What is the Internet Saying About You? Google Yourself to Find Out!

In a world where almost anything is a quick search and click away, it has become important for REALTORS® to keep an eye on how they are perceived online. How many times have you googled someone? Chances are they are googling you as well. With more and more real estate clients using the internet in their search for a home, it is a safe bet that they are doing just that: googling you! But do you know what they see?

Once you know what is already out there, how do you keep on top of what is being posted? Well Google already has a solution: Google Alerts

“Google Alerts are email updates of the latest relevant Google results (web, news, etc.) based on your choice of query or topic.”

And setting up alerts could not be simpler!

Google simply asks you what your “Search Terms” are. (if you are adding an alert for your name you may want to consider putting your name in quotes. This tells Google to only send alerts where your full name appears. Otherwise Google will send you an alert any time either your first name or your last name appears anywhere on the internet… which can be a lot!)

Next Google allows you narrow down what “Type” of alerts you are interested in receiving when it finds a match. You can choose between News, Blogs, Web, Video, Groups, or the all encompassing Comprehensive.

Now depending on the “Search Terms” this can lead to a lot of emails very quickly! So Google gives you a choice of “How often” would like receive a Google Alert. You can choose between “once a day”, “once a week” or if you really want to be on top of things “as-it-happens”.

To help you keep your email size manageable you have a choice of the “Email length” that you would like to receive. Currently you can choose to have Google send you up to 20 results in an email or up to 50 results in an email.

After you made you’re choices all that is left is to enter the email address you want to have the alerts sent to. Now just click the “Create Alert” button and you are almost done!

Google will send you a “Click to confirm your Google Alert” email, where you can click a verify link or you can cancel your request if you change your mind.

Just remember, if you have a pretty common name you may receive alerts of other people because Google Alert searches for the “term”. Google doesn’t care what it is searching for just that it found a match. It may be handy to setup another alert with information that is unique specific to you, an email address for example.

Another consideration for setting up alerts on your name or company is if they are commonly misspelled. You may want to, consider setting up a separate Google alert for the misspelling of the name as well.

One last tip: While Google Alerts are great for keeping tabs on yourself and your company, there isn’t anything to stop you from also use it to get alerts and seeing what the competition or the industry is up to. As they always say… knowledge is power!

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