How To Dominate Page One With Content Marketing

When you first think of Content Marketing, you probably think about how it can be used to help drive traffic to your site, increase brand awareness and promote your products or services to a wider or more targeted audience. Additionally, it can also help with Page One Domination – here’s how.

If a customer or client is researching your company, it’s highly likely that they will enter branded terms in a search engine to find out more information. If they are more Internet savvy, then they may also enter variations around this term, for example brand name plus reviews, or brand name plus news to see what results are pulled in.

If any negative mentions display in the search results then, depending on the severity, this can cause damage to your company. For example, a scathing and negative review may appear above your own company social profiles. In this instance a result like this is going to cost your business to lose out financially, as customers will be convinced to go elsewhere.

To counteract this, you need to make sure that the positive profiles, reviews, platforms and mentions dominate the first few pages. This is where content comes into the equation. To enhance your page one domination efforts, Content Marketing can work wonders. Think about the following areas before you come to create your content:

High Ranking Platforms

Some platforms will naturally rank higher in the SERPs than others. This means that once you know what’s working for your company, you can focus your attention on these areas first and foremost.

For example, SlideShare and YouTube are two platforms that rank really well if they are populated with decent content. A branded SlideShare account can be used to host PowerPoint presentations, either for a new audience, or from existing conferences and events that you have already presented at. In the same vein, YouTube can be populated by adding regular, top-quality videos on tips and tricks, expert opinions, advice, updates and product reviews.

In both of these cases you should always create content with your audience in mind. Ultimately the content should serve your audience first before the search engines and if you follow this ethos then your branded profiles will have greater sustainability.

Below is a screenshot of the first page of Google when searching ‘Koozai’. As you can see, the SERP includes SlideShare, Twitter, YouTube, Facebook and LinkedIn. These are all worthy profiles for us to push, each with their own individual benefits. For your business it’s worth finding out what works for you and refine your strategy accordingly.

Populate Your Blog   

Having a well-maintained and regularly updated blog will also help with your Page One Domination efforts.

As you add more posts, your blog may appear as a sitelink under the first and main result (see image below) or alternatively as its own position in the results pages.

In either case this is another great way to rank for branded terms and drive traffic from a multitude of long tail keywords too. Individual posts can rank for branded terms, so if there is news or events to showcase, this could be a great way to rank for branded terms.

Make sure your Meta title and description are optimised with your brand name too, this will facilitate the SEO and Page One Domination process. In the same breath, use rel author to enhance the rankings of the content – this shows the faces behind the brand as well as provide a number of benefits to your Content Marketing and SEO efforts (see The Business Benefits of Using Rel Author).

Use Social Channels Regularly

As shown earlier in the above image of a branded search for Koozai, social properties also have the power to rank well. In the example used, Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn all appear on page one, whilst Pinterest and Google Plus show on page two.

Therefore, make sure you actively manage these accounts and use the content you’ve created to share and promote on all of the applicable social networks. With branded company profiles, as well as individual employee accounts, you have more of a chance of appearing and dominating the first few pages for branded terms.

Share new content as it’s released and look back through the archives to see if any older pieces will still encourage social shares and engagement from your community and followers. Adding and engaging with people in relation to the content will also help too.

If you neglect these channels, you will be missing out on valuable places on page one, so use your profiles on a regular basis to enhance the reach and exposure of both your content and brand.

Follow-up on PR Opportunities

Another good way to encourage positive mentions and features is to monitor and follow-up on news and PR opportunities that relate to your industry.

Responding to worthwhile media requests for quality sites will offer you the chance to link back to your site via branded terms. By monitoring sources and creating your own PR material you will be able to secure statements, comments, guest posts and features – all of which can enhance your Page One Domination campaign.

If you are looking to create your own press releases, remember that you can look at the following ideas/topics for inspiration:

• New employees and company changes
• Upcoming industry trade shows
• Conference attendances and exhibitions
• New product ranges and services
• Awards won or upcoming award ceremonies

Encourage Customer Reviews

Whether you’ve received negative reviews or not, start using all of the positive ones on your site, or via a platform connected with your site, such as Trustpilot.

Positive customer reviews for a branded search will help your campaigns and help establish trust with any new prospect. Rich snippets and structured data will help in this instance to mark up your search results so users can view star ratings for a particular service or brand.

Get more from your customer reviews – use the space you own to your advantage; take those reviews on external platforms and showcase them on your own site – this could help massively in facilitating a lead or a sale.

Conclusion

Remember that content has its place in any Page One Domination campaign and if you work with the best properties and refine your strategy as you go, it will pay off.

Spot which profiles are more receptive to moving up the rankings at a faster pace and continue to push these in the right direction first, before working on other properties.

Most importantly, don’t forget that Page One Domination isn’t a quick fix. In other words, once you’re appearing on page one in the places you desire, you still need to maintain these positions. Use content and other tactics to drive the best results in what will be an ongoing project for your business.

With content by your side, you’re ready to go full steam ahead and gain recognition and custom in the most important places. For more information on our Page One Domination service, be sure to contact us today.

Image credits

Google thumbnail image from Bigstock

Customer reviews image from Bigstock

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