Online, there is a thin line between recognizable brands and those that fade in the background. It is natural to crave attention online. You want people to recognize your brand— a “When you think about premium coffee, think Starbucks” kind of attention. But how do you get people to notice you?
Search Engine Optimization: The Key to Brand Recognition
Digital Authority Partners said that a strong brand could place any business at the top of customer searches. There are many ways to boost recognition, but none can be more effective than search engine optimization (SEO).
SEO is a collection of strategies to improve your rankings in online searches. When used properly, SEO strategies can propel your business website to the first page of search engine results.
It is a fact that most people never look past the first page of search engine searches. So if you want to grab more attention or if you want people to start recognizing your brand, you should aim for the first page, the first few ranks on Google.
Ways SEO Increases Brand Traffic
Think of your website as your digital storefront. SEO can drive more customers in like a billboard. But this does not happen overnight. It would be best to have careful planning, a keen understanding of your customer’s needs, and the right SEO tactics to work.
Hiring an SEO company can help boost your optimization strategies. SEO experts are equipped with the right and updated knowledge about various SEO algorithms and utilize advanced SEO tools in monitoring metrics. But make sure to choose an SEO company that can provide foolproof credentials, an impressive portfolio, flexible terms, and excellent client support. Find a reputable SEO company in your area that can get you more leads to boost your traffic and revenue.
You can seek word-of-mouth referrals from your business industry colleagues or browse the web to get a list of potential SEO companies. Once you have the list, visit their websites and check whether they have the qualities and resources to help improve your branded traffic. You can also read client reviews online or call your prospect’s previous clients to learn more about them. Having an SEO consultant from a reliable SEO consulting company is crucial for maximizing your online success, as their expertise and guidance can help optimize your website, boost search engine rankings, and ultimately drive more organic traffic to your business.
Use High-quality and Relevant Content
Search engines rank websites according to relevance and quality. Before, the use of keywords, keyword placement, and keyword density mattered a lot.
But these resulted in marketers stuffing their content with keywords making these impossible to digest. For a brief moment, these methods worked until loaded sites were flagged because of poor quality content.
What matters most is offering quality, relevant, relatable content. People will likely come back and check out what you offer if you give them the best content.
You can even count on people sharing your content if they find it interesting. So do your best to upgrade your site content, be it text, videos, images, or infographics.
- Find out what content your customers are looking for.
- Rely on industry trends, the latest news about your business, or reviews.
- Don’t neglect using the right keywords and keyword placement for easy indexing.
- Insert a call-to-action in your content to engage your customers.
- Encourage sharing, commenting, and reviewing your business.
- Review products or services related to your business.
In addition, diversifying your content can help attract more brand customers. Aside from texts, you can incorporate infographics, charts, tables, videos, images, and audio into your content. Just make sure that these content pieces have optimized titles and descriptions to boost your SEO and traffic.
This is especially true if you use WordPress as your content management system. So, to help you with the optimisation process, consider working with professionals specialising in WordPress development. They can apply strategic techniques to ensure your website content is SEO-ready and interactive. They can also provide technical solutions, such as improving page speed and usability to make your site content more navigable. As a result, you can meet all the required SEO specifications and improve your branded traffic.
Implement Local SEO Strategies
If your business targets local customers, you will benefit from local SEO practices. Local SEO varies from location to location because there is a different environment for every area.
Standing out in a busy city such as Chicago or San Diego is often challenging, especially when other businesses are similar to yours. To get people to notice your brand, you need to develop creative, engaging marketing tactics.
- Create a Google My Business (GMB) profile. Let’s discuss more GMB in the preceding sections.
- Use geo-specific keywords to zero in on your local business.
- Create business listings in various online directories.
- Develop landing pages specific to different locations.
Hire a local SEO company instead of outsourcing them abroad or elsewhere. Local SEO companies know your target market very well. Therefore, local SEO specialists can create the best content optimization strategies for your brand to gain more traffic, conversions, and customers.
Use GMB and Local SEO
Every business featured on Google has a GMB profile. This is the first thing your customers find when they search your business online. Your GMB offers an introduction to your business with your business name, address, and phone number.
Aside from this basic business information, your GMB listing also offers a brief description of your business, reviews, photos, website, and business hours.
Marketers must update their GMB and ensure that information is the same on their online platforms. Use SEO to boost your GMB and rank your business higher on Google.
- Include your keywords in your GMB description.
- Encourage your customers to rate and review your business.
- Respond to comments, even negative ones.
- Upload photos of your business with your brand name or signage.
- Update your hours of operation and include holiday hours.
- Update your website information to match your GMB profile.
Your GMB profile also complements your Maps information. If you have more than one business location, you must create separate GMB profiles for each. Maps will lead your customers to your business locations while driving, walking, or taking public transport.
Google My Business is one of the most powerful tools for SEO that can help you improve your branded traffic. It would be best if you never overlooked this strategy.
Recognize the Power of Guest Posting
Having your business, products, services, or brand featured on an authoritative site is one of the best ways to boost your brand reputation. Guest posting can instantly boost your credibility, but this is a two-way street. Your site must also welcome guest posts from business websites relevant to your industry.
Create content that will earn you links and mentions on various digital platforms. This will build your network, enhancing your brand traffic.
- Aim for organic mentions of your brand on high-rankling sites. Google and other search engines will identify your business as reputable and authoritative.
- Use industry-specific keywords in your content.
- Add internal links to support your link-building strategies.
You can work with a guest posting or link-building agency to tackle this job. Another option is working with a journalist outreach agency or ‘Help a Reporter Out’ platform. You can answer reporters’ queries relevant to your niche and get a chance for your quote and link to be added to the next article. That way, you can earn backlinks from high-authority websites through collaboration with journalists.
Drive Traffic Through Social Media Marketing
Social media has played a crucial role in molding the reputation of businesses. You can use social media’s wide reach to engage customers and establish your brand as a reputable and quality business. You can also use various social media platforms for advertising your products or services and convincing users to do business with your brand.
Social media marketing can also help you learn about your competitors. To boost your branded traffic, you need to understand how your competitors work and use those insights to develop marketing strategies that’ll attract your target audience.
On the other hand, social media can also provide increased local exposure for your brand. For instance, social media sites such as Facebook use user demographics to help businesses connect with their target audiences. Use this feature to aim for local exposure or adjust settings to micro-focus on target groups depending on your products or services.
There are many ways to use social media platforms to your advantage:
- Link your blog, product sites, and business website to your social media account.
- Post relevant, helpful, and reliable information.
- Optimize your social media posts with the right keywords.
- Post regularly.
- Post shareable content.
- Use social media metrics to improve your reach and engagement.
Final Words
SEO can boost your brand reputation and help grow your business. When used properly, it can be your efficient, practical, go-to digital marketing technique. SEO should always be your number one strategy, no matter what type of business you engage in.