What impact, if any, does social media have on your branding strategy? Go to Google and type in the name of your company. Hit search. (Right now, I’ll wait.) How many of the listings on the first page were your company or your company’s page on a social site?
0-1 You have major problems. Stop reading this and call us for SEO help.
2-3 Google sees your website and knows your name.
4-6 Not Bad! You’ve put a little work into securing your brand online.
7-10 Way to go! You must be Target or Amazon.
Dominating the first page of search results for your brand is one of the most strategic ways to be sure your competitors or other similarly titled companies don’t steal your traffic. Plus, if someone searches for your brand and every option they see leads them back to you, you win tons of reputation brownie points. After all, Google wouldn’t give a scam company that many listings, right?
The first step to dominating the SERPs for your brand is be sure your website shows up number one. Once you’ve accomplished that you can move on (but not until). Step 2 is to get a wiki page or blog page to rank for your brand. Then you can add to the mix social sites, like your LinkedIn profile page, your FaceBook page, or your Twitter page. Now you’re up to 5-6 listings on the first page. It’s a little harder after that. You’ll need to set up profile pages on industry specific sites, like JD Supra for the legal industry, or a handyman directory for a construction site. The remaining listings you’re after can likely come from published Press Releases or other news or articles about your company that will lead users to you.
Dominating the first ten listings in the search engines will ensure visitors can find you when they’re looking. It will also do great things for your brand awareness and name recognition (not to mention reputation and loyalty).
