"What else could be the impact of SEO on the degree of awareness of a brand?" You probably asked yourself, even while reading the title of the given article.
In simple terms, website branding means dominating the first page of search engines, but also building a good (excellent!) online reputation.
So how do we go about building a strong brand using SEO techniques? This is the question to which we will find the answer in the next article. Stay tuned to find out!
But first, let's talk a little about:
How do you think search engines see your web page?
Well, your website is your most important digital asset, right?
What does it look like to Google? What does it contain and how relevant is it? Can you imagine your website becoming a big and powerful brand?
Did you know that search engines have serious problems indexing the content of certain websites? That's why it's important, first of all, to make sure your content is "indexable", that is, accessible to search engine crawlers.
Try using Google's Google Cache tool to see how your website is stored in Google's cache. This way, you'll be able to see which elements of your content are "indexable" for search engines and which elements you need to get rid of to make it easier for search engines to index and understand.
By using this tool, you will understand how your web page content looks to users vs. how it looks to search engines.
When a web page is not rich enough in useful information (which search engines expect from it), it becomes a problem in getting good search rankings.
Remember: what matters to search engines first and foremost is the relevance of your website!
Create a relevant Google snippet
"Snippet" refers to the mini summary of your website when it appears in search results, a snippet with schema.org can also bring you advantages in terms of brand awareness because your website looks more attractive in search results.
You can then continue with a Google My Business (GMB) profile. When filling out your Google My Business profile, try to focus on keywords that can emphasize not only your skills but also the importance of your brand.
This will ease the process of finding your brand in the multitude of data available on the Internet.
A good place to post your "online resume" is LinkedIn. Here you need to make sure that - finding your business - is simple. How is this done? Connect your profile to your website and GMB page.
There are also plenty of other places where you can link your profile to your web page. But you have to know that if you create dozens of profiles, you have to take care of dozens of profiles!
Some of them, even if they are not that important to you, maybe of prime importance in Google ranking.
Twitter and Facebook, for example, appear in Google results in top positions, and so does YouTube, where you can upload videos promoting the brand you represent.
Even if it becomes increasingly difficult for you to keep up with all the means of online promotion, remember that online marketing is no different from offline marketing - you just need to constantly improve your strategy and approach, constantly evolving.
How to use keywords correctly?
Using keywords properly is more than important in the search engine optimization process.
In other words, keywords dominate our "communication" with search engines.
As you already know, communication can fail or succeed depending on how we do it.
So what do search engines want to get out of talking to us?
The answer is, as I said a bit above: relevance.
How relevant are the keywords you used to the page you own? Match?
You know what? You won't go wrong if you use the same words in a predominant way in:
- titles;
- texts;
- meta descriptions.
At the same time, please be careful not to go on the side of black hat SEO, abusing keywords.
Make sure that getting to the top of the search engines is much easier for you: choose keywords intelligently so that they are as specific as possible (in other words: long tail keywords).
Too much generalization complicates the entire search engine optimization process.
On the other hand, a well-structured keyword system (a healthy semantic core) can help you increase the level of recognition and popularity of your brand (brand awareness).
What can SEO do to increase your brand recognition?
First, let's establish what it means to increase the notoriety and level of recognition of a brand!
Well, even though this term is quite popular on the internet, not all online marketers understand it completely.
A simple and understandable definition would sound like this: increasing the importance of the online brand and the level of people's trust in it - it refers to the "identity" that your company has on the Internet, or, in other words, the strategies that you use to convince consumers to decide to buy your products!
You can think, of course, that it is about the content of your site, its design, meta description, title of pages, and headlines, but no matter how well you deal with these aspects, this is not enough.
Why? In the online world, as it is in the offline one, increasing the degree of brand recognition is achieved, above all, by building links/relationships/connections (in other words - backlinks).
Build a virtual community and your work will become much easier and more efficient.
If you start studying this, you will find that it is not as complicated as it might seem at first. All you have to do is:
- Make a list of authoritative sites that are directly or indirectly related to your niche, and then try to email the owners of those sites to make a deal and/or build an online collaboration.
Use attractive infographics. These could bring you valuable links naturally. - Become active in communities and social networks; post often; share your content. Share your articles in different groups and communities interested in the topic you covered.
- Keep your brand active in the virtual space and make sure you don't go unnoticed.
But don't try to build a link network just by selling, rather do it with heart and dedication to create a strong brand, for your satisfaction as an involved person rather than to get customers!
The online environment expects authenticity. You will always tend to buy from people who seem real, rather than those who fake their emotions. And only after that, you can think about:
Reviews for SEO
Now that you have been able to visualize your online project in perspective, and understand what it looks like and how it could look, the next step is to think about how others see it, of course.
You have no idea how important online reviews are to people who aren't your customers yet.
The opinion of others about a product that we are thinking of buying can convince us in 2 completely different directions: to buy or not to buy it.
And we humans will always be like that! We cannot help but be influenced by the opinions of others. So, try to make sure that the customer reviews of the products you sell are good.
Make sure that the next visitor to your web page will be impressed and curious about what you can offer them next - namely your brand!
Conclusion
I hope that wasn't too much information for one article.
All I would add, with your permission, is that online marketing, by and large, is not very different from offline marketing.
It's about you and your products - same person and same quality, same approach - everywhere. Try to develop your management skills especially when it comes to reputation management, whether you are more active in the offline or online world.
P.S. If you are facing obstacles related to online marketing and building a strong brand using SEO tactics, don't hesitate to contact us to give you a helping hand!