham Web Design”
- Click on the drop down list next to “Result type“. This tells Google where to search. You can choose from: Everything, News, Blogs, Video, Discussions or Books. When starting out, I highly suggest you select “Everything“. If you find that you are getting too many results, you can always change it later.
- Click on the drop down list next to “How often“. This determines how often you will receive your alerts. You can choose from: As-it-happens, Once a day or Once a week. I recommend you choose “As-it-happens“. If you find this is too much, you can scale it back later.
- Click on the drop down list next to “How Many“. This will determine the amount of results you receive. You can choose from: Only the best results or All the results. As you may have guessed, I recommend starting out with “All the results” and then changing it later if you find it is too much.
- Now will need to choose how you want to receive the alerts. If you are not signed in, you will need to fill in your email address. If you are signed in, your email address will be automatically displayed. You will also have the option to send the alerts to an RSS feed if you prefer.
- Once you have completed the form, click the CREATE ALERT button. If you are signed in, the alert will get automatically created. If you are not signed in, you will receive an email asking you to confirm that you want the alert created. When you receive the email, simply click on the confirmation link.
So there you have the basics for setting up a Google Alert for your business. You can set up as many alerts as you want, so I suggest playing with them a bit to see what works best for you.
Of course, as always, I am interested in hearing from you. Let me know your thoughts on Google Alerts and feel free to share your experiences.
