How To Rank In Google

Lesson #6: Domain-Level Brand Metrics

Audio Version Of This Lesson:

Download This Lesson     Download All Audio Lessons

It's time for lesson number six of your Google-ranking education. Congratulations for making it this far! The fact that you're still following and learning means you're pretty serious about establishing your name in Google.

And establishing your name -- otherwise known as "branding" -- is what today's lesson is all about.

Here's the top 9 most important factors for ranking in Google:

  1. Domain-Level Link Features
  2. Page-Level Link Features
  3. Page-Level Keyword & Content-Based Features
  4. Page-Level Keyword-Agnostic Features
  5. Engagement & Traffic/Query Data
  6. Domain-Level Brand Metrics
  7. Domain-Level Keyword Usage
  8. Domain-Level Keyword-Agnostic Features
  9. Page-Level Social Features

Let's get right into Domain-Level Brand Metrics, our topic for today.
 

Domain-Level Brand Metrics

What is it?

Domain-Level Brand Metrics basically means all of the stuff you're doing to establish what people think of when they think of your domain name.

How important is it?

According to the 150 experts surveyed, domain-level brand metrics scores a 5.8 out of 10 on the scale of importance for ranking in Google.

What can I do to improve it?

You can issue press releases (on and off-line), use video commercials (on and off-line), engage the news media (on and off-line) and interact with your customers through social media. email and forums.
 

Detailed Explanation

When you think of the word "amazon", what comes to mind? Lush, rich forests where medicines are found? The world's largest river? Spear-wielding natives in loin cloths?

I bet the first thing that came into your mind had nothing to do with any of that. I bet you thought of the e-commerce entity, Amazon.com.

You thought of Amazon.com because Amazon has done a marvelous job of establishing their brand. I remember way back when Amazon was first created and only sold books. I remember their commercials and wondering why they chose the name that they did since it had nothing to do with books and had no connection to the company, location or anything else.

Yet now the first thing I think of when I hear the word "amazon" is Amazon.com, too. That's because branding works.

I have a brand. My brand is my name. Granted my brand is a speck of dust in comparison to the gigantic bolder of Amazon, but the name Jonathan Leger holds certain meaning in the Internet Marketing space. People expect a certain level of quality, integrity and product from me. I aim to deliver on all of those things.

You want to establish yourself and/or site as a brand, too. When people think of your domain name, you want them to associate it with certain good things.

Some examples: Wal-Mart is associate with low prices. Rolex is associated with the finest of watches. Ferrari is associated with fast cars. All of those companies have built a brand around what they want to be known for.

In order for you to build a brand, you need to know what you want to be known for, too. So ask yourself a few questions:

  • What is my company the best at? 
  • What sets us apart from other people?
  • What are people looking for and expecting when they come to us?

Once you know those things, it's time to get to work. When you create a new product, you issue a press release (or an email blast). Maybe you contact the news media to see if they'll cover it. Or maybe you use link bait (remember our discussion about that?) to attract the media's attention without you ever having to be in touch with them at all.

Traditional companies use television commercials and online commercials to build their brand. If that's the kind of business you want to build, you can do the same.

A very important way to build your brand is to interact with your customers. Whether it's through personal responses to email, social media, customer forums, whatever. When people know you're listening to what they want and need, you're building trust in your brand that will bring them back to you again and again.

I often get emails from customers who tell me that they own almost every product I've got on the market. They trust me and what I've built because of my long history of working hard to make sure that I only sell what works. That's a big deal in the Internet Marketing industry. There are a lot of sharks in these waters, so being a person of integrity really stands out.
 

How Branding Helps With Ranking

What does all of this have to do with ranking in Google? Directly, almost nothing. But indirectly it has everything to do with your ranking.

Just like social media activity leads to people sharing and talking about your site which leads to links which leads to rankings, so, too, branding leads to buzz and viral activity that indirectly results in the signals Google wants to see before it ranks your site.

While having an offline magazine do a write-up on your company has no direct impact on Google, it triggers a lot of discussion among people -- and at least some (if not most) of that discussion takes place online. That online discussion results in links to your site, which leads to ranking.

Building a brand also affects your ranking in another way: if you have a trusted brand, when your pages appear in the search results people will skip over other links to click on yours because they know your name. Rightly or wrongly, humans naturally trust things they know more than things they don't, which is why branding is so important.

When more people click-through to your site instead of others, that increases your query CTR (remember that from the previous lesson?), which sends Google the message that your page is more relevant and makes for a better user experience than other pages in the same search results. That can move your page up higher in the rankings, which results in more traffic to you.
 

How To Check Your Site For All These Factors

Social media is definitely the best way to check on the status of your brand. If you search Twitter, for example, and your name or site is never mentioned in any tweets, you have no brand.

If you search Twitter and your name/site gets slammed in the tweets, you have a brand, but it's not a good one.

When people say negative things about your brand, listen to them! It can be hard to swallow your pride and admit that you have a problem, but clearly if people aren't saying overwhelmingly positive things about your brand, you do have a problem. Be willing to confront those problems and work on them.

Respond to the comments you see about your brand. Ask people questions. Try to offer personal help. Doing that can turn those negatives into positives and will improve your brand over time.

If you don't have a brand at all, work hard to build your brand through social media presence. Distribute quality information to people who are interested in your market. Answer questions. Accept feedback. Reach out to other people in your industry and establish relationships with them.

It's hard work, but in time it will result in positive branding of your business. That positive branding will, in turn, result in more love from Google.
 

In Summary

Setting yourself apart from other businesses in your market is tough to do, but it's necessary if you want to achieve real success. When you're building your brand don't even think about Google -- think about the reputation of your business and the repeat customers that having a good reputation will bring. The effort you put into that reputation, that brand, will pay off with Google in the long run, too.

Lesson number seven is up next, which deals with Domain-Level Keyword Usage.

 


Amazon Kindle Version