Expand Your Search Presence With External Sites

Search engine optimization (SEO) is about more than your website. Columnist Dan Bagby explains how to optimize content on external web properties to help boost your organic search presence.




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Don’t limit your SEO strategy to your own website. There are many ways to increase your brand’s exposure in search by optimizing social profiles and getting other sites to rank for your brand in search. This can help you 1) protect your online reputation by dominating the first page of search for branded search, and 2) rank for keywords faster than you would be able to with only your own domain.


Optimizing Social Profiles For Branded Search

Your own site cannot dominate the first page of search results, which leaves you vulnerable to having negative content on other sites rank for your brand name. In order to protect your brand’s presence in search engine results pages, you should create and claim profiles on social sites.


Every site is a little different, but optimizing for your brand is usually pretty similar across sites. For example, on Pinterest, use your brand name as the business name and username, and write a brief description also containing your brand name. Link to your Pinterest profile from your own domain. You can also create brand-related boards that showcase your products and mission or act as a newsroom that uses your brand name naturally throughout.


For other social sites (Facebook, Twitter and others) and business listing sites like Yelp, create and optimize your profile similarly. Always link to the profiles from your own domain.


[Read the full article on Search Engine Land.]



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