Search Engine Results Page Management
I noticed that Technology Evangelist has picked up some new traffic from searches related to
Simon Delivers, so I took a look at what was drawing them in. Here is a Google search result for the term [simon delivers groceries] where Technology Evangelist currently ranks as the 7th result and 5th site in the organic search results:
SimonDelivers.com - the #1 result on the page - is exactly where it should be for a search like this, so Google worked as expected, providing the most relevant result first. However, it's likely that Simon Delivers would rather not see articles comparing them to Amazon on price in the top-10 search results for their name.
What could Simon Delivers do about this? Can they call up Google and ask that certain results be removed? No.
Could they get more pages from their site to bump Technology Evangelist off the front page? Nope. Google ranks a max of two pages per site on a page.
But there must be something they can do to paint a rosier picture of their company for prospective customers, employees and investors (three candidates for checking links beyond their company's site).
Search Engine Results Page Management Here are some things they CAN do:
- Get more sites to write about them. There are many sites that could outrank Technology Evangelist for this search if they happened to write about Simon Delivers. Internet Retailer's articles about Simon Delivers better represent the company, but are from 2004. Time for another push for stories.
- Use ONLINE PR rather than OFFLINE PR. Simon Delivers has been about extensively by large local newspapers, including the Minneapolis Star/Tribune and the St Paul Pioneer Press. But those stories don't show up because mainstream media buries their content after a few weeks.
- Run a Blog at a different URL. By using a different URL, the blog could rank high separately from the main site.
- Buy their own name in Google Adwords. If you're #1 in the results, is it worth buying AdWords for the term as well? Aren't you willing to pay to talk to someone who's specifically looking for your company? Taking up more search results real estate works to your advantage.
- Ask competitors to stop advertising on their trademarked name. This is a legal gray area in search marketing today. But it certainly can't hurt to ask.
The above tactics together could reorganize the first page of results into something more aligned with their company's goals. Of course, this doesn't make the less rosy content disappear, but people would have to work a click harder to find it.
