Why Aren't You Using Google Alerts to Track Your Presence on the Web?

I spent a good part of my day teaching agents about blog marketing and SEO strategies yesterday at the Wisconsin Real Estate Convention (WRA) annual convention yesterday.  And each time I offer these classes, I survey attendees about what they're doing to track their Web presence.

To my surprise, an awfully large number of real estate agents aren't using Google Alerts.  Many of them haven't even heard of this feature.

Google touts Google Alerts as a way to "Monitor the Web for interesting new content" or "keep current on a competitor".  But one of the best ways to use Google Alerts is simply to track where and how your name and your company appears on the Web.

Start here and create a series of Google Alerts for search terms that are of interest to you.  My advice would be to set up an alert for your name, one for your blog title and perhaps one or two for the most common search string for real estate in your area.

For example, I use Google Alerts to track "Eric Kodner", "Madeline Island blog", "Madeline Island real estate" and "Twin Cities real estate" among other things. 

If you blog regularly, you will want to run your searches daily.

If you have multiple Gmail accounts, you can arrange for a different set of Google Alerts for each account.

If you upload your listings to the Web by street address, you can create a search by that specific address (i.e. "2650 North Shore Road, LaPointe, Wisconsin" or "2984 North Shore Road, LaPointe, Wisconsin" or "3442 Big Bay Road, LaPointe, Wisconsin").

You can even customize your alerts individually using the "manage my Google Alerts" feature.

There are numerous ways to make Google Alerts work to your advantage and even ways to help your listing clients track where their listing is showing up on the Web.  But you have to sign in and create these alerts in order to reap the benefits.