If you do have Google Alerts already set up, don’t tune me out yet! There may be a few ideas in here that you haven’t tried yet…
To set up an alert, go to www.google.com/alerts
The most common searches most bloggers enter in are:
- Their URL(s)
- Their full name (usually in quotes)
- A keyword they are targeting
Those are all great alerts that every blogger should have set up… but let me suggest to you a few more ideas that may help:
How to Set Up Unique Google Alerts
Tip #1
Treat the “Search Terms” setup on the alerts like it’s a real Google search box. It can include modifiers that will help you find specific things you might be looking for. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, try this page on Google Search Operators. An example would be an alert like: [keyword site:www.wikipedia.org] this alert would notify you every time a specific keyword was found on wikipedia. Play around with some of the different modifiers… you may get some interesting results.
Tip #4
Search for customers. This one is the most undervalued of them all! What are your potential customers looking for? Are they asking specific questions online about your market? Take some time and think through this… then set up a few test alerts. Here are some examples: [”how do i find foreclosure properties in port orange”], [”how much is my port orange house worth”], [”where can I find port orange homes for sale”], [”looking for new home incentives in port orange”]… In case you haven’t noticed, buyers and sellers are online. And they are actively asking questions about real estate in their area. The hard part is how to find them… that is where Google alerts comes in. It will do the hard work for you. Once you find someone that is asking a question, or needs help, simply go to the page and respond to their inquiry. Sometimes this might be a question on a Yahoo Group, or a question on Trulia Voices, or maybe even a question about a specific property on Zillow.com. Don’t be afraid to set up 50+ alerts for specific search phrases. These are real leads, and because of the specific nature of the query, you probably won’t get more than a couple alerts per week.
Above are a few excerpts from an article I wrote about Google Alerts. To continue reading the article in full, follow this link:
8 Unique Ways to Use Google Alerts To Capture New Customers
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