I was doing some work online last week when I 
realized that many of you don’t know about Google Alerts.
It’s free and it’s simple to use so if you are reading this, you need to be using Google Alerts.
No, you don’t need to have a website in order to use it.
However, if you do have a website, you have even more reasons to use it.
Here’s the eleven top reasons mental health professionals need to use Google Alerts.
- Identify keywords. If you are creating or maintaining a website, then keywords are important to you. Google Alerts allows you to search for and find keywords on the web.
- Develop content ideas. Likewise, if you are looking for new ideas to incorporate into your public speaking, writing, or online presence, you can do that easily with Google Alerts.
- Keep up with your colleagues. Get notified when your colleagues (and your competitors) are mentioned online.
- Trending and current events. It’s really important that you and your services do not appear to be dated. Google Alerts allows you to stay up-to-date and informed about the world around you.
- Detect plagarism. Whether in print or online, your words and artistic creations belong to you. That includes the forms you created, the artwork you develop, and the content you write for your website. Google Alerts is a free tool to help you monitor your own works online.
- Track employees. If you employ other therapists, administrative assistants, or others in your practice, you will want to be apprised of any activities online that have the potential to negatively impact your business. Google Alerts allows you to track your employees with ease.
- Monitor your digital footprint. Of course, you will also want to monitor your own online image. Some people refer to this as a “vanity search.” Regardless of what you call it, you don’t need to have a website in order to take this step. Just do it.
- Find services and products. This allows you to monitor what is showing up about services and products that are similar to your own.
- Pull in research and references. Need some help researching a certain issue or topic? Google alerts can bring all that information straight to your email inbox and allow you to reference it easily!
- Track links coming into your website. As other websites reference you and link back to your website, you will want to know and respond to those links with a thank you or rebuttal.
- Search for videos to augment your blog. The younger your audience, the more important it is to include varied forms of media on your website. Google Alerts allows you to easily search and find videos to augment your site.
- Link building via commenting. Commenting is a terrific way to build incoming links to your website and Google Alerts helps you find those sites that you would most like to comment on.
Surely you’ve found at least a few reasons why you need to be using Google Alerts. It’s simple to set up and costs you nothing. And, if you need a little tutorial that walks you through set-up, here is a link to help you out! So take a moment to try it out and tell us what you are going to do with your Google Alert!
I’ve been using Google Alerts for a long time. I use it to track where I show up and as a way of keeping abreast of news from the world of play therapy so I can share it with my followers on Facebook and Twitter.
Hi, Pam! Ohhh, I do love the idea of letting Google Alerts do your legwork so that you can, in turn be a resource to others who are interested in play therapy! Nice use of online tools to underscore that you really are a resource! Thanks for sharing.
And search for your own name as well. You need to see when people are talking about you and what they’re saying. Especially if they mention you in another blog post, you need to respond.
Great article!
Hi, Justin! I’m so glad you dropped in to make this point. It reminds me that I need to write an entire post on this topic of your digital footprint. I hope you’ll keep reading and join in the conversations here at Private Practice from the Inside Out!