How to Use Google Alerts for Competitors Analysis
Google, the world’s most popular search engine, has accustomed us to the “free use” of various products produced within its ecosystem. This is the situation with Google Analytics, Search Console, Gmail, and so on.
All of these technologies aid website publishers with their varied acquisition techniques. However, the product that will pique our interest in this post will assist digital marketing professionals, SEOs, or anyone else who wants to monitor what is said or discussed on the internet around their keywords, an expression related to their interest or professional activity, to respond quickly. Google alerts for business is an essential tool in this strategy.
You’ll learn how to leverage Google Alerts in your SEO approach. That being said, the use of Google Alerts extends much beyond the fundamental framework of natural referencing, and if you are creative, you can broaden the use of this Google feature.
What is a Google Alert?
A Google alert is an email delivered by Google when new websites or web pages contain the keywords or expressions for which you have set an alert. It is important to note that you will only receive this message if Google’s indexing robots have indexed the page containing your keywords. Expect a waiting period before receiving the alert. If you are optimizing your website and looking for Professional SEO Services in Australia, using Google Alerts can greatly support your monitoring efforts.
For a moment, picture yourself in a position where you would have to go to every website to see what people are saying about you or your rivals. Without an army of interns and an unrestricted budget, it is nearly impossible. If not, an automation solution is available. This solution has a price tag and necessitates some technical expertise. The strength of Google Alerts is that it turns into a free strategic monitoring tool.
The different use cases of Google Alerts
With a little creativity, you can come up with other applications for these four examples that are shown to you below.
Using Google Alerts to Monitor Competitors
How can you keep track of your competitors? It’s quite subtle and brilliant; all you need to know are the most relevant keywords as well as your competitors’ business keywords. To start, you can simply incorporate Google alerts for business on the brand name to ensure you monitor your competition’s strategies efficiently.
Verify that a web hacker hasn’t copied or duplicated your website.
“How do you know if your site is copied?” is a question you might ask yourself. How can you tell if another website has copied your content? Just add a few phrases from your content to the notifications to find out. You will be able to get notifications about this possibly harmful content duplication if a bad individual takes this complete block of text. Zero risk does not exist, even if Google can identify the authorship of information. Furthermore, when you have taken the time to create excellent, original content or information that is only somewhat similar, it is upsetting to see yourself duplicated.
Track your reputation with Google Alerts
This monitoring approach offers several benefits:
- You will have the ability to determine who is mentioning you, your business, your goods and/or services, etc.
- You will be able to tell whether people are talking about you positively or negatively; this is about monitoring your reputation.
- You will be able to respond rapidly in the event of a nasty buzz, for example.
For businesses looking to improve their online presence, incorporating SEO Services in Australia which tracks your online reputation through Google Alerts is highly beneficial.
SEO Strategy with Google Alerts: Recover Inbound Links
The link acquisition method, also known as link building or net linking, can be time-consuming and costly. Sometimes you have to be crafty and seize every opportunity to recover a link (backlink) for your website. With a little luck, Google Alerts can become an effective SEO technique for claiming a few incoming links, especially if they originate from quality sources.
Sites (blog, forum, directory, do-follow blog comment, press release, web magazine, etc.) frequently mention your products or services without linking to them.
For a better understanding of this SEO technique, consider the following case study: You run an e-commerce site called ABC.com that sells high-end umbrellas and is very localized. Needless to say, Google My Business will considerably assist you with your local presence. You are doing an action that generates publicity for your product: It is umbrellas. Sites talk about you, so cite you without establishing backlinks: Set up alerts for key phrases like “luxury ABC umbrella,” “high-end ABC umbrella,” and “ABC umbrella” to capitalize on current SEO opportunities. You get notified of every website that mentions you but lacks backlinks. After politely thanking these websites, you ask them to include a link with a coupon code, if at all possible. The response might not always be favourable, but if it is, it is quite advantageous because this hyperlink will only cost you the time it takes to write your email. This procedure can be automated to increase efficiency.
Create and Manage a Google Alert with Google Alerts
- You must have a Gmail address. Once logged into your Gmail account, go to Google Alerts, where you’ll find a simple interface for creating, editing, and managing alerts.
- In the search window, type your keywords or expressions one by one. At this stage, you will see a preview of the sites that mention you (if any), and you can reveal or conceal the options to tailor them to your preferences.
- Click the “Create Alert” button to validate the creation of your alert.
- To delete a Google Alert, simply click on the trash can symbol.
- To change your Google alert, click the pencil icon. Please be aware that you can only generate up to 1000 alerts per Gmail account.
- Do not be afraid to use quotation marks to more accurately target specific words.
- Keep in mind to employ as many different spellings of your words as you can.
Using Google Alerts effectively can significantly enhance your SEO strategy. With its ease of use and versatility, it allows users to monitor mentions, track competitors, safeguard content, and enhance their SEO efforts with minimal effort. Additionally, Webomaze Pty Ltd – Trust SEO agency in Australia can optimize your website while guiding for Google Alerts setup to capture the most relevant data for your business.