Making Life Easier With Google Alerts

This Tool Can Help SEO

I’m not sure how long I have been using Google Alerts, perhaps for two years now? Regardless of the time factor, I have found this tool to be an effective weapon in my SEO arsenal, something that I have recently sharpened and put into much more effective use. Yes, if you are already using Google Alerts to empower your site, then you know exactly what I mean. For everyone else, please read on and I’ll share with you some tips and tricks to help you get the most from your Google Alerts.

What Is Google Alerts?

“Google Alerts are email updates of the latest relevant Google results (web, news, etc.) based on your choice of query or topic,” so says search engine giant Google, the developer of this tool. With Google Alerts you can set up keywords or phrases and track just about every mention of these words through your alerts.

For example, I like to track my name “Matthew C. Keegan” and several variations of it to see when an article I have written has been picked up and published elsewhere. Oftentimes, I will visit that site to see how my article looks and to make sure that all of the relevant author information and back links are included. If there is a problem, I can contact the webmaster or blogger directly to ask him to make the appropriate changes.

How Do I Set Up My Alerts?

In the “Create a Google Alert” set up box, you have four lines to fill out:

• Search terms: this is where you can list a topic, subject, your name or some other words you want to track.

• Type: You can receive alerts for news, blogs, web, or Google groups. If you want all four, then select comprehensive and Google will pull every category together for your alert. I use Comprehensive as I don’t want to miss out on anything.

• How often: You can choose once daily, once weekly, or “as-it-happens” alerts. With the latter, once Google discovers a match you’ll receive instant notification. I have chosen the once daily category as I don’t want to be overwhelmed with alerts.

• Your email: Choose which email account you want for receiving these alerts. Warning: if you use a lot of alerts and/or choose “as it happens” then a separate email account for tracking alerts might be the best option.

SEO: How So?

Indirectly, Google Alerts can help you build SEO by telling you who else is talking about your favorite topic or subject. When an alert pops up, you can discover who else may be battling you in the all-important search engine results pages (SERPs) arena and take the appropriate action to maintain your position.

Perhaps you wrote an article about “Google bowling” and are desirous to follow where its presence in the SERPs . Maybe a page one appearance is important to you or you could be interested in finding out who else is talking about this topic. You can then visit the blogger’s site and leave a helpful comment and include a link back to your article.

Most importantly, Google Alerts can tell you if your top position in the SERPs is being threatened allowing you to make the appropriate “white hat” response as soon as possible.

How Many Alerts?

Google is generous when it comes to their alerts as the company allows users to set up and maintain as many as 1000 of them. You will have to open a Google account in order to manage your alerts, but that move will allow you to gain access to a myriad number of other Google programs including Gmail, Calendar, and the like.

Right now I have 9 alerts in place, up from my previous high number of 4. There are several articles I have written that I am now tracking and Google Alert allows for me to stay on top of everything without having to search around for what I want.

Any tool that works well (and is free) is worth utilizing to its fullest extent. I’ll be adding additional alerts in the near future to help me do a better job of keeping track of my online presence. That’s music to my ears!

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