The Maine SEO Blog

Yesterday I talked a little bit about how to set up Google Alerts, and hinted at why they’re important. Today, I’d like to focus on how you can use the Alerts you receive.

Do some damage control. Even the best business will have unhappy customers. Here’s your opportunity to make it right. Don’t pretend like the post didn’t happen, don’t even ask the blogger to remove it. Face it – head on – and comment; apologize for their bad experience and vow to make it better (however you can manage to). Not only will the unhappy blogger feel better (maybe even remove or update their scathing review), but anyone who reads the post and your subsequent comment will want to do business with you.

Catch the copy cats. Unfortunately, there are a lot of blogs out there whose soul purpose is to copy content from other blogs/articles and repost it. They sometimes give credit, but never their own .02. More often than not, these copy cat blogs are harmless (since Google already sees them as spam), but some are truly a more serious copyright violation.

Catch what fell through the cracks. You might already be tracking your business name on Twitter, and regularly Googling yourself. Google Alerts are a sure-fire way to catch even more mentions of your business.

Get inspired. Tracking your highly sought after keywords will result in a variety of blogposts, websites, and more that also target those keywords. You’ll find plenty of new ideas by reading through these alerts; just make sure your keywords are specific enough so you don’t end up sorting through pages and pages.

Thank people. We’ve talked about the negative, but there’s also the positive! There might be some positive blogposts out there talking about your company, product, or service. Maybe they don’t offer a link, so your backlink checker wouldn’t pick them up. Make sure you leave a comment thanking them and you could even offer them an incentive to do business with you again (% off, free bonus, etc.).

How about you? How have you used your Google Alerts?

Nicki Hicks
Tracking, tracking, tracking

I find that Google Alerts is, by far, one of the most under appreciated Google products. Leveraging it correctly can result in good PR, better blogposts, and a quick and easy way to get a leg up on the competition. Here’s how to make the most of it.

1. Start by assigning a keyword/phrase – the more specific, the better (unless you want to sort through lists of results that don’t apply). You might want to assign multiple alerts, and they could include:

• Your most sought after keywords and phrases
• Your business name
• Your competitor’s name(s)
• Product/service names

2. Then, choose what you want to have sent to you. Choose from:

• News
• Blogs
• Web
• Comprehensive (everything)
• Video
• Groups

3. Receive notifications once a day, a week, or as they happen. (I find that notifications as they happen are simply annoying, but figure out what works for you.)

4. Decide on how many results you want (as to not be overwhelming).

5. Get alerts sent to your Gmail account or your feed….and you’re done!

Tomorrow I’ll talk about how to use the information you get after setting up your Alerts.

Nicki Hicks
Alert the Media