How to Get Your Brand Recognized by Google

When a business falls into Google’s good graces, it means that the business will rank highly on the Google search engine results page, meaning more people will find the business. Google evaluates brands and websites based on relevance and reliability, and several factors determine whether your brand will rank well. There are many steps you can take to improve your brand’s recognition by Google, and it takes more work than optimizing a website.

To make your website Google-friendly, provide high-quality copy that includes keywords -- but not too many -- that people might use to search for your business through Google. For example, if you’re a plumber in Plano, Texas, people will probably search “plumber in Plano” and similar terms, but you can use Google tools to research how people search for a business in your area and revise your website accordingly. Google also favors websites that are friendly to mobile devices, meaning your website should have a mobile version.

Set up a Google Places profile for your business as soon as possible. When your business has a Google Places page, Google sees your brand as more authoritative, thus increasing your Google search ranking and your brand’s exposure. To sign up, provide Google with your business information, including an address, phone number, business name and photos. The more complete your profile, the more Google will favor your brand. Claiming your Google Places page (link in Resources) also means that when potential customers search for a related business in your area, your business will show up with a map to your door.

Social network accounts are also recognized by Google, in addition to your website. When you set up a business Facebook page, it builds your brand even more in Google’s eyes, and when people search for your business, your Facebook page will show up in search results, in addition to your website, giving your business more search engine power. Google also crawls and indexes Facebook comments. This means that the more Facebook interactions you have, the more authority your brand will build with Google.

Google favors websites that have dynamic content, in addition to static content. When your website has a blog, it means that every time you add a new blog post, Google indexes those new pages, increasing authority and brand recognition with Google. The more you update your blog, the better. However, make sure to keep your blog posts relevant and useful to the people who visit your website. If you stuff keywords into your blog posts, Google may penalize your blog for keyword-stuffing.