Surround Sound SEO: Creating a Campaign

To create a campaign within the Surround Sound tool you’ll need:

• Brand name (mandatory)
• Brand domain (optional, but highly recommended)
• Brand name and domain for 2-3 competitors (optional, but highly recommended)
• A list of keywords at least 5 keywords you’re targeting (mandatory)

Brand name

The brand name is exactly what we will search for within the text of website pages while looking for mentions. 

Some brand names are commonly misspelled in search. If yours is among them, enter additional spellings as competitors (see below for instructions). 

Brand domain

This is the link we’ll search for on other websites. Without this information we won’t be able to find links to your domain. Enter the domain without https://www. So, apple.com rather than https://apple.com or https://www.apple.com. 

Competitors

Adding brand names and domains for your competitors is key to finding your next great SERPs opportunities! Enter a brand name and domain for each.

If you know competitors, skip this step. If you don’t, please read on.

• Go to Organic Research
• Enter your domain into the search field and hit Enter
• When the report loads, move from Overview tab to the Competitors tab
• Scan through the list of competitors and choose one or two. Don’t feel compelled to choose the top results. Choose domains that seem to be the closest competition. If you’re not sure which are the closest competitors, open up their sites and take a look at their content.
  
  

Search queries (keywords)

These are the keywords for which you’d like to rank in search results. Aim to add 25-50 for the most accurate results. If you have a list, simply copy and paste.

If you don’t already have your keyword list, start here with the first option. Options two and three are, well, optional!

1. The simplest: Compile a list of organic keywords for which your domain already ranks.
   1. Go to Organic Research
   2. Enter your domain into search field and hit Enter
   3. When the report loads go from Overview tab to Positions tab
   4. Filter by commercial intent to get the keywords people use when they're ready to make a decision.
      
      
   5. Hit Export in the top right corner and choose First 100, then export them in CSV (or any other convenient format) - 
   6. Depending on the number of results you get, you may refine this list, removing branded keywords before exporting:
      Use Advanced filters -> Exclude -> Keyword -> Containing -> Your brand name

2. OPTIONAL: You may wish to replace some of the keywords on this list with some of the keywords for which your competitors rank. Repeat the steps above to identify competitor keywords. Pick out any you’d like to rank for that aren’t already on your list.  
   
   
    
3. OPTIONAL: If you and your competitors rank for a large number of keywords, you may want to focus some of your attention on the words where you overlap. Use the Keyword Gap tool to find terms for which you and your competitors are all ranking.
   1. Go to Keyword Gap
   2. Enter your domain in the field marked by “You” label
   3. Then enter your competitor(s) in the next field(s).
   4. Hit Export in the top right corner and choose First 100, then export them in CSV (or any other convenient format).
      
      
   5. Add the desired keywords to your list. NOTE: By default, you are allotted 50 keywords. If you need more, click the "Get more keywords" button in campaign settings.

Now we have all the information we need to setup a campaign.

1. Go to Surround Sound
2. Click the “Try it out” button on the landing page.
3. Click “New campaign” to create your first campaign
4. In a pop-up window 
   1. Enter campaign name. This can be anything and doesn’t affect campaign performance (“Test campaign” “SEO Coverage for My Business”).
   2. SERP depth. This is how many positions from Google SERPs the tool will be analyzing. We recommend starting with 10 or 20.
   3. Choose your location.
   4. Language and Device settings can’t be changed just yet. Language is set based on the chosen location and device is set to Desktop.
   5. Keywords: copy/paste your keywords into the text field, each keyword on a new line. Don’t worry about duplicates, we’ll remove them. If you have more than one list, just copy/paste below the previous. NOTE: By default, you are allotted 50 keywords. If you need more, click the "Get more keywords" button in campaign settings.
   6. To the right under “Main brand,” enter your brand name exactly as you want us to search for it (remember, if there are several to search for, enter the additional names as competitors). 
   7. Enter the domain name (remember: not https://www.domain.com/, but domain.com)
   8. Repeat for your competitors.
      
      
5. Hit Create campaign