2. Analyze

We Analyze How The Visible Information Affects Your Brand and Your Reputation

Your search engine space is dynamic and constantly changing as new sites are added to the mix and as search engines alter their algorithms. You need to develop an understanding of your search engine environment and of your competition.

First of all, undertake an analysis of your search engine space. Look at the sites listed in search results for your brand. List the sites that offer positive information and those that are negative. Determine what types of sites they are - blog, forum, consumer review, and so on. Assign a value to their quality - Page Rank, number of links, influence, etc. Determine which results you may want to move up or down the list. This will help you understand the scale of the work involved.

Analyze Your Online Assets:
Your online assets are the sites that you have control over and that you can use to dominate the search engine rankings. These include:

• Corporate Sites
• Sister Sites and Micro-Sites (other sites from your organization)
• Product Sites
• Corporate Blogs
• Employee Blogs
• Partner Sites (supplier sites, recruitment sites)
• Corporate Communications (press releases, articles)

At this stage of the analysis, document the present position of each of your sites, including screen-shots of the various search engines results, so you can monitor future movement and activity.