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Keep track of websites and mentions without checking them
New articles and mentions on your topics land in one Gmail label, and each Friday you get a short summary of what's worth reading.
When to use it
Set up once, review every Friday
Step by step
Create Google Alerts
Go to Google Alerts and add alerts for your business name, competitors, key topics and sites you follow (for example 'site:example.com' plus a topic). Set delivery to once a day to your Gmail.
Filter them into a label
In Gmail's settings, under Filters, create a filter for emails from Google Alerts that skips the inbox and applies a label called Reading.
Book a weekly review
Add a recurring Friday 30-minute event in Google Calendar called 'Reading round-up'. Paste the prompt below into the event description.
Summarise the week
On Friday, open the Reading label. If your plan includes Gemini in Gmail, ask it to summarise those emails; otherwise copy the alert emails into your AI assistant with this prompt.
Prompt to copyHere are this week's Google Alerts about [topics]: [paste]. Remove duplicates and anything irrelevant to [your work]. Group the rest by topic. For each group give a 2-sentence summary and the 1-2 links most worth reading. End with 3 ideas for posts or articles I could write in response. Keep it under 300 words.Clear the label
Archive or delete the week's alerts once you've read the summary so the label stays manageable.
What you get
Competitors: Two local cafes announced loyalty apps (links). Your name: Mentioned in a 'best brunch in Bath' list. Topic - plastic-free packaging: new council scheme. Ideas: 'Why we're not launching an app', 'Our plastic-free year so far'.
Tips
- Use quote marks in alerts for exact phrases, otherwise you'll get lots of unrelated results.