By Kellen Kautzman
How does your business rank in Google? As you may already know, your Google ranking can drastically effect your business – for better or worse. No matter how much you pay to outsource your Internet marketing, the company can only complete approximately half of the work needed to boost your online awareness.
Ranking number one in Google requires teamwork between the Internet marketing company and the company that retains them. So, how can we provide the marketing department or company we’ve hired with the information they need to do a good job? Here’s how.
Centralize Photos
Make sure your marketing team can easily access every photo that matters. Put the photos in folders that are dated and explain what the pictures are about. Google Drive and Dropbox are good tools for this.
Use video. You may not think it’s interesting, but for those outside your industry who don’t know what it’s like behind the scenes, video can be a great way in. Take multiple videos and give your marketing team the option to choose whether the videos have merit. Remember, we’re telling a story here.
Create Consistent Content
Your blog should be updated weekly, no excuses. The voice of your company begins with the blog and extends outward into social media. Don’t forget social media platforms rise and fall. You own your website, and need to treat it with respect.
If you redesign your website, always remember to move all content from the previous site to your new site to maintain the site’s value, and ensure if your URLs change, redirects are built from old pages to new ones.
Communicate
Do you know what your marketing team focuses on? What are the keywords they are targeting and why are they aiming for those and not others? Months can go by while a marketing team hits the same keywords over and over again. Unbeknownst to them, your company no longer offers what they are pushing. Silly mistakes such as these can be avoided by being clear and remembering to communicate the company’s efforts and initiatives. The last thing you want to hear is, “This is the first we’ve heard of that.”
Set Aside a Budget
It’s pay to play. Many times, clients will say, “Take a look at XYZ competitor. How do we do what they’re doing?” The short answer typically is, “Well, they are blogging, spending money on paid media and are actively engaging their social media following.” You can’t have it all for $400 a month.
Listen
Your marketing team is afraid to tell you everything they know. They are often the first to see that a company isn’t doing well, far before the accountants notice a trend. The attention a company gets can easily be seen in Google Analytics, and that attention translates into dollars.
If you want to truly grow your company, ask for the brutal truth from your marketing department, and what they know, but won’t say unless prompted, may surprise you.
Every business needs to leverage its customer service, reviews, videos and photos to increase its Google ranking. If the marketing department is within the organization, they need to leverage employees outside of the marketing department to get the media needed to share something worthwhile.
Ranking #1 in Google for a keyword that matters to your business is the cumulative effect of an interesting Internet profile from your blog to Pinterest to Facebook to onsite SEO. These pieces all work together. Google’s RankBrain is the smartest entity on planet Earth. It’s best we don’t underestimate it.
