SEO for Branding: How a Well-Built SEO Strategy Helps You Build Brand Awareness

The prime purpose of SEO (search engine optimization) is to drive organic traffic to your site, but that's not its only function. Using SEO for branding can directly build brand awareness.

If your SEO strategy works as it should, your brand will be at the top of the search results. A high ranking leads to further engagement with your site, products, and services, but even without this, your business name will have been seen and have made an impact. It is how SEO for branding works.

For this reason, it's vital to evaluate the SEO value of your content and make sure it's fit for purpose in terms of traffic and brand.

What Is Branded Search in SEO?

When your brand name appears at the top of search results, it's great for visibility. But you want more than to get your name out there; you also wish to know what your brand stands for, for its values, style, and products to gain recognition.

SEO can do more than get traffic to your website; it can improve the chances of getting the right traffic, in other words getting site visits from those more likely to be receptive and interested in what the business offers.

SEO means optimizing your content for higher visibility and more targeted reach of your natural customers. Suppose you understand how a brand funnel works. In that case, you'll appreciate that attracting customers less likely to fall away as they progress from search results to hopefully making a purchase is where SEO can impact. Let's look at why SEO for branding is so beneficial.

Why Is SEO Good for Brand Awareness?

There's a wide choice when it comes to raising brand awareness. Social media and paid advertising can be effective, but what's unique about SEO is that it can be incredibly cost-effective and can take up less of your time.

Optimizing your content to use SEO for branding is beneficial for all parts of the business. It should be part of your regular business process rather than a unique or separate effort to increase brand awareness.

SEO drives traffic and conversions to your site, but consumers should experience your well-crafted, honed brand persona and message once they get on your site. SEO for branding is effective because target customers gravitate to your brand via SEO content that's relevant and appealing. It pushes your business to the top of the search results.

How Do You Build a Branded Search Strategy?

It should be a multi-faceted approach. Let's look at the most crucial elements of how to raise awareness.

Website

Rising to the top of the search rankings isn't just about content. It's all very well having a flashing sign and an inviting open door, but once consumers enter your virtual store, the experience must come up to scratch.

A good browsing experience impresses Google and also creates positive brand awareness. Make sure your site is intuitive and pleasing to navigate. Ensure its optimized for mobile and accessible through various platforms. Customer experience is key to building brand awareness; using SEO for better customer experience can mean the difference between creating a positive impression of your brand and a negative one.

Consider the functionality of your website; is it responsive? Do links work properly? Is it optimized in terms of security? Is it slow to load? However great your content, a slow and clunky site will undo the great work your SEO content has done.

Match Content to Brand

This may sound obvious, but it's not just a case of having good SEO content. The content must have a strong relationship with your brand and must align with your brand message. It is a surefire way to satisfy new customers and consolidate customer loyalty.

Relevant content means content that's useful, of interest, and appealing to the kind of customer you want to attract. But relevance isn't just about content; it's about style, tone, and trends. It means speaking in the language your target customers expect and keeping up with changes and fashions in your business sector.

Local content is also essential for many brands; the appeal of your website content doesn't necessarily have to be global; don't be afraid to develop local content for SEO if that aligns with your brand.

Quality Content

Content should be updated regularly and be of excellent quality. Google will notice if you ensure fresh, new content is added and provides valued information and insights to your target consumers. Reach out to the broader world within your sector, have guest posts, and try affiliate marketing; an affiliate marketing template can be helpful with this type of mutual promotion.

Your SEO content should be engaging and have a strong flavor of your brand personality. Customers expect a confident expression of who you are and what you offer and stand for. Your content is the way to do this.

Keywords

Keywords are vital in SEO for branding. It's worth searching for the most helpful and relevant keywords for your market sector and the shape of your business. Using keywords well can be a case of less is more; you want them to feature strongly in your content, but beware of over-stuffing with as many keywords as possible.

It will be transparent to consumers, off-putting, and counterproductive. There's no value in drawing people in only to put them off or disappoint them with poorly crafted content containing only wedged-in keywords. In selecting your keywords, look at branded V non-branded keywords; not all customers spell words correctly or know the exact name of the brand they're seeking.

Links

Building links into your content involves adding links from other sites to your own; it can drive additional traffic and aid brand awareness. But as with content, the links must be relevant and add value to your content; if not, it can be detrimental and distracts your brand and message.

Just as cloud collaboration solutions can connect dispersed teams and streamline communication, links from other websites can help you connect with a greater consumer base by benefitting from the traffic bound for other sites that complement your brand and business.

How to Measure Brand Awareness

Businesses look for efficiency in working practices, organization, and communication, such as solutions like enterprise call center software from Dialpad. It's essential, therefore, to carefully assess whether a strategy has been valuable and worthwhile or not.

We've looked at individual strategies for SEO branding, but once you've made sure all of these areas are covered, how do you know if your efforts have been successful? It's not always easy to establish precisely how much impact SEO has had on awareness of your brand, but there are some ways to check.

You can look for branded searches. In other words, Google searches that include your brand name. It is a crucial indicator for identifying a boost in brand awareness. Check Google Analytics for the keywords driving traffic to your site, and cross reference this with your SEO content. Look at where growth in numbers is occurring.

You can also look at direct traffic to your site, in other words, searchers who have put your URL in the search engine. Using your URL like this is a direct indicator of consumer awareness of your brand.

It's also worth setting up Google alerts whenever social media or other platforms mention your brand. It shows that your brand is in the public consciousness and is part of online conversations and posts.

You can also use a social media reporting tool to assess if your brand appears in posts in a positive or complementary way or the opposite. Being mentioned is excellent, as long as it's not because of customer frustration or complaints.

SEO for Branding - an Essential Strategy

Whether you want to scale up your business or reach a wider audience, focusing on SEO for branding is a practical move. However, as we've seen, getting your SEO for branding strategy right is crucial. Measuring and monitoring its success and contribution to your brand is also vital.

The most effective SEO for branding strategy involves:

• Research.
• Defining your brand message and personality.
• Crafting great content.
• Knowing what your consumer base wants.
• Being clever with your use of links.

On top of this, you need a website that functions well enough to support this work.

All of these efforts should raise your brand awareness and knock on sales and engagement. Offline, customers will talk about your brand and pass on their positive impressions to others by word of mouth. SEO for brand awareness should be a crucial part of your marketing strategy and be considered in every element of your website content.