Search engines have become a heavily used tool by consumers

gearing up for a purchase. In fact, a study by Enquiro found

that customers turn to search engines often for guidance

during the buying process. Notice the percentage of

customers who turn to search engines during various stages

of the buying cycle.

-- 9% use search engines for Awareness

-- 68% use search engines for Consideration or Research

-- 43% use search engines for Decision

-- 28% use search engines for Purchase

What does all of this mean for you? It means you need to

have a strong search engine presence, and not just for the

keywords related to your products and services but for your

company name as well. See, a lot of companies overlook the

importance of owning the search results for their own name.

They figure they'll naturally own the top spot, so the other

results don't matter. What a mistake.

Imagine this: Your company - we'll call it ABC Company -

owns the #1 ranking for the search term "ABC company." But

in results spots 2-10 there are pages that say "ABC Company

sucks" and "My horrible experience with ABC Company."

Customers who are researching your company to make sure

you're legit will instantly be scared away.

The good news is there are many things you can do to

dominate the top search results for your company name,

allowing you to maintain a positive reputation in the eyes

of potential customers. Remember, most searchers don't go

past the first page of results, so we'll just focus on how

you can grab most of those top 10 spots.

-- Publish press releases online: One of the great things

about press release marketing is that Google tends to favor

press releases in their search results. That's because press

releases are inherently credible as they're official and

newsworthy. I've seen cases where press releases stayed in

the top 10 search results for the keyword for longer than a

year. Just make sure to include your company's name in the

headline, subhead, and throughout the body of the press

release.

-- Create social networking profiles: Another easy way to

gain some top search exposure is to create company profiles

on various social networks. Start with the most obvious

ones: Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. Then, you can work

your way into industry-specific social sites (check out

Mashable's list of 350+ social networking sites:

http://mashable.com/2007/10/23/social-networking-god/).

-- Get listed in relevant directories: Directories have

always been a popular tool for getting more back links, but

they can also be used to help you increase your search share

for your company name. Here's a good post that covers some

of the best directories to get listed in:

http://www.seomoz.org/blog/role-of-directories-in-link-building.

-- Guest blog on other sites: Guest blogging is a powerful

tool for getting your name out there, expanding your

network, building back links and gaining authority in your

niche. It can also be used for grabbing more top search

rankings for your company name. Any time you guest post, you

get a brief space to talk about who you are and what you do.

Make sure to include your company name in this section.

-- Get a Wikipedia page: Okay, so this is probably only

applicable for bigger companies that garner a lot of media

coverage, but your company might be one of those. Wikipedia

pages will always rank well, and despite the fact that

anyone can edit them, they're still seen as an authority on

the topic at hand.

Do you dominate the search rankings for your name? Do a

vanity search. You never know what your potential customers

might be seeing.

Be well,

Mickie Kennedy
Founder, eReleases.com
CEO, eReleases.com & Press-Release-Writing.com