Increase Search Ranking for CEO

[gavinr]

Hi guys

My company CEO is concerned that when her name is googled pictures of a glamour model appear in the image results area.

The glamour model shares a second name with our CEO and this is why the model's images are appearing.

I have been asked to rectify this situation.

My CEO has a linked in page and twitter account which are underused but no personal page on our company website.

I was thinking of buying the url for the CEO's name and optimizing a small site for her name with bio etc and links to twitter, lined in etc. Would this be the best strategy?

Thanks

Gavin

[matbennett]

It's a good plan, although if the "competing" picture isn't an exact name match then it might not be needed.

If the CEO has their picture of a well linked page on the main site ("about us" usually does the trick) that is a good start. Have the image name match the search term and be sure to use the alt tag as well. Also have the exact term on page.   Links (mentioning the target phrase) are always helpful as well.

Here is a good example of how it is done: Search for "best looking man in the world". You'll probably get some image results including some predictably polished looking gents. However there is also one pasty looking capped Canadian there - a nice chap called Joel.  See what he was up to at bestlookingmanintheworld.com

[MicahMMG]

That's going to be a tough one.  Beautiful people are popular on the internet.  It's just a fact.  There's probably quite a bit of anchor text links containing that last name, pointing at pictures of the glamour model.  There's probably also a large volume of searches looking for that glamour model, compared to a fairly small number of searches looking for your CEO.

My advice is to make it a joke, and become part of the joke.  Do your idea of a website with a URL containing the CEOs name, and optimize it for the CEOs name, etc.  On the site, post a pic of the glamour model.  Post some copy that says something like "Apparently, I share my last name with a glamour model.  I don't actually look like that.  If you were looking for the glamour model pictured on the right, and not a CEO with X years of experience in the X industry, click on the picture.  If you want to learn more about X CEO and my insights into the X industry, click here for my blog."

[gavinr]

Thanks Micah

I'd be happy to take that idea forward, however would have trouble convincing my CEO!

Cheers

Gavin

[MicahMMG]

Another fantastic example of the power of exact match domain name.  Nice.

[gavinr]

Thanks Mat

Thats exactly the result I'm after. I'll give this a go and try.

Thanks

[MicahMMG]

That's understandable.  Just be sure to communicate the realistic chances of out ranking that glamour model on each keyword related to your CEOs name.  I don't know how popular this model is, but it's probably going to be difficult.  Once you've communicated how hard this is going to be, your CEO may be open to more creative solutions.

Unless you're in an industry that requires you to be super "family friendly", I think that your CEO will get more out of embracing the joke than out of denying any connection with the model.

[jennita]

I might do a combo of adding a page to the company website's about section, as the company site already has domain authority and could easily rank well. For example, if you do a search for "Rand Fishkin" his SEOmoz bio is the first thing to show up in the SERPS: http://www.seomoz.org/team/randfish. Make sure to link that page to any other page on the web about her.

It also wouldn't hurt to set up a simple website with her matching name domain (for example mine is http://jensablelopez.com - that other pesky Jennifer Lopez has all other domains taken up.) and make sure that site links to the company about page as well as social channels.

But if you want the images to change, then make sure that the images on the company website and the new domain, as well as the social sites really, are all optimized for her exact name. Make sure the image name is her name and the alt text is her name and any links.

I'd also set up a google+ account and add a few images of her that she's ok with and tag herself in them. Google is showing G+ images in image search now and this is a good way to get your photos out there.

Hope that helps!