Most Small Office / Home Office (SOHO’s) Entrepreneurs and Small to Mid-Size Business Owners don’t use or know about Google Alerts. Let’s face it, most of us are too busy just trying to keep the prospect and sales funnels full- RIGHT?
But we promise this one simple thing (Google Alerts) can have a profound impact on the way you run your business.
Google Alerts are emails sent to you when Google finds new results — such as web pages, newspaper articles, or blogs — that match your search term. You can use Google Alerts to monitor anything on the Web. For example, people use Google Alerts to:
- find out what is being said about their company or product
- monitor a developing news story
- keep up to date on a competitor or industry
- get the latest news on a celebrity or sports team
- find out what’s being said about themselves
How do you set up you Google Alerts?
After visiting the Google Alerts home page, here’s what to do:
- Enter your query
Enter your query just as if you were doing a normal Google search. Get tips on writing good queries
- Enter your email address
Enter the email address you want your alerts delivered to. Google will protect your email address in accordance with our privacy policy.
- Confirm the alert you have created
If you aren’t signed in to a Google Account when you create an alert, Google will send you a verification email to prevent spam. Go to your email inbox, open the verification email and click the verify link to confirm your alert. If you can’t find the verification email, check your spam folder. If you are signed in to a Google Account when you create an alert, you don’t need to confirm it.
Done!
That’s it! Your alert is active, and you’ll receive an email whenever Google Alerts finds new results for your search. Each email you receive contains a link to delete the alert, so you can cancel any time you want.
You may have noticed that Google Alerts has several other settings to help you customize your updates. Learn more about the “Type,” “How often” and “Email length” fields in the “Advanced Options” section.
Tips
- Try to be as precise as possible. The more precise your search terms are, the more relevant your alerts will be.
- Use quotes around a group of words if you are looking for them together. Examples:
- “Enterprise Resource Planning”
- “Betty Smith”
- Put quotes around a single word to match that word precisely as you typed it, excluding synonyms and spelling variations. Examples:
- “foard” (to stop Google including results for Ford)
- Michael “Jacson” (to stop Google including results for Michael Jackson)
- Use a minus sign (-) in front of words that you want to exclude. Examples:
- paris -texas
- apple -fruit
- Use the site: operator to limit your search to specific sites. Examples:
- physics site:.edu
- congress site:nytimes.com
- Use the site: operator with a dash to exclude specific sites. Example:
- “joe bloggs” -site:twitter.com
As you can see, there are many ways to use Google Alerts to provide a great benefit to your business. You’re really only limited by your imagination. Our “Google Alert” list is very dynamic in that we add and subtract alerts for ourselves, our clients, competitors, etc… on a daily basis.
If you want to learn more about “Google Alerts” or need help setting up your own “Google Alerts” Give us a call (951) 291-1774 or drop us a line at Contact@MusselwhiteMarketing.com and let’s discuss it.