How to Set Up Google Alerts to Track Topics and News

Google Alerts sends you an email whenever Google finds new content about a topic you choose — your name, a medication, a news topic, or anything else.

In this guide (5 steps):

1.Go to Google Alerts
2.Create your first alert
3.Choose your alert settings
4.Manage your alerts
5.Alert for your own name and personal protection

Go to Google Alerts

~15s

Open a web browser on any device and go to alerts.google.com. You'll see a search bar at the top. Sign in with your Google account if prompted.

Create your first alert

~26s

Type the word or phrase you want to track in the search box. Examples: your full name (put it in quotes like "John Smith"), a medication name, "Social Security changes," "senior living [your city]," or "diabetes treatment news." As you type, Google shows a preview of recent results.

Quick Tip

Quick Tip: Use quotation marks around phrases to search for the exact phrase — "your name" finds pages with exactly those words together, while your name without quotes finds pages with either word.

Choose your alert settings

~18s

Click "Show options" to customize: How often (as it happens, once a day, or once a week), Sources (news, blogs, web, books — leave on "Automatic" unless you prefer a specific type), Language and Region (set to English, United States), How many (choose "Only the best results" to avoid flood of emails). Click "Create Alert."

Manage your alerts

~15s

Return to alerts.google.com anytime to see all your active alerts. You can edit (pencil icon) or delete (trash icon) any alert. If you start getting too many or too few results, adjust the frequency or modify the search term.

Alert for your own name and personal protection

~19s

One of the smartest uses of Google Alerts: search your own name. This notifies you when your name appears in new content online — useful for catching if your name appears in a scam, if old personal information is published somewhere, or if someone is using your name in a misleading way.

You Did It!

You've completed: How to Set Up Google Alerts to Track Topics and News

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Google Alerts is a free service that monitors the internet and emails you when new articles, news stories, blog posts, or web pages mention a keyword you specify. You set it up once, and Google automatically sends you relevant results by email — daily, weekly, or as they happen.

Useful applications: monitoring your own name (to see if it appears online), tracking news about a health condition or medication, following a local issue in the news, watching for mentions of your neighborhood or city, or keeping up with a specific topic without having to search for it repeatedly.

Setup takes about two minutes at alerts.google.com.

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