Political Campaign SEO

SEO is the process of making a website or web page to be more likely to show up in the search engine results on Google, Yahoo or Bing for a particular search phrase. Election candidates have a handful of search phrases, or keywords, that they want to show up for. Fortunately, these keywords are fairly easy to optimize for. A candidate's SEO keywords will typically include the candidate's name, their location, and the elected position being sought in the political race.

The goal is for your candidate website to rank in the top few slots for whatever campaign keywords you target. If you miss the first ten results, you pages will never get found.

If voters type your name into a search engine, you want your website to appear at the top of the search results. If your candidate website is not in the top results, then they will find other information about you - and that might not be information you control!

The most effective way to rank for your name is to purchase your domain name in your name. Search engines consider the domain name an important factor in determining how to rank a site. If your name is 'Bob Jones', try to reserve the domain name 'BobJones.com'. If that's not available, try a variant that contains your name, such as 'VoteBobJones.com' or 'ElectBobJones.com'.

Combined with your social profiles, there's a good chance that you can end up 'owning' the bulk of the search results for your own name.

When developing a election campaign website, try to weave my targeted keyword phrases (candidate name, location, issues) into the body copy. Using targeted keywords on relevant pages is another factor search engines use to rank web pages. Try to keep each page to a particular 'theme'. be it a specific issue or topic.

When you refer to your main keyword phrases, do not truncate them. For example, write, "John Jones has a history of public service," not "Jones has a history of public service." This helps raise the relevance of the candidates name as a keyword associated with the website. The same idea applies with using your hometown, the specific office sought ("Mayor of TinyTown") and other important phrases. Consistency builds relevance for search engines.

Put the main keywords in your text early, and use them in headings to break up your content. Search engines assume that the most important search keywords of your web page will generally appear near the top, such as in the headline and the first few paragraphs of text.

Too much of a good thing? Search engines may actually penalize your website or even exclude it entirely from an index if they detect search engine "spamming." An example of this is repeating a word or phrase over and over on a page in an attempt to increase search engine rankings. Write your content for readability, and this shouldn't be a problem.

With some on-site optimization and some off-site links, you will notice that your website will start to appear for relevant keyword searches. We all know that the most important goal of a politician is to be seen, and with a little political campaign SEO strategy, you'll get there.

Online Candidate gives local school board candidates the ability to create and update their campaign websites. This gives your school board campaign a powerful online presence at an affordable price!

We provide a complete content management system to help you create a high-quality website that effectively broadcasts your message 24/7. No HTML or programming skills required. Built-in tools help you create a powerful online presence. And it's backed up by great support!

For less than the cost of a mailing, you can have a great-looking website that will help you WIN your election!

Visit us at OnlineCandidate.com to learn more.