As freelance writer in Spanish, I had to do content curation texts very often. When it comes to that matter, Google Alerts is a must. Though it is well-known, it is surprising how many people miss to use it. So let’s see how it works.
Using Google alerts is a way of keeping tracks of your business sector news.
You do not need to create a separate Google account in order to use alerts, only a log in to your existing Google account and then you can easily access it.
How does Google Alerts operate?
It does not operate only through Gmail email address. Although it is offered by Google search engine you can use it with any email address you have.
By using it, you receive emails /notices when the system finds new results based on keywords you have set up to follow. They can be websites, newspaper articles, blogs or a research papers, videos or whatever you decide to monitor. Though, the number is fixed for each session (up to ten) then after your alerts have been confirmed you can create more of them, which means that you can create up to 1000 alerts per email. So, you can receive alerts according to your preferences, it’s up to you.
Following are the steps to set up Google Alerts.
- Go to the page.
- If you do not have, fill in the Google alert form in the following order:
- Enter search query: This is what you want to be tracked by Google Alert. Separate the searches, by commas. You can always make changes in this part by adding new or deleting unnecessary searches.
- Result type: Choose what sources you need Google Alert to find for you. There are various types of results such as news, blogs, videos, discussions, books, news or everything (you can search all of them).
- How often: Decide how often you want to get notified. You can choose ‘once a day/ a week’ or ‘as it happens’. The latter means you are notified as soon as there is any information.
- How many results: You can choose between ‘only the best results’ or ‘everything’ depending what you need.
- Deliver to: Enter the email address you want to get Google alerts from. It can be any email service. By clicking `create alert` you are done.
If you already have a Google account you can go to Google alerts from your account home page. This also enables you to edit the alerts you have created. Go to any Google page and you can see on the right top corner the `sign in` button, click it and log in to Google. This will take you back to the Google page where you logged in from. In the search tab type `Google alerts` and you will be directly taken to Google alerts home page. The rest of the process is the same as explained for no Google account. The only difference is that you will see the email section with your Google account.
Google alert is useful for monitoring your online business. You can set up multiple alerts including your domain name, your brand and your name so that you can see who is talking about your products/service and what the comments are.
