SEO 101: Building a Strong Reputation


SEO 101: Building a Strong Reputation
 June 20, 2017

Have you ever wondered how content on your website influences how potential customers find you? Or what exactly goes into how your website ranks among competitors? Reputation management is often a hot conversation topic among professionals today. Building a strong reputation in your industry is far from easy, letting your customers know about your product or service should not be a challenge.

From your activity on social media, to content posted on your website, your digital presence is a pivotal factor in how your brand’s reputation reaches the eyes of potential customers. Bridging the gap between your online presence and your target market is Search Engine Optimization (SEO).

Social Media

Its common practice for companies today to create and manage their own social media accounts. Google +, Twitter, and Facebook are easily the most popular among businesses both large and small. Many companies however do not understand how content posted to these accounts can affect their brand reputation and search rankings.

When managing your company’s social media profiles there are several key aspects you need to keep in mind. Having a social media profile is an extension of your company’s brand and image. To maintain a strong reputation, you need to establish a clear and consistent image across all accounts. Your account name, profile picture, and description should be similar across Facebook, Twitter, and other social media platforms (Guerrero,2016).

This will strengthen your reputation and help rank your social media accounts. Say a customer does a simple Google search for your Twitter or Facebook page. Google will sort through a list of social media profiles that fit the keywords your customer is searching. To make sure your customers find you and your profiles, it’s important to incorporate popular keywords related to your product or service into the content you post. This will help customers find your profiles and generates traffic to your account (Fishkin,2010).

As traffic to your social media accounts grows so will traffic to your website. Providing links to blog posts, news stories, and company updates is a great way to get people from your social media account to your website. The more traffic that is driven to your website the higher your site will rank when searched.

Content

Building a strong reputation means nothing if your target market isn’t able to find your products or services on the internet. Search engines use several methods to rate your website and rank it among competitors in a search. For Google, factors like relevant content, quality of the landing page, and keywords help determine how your website and web related content are ranked in a search result (Google Analytics,2017).

Search engines function using keywords from a user’s search. They use the keywords provided by users to search the internet for website descriptions and pages that match. To improve the rank of your website and increase traffic, you should be actively researching different keywords customers use when searching for your product or service.

Inserting these keywords into content posted on your website, social media accounts, and blogs will help search engines drive traffic to you. Including frequently used keywords into the landing page of your site is a great start. Making sure your product or service descriptions feature popular keywords is another way of making it easier for search engines to find your site. Ultimately, the easier you can make your site to find for search engines, the more likely you will be able to build your reputation and stand out from the crowd.

Public Relations

Getting involved in your community is always a great way to build your reputation and believe it or not helps with your website ranking as well. Great PR is a useful tool to help get the word out about what’s new with your company. Whether your company is volunteering at a local food drive or sponsoring a non-profit event, good PR can be a valuable tool for driving traffic in your direction.

News articles and blogs written by outside sources usually contain your company name, description, and summary of what you did. When this is posted on your company website or related blog, it can help customers find more information about you. It can also help search engines direct users to your site who may be interested in the event you just participated in.

The more internet users who are exposed to your name and through clicking on links to your website, the more likely search engines are going to recognize your company’s name and direct web traffic to your way.

Building a strong reputation is a challenge for any business. Managing this reputation across multiple channels in a crowded marketplace is even more challenging. With an increasing need to maintain a strong digital presence, companies often look at search practices and analytics as obstacles rather than opportunities. In today’s world, it’s all about reaching your customers and meeting their unique needs.

For more information on how SEO can help your business grow, contact us today!