A Beginner’s Guide to Google Alerts (Plus, Tips to Optimize Yours)

Rather than sitting in front of Google News and refreshing your search results every few minutes to see if there’s any new news, you can set up a Google Alert. When Google finds a new result that matches your alert, Google Alerts delivers the new results to your e-mail account. You can track publications with the mention of some special keywords, as well as newspaper stories, blog posts, or anything else published online. And, if you have your own brand or small business, you can also use Google Alerts to track awareness, engagement, mentions, and other important data! We also spoke to communications expert Alex Norimaki for more insights into using this valuable tool.

Quick Steps for Creating a Google Alert

Communications expert Alex Norimaki suggests setting up alerts for topics that you’re interested in. This is how you do it:

Go to the Google Alerts page on your browser.
Enter the keyword that you want to monitor into the text box.
Use asterisks, quotes, subtraction, and "or" to narrow your search terms.
Click Show options to access and change the settings and filters for your alert.
Select the blue Create Alert button to finalize your choices.

Section 1 of 6:

Setting Up Google Alerts

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Go to the Google Alerts page. Simply enter www.google.com/alerts on your browser—or just click the link to get there.
- You can’t make an alert without signing into a Google account.
- If you aren’t signed in already, click the blue Sign in button at the top of the Alerts page and quickly sign in before proceeding!
Meet the wikiHow Expert

Alex Norimaki is a communications expert, social media strategist, and content creator based in San Antonio, TX. She has a master’s degree in Mass Communication and works for a marketing agency.
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Enter the search query that you want to monitor. Norimaki suggests entering search queries for the topics that you’re most interested in.^{[1]
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Alex Norimaki
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Expert Interview} In the text box below Alerts, type out your desired search query. You’ll be shown an overview of the types of results this query will receive beneath the search box. If the results don't look exactly like what you want, try tweaking your query with some of these searching tips:^{[2]
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- Use quotes to search for whole phrases. For example, if you want to get results about a movie titled The Boy in the House, enclose it with quotes (and ensure the words within the quotes are in the correct order). If you use quotes, the results will only include that exact phrase.
- Use the minus symbol to exclude certain words from your search. This is especially helpful if you need to remove words from a search term with multiple meanings. If you want to get alerts about the Puma clothing brand but not the animal, enter “-animal” to exclude all results about the puma animal.
  - If you want to exclude results from a specific site, enter “-site: sitename.”
- Use an asterisk as a placeholder for unknown words. For example, if you want results about different things a city is doing for its citizens, you could enter this search: "New York * citizens". Any phrase starting with “New York” and ending with “citizens” will be returned.
- Use “OR” to get results containing any one of your search terms. For example, if you search “Australia OR prison OR systems,” you’ll get results with pages that may only include one of the search words.
- Norimaki says you can set up alerts for broad topics (like gaming, world news, travel) as well as more specific things. So, for example, if you put in “gaming,” you would get alerts when there’s a lot of noise on Google about something big happening (like a highly anticipated new game is being released).^{[3]
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Decide how often you want to receive alerts. Now that you’ve created your alert keyword, you can adjust the settings and filters Google will use for it. Click Show options (in blue text beneath the search box). Then, click the dropdown menu to the right of How often and choose from one of the following options:^{[4]
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- As-it-happens - Google will send alerts with new content related to your search term right as it happens. This is useful if you need to receive up-to-date news on a continuing story or event, but it’ll result in a large number of emails.
- At most once a day - Google will send you an alert with a summary of new content related to your search term once a day. If your query is obscure or there’s not much news on it, you may not receive alerts on some days.
- At most once a week - Google will send you a weekly alert with a summary of new content related to your query. This is a good option if your search term is somewhat obscure and information on it is not released frequently.
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Select sources for Google to search from. Under Show options (beneath the search box) click the dropdown menu to the right of Sources. You can choose as many options as you like; a checkmark will appear next to any that you click on.^{[5]
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- Automatic - Will show you the results that contain the best results, regardless of the source.
- Blogs - Will return results from blogs. Blogs aren't the best source for reliable information, but they can be helpful if you want to gauge how people feel about a subject.
- News - Will return results from sites such as the New York Times and the Washington Post. This is a good source to include if you’re monitoring an ongoing event or story.
- Web - Will deliver results from all across the web.
- Video - Will return video results.
- Books - Will return any new books related to your search term. You will likely receive fewer results since books aren't as commonly released as other sources.
- Discussions - Will return results from forums and other online communities.
- Finance - Will return results from the finance world. This is a useful source if you’re trying to monitor how a certain product or company is doing in the marketplace.
Under Show options, verify that the Language is correct (it’ll be set to English by default, or whatever language you’re currently using). If it isn’t, you can click on the dropdown menu to the right and choose the language you want results to use. Then, click the dropdown menu to the right of Region. This will allow you to filter results by almost any region in the world.
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Decide how much you want Google to filter results. Once again, look under Show options for the setting option labeled How many. Click the dropdown menu to the right, and you’ll see two options: “All results” and “Only the best results.” Choose one of them!
- If you choose All results, you’ll receive any new information related to the search term, even if the information is low-quality.
- If you choose Only the best results, Google will pick and choose higher-quality information from the pool of possible results to send you.
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Choose how you want to receive the results. Under the Show options link, click the dropdown menu to the right of Deliver to. You can choose between your e-mail address and an RSS feed. If you do not know what an RSS feed is, read our article about how to set up an RSS feed.
- You won’t see this option under Show options if you aren’t signed into a Google account (but, again, you’ll need to sign in to create the alert.)
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Click Create Alert. After you have made all your choices and you’re satisfied with the results preview for your search query, click Create Alert. Norimaki says Google will now send you notifications when there are new updates to any of your chosen search queries.^{[6]
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Alex Norimaki
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Expert Interview} Alerts will go to either your e-mail address or your RSS feed!^{[7]
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- If you aren’t signed into your Google account, Google will prompt you to do so after you click Create Alert. After that, you can continue with finalizing the alert.

Section 2 of 6:

Editing Google Alerts

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Go back to the Google Alerts webpage. When you’re signed into your Google account, you can view all existing alerts from the main Google Alerts page—so return there when you want to edit or manage an alert.
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Click the “Edit” icon next to an alert to manage it. Find the alert you want to edit, and click on the Edit icon (which looks like a pencil) next to it. Then, click Show options to view the different settings and filters you can adjust—the same ones covered above.^{[8]
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- Categories under Show options include:
  - How often
  - Sources
  - Language
  - Region
  - How many
  - Deliver to
- By editing an alert, you can change or add to any of these settings.
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Select Update Alert to finalize your changes. Once you’ve made all of your desired changes, just click on the blue Update Alert button; Google will save these new settings and use them accordingly.
- You can also click the Settings icon (which looks like a gear) to change how you get alerts. Here, you can edit Delivery Time and Digest (how often Google will send alerts and how many emails will be sent).

Section 3 of 6:

Deleting Google Alerts

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Return to the Google Alerts webpage. Once again, all existing alerts can be found on the main Google Alerts page (so long as you’re signed into your associated Google account). If you aren’t signed in, make sure to do so!
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Click on the trash can icon next to an alert to delete it. Scroll through your alerts and find the one you want to delete. Then, click on the Delete icon (which looks like a trash can) to the right of the alert query; this will immediately delete the alert.^{[9]
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- Alternatively, you can scroll to the bottom of an alert email from Google and click Unsubscribe to delete the corresponding alert.

Section 4 of 6:

Optimizing Your Google Alerts (Techniques & Advice)

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Include specific, detailed search terms. The more generic your keywords, the worse your results will be—you’ll probably get a bunch of alerts for things you aren’t interested in. Be sure to use very precise terms; be as specific as possible. The more detailed you can be, the more relevant the results (even if there aren’t as many results).
- If your alerts are too general, you might get overwhelmed with results, making it harder to actually find the information you want.
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Create multiple alerts for the same topic. Google has a cap of 1,000 for alerts, which means you can set a lot of them, if needed. While still being specific and precise, try setting a few different alerts with different keywords, but about the same topic. This will help to catch as much relevant information about the topic as possible!
- For example, if you want to stay up to date on the news coming from a certain company, your alert terms might include:
  - [Company] + products
  - [Company] + positive reviews
  - [Company] + negative reviews
  - [Company] + press release
- Since Google Alerts lets you opt for a single email containing multiple alerts, you can create a higher number of alerts without filling up your inbox.
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Use filters to remove unnecessary results. Google offers filters for a reason—so make use of them! You can get rid of a lot of white noise simply by limiting the sources Google draws from, or the regions of the world it gets its results from. For instance, if you want alerts on what people are saying about a particular topic, you can limit alerts to blogs, which are great for gathering feedback and public opinion!

Section 5 of 6:

Pros & Cons of Google Alerts

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Pros Simply put, the main pro of using Google Alerts is that it’s totally and completely free—so there’s really nothing stopping you! There are no hidden fees or other catches to using it; thus, even if its searching capabilities aren’t perfect, it’s definitely a worthwhile tool for casual users or small businesses that can’t afford more advanced, costly software. Other pros include:
- It’s fairly easy to use. All you really need to do is sign in, enter your alert query, and tweak the settings to your satisfaction; it’s pretty hard to get lost during the process!
- It has changeable settings and filters. You can monitor literally any keyword, and use filters to modify your results, making it quite a flexible tool (especially for something free).
- It can help business owners get more visibility online. “If people are Googling [a particular topic] a whole lot, it becomes a trend as far as Google is concerned,” Norimaki says. If you’re a business owner, knowing what's trending is invaluable. It can help you build your social media content and it makes you more discoverable.^{[10]
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  - Norimaki shares an example: Let’s say you own a fitness studio in San Antonio, TX. You could set up alerts for “fitness San Antonio,” “fitness studio San Antonio,” “yoga San Antonio,” or “personal training San Antonio.” If there’s a big fitness event coming up in San Antonio that people are talking about online, you’ll get the alert. Then, you could get involved in some way to improve your visibility.^{[11]
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  - “It’s how you stay relevant [as a business], whether the audience is local or international,” Norimaki continues. “It's a really good research tool because it does some of the heavy lifting for you.” Instead of scouring the internet yourself, Google will do it for you.^{[12]
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Cons Google Alerts may not be ideal for people in need of more advanced options (especially those in the digital marketing business). Or, at the very least, it probably isn’t the only program that digital marketers would want to use. That’s because it comes with a few notable limitations, including:
- Results don’t include social media mentions. Unfortunately, Google Alerts can’t monitor updates from social media accounts—and social media is a big part of the internet nowadays, especially from a marketing standpoint.
- Results only come from indexed pages. Google’s index is an absolutely massive library of web pages—but as sizable as it is, it still doesn’t cover every webpage out there (like lower-traffic sites, for example).
- You need a Google account. As we’ve already mentioned, alerts won’t work without a Google account. Making an account is free, but it’s still a limitation to consider.

Section 6 of 6:

Are Google Alerts effective?

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While helpful, Google Alerts can’t catch every piece of data out there. There’s nothing wrong with setting up some alerts for yourself—it’s a quick and easy way to track information and updates on the internet. However, you may not necessarily want to rely on your alerts alone, since they can’t track social media mentions or sites that haven’t been indexed. Google Alerts still miss a lot of data, especially on social media!
- You may want to find other ways to track topics on social media (or periodically run your own searches to stay up to date in addition to monitoring your alerts).
- Basically, while Google Alerts can be a helpful tool, you shouldn’t rely on them to catch every possible update and piece of information on a topic.

Community Q&A

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Question

For the "At most once a week" option, is there a way to control what day of the week this happens on?

WikiHowUser20170614185931

Community Answer

Yes, you can click on what day you want it delivered.

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