Today I want to look at the Summit County Ohio election race from a search engine optimization perspective.
When you think about SEO you have to start with the key phrases your audience is searching on.
This could be things like:
- Your name
- Your competitor’s name
- The particular office you are running for
- And then more general phrases like:
- Summit county phrases
- General election phrases
- Issues within your race
Search engine optimization is a big, ongoing topic.
But there are some high level things that should probably be on the top of your list.
It would seem to me that if someone types in the office you are running for you probably should come up. From a search engine perspective, it’s the best way you can get your voice heard.
There are 15 Summit County races.
I’m going to list the Republican and Democratic candidate for each race and then list the search results that come up on the first page for each race in Google. I’ll put a little review under each search results list.
Keep in mind that roughly 75% of all searchers click on the first 3 results.
SUMMIT COUNTY EXECUTIVE
RUSS PRY (D)
Frank A. Larson, Jr. (R)
- http://www.co.summit.oh.us/executive/index.htm
- http://www.co.summit.oh.us/
- http://www.neotec.org/site.cfm/About-NEOTEC/Joint-Office-of-Economic-Dev-/Summit-County-Executive.cfm
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Summit_County,_Ohio
- http://russpry.com/
- https://www.summitdjfs.org/about/summit-county-executive.html
- http://www.summitdjfs.org/
Russ Pry’s website is #5. Frank Larson doesn’t show up most likely because he doesn’t have a website. Russ Pry is also the focus in position #1 and #6. His contact information is in #3.
Russ Pry completely dominates those search results.
Summit County Prosecutor
SHERRI BEVAN WALSH (D)
Candace Kim Knox (R)
- http://www.co.summit.oh.us/prosecutor/index.htm
- http://www.co.summit.ut.us/attorney/index.php
- http://fairlawn-bath.patch.com/articles/summit-county-prosecutor-earns-public-service-award
- http://www.linkedin.com/company/summit-county-prosecutor’s-office
- http://www.downtownakron.com/go/summit-county-prosecutor
- http://www.ohio.com/news/local/assistant-prosecutors-in-summit-county-nab-raises-but-pay-still-modest-compared-to-peers-1.325157
- http://www.facebook.com/pages/Candace-Kim-Knox-for-Summit-County-Prosecutor/166129840140033
Sherri Walsh is the current prosecutor. So her information comes up in position #1.
But I’m very please to see Candace Knox’s Facebook page come up in position #7. This was not listed on the Summit County GOP page. That should definitely be fixed. Candace hasn’t written anything on her Facebook page since February 21. She should start updating that daily.
The linkedin page that ranks #4 is a great idea.
I think the reason Candace’s Facebook page ranks in the search results and Sherri’s doesn’t is because Candace’s title is “Candace Kim Knox for Summit County Prosecutor”.
She uses the phrase “Summit County Prosecutor.” Sherri should use that phrase in her Facebook page as well.
Summit County Clerk Of Courts
DANIEL HORRIGAN (D)
Kandi O’Connor (R)
- http://www.cpclerk.co.summit.oh.us/
- http://www.sccjis.co.summit.oh.us/SummitCounty.asp
- http://courts.ci.akron.oh.us/
- http://www.drcourt.org/
- http://www.drcourt.org/forms.htm
- http://www.summitohioprobate.com/
- http://204.126.123.146/Naturalization/NaturalizationSearch.aspx
Horrigan has a website. But it doesn’t show up in the search results. Most likely it’s because his home page title is: “Vote For Horrigan”. It should include the phrase “Summit County Clerk Of Courts.”
I really like that he has his own separate website for his campaign. Having that allows him to tell his personal story much better. That said, because he is the current Clerk of Courts his picture is on the #1 search results page.
Kandi O’Connor has no representation in the top search results in Google.
Summit County Sheriff
Randy L. Rivers (R)
STEVE BARRY (D)
- http://www.co.summit.oh.us/sheriff/
- http://www.summitcountysheriff.org/
- http://www.summitcountysheriff.org/jail/bookings.html
- http://www.summitcountysheriff.org/community/CodeRED/codered.html
- http://www.summitcountysheriff.org/Supportservices/communications.html
- http://www.summitcountysheriff.org/contact/index.html
- http://www.co.summit.oh.us/
- http://www.co.summit.co.us/index.aspx?NID=109
Drew Alexander is the current Sheriff. So this is a great race for both candidates. Search results are even more important in this case for both of them.
Steve Barry has his own website: http://www.stevebarryforsheriff.com/ But it doesn’t rank in the top search results. A big reason for that is probably because his home page title is: “Home Page.”
He should change it to: “Steve Barry for Summit County Ohio Sheriff.”
Incidentally, http://www.summitcountysheriff.org/ is for Park City, Utah. They dominate these results. Their SEO is better than Summit County Ohio’s SEO. They have a lot of really great content on that site. Ohio would do well to look at what they are doing.
Summit County Fiscal Officer
Ronald A. Antal (R)
KRISTEN M. SCALISE (D)
- http://fiscaloffice.summitoh.net/
- http://www.ronantal.com/
- http://www.co.summit.oh.us/internalaudit/PDFs/Treasurer%20prelim%20report%203.10.10.pdf
- http://www.co.summit.oh.us/ConsumerAffairs/pdfs/NO%20MARKUP%20-Fiscal%20Office%20Tax%20Settlement%20Prelim%20Rep%20FINAL.pdf
- http://www.co.summit.oh.us/ConsumerAffairs/pdfs/NO%20MARKUP-Fiscal%20Office%20Investments%20Prelim%20Rep%20FINAL.pdf
- http://www.downtownakron.com/go/summit-county-fiscal-office
- http://stow.patch.com/topics/Summit+County+Fiscal+Officer
I am a big Web marketing fan of Ron Antal. He is a local Republican that is really working this scene. He is #2 in the search results here. Nice work, Ron!
Kristen has a site: http://votescalise.com/ but it doesn’t show up in the top search results. Again, it’s probably because her title is: “Home – Kristen Scalise.” It needs to include the phrase “Summit County Fiscal Officer.”
Ron’s title is: “Ron Antal for Summit County Fiscal Officer | Home Page”. That’s perfect!
Ron: you should go into Web marketing for Republicans. They need your help.
Summit County Engineer
Bruce L. Robinson (R)
ALAN BRUBAKER (D)
- http://engineer.co.summit.oh.us/
- http://www.co.summit.ut.us/engineering/index.php
- http://www.co.summit.co.us/index.aspx?NID=184
- http://www.summitengineer.net/
- http://www.urscorp.com/
- http://www.babcock.com/
- http://www.arcadis-us.com/
- http://www.ctiengr.com/
- http://www.pearceengineering.com/
- http://www.kci.com/
- http://fiscaloffice.summitoh.net/index.php/geographic-information
- http://www.brubakerforengineer.com/home.html
- http://stow.patch.com/topics/Summit+County+Engineer
- http://utah.citysearch.com/profile/10346786/coalville_ut/summit_county_engineer.html
Alan Brubaker is the current Summit County Engineer so his picture is in the #1 result. But he also has a website: http://www.brubakerforengineer.com/. It’s doesn’t appear until position 12. Again, this is probably because he doesn’t have the phrase “Summit County Engineer” in his title. His home page title is: Home < Alan Brubaker.
Bruce L. Robinson has no representation in the search results.
Summit County Council-At-Large
Jane M. Davis (R)
SANDRA KURT (D)
- http://www.co.summit.oh.us/council/organized.asp
- http://www.akron.com/pages.asp?aID=10616
- http://www.akron.com/pages.asp?aID=10504
- http://thepostnewspapers.com/norton/localnews/ELECTIONS-summit-county-council-at-large-Norton-10-24–miller-
- http://kurtforcouncil.com/
- http://www.victoryfund.org/endorsed_candidates/profile/candidate:628
- http://www.the-news-leader.com/news/article/4910805
- http://summitcountylife.wordpress.com/2010/09/01/meet-the-fresh-faces-roemer-and-schwan-summit-county-council-at-large-candidates/
- http://www.onntv.com/content/sections/politics/elections/results.jsp?county=Summit&s=View
- http://www.stowsentry.com/news/article/5155836
Sandra Kurt comes in at #5 for this phrase. Nice job, Sandra! It’s very likely because her title is: “Sandra Kurt | Summit County Council At-Large”.
But I think she could do better in the search results if she would use the phrase “Summit County Council At-Large” more in her site copy. (After the title, this is the next most important thing you should do.)
There are no 3 word or 4 word phrases used more than once on her home page. “County council” and “Summit county” are the only keyword rich phrases that are use more than once (besides her name).
I would recommend using the phrase “Summit County Council At-Large” 3 times in the body copy. But make sure they make sense! Don’t just stuff them at the bottom of the page. Talk about why you want to be elected for “Summit County Council At-Large.”
Jane M. Davis is not represented in the search results.
Summit County Council Districts
These all have similar issues. Instead of commenting on each of them I’m going to write a summary at the bottom…
SUMMIT COUNTY COUNCIL, DISTRICT 1
NICK KOSTANDARAS, SR. (D)
Greg W. Roemer (R)
- http://www.co.summit.oh.us/council/nkostandaras.asp
- http://www.co.summit.oh.us/council/index.htm
- http://www.co.summit.oh.us/council/tcrawford.asp
- http://www.summitcountygop.org/
- http://www.summitdems.org/summit-county-democratic-candidates.aspx
- http://www.summitdems.org/Data/Sites/62/assets/2012_summit_county_democratic_party_general_election_candidates_final.pdf
- http://www.summitcountyboe.com/PDFs/2012/November2012candidateList.pdf
- http://www.co.summit.co.us/wildfiremitigation/
- http://fairlawn-bath.patch.com/topics/Summit+County+Council
- http://fairlawn-bath.patch.com/articles/summit-county-council-splits-bath-township-into-two-districts
SUMMIT COUNTY COUNCIL, DISTRICT 2
JOHN SCHMIDT (D)
Nancy A. Delambo (R)
- http://www.summitdems.org/summit-county-democratic-candidates.aspx
- http://www.summitcountygop.org/
- http://www.summitcountygop.org/republicans/index.php/candidates
- http://www.co.summit.oh.us/council/newsreleases.asp
- http://www.co.summit.oh.us/council/PDFs/pdfs/Press%20Releases%20and%20Advisories/Schmidt%20Meeting%20Press%20Release.pdf
- http://www.co.summit.oh.us/council/organized.asp
- http://kpcw.org/2012/06/summit-county-election-results/
- http://www.summitcountyboe.com/PDFs/2012/November2012candidateList.pdf
- http://www.co.summit.co.us/wildfiremitigation/
- http://fairlawn-bath.patch.com/articles/summit-county-council-splits-bath-township-into-two-districts
SUMMIT COUNTY COUNCIL, DISTRICT 3
RUSS IONA (D)
Gloria J. Rodgers (R)
- http://www.co.summit.oh.us/council/districtmap.asp
- http://www.summitdems.org/summit-county-democratic-candidates.aspx
- http://summitdems.org/Events/ViewEvent.aspx?pageid=2306&mid=3795&ItemID=10989
- http://www.summitcountygop.org/
- http://www.summitcountygop.org/republicans/index.php/candidates
- http://www.summitcountygop.org/republicans/index.php/public-officials
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Summit_County,_Ohio
- http://www.summitcountyboe.com/PDFs/2012/November2012candidateList.pdf
- http://www.hudsonhubtimes.com/news/article/5191159
- http://lwvhudsonohio.org/VG_CandidatesforofficeSCCouncil.htm
SUMMIT COUNTY COUNCIL, DISTRICT 4
FRANK C. COMUNALE (D)
Mike Hoover (R)
- http://www.co.summit.oh.us/council/index.htm
- http://www.co.summit.oh.us/council/fcomunale.asp
- http://www.co.summit.oh.us/council/PDFs/pdfs/Council%20Members/Biography%205-3-11.pdf
- http://akronnewsnow.com/news/local/itemlist/tag/Summit%20County%20Council%20District%204
- http://akronnewsnow.com/news/local/item/12290-ward-8s-montgomery-files-for-summit-county-district-4-seat
- http://www.summitcountygop.org/
- http://www.summitdems.org/summit-county-democratic-candidates.aspx
- http://friendsofphil.com/
- http://www.ohio.com/editorial/editorials/for-the-summit-county-council-1.264715
- http://www.ohio.com/news/local/summit-county-council-features-four-primary-races-1.266334
SUMMIT COUNTY COUNCIL, DISTRICT 5
TAMELA LEE (D)
Lance Reed (R)
- http://www.co.summit.oh.us/council/tlee.asp
- http://www.co.summit.oh.us/council/index.htm
- http://www.summitdems.org/summit-county-democratic-candidates.aspx
- http://www.summitdems.org/Data/Sites/62/assets/2012_summit_county_democratic_party_general_election_candidates_final.pdf
- http://www.summitcountygop.org/
- http://www.summitcountygop.org/republicans/index.php/candidates
- http://www.summitcountyboe.com/PDFs/2012/November2012candidateList.pdf
- http://politics.ohio.com/2011/04/candidates-line-up-for-summit-county-council/
- http://boe.cuyahogacounty.us/en-US/2010CountyExecutiveCountyCouncil.aspx
- http://www.cleveland.com/cuyahoga-county-reform/index.ssf/2010/07/cuyahoga_county_councils_district_5.html
SUMMIT COUNTY COUNCIL, DISTRICT 6
JERRY E. FEEMAN (D)
Faith M. Bennetts
- http://www.summitdems.org/summit-county-democratic-candidates.aspx
- http://www.summitcountygop.org/
- http://www.summitcountyboe.com/PDFs/2012/November2012candidateList.pdf
- http://council.cuyahogacounty.us/en-US/District-6.aspx
- http://elections.utah.gov/Media/Default/2012%20Candidate%20Certifications/2012%20Candidate%20Certification.pdf
- http://www.wkyc.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=143031
- http://www.ohio.com/news/local/summit-county-council-features-four-primary-races-1.266334
- http://www.tallmadgeexpress.com/news/article/5208848
- http://www.tallmadgeexpress.com/news/article/5165916
- http://www.co.summit.oh.us/council/feeman-pics.asp
SUMMIT COUNTY COUNCIL, DISTRICT 7
TIM S. CRAWFORD (D)
Larry M. Ashbaugh (R)
- http://www.co.summit.oh.us/council/tcrawford.asp
- http://www.co.summit.oh.us/council/PDFs/pdfs/Council%20Members/TIM%20CRAWFORD.pdf
- http://www.summitdems.org/summit-county-democratic-candidates.aspx
- http://www.summitcountygop.org/
- http://www.summitcountygop.org/republicans/index.php/candidates
- http://www.cleveland.com/election-results/index.ssf/2012/03/primary_election_results_summi.html
- http://www.ohio.com/news/politics/summit-county-council-features-four-primary-races-1.266334
- http://www.summitcountyboe.com/PDFs/2012/November2012candidateList.pdf
- http://boe.cuyahogacounty.us/en-US/2010CountyExecutiveCountyCouncil.aspx
- http://council.cuyahogacounty.us/en-US/district-7.aspx
SUMMIT COUNTY COUNCIL, DISTRICT 8
PAULA S. PRENTICE (D)
Tom Wolfe (R)
- http://www.co.summit.oh.us/council/pprentice.asp
- http://www.co.summit.oh.us/executive/capimprov.htm
- http://summit-u.com/
- http://www.summitcountygop.org/
- http://www.summitdems.org/summit-county-democratic-candidates.aspx
- http://www.summitdems.org/Data/Sites/62/assets/2012_summit_county_democratic_party_general_election_candidates_final.pdf
- http://www.cleveland.com/cuyahoga-county-reform/index.ssf/2010/07/cuyahoga_county_council_distri.html
- http://www.cleveland.com/election-results/index.ssf/2012/03/primary_election_results_summi.html
- http://paulaprentice.blogspot.com/p/about-paula.html
- http://akronnewsnow.com/news/local/item/12290-ward-8s-montgomery-files-for-summit-county-district-4-seat
None of the candidates here are ranking for these results.
Because of that I think the party sites should step in and help.
An easy thing to do would be to create biographies for each party’s candidate on the party website. The title of each one would have the same recipe:
Vote for Tom Wolfe for SUMMIT COUNTY Ohio COUNCIL, DISTRICT 8
Each biography should have that type of title.
The reason this would be helpful is because the party sites are going to be stronger than the individual candidates’ sites.
I would still strongly encourage them to have their own sites. But this should be something that the party does for them as well.
The other thing I noticed is that the Democratic website typically out ranks the GOP website.
I believe this mostly has to do with links.
According to SEMrsuh, http://www.summitcountygop.org/ has 8 links pointing to the domain and http://summitdems.org/ has 228 links pointing to it.
http://summitdems.org/ isn’t without it’s own problems.
Both http://summitdems.org/ and http://www.summitdems.org/ are coming up in the search results. (We call that a “canonical issue” in the biz.)
This is dividing up your overall weight. You need to fix this issue.
http://www.summitdems.org/ should 301 redirect to http://summitdems.org/
Paula Prentice is on the board with her site: http://paulaprentice.blogspot.com/p/about-paula.html. This is great! She has a great title. But she needs more people to link to her site.
If you have a website and are not coming up in the search results I want you to do 2 things:
- Use the position you are running for in your site titles and body copy. Each page of your site is a contender for ranking in the search results.
- Get people to link to you. Just ask people to link to you. This shouldn’t be a problem. Undoubtedly you have supporters. This is a great way for them to help your campaign.
Search engine optimization is a slow process. If you set up a website today I don’t have a lot of hope that you will rank any time soon for the election. But if you could get your party to write something on their site for you that would be incredibly helpful.
The quickest way to get into the search results is to buy your way in. AdWords is how you do that. Just bid on the phrases you want to rank for. And poof! You are in the search results.
