Using Google Alerts for Business

By Adam  |  29 Nov 2015 12:00:00

Google Alerts is a handy tool which people use to keep up with the news. All you have to do is write in a word or phrase and then Google will send you periodical emails which will contain a list of recently posted news articles which contain that phrase in their titles. As I'm sure you can tell, this has many uses: if people love to keep up with the gossip surrounding a celebrity, they can make a Google Alert for their name, if they follow a political party they can set up a Google Alert for them, if they're a big fan of a movie franchise, they can set up a Google Alert for the title. Essentially, it’s a handy tool for keeping up with the things that interest you, but did you also know that it can be useful for businesses?

If you set up a Google Alert for the name of your business, it would be useful for finding references to your business that you might otherwise have been unaware of. If somebody wrote a really scathing blog post or article about you, you could then take steps to avoid anybody else feeling the same way by identifying the root of the problem. If you change whatever it was that bothered them and then let them know that you've changed it, you might even be able to persuade them to take it down! It also will allow you to find good things that people have written about you, so that you can draw more attention to them and to thank the authors.

Plus, it's generally just good to keep up with news in your area, such as what your competitors are up to. If you notice a trend of lots of similar websites offering additional features, perhaps you should offer those additional features too! And Google Alerts can provide you with worthwhile subjects to cover on your blog, too. So I hope that helps you to see that Google Alerts can be very useful for businesses and that you will use it well. But if you don't even have an eCommerce website yet, why not sign up to Sellr now and get started for no cost at all?