When you’re running any sort of business online, you need to make sure people are able to find your site. Even if you’re just writing a blog, you are going to have trouble becoming successful if people are unable to locate your page out of the millions that are out there. Even if people know your URL, many will just type in the business name, or the words of the URL, and hit enter, which just performs a search. If your site doesn’t come up first, you’ll be losing out on a lot of traffic, and likely driving traffic to other people’s sites.
This is why it is so important to make sure you’re ranking well for your business name, and for words in your URL. For example, when someone goes to Google and types in the name of this site, “Performance Marketing Insider,” they will see this page at the top, and several other PMI properties below that. The same is true when people type in, “PerformanceInsider” (our URL without the .com). This helps to ensure that everyone who is looking for this site, will be able to find it.
If you’re just starting out, or you haven’t yet ranked for your brand name, it is important to take steps to improve your SERPs for this critical keyword. The following are simple on-site places you can improve in order to help get your brand rankings up:
Your Home Page
Your home page should contain just enough text to tell people what your site is all about. You should include your brand name on that page at least two or three times. Depending on the type of page, and what types of content you are publishing there, this could be in the header and then in the first paragraph of content. You could also include a closing that says something like, “Thank you from the BRAND NAME team.” There are many different ways this can be done, take the time to find the one that works the best, while still providing the visitors with a valuable page that reads naturally.
About Me / About Us
This is another page where you should have your brand name listed at least a couple times. The entire page is dedicated to talking about the business, so it should fit in nicely that you’ve got the brand name listed. Working your brand name into the content of the page will help Google and the other search engines confirm that this entire website is about your brand name.
Contact Us
Similar to the About Us page, the contact us page will instruct people to contact you. In most cases, these pages don’t have too much content them, so don’t try to overstuff the brand name in. If you’re listing your company address, for example, you can have the brand name bolded at the top of it. You can also list it when giving the phone number by saying, “Call BRAND NAME at 555-1212.” There are many ways to work it in, so choose which ones feel the most natural to you.
List of Services
If you’re offering any services, make sure to include your brand name on this page within the content. Something as simple as, “Here at BRAND NAME we specialize in providing you with…”
Other Pages
If you’re posting blog entries or other content for your visitors, you can include the brand name where appropriate. Don’t overstuff it on every site, however, or Google may see it as spamming or keyword stuffing. Beyond the pages listed above, you should only have to include your brand name on other pages where it fits in naturally.
Internal Linking & On-Site SEO
Finally, make sure you are linking each of those initial four pages from all or at least most of the other pages on your site. By providing internal links to them, it shows Google that you think they are important, and they will use them to determine which keywords to rank your site for. In addition, fitting the brand name into your meta description, tags and other on-site areas will provide additional benefits. Don’t over stuff the brand name in, but place it everywhere that seems natural.
