Most people have never even heard of Google Alerts (www.google.com/alerts). This amazing free tool is available to anyone with a Google account, which as completely free to sign up for. All you do is set an email alert that to notify you when certain text, web address or mentions pop up. This will contains searches all across the internet. This has multiple uses but we’ll only look at the option to monitor your brand name today.
How to Use Google Alerts to Monitor Your Business Name
You can start out by going to www.google.com/alerts. Once inside you will be looking at a screen with these options:
The first field you will encounter will be your Search Query. In this text box you will want to list your business name. Then you will select your Result Type. This drop down options of: Everything, News, Blogs, Video, Discussions and Books. This gives you the ability to only search the sites that you want to monitor. After this step you have the option to select How Often and How Many which lets you choose Only the Best Results or All Results. Then simply choose the Email where you would like the results to be mailed to.
As your brand is mentioned online, you will receive a notification that will give you the direct link to what url mentioned you. This can be helpful on so many levels that the options could be discussed all day. But at the base level, this free service by Google will let you monitor where you might be mentioned online and you will be able to react or act on any circumstance at a much quicker rate than never knowing who is talking about you or your business!
