10 Tips To Make Google Go Gaga Over Your Brand

The most adored brands are most often the ones that go out of their way to create engaging customer experiences. Think Oakley, IBM and Hyundai. These are just a few brands that are always thinking of ways to provide more value to customers and potential customers. These brands are constantly striving to create new, unique forms of content to meet and exceed the desires of their fans and they know how to effectively integrate their marketing efforts to guide customers to this content. Another added bonus of creating valuable content and strategically driving people to that content? Search engines like Google will fall head over heels for your brand and your rankings will prove it. So, what things can your brand do to make Google go gaga over you? Here are some tips.

1. Do Your Homework.

Do you know the keywords and phrases people are using to find your website? What are your customers and potential customers searching for? Identify the top searched keywords and phrases and find ways to work those terms into your content, use them in your headline (but don't stuff them in everywhere, that's just annoying). Social monitoring and competitive analysis can uncover terms your audience is using and present unique content opportunities.

2. The Foundation Matters.

Google is big on clean architecture and a simple user interface. Can Google easily "crawl" your website pages? Does your site work well for mobile visitors? If your website is built on an old platform, loads content slowly and is not optimized for mobile, Google will quickly lose admiration for your brand.

3. Provide Value.

Above all, focus on extending value to your audience. Think about ways you can answer specific questions your audience may have or identify and solve their problems. By doing this, you will also encourage your audience to share your resources with others.

4. Visuals Are Attractive.

The importance of telling a story through visuals is obvious. From Facebook to Instagram, Pinterest to Flikr, images and video drive more engagement than text alone. Adding an image or video to your content improves not only your page ranking, but also your number of views and shares. You will also want to tag your images and videos appropriately to drive even more search results. You can score some serious brownie points by using Google's Image Search.

5. Encourage Sharing.

You're working really hard to produce all that amazing content...don't forget to encourage sharing. Make sure you enable social sharing on your website and via your blog. Ask people to share when you can. The more people share your content, the more Google will respect you.

6. Dodgy Links Turn Google Off.

Don't pay for dodgy links. Google can see right through your sneak tactics. Make sure links pointing to your website are from trusted, quality websites. And never create links back to your website by spamming blogs, forums and review sites...it's just bad business.

7. Google Loves Your Mug.

Just by adding your lovely smile to your published content, you can improve your search visibility. For something that takes only seconds to implement, this is a no brainer. rel=author is so simple and can create a strong social footprint that Google and your friends will admire. Learn more.

8. It's a Popularity Game.

Write headlines using popular search terms. How do you know what the most popular search terms are? Maybe try Google Trends  You can also use Google AdWords in an alternative way to find popular search terms. Headlines can also be catchy, but don't get so creative people would never find your content when conducting a search.

9. Keep It Fresh.

Update your old content and re-post "evergreen" content on your site. Google loves to be showered with fresh, new content at least a couple times a week. The more new content you add, the better.

10. Leave SEM To The Experts.

Getting Google to fall in love with your brand takes some time. It's a relationship built out of trust and admiration. There are many things brands can do to woo search engines from search engine optimization to pay per click and paid search engine ads. But, the game is constantly changing and the best way to seal the deal with Google is by hiring a search expert. Rhythm provides search engine marketing services. We have experts in house that have loads of experience and can apply that knowledge to help your brand win the love and respect of search engines and drive more customer engagement. Searching for a search expert? LET'S TALK.