Google Alerts, a service that allows users to get email updates with new content across the web pertaining to specific search terms, is nothing new. In fact, you might be surprised to learn that this handy service has been available for nearly fifteen years at this point.
What you might not know is that Google Alerts can be a valuable tool in your business arsenal. When used appropriately, it can give you important data that helps you to grow your business. How can you use Google Alerts to the greatest benefit? Here are a few ways.
Monitor Yourself
When you add search terms to Google Alerts, you’ll receive notifications when relevant content is found, such as web pages, blogs, news articles, mentions, and so on. You can use this to monitor keywords related to your industry or your business, but you can also use it to monitor yourself, in a way.
When you add your own company name or related terms (business partners, names of executives, product names, etc.) to your search list, you can find out how often your business is showing up in new content online. This is a great way to keep track of your own online presence and reputation, and adapt your promotional strategies in response.
You can even use negative search terms to ensure that you only get pertinent results. If a top executive at your company happens to be named Bill Gates, you could exclude results for “Bill Gates – IBM”, for example.
Keep an Eye on Competitors
Knowing when you’re popping up in content online is a good start, but you also need to know what’s going on with major competitors. For this reason, you should also set up Google Alerts to track competitive brands and products. When you know what your competitors are up to and why they’re getting mentions online, you can tailor your own strategies moving forward to capitalize and compete.
Know What’s Trending
There are tools available to help you track trending keywords. That’s not what Google Alerts does, but it can help you to stay on top of when relevant trends rise and fall, which is an important part of keeping your marketing and promotional strategies flexible and fluid.
You can set Google Alerts to track terms related not only to your business, but to your location, specific groups within your target demographic, and more. You can use it to see patterns, including not only the relative popularity of terms over time, but also how and where they’re being used. This information can only help you to formulate strategies for growth moving forward.
If certain terms seem to be on the decline, you know it’s time to find more relevant trends to capitalize on, just for example. If your competitors are getting more traction than you, you can deep dive to find out why and adjust your own strategies to compensate and compete.
Of course, Google Alerts can only provide you with data. By collaborating with a reputable company like Next Level Technology, you can use that data to create online marketing strategies that will grow your business.
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