How to Use SEO to Build Your Brand and Increase Brand Awareness

It’s no secret that the marketing world has majorly gone digital in recent years. We live in a digital age where people are connected more than ever, and businesses are capitalizing on this to reach their customers. 

But how are businesses managing to reach their customers effectively?

The magic three words - search engine optimization (SEO). But what is SEO? And why is any conversation related to marketing now incomplete without SEO? 

In this article, we will reveal the basics of SEO and how to use SEO to build brand awareness.

What is SEO?

Better Google SERP ranking? SEO.

Better click through rate? SEO.

Better revenue? SEO.

But what is SEO?

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the process of optimizing a website's content, structure, and user experience to improve and maintain its organic visibility on a search engine. SEO improves your website’s visibility to show up higher in the SERPs, increasing the chances of users clicking on your website over your competitors.

SEO involves various techniques, including keyword research, on-page optimization, technical SEO, link building, and more to help a website rank higher in organic search results. With SEO, you can be sure that people will find your website when they search for keywords related to your service or product.

What is Branding?

Branding is your trump card to surpass those who have better ranking and better SEO than you. Yes, chart better click through rates and garner more revenue than those ahead of you in Google SERPs.

But literally speaking, branding is the creation of a strong positive image of your company and products in the minds of your customers. This is a time tested and sure-shot way of raking in new customers and keeping the loyal ones coming back.

Read on to find how SEO and branding are interlinked closely and how boosting one end always proves beneficial to the other.

Relationship between SEO and Brand Building

They’re interconnected in a never-ending cycle. That’s what it is!

You need SEO for brand building. Brands rank higher in SEO results. But if you had to start somewhere, start with an SEO strategy.

SEO guru Neil Patel says “SEO is not the topping, it’s the base ingredient.” And truer words have not been uttered. Think about it. What is a brand image all about?

User experience and customer loyalty.

Let’s start with the former. UX is part of SEO. The design of the webpage, the navigation, the storytelling- all heavily dependent on SEO. The site needs to load quickly.

The design needs to be appealing, easy on the eyes and the website should be easily navigable. If you make it difficult to navigate, a good percentage won’t even make the effort to hunt for what they want.

The content needs to be relevant and skimmable- even if people don’t have time to go through 2000 words, they should get a jist of what you’re saying.

These three factors heavily contribute to search rankings and boost user experience.

Now the latter- customer loyalty. How do you go from having a target audience to having a loyal customer base?

Through a 4-step process.

• Kick off your quest by featuring in the first page off Google.

• Woo them with your landing page and get them to subscribe to your list.

• Pitch your offer sensibly and make your sales.

• Win them over with your products and services.

I know, it sounds simple but is a tough and lengthy process. But you’ll get there eventually. And once you get there, you’ve accomplished your job- a positive brand image and brand credibility.

But did you notice point A of the process?

Google SERPs and rankings. So yes, again, SEO! It is impossible to build your brand without employing SEO strategies!

How Branding helps in getting more clicks

Branding is an important tool in helping your online presence get more clicks. Creating a strong and memorable brand helps to establish trust and loyalty between you and your customers. And SEO branding is a great way to do that. 

It makes it easier for potential prospects to find you online and decide to click through to your website. Along with that, a well-thought-out SEO branding strategy and identity will also help you stand out from your competitors and increase the likelihood that your content will be shared and seen by more people. 

Having a strong brand presence is essential for any online business and can help drive more traffic and clicks to your website.

With that said, we’ll let you in on a (not so uncommon) secret. Google is partial to bigger brands. There. We told you.

Nike for shoes.

Hubspot for marketing.

Wilson for tennis racquets.

Your product may be better, your content may be hypnotic, but it wouldn’t matter- the niche giants would still rank above you and feature in the knowledge panels and feature snippets.

Even when these brands step outside the line, Google gives them a mock suspension and brings them back within hours. Yes, it’s unfair. But it’s totally fair through Google’s point of view.

They simply want to do right by their users. Which is why they throw up the most credible brands and products in their top 10 results, so that no user is taken for a ride. This way, even if the smaller businesses need it more, the bigger brands get the most traction, busy traffic and skyrocketing click-through rates. It just proves that the bigger the brand, the better chances of getting clicked.

7 ways in which SEO strategies can boost brand awareness

Branding is a lengthy process that normally takes a long amount of time. But, we can leverage a few SEO strategies to go quicker than most! But what are these strategies?

1. Build backlinks

Building backlinks is one of the most effective ways to improve your SEO for brand awareness. Backlinks, such as guest blogging, link exchanges, social media shares, and much more, act as a bridge between your website and other websites, helping search engines determine your content’s relevance and quality.

Backlinks play an essential role in improving SEO, meaning an increase in traffic on your site. This, in turn, can improve brand awareness. Other elements like content marketing and social media engagement should also be taken into account when trying to build backlinks for SEO purposes.

2. Optimize your content marketing strategies for branding

Fuse smart SEO with solid content and voila, you have a cracking branding strategy! Do good research. Put your analytics software to work. See what users want, what users need, what they have been asking for on search engines.

Once you have this information, implement on-page SEO in its best form. Place your keywords strategically in the title, the meta data and subheadings. Make sure you pop up in the featured snippets!

Bring your content A-game to the table and brand recognition will just follow!

3. Reach the right people with long-tail keywords

Okay, first things first, what are long-tail keywords? In short, long-tail keywords are phrases that are longer than a traditional single-word keyword. 

Now how does that help? Let’s say your business deals with furniture. So, because you wouldn’t have much luck topping the search engine if you focused only on the keyword ‘furniture,’ you may want to use long-tail keywords instead. 

An example of a long-tail keyword for furniture-related searches would be ‘furniture black friday sale.’ This way, you can easily reach the right people and increase your brand’s visibility in search engine results.

These keywords are more specific than generic terms and allow you to target a more specific audience, which in turn increases your chances of getting noticed by potential customers.

4. Gun for niche audience

Small business owners, take note. The more you niche down, the more chances you have of making a sale!

Social media is giving you the perfect platform to look for your audience Hunt down prospects and turn them into customers. But how? Smart keyword research.

Track them, follow their interests, see what they are looking for on the internet. Once you’ve done that, pitch to them! Use specific niche keywords and attract them to your site.

The more you focus on a single product, the more recognition you will get for it. Returning customers will do the word-of-mouth marketing for you! That will create unparalleled brand awareness for you!

5. Build a positive brand image

With the right SEO branding strategy, businesses can reach their target audience and ensure they are seen as reliable sources of information. Branding and SEO together can play a massive role in shaping a business’ identity based on the target audience and how the brand wants its audience to view them.

6. Make use of Local SEO

Another brand awareness SEO trick that can help promote brand awareness is using local SEO. What’s that? Let’s say you are looking for a Google search page on ‘restaurants’ in general. You must have noticed how Google brings you a whole list of restaurants around you. 

This is because Google’s local search algorithm includes a “proximity factor,” meaning it considers your location when you search with a local keyword, even when you don’t include a city name or “near me.”  

7. Create more Top of the Funnel (TOFU) Content

TOFU (top of the funnel) is all about creating awareness. It’s a way to get the word out about your product, service, or brand. So think of it like a marketing megaphone - it helps you spread the message and educate your prospects so that they can make a decision.

TOFU content has proven to be a great way for brands to attract potential customers who may not be aware of them yet, allowing companies to grow their customer base and boost their overall visibility.

With effective branding and SEO strategies, you can ensure that your TOFU content reaches its intended audience and helps you build a strong presence online.

Relationship between brand reputation and SEO - Ways to create a good online brand reputation

Brand reputation and SEO make the perfect duo when planning out strategies for a successful business.

But how? 

SEO efforts can help to boost brand reputation, as the increased visibility and traffic can create a positive impression for the brand.

On the other hand, a good brand reputation can help your SEO efforts, as search engines will reward websites with positive customer signals, such as reviews and ratings. 

To create a good online brand reputation, focusing on delivering quality products and services, engaging with customers on social media, and creating content that resonates with your target audience is key. Additionally, you should monitor reviews, ratings, and social media conversations to make sure that you address any negative feedback quickly and efficiently.

Case Study

Let’s take a close look at what Solomon Colors did. They weren’t having a smooth time with organic traffic. So they hired an SEO strategist.

The solutions they implemented?

• On-page SEO (all subheadings started with a keyword and the content had few specific long-tail keywords Solomon Colors wanted to rank for)

• Image Optimization (alt tags and proper coding for each and every photo and video)

• Topic generator( for blogs which would interest target audience)

The results achieved?

• 85% increase in number of keywords they ranked for in Page 1

• 150% hike in number of keywords they ranked for in Page 2

• 113% rise in image rankings

With this astronomical rise in their Google SERP rankings, their website traffic and click-through-rate also shot up! They started getting a lot more traction and with smart offers managed to convert quite a few prospects to customers!

This way, they’ve managed to build a solid brand for themselves! They now have a steady customer base and their SEO strategies have made sure they keep coming up on the first page of results frequently. So more traffic, more leads, more sales.

Mission brand-building: SUCCESSFUL!

This is just a small example of what Seattle New Media can do to drive organic traffic to your website! All you have to do is drop an email and we’re on it!

How you can use SEO for your brand

Let’s leave aside all the technical jargon for a while! SEO is a compulsory part of brand building in 2023.

Building links, optimizing content for keywords, generating keywords to appeal to target audience - all this directly leads to brand building and perception! With better SEO, you get better traffic.

To set up a positive brand image, you need customers to drop into your website. And SEO provides that first step.

Then you need to create compelling content on your homepage, to make sure the readers are forced to hit the ‘ Subscribe Now’ button. This too depends on if you managed to sneak in those important keywords to sway your client- so SEO again.

The moment they enter your email list, they’ve entered your sales funnel! From here on, it’s on you - the pitching, the sales and customer satisfaction.

And once they are happy, consider your job half done (the other half is to keep nurturing leads).

This is the very beginning of a loyal customer base, the biggest prerequisite for being an accomplished BRAND!

How to measure brand awareness in SEO?

In today’s tech-savvy world, content is undoubtedly the king. But what coronates any content is SEO. Now that we have a fair idea about SEO and its importance in business branding, you must be wondering how to take care of the analytics. Let’s take a look at some of the most effective methods to measure brand awareness. 

1. Increase in Direct Traffic to your Website

Measuring the increase in direct traffic to your website is essential for understanding your brand awareness SEO strategy’s effectiveness. But how? Google Analytics is your answer. Google Analytics lets you track the number of visits to your website from organic search results and other sources. 

2. Increase in Brand Searches

Branded searches measure how well a brand is doing in terms of its popularity. A branded search could include the name of your company, product, or service. Now how to measure it? By using tools like Google Analytics and Search Console. 

3. Increase in Brand Mentions

Brand mentions literally mean the number of mentions that your brand has scored in external sources. This could include reviews, blogs, news articles, etc. There are a number of tools that let you measure your business’ brand mentions. These include popular tools like Awario, Social Mention, and Hootsuite. 

4. Increase in Share of Voice

Share of voice (SOV) is a measurement of your business’ brand awareness as compared to your competitors on different marketing platforms. A simple way to measure SOV is by using this formula:

SOV = Number of your business brand mention / total brand mentions (this includes your competitors’ brand mentions as well) x 100

Conclusion

This blog is aimed at showing you that SEO and branding are not mutually exclusive. They’re actually interconnected deeply. While SEO helps in sales and brand building, having a sound brand image boosts your SEO.

But you needn’t bother this much if you just take us on!

At Seattle New Media, we know the channels to tap into and the platforms to look for target audiences. We’ll build an effective strategy to use SEO for brand awareness. All you need to do is give us a holler!