How can I influence Google search results for my name to be sure they appropriately reflect my business brand?
These answers are provided by Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC), an invite-only organization comprised of the world’s most promising young entrepreneurs. YEC has also launched BusinessCollective, a free virtual mentorship program that helps millions of entrepreneurs start and grow businesses.
1. Add Relevant Brand Information to Your Personal Profiles
There is a good chance that personal LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and Google+ accounts appear when a name is searched online. Since these websites are very powerful, adding relevant information to your accounts ensures that people see what you want them to. For instance, an entrepreneur can create eye-catching social profiles that are linked directly to their brand. – Derek Robinson, Top Notch Dezigns
2. Be Consistent Across Your Social Media Profiles
There are many business or social networking sites where one needs to enter professional details. If the profile is consistent across all sites, Google will definitely link and highlight your brand with your name. Also, make sure to enter a short description or brand strategy along with designation and company name. It helps position the brand uniformly when someone searches your name. – Liam Martin, TimeDoctor.com
3. Create Company Profiles on Third-Party Sites
Sites like Crunchbase and Inc.com do profiles about companies that you can claim and contribute to. Social media profiles are not enough if you want to control your search results. Look for sites where your company can be reviewed and add your best photos and text. Sites like Glassdoor are extremely important for potential employees to see when they Google your company. – Matt Wilson, Under30Experiences
4. Make News
Do something newsworthy and major media outlets will cover you and the coverage will show up when someone searches for you on Google. Focus on achieving great things within your business. Then cultivate relationships with the people who are able to get your story told, whether they are at public relations firms or the outlets themselves. – Adam Mendler, Beverly Hills Chairs
5. Publish Shareable Content
It’s not just about creating a lot of content and hoping it will get indexed. The algorithm takes into account the sharability of the content and how many people are actually spreading the word about it. If your content is not getting shares, then it may not be indexed and it will not reflect your brand well. Make sure the viewership is there before you start publishing your content everywhere. – Sweta Patel, Silicon Valley Startup Marketing
6. Have an Active, Link-Rich Online Presence
Google considers links as votes. A backlink from a high-authority site like Forbes and Wikipedia will improve your domain authority and help Google to rank you on top. Guest posting is a good way to get high-authority links. Besides, you should get your business listed on Google, be active on the social media platforms and integrate brand schema and review schema to your site. – Jas Saran, G Web Pro Marketing
7. Optimize Your Meta Data
Make sure you optimize all the meta data on the various pages of your website to reflect your brand or what you want to communicate. A webpage’s meta data controls what is displayed in the Google search results for that page. This is a great place to put a poignant slogan or series of words that reflect your brand, because it is the first thing that people will see when searching for it. – Justin Faerman, Conscious Lifestyle Magazine
8. Build a Strategic Content Marketing Plan
Building a website is just the beginning of building up your Google search results. To make sure you rank for the correct terms, you’ll want to start blogging strategically and creating content your customers want to read. Find out questions your target market is asking on Quora and write blog posts that answer their questions. – Syed Balkhi, OptinMonster
9. Create a Personal Website
The best way to ensure you control the results about you on Google is to own the top search results for your name. There are two ways to do this. One is to be the highest bidder for your name in Google AdWords. The second is to rank on the first page organically within Google. Luckily, it is not too difficult to rank for your name unless you have the same name as a very famous person. – Brian Greenberg, True Blue Life Insurance, Inc
10. Write Guest Posts with Backlinks to Your Website
Aside from the basics, like making sure your LinkedIn and any profile information on your website is up to date, consider writing guest posts for influential blogs in your industry. Typically, publishers may allow at least one backlink to your site, boosting your SEO. Guest posts also help position yourself as a thought leader and will help populate search results with content relevant to your brand. – Ismael Wrixen, FE International
11. Link Your Guest Posts to Other Articles You’ve Written
Start guest posting to as many authoritative sites as possible so that you get many author bios. When guest posting, link to other articles you’ve submitted and to your bios to improve the link popularity of each. – Marcela De Vivo, Mulligan Funding
12. Have a Tag Line and Always Include It After Your Name
Taglines help people understand what it is your brand is all about right away. Include a tagline in your LinkedIn profile, or anywhere your name is mentioned. You can include it in press releases, or even go back to published posts to re-edit them to include your tagline with your name. Over time, the more places your name/tagline exists, the more likely Google search results will include it. – Robert De Los Santos, Sky High Party Rentals