Think Like a Search Engine!

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Are you a small business stuck in the shadows of a big corporation? Or are you that big corporation struggling to get a bigger presence online? Being searchable on the internet is probably one of the most important objectives that a PR practitioner could tell their clients. Ask anyone, and they’ll tell you that they do the majority of their product research online. Quoted from Edelman Digital’s paper on search engine visibility: “There is no greater influence on purchasing decisions and corporate and brand reputation than the links that Google, Yahoo, Windows Live and others list on their first page of search results.” Even now as I was searching for a menu to White Cottage Pizza in my area, it turns out that they don’t have a website for our location available on the first page of Google. In fact, it took an arm and a leg to find a menu for the local establishment. With that, I opted for Pizza Hut. Period.

So what does it take to be more visible on search engines? One tactic is have your website contain words, links, and MORE words and links!

• Search engines search for pure text (not pictures of text) that match your input, so it’s important to think about potential words your searchers will look for. Type in the word “coffee,” and you get one of these sites, full of words, right on the very first page of the search engine.

• Another thing that that particular website contains is lots of links. Search engines love links because they connect other sites to your own site. The more links you have, the more chances that your site will come up in searches, granting more visibility to those in search of a product similar to yours. This page of alleged Ingrid Michaelson fan site links falls terribly short of offering much of them. Of course, I found it on the 3rd page of Google’s search results. By adding several more links to other Ingrid fan sites, search engines will recognize it as a beneficial way to find information.

There are also several other elements that you could incorporate onto your page for more search visibility. By carefully thinking about the word choices you make for search engines to find, you could successfully avoid the competition.

• Programs such as Google Insights can help you figure out what words will be tough to compete with and what similar words can be used instead. Edelman’s paper suggests: “As a general rule of thumb, aim for the ‘magic middle’ – keywords that are searched but aren’t too generic and therefore don’t face a lot of competition.” Also, frequent updates made on the page attract search engines more often than pages with static information, so be sure to keep the page fresh with news and change it up with newer content.

• Taking advantage of off-the-page content should definitely be considered. The website for 1-800-Flowers has valuable off-the-page words that are seen on the search page, but not necessarily on the site itself: “Send flowers, roses, balloons, plants, gift baskets and gourmet food from 1-800-FLOWERS.COM, the world’s #1 online florist.” People who search any of those terms are bound to come across this site. Creating embassies in social networking sites (or more simply put, placing your brand on Faceboook or Twitter) can even increase how often they will appear on searches.

There are certainly more ways to approach these tactics, and you can find out more by reading Edelman Digital’s paper here. They explain different types of search engine marketing tactics and tips to figure out what’s best to get more visibility for your brand.

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