SEO
June 25, 2024
Today, competition is fierce. For every product, there are dozens of brands vying for attention. Standing out requires a lot of marketing, right?
Well, yes, that’s true.
Think about the last time you went on Google to find a brand to buy a product. You probably remember that brand because they made you aware of them.
This is where brand awareness comes into play. When you remember and recall brands, whether online or offline, it’s due to their efforts in building awareness.
So, how are SEO and brand awareness connected?
If you’re into SEO, you’d argue they are closely linked. But if you’re unfamiliar with SEO, you might think it’s just about ranking pages high to get clicks.
Like any other marketing channel, SEO helps with brand awareness. Ever heard of the phrase “icing on the cake”? If brand awareness is the cake, SEO is the icing.
Let’s explain how branding through SEO works to understand this concept better. But let’s first understand the basics of brand awareness as that would ease things for us.
Think about the first brand that comes to your mind when you hear cell phone, laptop, watch, or car.
For me, it’s Samsung for cell phones, Dell for laptops, Rado for watches, and Ford for cars. These are the brands I prefer for these products. I don’t own all of them, but I still know them and dream of owning a Ford Mustang someday.
But how do I know these brands or even desire a Ford car, even if I can’t afford it right now?
That’s brand familiarity. I know these brands, I want them, and if I ever get the chance to buy one, I know exactly which one to choose.
I remember their logos, their taglines, and the features of their specific products.
These brands have made an impact on me, creating emotions and feelings. This familiarity isn’t accidental. Over the years, I’ve been exposed to these brands through various channels and mediums (and SEO could be one of them).
The strategic placement and differentiation of these brands are why I remember them. This is what brand awareness is.
SEO not only improves your website’s visibility in search engines like Google but also helps increase brand awareness. The higher you rank in search results, the more visible your brand becomes to people searching for relevant keywords.
Higher visibility means more organic traffic to your website, which leads to more eyes on your brand, ultimately boosting brand awareness.
Google’s top SERP positions are given to pages that have the most authority and relevance for the searched keywords. Ranking on Google’s first page is a goal for businesses looking to stand out in an increasingly competitive market.
By occupying a top SERP position, companies become more recognizable and memorable. But that’s not the only benefit.
Ranking near the top of a search engine results page (SERP), or as the featured snippet, also serves as a form of social proof. Social proof boosts your credibility and trustworthiness, which are crucial for building brand trust.
Now that we know SEO can increase brand awareness, let’s explore how we can use SEO to boost brand awareness further.
Today, SEO isn’t just about ranking your pages. It’s about much more than that. Even if your pages rank at the top, you still need conversions, increased click-through rates (CTR), growing traffic, and yes, brand awareness!
Over time, you can strategically use SEO to build brand awareness. It takes time, just like any other aspect of SEO, but with the right tactics, it can be highly effective.
In this section, we are going to discuss how SEO can help in brand awareness.
Just like marketing is a broad term and SEO is a part of it, SEO itself has many sub-parts that need to be fundamentally sound. For example, if your website loading time is very slow, it will harm you. Not only will your rankings drop, but building brand awareness will also be much harder.
Make sure to keep the fundamentals right and avoid some common SEO mistakes. Remember to audit them quarterly or every six months.
This is the foundation of your web presence. Get it right from the start to ensure you don’t fall behind.
Important aspects include:
On-page SEO focuses on optimizing individual pages of your website.
Key elements include:
User interaction on the web has become crucial. It affects both your rankings and brand perception.
Important aspects include:
This is often the most challenging aspect of SEO, involving strategies to prove your authority.
Key tactics include:
This is one of the best ways to make your target audience aware of your brand. The art of storytelling in your content can make or break your brand awareness campaign.
Put extra thought into the design. Align the website layout to convey the values and promises you share as a brand. The combination of colors, images, and fonts should be consistent throughout and convey your brand’s personality.
Don’t forget about the tone of your content. Add this to your brand kit and ensure it is consistent across all channels, whether it’s on social media or your website. Just like a person has characteristics, your brand should have defined characteristics that are consistently used.
Use storytelling to engage your audience and build a connection with them. Share stories that reflect your brand’s values, mission, and vision. This helps in creating an emotional bond with your audience, making your brand more memorable.
By inserting your brand personality into your content, you make your brand more relatable and memorable. Consistency in design, tone, and storytelling will help in building a strong brand identity and increasing brand awareness.
Although this is a basic tip, it’s essential in any article discussing SEO. Content is one of the four pillars of marketing and should be handled with extra care.
With user personas for your target market, content creation becomes straightforward. By understanding your audience’s characteristics, intentions, and needs, you can create relevant posts using appropriate language to communicate with them.
Creating content that resonates with your audience strengthens ties with the public. It shows that your brand understands their needs and is committed to helping them.
One of the main ways to stand out is to create unique content that no other site offers. Use your unique experiences to add value:
SEO combined with thought leadership is a powerful combination that can significantly boost your brand awareness. Thought leadership involves sharing insightful, forward-thinking content that demonstrates your expertise and positions your brand as a go-to resource in your field.
Providing expert insights through in-depth articles that delve deep into industry topics can showcase your knowledge and offer unique perspectives.
When you consistently create and share high-quality content, you improve your search engine rankings and build credibility and trust within your industry.
This dual approach ensures that your brand is visible to a larger audience while also being recognized as an authority in your niche. By offering valuable information and unique viewpoints, you attract more organic traffic to your website, which in turn increases brand awareness.
Moreover, engaging with industry trends and sharing thought-provoking content can spark discussions and interactions within your target audience.
This not only enhances your brand’s visibility but also fosters a sense of community and loyalty among your followers. Hosting webinars, and podcasts, and writing guest posts for reputable industry blogs further amplifies your reach and establishes your brand’s voice across multiple platforms.
I’m sure if you’re maintaining your SEO, you’re already building backlinks. But with a bit more strategic link building, you can use backlinks to boost brand awareness too.
When building links for your website, the best links to promote awareness of your brand are those that link to your homepage using branded or some variation of your branded anchor texts.
This not only helps with SEO but also ensures that your brand name gets more visibility.
Think about the industry you’re operating in. There are always listicle blogs ranking high in search engines (like “Top 10 Best Watches” or “Best Watches for Professional Females”).
For example, we reached out to one of the famous personalities in the SEO industry to list Serpple in one of his listicle articles. This article is about the best rank tracking tools and is ranking on the 1st page of Google for many keywords.
These blogs get a lot of traffic, and having your brand mentioned in them can significantly boost your visibility and increase brand searches.
Reach out to these blogs and propose including your brand. If they agree, you’ll have your brand mentioned in a context that highlights your strengths and appeals directly to potential customers.
Another tactic is to participate in interviews and expert roundups. Many industry blogs feature expert opinions on various topics. By contributing to these, you get a backlink and also position your brand as a thought leader.
There are many other key SEO activities that you can do, however, these are some of them that can impact brand awareness the most. Moving on when you do all these activities, you need to keep track of how your brand awareness is increasing.
In the next section, we will see how you can keep track of this.
Measuring brand awareness is a challenge. Data-obsessed professionals may find it uncomfortable due to its subjective nature. However, some indicators can help you understand whether your brand and its attributes are resonating with people.
Another challenge when analyzing brand awareness is determining how much SEO has contributed to it. Brands often have multiple marketing strategies running simultaneously, all contributing to branding efforts. Therefore, it’s important to control and monitor the impact of your SEO optimizations on brand awareness from the time they are implemented.
To do this, you can apply these resources:
These tools provide valuable data on how users are finding your site and interacting with your content. Track metrics such as organic traffic, bounce rates, and session durations to gauge user engagement. Look for increases in branded searches, which indicate growing brand awareness.
Use tools like Google Alerts to track how often and where your brand is mentioned online. An increase in brand mentions over time can signal that your SEO efforts are improving brand visibility.
Social media platforms are excellent for gauging brand awareness. Monitor your brand’s mentions, shares, and engagement on platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
Serpple backlink monitor can help you track the number and quality of backlinks to your site. An increase in high-quality backlinks often correlates with higher brand authority and awareness.
Direct feedback from your audience can provide insights into your brand’s awareness and reputation. Conduct surveys or polls to ask your customers how they found out about your brand and what they think of it.
Monitor the search volume of your brand’s name and related keywords using tools like Google Trends or Keyword Planner. An increase in branded search volume is a strong indicator of growing brand awareness.
Brand awareness and SEO are two interlinked strategies that significantly impact your rankings on Google and other search engines. By integrating branding into your SEO strategies and measuring its impact, you can boost your rankings while becoming a recognizable brand name.
To accomplish your SEO goals, you need great written content that resonates with your audience, showcases your brand’s personality, and establishes you as a thought leader. With consistent effort and strategic planning, you can enhance both your SEO performance and brand awareness, ultimately driving more traffic and building a loyal customer base.
