How to Set Up Google Alerts in 3 Simple Steps? (with/without Gmail)

Setting up Google Alerts is a simple and efficient way to stay informed about the latest online content related to your interests or brand. By specifying keywords or phrases, you can receive timely updates directly to your email or through an RSS feed.

This guide will walk you through the quick steps to create Google Alerts, allowing you to customize the frequency, source type, and region of your alerts to ensure you’re always in the know.

Whether for personal interest, professional research, or brand monitoring, Google Alerts offers a customizable way to keep your finger on the pulse of relevant online discussions and publications.

In this article, we explain the set up of Google Alerts; however, if you want to learn about this tool, read our article on What Is Google Alerts and How to Use it Right?

How to Set Up Google Alerts in 3 Simple Steps

Step 1: Visit Google Alerts and Sign In

Navigate to Google Alerts: Start by opening your web browser and going to the Google Alerts website.

Access to Google Alerts requires a Google account. So, If you are not already signed into your Google account, you will be prompted to do so.

However, if you want to use another email service for receiving your notifications, you can do these steps:

Create an alert without a Gmail Account

• Visit myaccount.google.com and log in.
• Click on the Personal Info option

• Select the Email option

• Now Select the Alternate Email option and type your email

Step 2: Create Your Alert

Now that your account is set up, you can define the search terms that you wish to track.

Follow these steps:

Make sure you choose the right search operators. For this example, we’ll use “Mentionlytics” as the keyword/term we want to track.

Then click Create an Alert. If you want to modify your settings, click “show options”.

Your alert is set! Now, let’s see how you can optimize it.

Step 3: Customize your Google Alerts

Google enables you to customize your alerts in the way you want. When writing the keyword you want to track instead of creating an alert, you choose show options. Then adjust the filters accordingly and press “create an alert”.

You can customize your alerts based on:

• Frequency: Choose how often you want to receive notifications for an alert.
• Sources: Choose the sources from which you want to receive notifications.
• Language: Select a language or choose to receive notifications from all languages.
• Region: Select the regions or a specific country from where you want to receive notifications.
• Quantity: Select how many results you want to receive. You can choose between “only the best results”, or “all results”.
• Delivery method: Select the email in which you will receive your alert notifications.

Then click on the “update alert” button and you’re all set!

If you want to turn off an alert (delete it):

• Click “news settings”.
• Then click on notifications, which is under “alerts”. To get notifications, turn on get notifications.
• To stop all notifications, turn off get notifications.

Bonus: A Powerful Alternative to Google Alerts for Tracking Mentions

As you may know, one of the biggest drawbacks of Google Alerts is that it does not track mentions on social media. So, to track those important mentions, you need to use a social media monitoring tool.

A powerful alternative to google alerts is Mentionlytics. It tracks mentions, hashtags, keywords, and sentiment in a variety of languages and it equips organizations with actionable audience insights and historical data.

Using Mentionlytics, you can discover influencers and potential leads which is great for brand growth and for creating a stronger brand voice.

Also, it helps you to manage your brand’s online reputation on both social channels and the entire web. It also has features like review monitoring, publishing, and creating social media reports.

You can use all the premium features of Mentionlytics free for two weeks!

Try Mentionlytics for FREE

Now Over to You

Hopefully, this guide on how to set up Google Alerts to monitor mentions will help you get started. Tracking your online mentions is vital for your company’s well-being and development; your reputation is what people first come across about your brand. So, make sure you manage it the best way possible.

If you have any questions about how to manage your social presence and track your mentions, Mentionlytics is here for you; you can always book a demo whenever suits you the best and your questions will be answered. Or, discover the best of Mentionlytics with our two-week free premium trial.