How to Optimize All Positive Search Results About Your Brand
Shaping your brand's first page of search results means optimizing every positive mention — not just the pages you own.
- Link from your press page to positive third-party content to pass authority to those pages.
- Allocate about 20% of your SEO or link-building budget to promoting external positive content.
- Issue a press release every time your company earns an award, secures funding, or donates.
- Search for unlinked brand mentions and ask authors to add a link to a positive property you own.
- Ask your SEO agency to identify and build links to new positive articles about your brand each month.
Most brands only optimize their own website, but shaping your full branded search presence requires promoting positive third-party content too. By linking to favorable articles, issuing press releases, directing your SEO agency to build links to external positive pages, and requesting links from unlinked brand mentions, you can influence what appears across the entire first page of results. This approach attracts higher-quality prospects who research multiple sources before making contact.
How to Optimize All Positive Search Results About Your Brand
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Identify positive content beyond your own site
Look beyond your main website to find positive brand content worth promoting, including social media profiles, positive articles, review sites, Wikipedia pages, and LinkedIn profiles. Optimizing these third-party properties as part of your SEO strategy helps shape the entire first page of branded search results, not just your own domain.
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Link to positive third-party content from your site
When a third-party site publishes something favorable about your brand, link to it from your own site — for example, from your press page. This passes authority from your site to the external content and signals to Google that the target page is relevant and worth ranking.
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Issue a press release for every positive milestone
Whenever your company donates to a charity, secures funding, or earns an award, write and distribute a press release. Include a link to any positive coverage you receive to amplify its visibility and build goodwill with the publishers who created it.
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Direct your SEO agency to build links to third-party positive sites
Ask your SEO agency to allocate roughly 20% of their link-building budget to promoting positive third-party content about your brand. Each month they should identify new favorable articles and earn links to them, signaling to Google that those results deserve greater visibility.
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Search for unlinked brand mentions and request links
Search Google for your brand name, review each article that mentions it, and identify mentions that do not include a link to your site or a web property you own. Reach out to the author with a polite, brief request to add a link — even a modest response rate can meaningfully strengthen your brand's search presence.
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Run a reputation audit before outreach
Before launching any link outreach campaign, conduct a thorough online reputation audit to identify which mentions are genuinely positive and worth promoting. This prevents you from inadvertently drawing more attention to content that could harm your brand.
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Ask satisfied customers to leave reviews
When a customer has had a positive experience, invite them to leave a review on platforms like Google Business, BBB, or Yelp. Ensure your outreach is open to all customers and complies with each platform's guidelines, as authentic reviews over time boost both trust and search visibility through Google's E-E-A-T framework.
Most companies only optimize their own site. But optimizing all top branded content can work wonders for your search presence.
When marketers perform search engine optimization (SEO), they usually focus only on their own website or sites they fully control. Staying competitive requires solid on-site SEO, but it is equally important to promote pages that speak positively about your brand — even pages you do not own or manage.
Examples of positive content beyond your main company site that you can optimize include:
- X (formerly Twitter)
- Positive articles
- Positive review sites
- Wikipedia page
- Executive LinkedIn profiles
- Company LinkedIn profile
- Industry news about the company
Optimize brand content you don’t control
When a third-party site posts something great about your company, link to it. Promoting positive content you did not create is a core component of SEO reputation management — using search optimization to shape the entire first page of branded results, not just your own website.
Link to positive content
Linking from your site’s press page to new, positive content — even content you do not control — tells Google and other search engines that the target article is relevant. This signal passes authority from your site to the third-party content you want to rank, without costing you anything.
Generate a press release whenever something good happens
When your company donates to a charity, secures funding, or earns an award, write a press release about it every time. Post it widely and include a link to any positive coverage you receive.
Keep in mind that links in press releases are generally treated as nofollow or sponsored by Google and carry little PageRank value. Even so, the visibility and credibility benefits make the effort worthwhile. You will also earn goodwill from whoever created the positive content — which can lead to more favorable coverage in the future.
Direct your SEO agency to build links to positive third-party sites
If your brand works with an SEO agency, ask them to devote about 20% of their link-building budget to third-party positive content. Each month they should identify new articles with positive sentiment about your brand and build links to them. Most agencies can earn at least a handful of links per article, signaling to Google that those results deserve greater visibility.
This approach will not hurt your own rankings, but it may slow progress slightly as resources are redirected. It is usually worth it. Prospective customers do not visit only your site — they research multiple sources before reaching out. A slightly slower SEO program is a reasonable trade-off for higher-quality prospects.
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Search for mentions and ask for links
Your company is likely mentioned across the web, but most of those mentions will not include a link to your site or any other positive property. You can ask publishers to add a link long after the original piece was published.
Search Google for your brand name and review each article that mentions it (skip social media). When you find a mention without a link to your site or a web property you own — such as LinkedIn, Instagram, or YouTube — contact the author and ask them to add one. A simple message works well:
“Hey _______, thanks for mentioning Acme Widgets in your article. Would you mind taking a moment to link to our BBB profile from our name? I’d really appreciate it.”
Most authors will not respond, but some will. If 10 out of 100 outreach attempts result in links to positive content about your brand, the campaign has succeeded.
Ask your customers for reviews
Google assesses your brand’s reputation by examining sites you do not control, and review platforms are among the most influential. When a customer has had a positive experience, ask them to leave a review.
Be sure your review solicitation practices comply with platform guidelines — outreach should be open to all customers, not selectively directed at those most likely to respond positively. This is covered in more detail in our article on review management best practices.
Generating authentic reviews over time on Google Business, BBB, Yelp, and similar platforms can increase your site’s visibility without additional link building. This approach leverages E-E-A-T — Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness — a framework Google uses to evaluate content quality.
Understanding how positive and negative reviews affect business revenue makes clear why this effort deserves priority. Reviews are among the most powerful trust signals for both customers and search engines. For a broader view of how these tactics work together, see our guide to effective online reputation strategies for businesses.
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