How to keep track of what people say about your business online

A practical guide for small businesses in Quebec. Most of it is free and takes about ten minutes a week. The last section explains what a paid tool such as Crowb adds, and when it isn't worth it.

A free 10-minute weekly routine

Search your name the way a customer would. Put your business name in quotes and leave out your own site, for example "Your Business" -site:yoursite.com. Repeat with your city or neighbourhood, and with the owner's name if customers know it.
Set up Google Alerts. At google.com/alerts, create one alert per name (business, owner, flagship product). Under the options, pick French and English results if your customers use both, and Canada as the region.
Turn on review notifications. In your Google Business Profile and on the review sites you are listed on, make sure new reviews reach an inbox someone actually reads.
Look where locals talk. Search your name on Reddit (r/montreal, r/quebec and your city's subreddit) and in public neighbourhood Facebook groups. Private groups are invisible to search engines and to every monitoring tool, including Crowb.
Keep a simple log. Date, where, positive or negative, what you did about it. After a few months you will see which channels matter for your business.

Responding to what you find

Reply soon, and in the language the customer wrote in.
Thank people for good reviews; a short, personal line is enough.
For a negative post: acknowledge it, don't argue in public, offer to continue by phone or email, and never share the customer's personal details.
Never write, buy or swap fake reviews.

What the free methods miss

Manual searches are easy to skip on a busy week. Google Alerts only watches Google's own index and sends results as they come, without telling you which ones are really about your business or which ones are negative. None of this is a problem if you rarely get mentioned.

Automating it with Crowb

Crowb runs the search for you every morning across several search engines, sets aside results that aren't about your business, labels the tone of each mention, and sends one short email in French or English. On the Business and Agency plans, a negative mention triggers an alert within the hour. Plans start at $6 a month, with 14 days free.

Try it free for 14 days Crowb vs Google Alerts

Last reviewed October 19, 2026.