Competing for a high-ranking position on Google’s SERP can be a challenge. The digital SEO ecosystem has expanded from a mere 130 exabytes back in 2005, and is expected to hit 40,000 by 2020. More than a billion websites also live online. This means that for nearly every business niche, multiple businesses will compete for the eyes and attention of prospects.
The fight for the top positions on the SERP becomes progressively tighter as an increasing number of brands become sophisticated in their online marketing efforts. Considering that 60 percent of clicks will go to just the top three slots on the SERP, the outcome of this competition can have a dramatic impact on the success of the organization.
The power of an SEO branding strategy is something that people often overlook when considering their SERP ranking. An organizational branding strategy not only helps with recognition, it can also boost your site rankings. Here is how branding and SEO can work hand in hand.
The Value Of Branding In SEO
Google uses a variety of factors to determine site rank. In the past, they have looked at inbound links to distinguish between brands. They reasoned that if a particular organization had a lot of inbound links, it likely had a good reputation and was viewed as an authority in the industry. This helped to increase rankings.
Now, however, Google has shifted some of their focus away from inbound links and towards branded queries. Major brands, such as GM or BMW, both will have thousands of inbound links. To get a better idea about which site a particular SERP user likely wants to see, the Google algorithm will also look at branded queries. By looking at the number of people actively searching for a particular brand, the search engine hopes to get a better idea of what users want to see and can use this insight to influence the order that the sites appear. Therefore, brand mentions and SEO work together nicely.
Powerful Ways To Impact Your Strategy & Branding
A strong branding strategy will incorporate your marketing efforts across all channels, including your logo, slogans, and messaging. Building this recognition requires providing customers with an outstanding user experience. You want to connect with your prospects emotionally. They need to know that they can trust you to solve their pain points. Each time you solve a problem for your prospects, you help to build a stronger relationship with them and therefore a stronger brand.
Remember also the importance of consistency. It can take 5-7 impressions before a prospect will even recognize your logo. As people first start to become familiar with your brand, you need to be highly consistent so they can connect your organization to the different impressions they receive. If your messaging, logo or even your service differs greatly from one experience to the next, they will be less likely to realize that all the impressions were from your group. Consistency, on the other hand, will help people make the connection, building stronger brand awareness.
SEO Branding Tips
- Competition has become increasingly fierce as more sites populate the digital ecosystem and their SEO strategies become more sophisticated
- A strong SEO branding strategy can help your company’s awareness and bottom line
- The impact of branding successfully can help boost your SEO success
- When people make branded queries, they can improve the rankings of your site by demonstrating to Google that your brand is trusted in an industry
- To build a strong brand, you want to focus on customer service and consistency in all your marketing efforts.
Understanding the impact of SEO brand marketing can help you take advantage of this rank-building strategy. Nurturing a strong brand will not only encourage engagement and loyalty, but it can also help increase your rankings on the SERPs. If you want to learn more about SEO strategy for brand positioning to boost your site rankings, contact us at Ballantine. We have decades of experience helping companies take their marketing to the next level. Our trained team of search engine optimization specialists will craft a digital marketing strategy that perfectly suits your business!
I'm the Director of Digital Services and Partner at Ballantine, a family-owned and operated direct mail & digital marketing company based in New Jersey. and started in 1966 by my great uncle!
