Website Mistakes Can Bury a Company’s Name in Search Results.

Good SEO begins with the company name.

The current trend is to try to get one’s website high up on a list of search results. The Search Engine Optimization efforts required to achieve this begin with your company’s name. Many potential clients will use your website to establish credibility for your company, so good optimization of your name will make finding your website as easy as possible.

“The first thing I do for a new client is type their own company name into Google,” explained Dennis Taylor, president of The American Society of Professional Copywriters, in a recent interview. “It is always shocking when their website isn’t on the first page, or even the first few pages, of results that come up.”

Taylor, an advertising and public relations writer whose career spans 35 years, has developed highly successful websites and web content that get noticed in internet searches.

Optimizing your website for your company name is fundamental.

“The importance of appearing high in search engine results for appropriate key words cannot be overstated,” said Taylor, “but at least coming up for your own name should be a fundamental requirement.”

Recently, Taylor has seen a common oversight that dooms a website to oblivion. “Some sites have a great big logo at the top of every page and even have a smaller logo at the bottom,” said Taylor. “These are images and search engines don’t read images.” Taylor said that in some cases he has found that the actual name of the company did not appear anywhere in the copy, even though the logo displayed it on every page.

Don’t abbreviate the company name, unless that is how people are likely to search for it.

Another common error is using the initials of the company. The copy will often state the company name only once, such as: “Acme Business Concern” and then shorten it to “ABC” on all the subsequent mentions. This yields a site that has been optimized for “ABC” and not the name for which an interested prospect might search.

Make use of obvious locations to mention the company name.

Taylor also cautions website developers not to overlook other obvious locations to mention the name.

“Subheads break up the copy for readability, punctuation also makes subheads easier to read and appropriate mentions of the company name attract search engine notice,” said Taylor. He suggested that instead of a subhead like: “Products,” developers should try “Acme Business Concern: Quality Products for today.” Search engines like punctuation, it seems more like content. By the way, do not think you can just type the company name over-and-over again. Search engines will not be fooled and may penalize you for keyword loading.

The images in a website provide a logical opportunity to place the company name -- twice. “I would name an image using the following protocol,” said Taylor, “Acme Business Concern quality products; Copyright 2017 Acme Business Concern.” Taylor recommends that every image have a caption, which is another opportunity to place the company name.

These five tips will provide a foundation for a successful optimization of your company’s website.

5 ways to avoid burying a company’s name in the search results.

1. Do not put the company name only in the logo. Mention it as frequently as appropriate in the copy, but don’t keyword load.

2. Unless you are genuinely known by initials, do not abbreviate the name.

3. Use subheads with punctuation and the name of the company in them where appropriate.

4. Title the images with the name of the company in their title.

5. Use the name of the company in captions for the images where appropriate.

Follow these simple rules and your prospects should be able to find your website using your name in a search engine query.