Your overall rankings in the search engines are influenced by who’s connected to you in your circle of influence i.e. – twitter, blogs, links, comments etc…

What do I mean by this?
Last week I was preparing a presentation for the Leeds Business Network and I asked my husband to do a few searches. He searched for ‘What is online credibility’ in Google and I appeared in the top 10 (see screen shot). When I searched in Google when I wasn’t logged in and on a different IP, I didn’t come up at all.

What’s the significance of this?
Think of your circle of influence as your online network. If someone searches for specific information, your website is potentially going to get higher in the search listings compared to someone who’s outside that network and circle of influence. So in principle you potentially could get more referrals and work from someone in your circle of influence compared to those who are.

How can you maximise this opportunity
If Google is going to continue to grow this trend, then as part of your new business and sales development you need to be in the circle of influence for your target customers. If there is a company you are doing a proposal for or tendering for some work- think about how can you start those conversations on twitter, on buzz and on their blog………I’d imagine the closer they are in your circle of influence the greater impact it will have on your rankings.

How do I do that?

• Ensure your offline network and contacts is reflected online.
• Ensure you tweet regularly to your potential customers, and influencers in your circle of influence
• Connect with your potential customers on Twitter and start a conversation

How has your circle of influence impacted on your search engine listings?