Did you know that high-quality content is the no. 1 Google ranking factor?

Therefore, you should focus on providing high quality content that is specific and relatable to your target audience. Here’s how you can optimize for quality content and better ranking:

• Define your primary target audience and how your product or service is relevant to them. Your content should be created with this audience in mind and showcase how your product or service can solve their needs
• For software & hardware pages, your page name and short introduction should describe your product as precisely as possible. You can write more about your product in other sections on your page.
• For solution service pages, your area of practice must be what best fits your service, and the description should detail your experience within this area. You can write more about your service capabilities in other text sections on your page.
• Remember to upload relevant customer stories as well as images and video product presentations on your page. This will send a strong relevancy signal to search engines.

Did you know that the keywords you use in your content will impact both the amount and quality of the traffic you get to your page?

Here are some tips on how you can work with keywords in your page content:

• Consider which keywords and key phrases your primary target audience are likely to use when searching for a product or service such as yours. Then include them in your texts where relevant.
• Improve your chances for better visibility in the Marketplace search engine and other search engines by using your main keywords and/or key phrases in the page name, short introduction and summary (for software & hardware pages) or the brief description (for solution service pages).
• Avoid overloading your page with the same keywords or phrases repeatedly. This can have a negative impact on your ranking in search engines and will cause your content to seem poor in quality.

Meta titles and meta descriptions are typically the first encounter a user has with your page when searching on Google. When well written, they can increase the traffic to your page.

The meta title specifies the title of a webpage and appears as the clickable headline for the search results displayed in search engines. Here are some tips on how to use meta titles on your page:

• For software & hardware pages, the meta title should include your product name and if possible, also your company name
• For solution service pages, the meta title should focus on the Area of Practice selected for that page and if possible, also include your company name
• Include the main keywords that your primary target audience would use to find your product or service
• Keep it as short and specific as possible. Preferably below 60 characters to avoid your text being cut off in the search engines

The meta description provides a summary of a webpage and is often displayed below the meta title in the search results displayed in search engines.
Here are some tips on how to use meta descriptions on your page:

• The meta description should be a short summary of your page as this will send a positive relevancy signal to the search engines. For instance, your meta description should put emphasis on your value propositions and how your product or service connects with Milestone XProtect if this is also clearly described on your content page
• Make sure that the main keywords your primary target audience would use to find your product or service are included, both on your page and in your meta description
• Keep your meta descriptions long enough to be sufficiently descriptive, but ideally below 160 characters to avoid your text being cut off in the search engines

Did you know that the more frequently the content on a website is updated, the more often a search engine will stop by to crawl, index and rank the web page?

Here are some tips on how to keep your content fresh:

• Make sure your contact information is always up to date 
• Update product information whenever a new version of your product is available  
• Ensure the verification of your product is up to date and matches the latest versions of XProtect
• Add the latest manuals and documentation
• Add your latest Customer Stories
• Add new and relevant images and videos about your product or service
• Check for spelling errors and broken links
• Schedule updates to your pages on Milestone Marketplace. You can do this when you have new product or version releases, staff or organizational changes, or simply by scheduling a quarterly content check
• Schedule an annual review with Marketplace Engagement team for input and guidance. Contact Marketing Engagement Team 

Referral traffic is the visits that came to your page via a different website other than the major search engines. This could be your own website or Social Media channels

Benefits of referral traffic:

• Visitors arriving from referral links may already be interested in your product or service and are more inclined to engage with your content or convert into a lead
• What people say about you is more important than what you say about yourself. Referral traffic between trusted websites positively increases SEO and ranking factors on major search engines
• Marketplace company pages link back to your company website and LinkedIn which creates further referral traffic for those sites

To optimize referral traffic, link to your Marketplace page(s) from:

• Your company website
• Your company profile on social media platforms like LinkedIn
• Relevant social media posts on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, or in YouTube videos
• Online articles on your own website or in other channels

Listing your experience and collaboration with partners in the Marketplace community will highlight your expertise, boost your trustworthiness, and increase exposure of your product or service.

Here’s what you can do to display your experience and collaboration:

• Software & hardware pages: Connect with solution service partners you have worked with so they can link to your Marketplace page within their content.
• Solution service pages: Add references to the software & hardware you have experience collaborating with in the ‘Our Product Experience’ section
• Reviews are also a great way for product pages to receive endorsement from other partners within the community and can act as social proof that back up your technology on Marketplace.

Did you know that pages with GROW and EXCEL memberships receive elevated promotion on Marketplace and in Milestone’s marketing channels such as our website, social media, and global campaigns?

Benefits of the GROW plan:

• Page Review for content updates twice a year
• Placement in relevant global campaign landing pages
• Highlighted in Marketplace search results (double cards)
• Highlighted in Milestone Business Update (partner newsletter)
• Opportunity of being promoted in Milestone marketing channels
• Access to page performance analytics

Benefits of the EXCEL plan:
Includes ALL the benefits as the GROW plan. Plus, you get:

• Promotion on Milestonesys.com main page
• Promotion on Marketplace front page and search page
• A personal Success Manager to align digital footprint across regions to drive traffic
• Access to Marketing Channels for further promotion such as:

1. 1. Highlighted in Milestone Business Update (partner newsletter)
   2. Featured Article in Milestone Business Update (partner newsletter)
   3. Promotion banners on Milestonesys.com and Reseller Portal
   4. Inclusion in Milestone social media

Contact Marketplace support team for more information