How to use SEO for brand awareness
Building your brand is your SEO secret weapon if your primary marketing goal is to improve your SEO performance. Brand awareness not only means increasing the number of people you reach but also increasing familiarity with a specific product or service.
Brand building is an amazing SEO tool that can help you turn traffic (and potential customers) into paying customers when executed properly. On a deeper level, it means that, over time, you have the advantage over your competitors as you build brand recognition and take market share.
A Nielsen study found that global consumers are far more likely to buy new products from brands that are familiar, and sixty per cent of consumers would rather buy new products from a familiar brand that they recall rather than switch to a new one.
Aleya Solis, an award-winning SEO consultant and speaker, recently responded to a Twitter thread asking, “What do you think is the most underrated SEO tactic?”
Her response was,
“Probably building a brand”
Brand building isn’t an overnight marketing tactic – having a recognisable brand takes time and consistency. It’s a company-wide mission that is factored into every business decision, including your SEO efforts.
Understanding the role of SEO in brand awareness
Before diving into SEO tactics, it's important to understand the relationship between SEO and brand awareness. By optimising your website and content for search engines, you are positioning your brand in front of internet users who are actively searching for information, products, or services related to your business. The idea is that the more you appear, the more you increase brand awareness.
You can create an SEO strategy that simultaneously builds brand recognition while enhancing your website’s performance in the search results. In fact, treating the brand building as part of your SEO activity could be your secret advantage over your competitors in improving your online visibility.
What is brand awareness, and why it matters
Brand awareness refers to the extent to which consumers can recognise and recall your brand. It is crucial for businesses because it directly impacts customer perception, trust, and loyalty. A strong brand identity not only attracts new customers but also fosters long-term relationships with existing ones, fueling business growth and success.
“A brand is the set of expectations, memories, stories and relationships that, taken together, account for a consumer’s decision to choose one product or service over another.” – Seth Godin.
This is how you make your customers feel and what they expect from you – it’s the feeling, experience, service or product you deliver, and it’s consistent every time, at every touch point.
Brand awareness can be built through various marketing channels, such as advertising, public relations, social media, and content marketing. However, SEO can be a powerful tool for increasing brand awareness as it allows your brand to be seen by potential customers who are actively searching for solutions or information related to your business.
For example, let's say you own a bakery in Melbourne. By optimising your website and content for keywords such as "best bakery in Melbourne" or "freshly baked bread in Melbourne", you are more likely to appear at the top of search results when someone searches for these terms. This increased visibility not only drives more traffic to your website but also exposes your brand to a larger audience who may not have known about your bakery otherwise.
The connection between SEO and brand visibility
SEO plays a pivotal role in increasing brand visibility online. When your website and content are optimised for search engines, you are more likely to rank higher in search results. This increased visibility drives more organic traffic to your site, exposing your brand to a larger audience and boosting brand awareness.
SEO can help your brand establish authority and credibility in your industry. By creating high-quality, informative content that answers common questions or solves problems for your target audience, you can position your brand as a thought leader and go-to resource in your niche. This not only attracts more traffic to your website but also fosters trust and loyalty among your audience, leading to increased brand awareness and customer retention.
SEO is a crucial component of any brand's marketing strategy. By optimising your website and content for search engines, you can increase your brand's visibility, attract more traffic to your site, and establish authority and credibility in your industry. So, if you haven't already, it's time to start investing in SEO to take your brand awareness to the next level!
Conducting keyword research for brand-focused SEO
A key aspect of SEO is optimising your content around relevant and targeted keywords. Brand-focused keyword research lays the foundation for creating content that connects with your target audience and enhances brand awareness.
While trying to increase your association with highly relevant and quality keywords, you should be trying to increase branded searches.
A branded search is when someone types your brand name into Google or another search engine, this includes branded keywords, variations and searches for your specific products, features, services or comparisons.
An example of a branded search
The reason these are so important is that they have the highest intent. We know exactly what the searcher is looking for, and you’re guaranteed to get their click.
While Google has never directly confirmed that branded search is a specific algorithm input, many signals suggest that it is. In line with Google’s efforts to provide users with the most informative and relevant information experience, it is logical to assume that Google favours websites that offer consistent and reliable results.
So, here's what you need to do when performing keyword research for an SEO strategy to increase brand awareness.
Identifying your target audience
Before you start conducting keyword research, it's important to identify your target audience. This involves considering factors such as demographics, interests, and pain points. By understanding your audience, you can create targeted content that speaks directly to their needs and is more likely to resonate with them. This not only helps to increase engagement but also boosts your brand's visibility in relevant search results.
For example, if you're a fitness brand targeting women over 50, you may want to focus on keywords related to menopause and staying active in middle age. By targeting these specific keywords, you can create content that speaks directly to your audience and increases the chances of them finding your brand through search engines.
Analysing competitors' keyword strategies
Another important step in conducting brand-focused keyword research is analysing your competitors' keyword strategies. This involves identifying which keywords they target and how their content ranks for those terms. By doing this, you can uncover potential opportunities for your brand to rank higher in search results and stand out in a saturated market.
For example, if you're a skincare brand, you may want to analyse the keyword strategies of other skincare brands in your market. By doing this, you may discover that there's a gap in the market for natural, organic skincare products. You can then target keywords related to this gap, creating content that speaks directly to this audience and increasing your brand's visibility in relevant search results.
Selecting brand-related keywords
Once you've identified your target audience and analysed your competitors' keyword strategies, it's time to compile a list of brand-related keywords. When selecting keywords, it's important to focus on long-tail keywords - phrases that are more specific and less competitive - in order to target niche audiences and boost your chances of ranking higher in search results.
For example, if you're a coffee brand, you may want to target long-tail keywords related to specific types of coffee, such as "organic fair trade coffee beans" or "single-origin espresso". By targeting these specific keywords, you can create content that speaks to a niche audience and increases your chances of ranking higher in search results faster than if you were to target shorter, more difficult keywords like "coffee beans".
It's also important to consider including branded keywords that incorporate your company's name, products, or services. This can help to capitalise on brand recognition and increase your brand's visibility in relevant search results, ensuring that you take up the entire search engine results in pages with your own result, and your competitors don't get a look-in.
Creating high-quality, content to build brand awareness
Creating high-quality content is essential for any business that wants to succeed in today's digital age. It's not enough to simply create content that is optimised for search engines; you also need to ensure that it caters to your target audience and reinforces your brand identity.
A content strategy is essential when trying to create content to increase brand awareness. You need to know the why, what, who and how of content creation to ensure you maximise the time you spend on it.
Incorporating storytelling into your content
Storytelling is a powerful tool for increasing brand awareness, as it evokes emotion and builds a deeper connection with your audience. By integrating personal stories, case studies, or customer testimonies that highlight your brand's values and personality, you can create content that not only provides relevant and useful information to your readers but also reinforces your brand identity.
For example, if you run a fitness brand, you could share success stories from customers who have achieved their fitness goals using your products or services.
When incorporating storytelling into your content, it's important to keep your target audience in mind. Consider what stories will resonate with them and what emotions you want to evoke. You should also ensure that your stories are authentic and align with your brand values.
Ensuring content is relevant and valuable to your audience
One of the most important things to keep in mind when creating content is that it should be relevant and valuable to your target audience. Your content should address the needs, preferences, and questions of your audience and provide value to them in some way. By prioritising content that offers value and is tailored to their specific interests or pain points, you can demonstrate your expertise in the industry and foster trust and credibility with your audience.
To ensure that your content is relevant and valuable, you should conduct research on your target audience and their interests. You can use tools like Google Analytics to gain insights into what topics are popular on your website or conduct surveys to learn more about your audience's needs and preferences.
Optimising content for search engines and user experience
While creating content that resonates with your audience is important, it's also essential to optimise your content for search engines and user experience. By incorporating relevant keywords, improving page load speed, and ensuring mobile-friendliness, you can improve your content's visibility and accessibility.
In addition to optimising search engines, you should also focus on the overall user experience of your content. This means utilising headings, subheadings, bullet points, and images to break up text and make your content more engaging and easy to consume. You should also ensure that your content is easy to read and understand and that it provides a clear value proposition to your audience.
By following these tips, you can create high-quality, branded content that resonates with your audience and helps to boost your brand awareness efforts.
How to use local SEO to improve brand visibility
Local SEO can be an effective way for businesses to improve their visibility in local search results. Here are some strategies for using local SEO to improve brand visibility:
Optimise your Google My Business listing
Ensure your business information is accurate, complete, and up-to-date on your Google My Business listing. This will help your business appear in local search results and on Google Maps.
Use local keywords
Target keywords and phrases that are specific to your local areas, such as city or neighbourhood names, in your website content and meta tags.
Get listed in local directories
List your business on local directories such as Yelp, Yellow Pages, and other industry-specific directories. This can help improve your online presence and increase the visibility of your brand in local results.
Encourage customer reviews
Encourage your customers to leave reviews on your Google My Business listing and other review sites. Positive reviews can help improve your brand's reputation and increase your visibility in local results.
Create local content
Create blog posts and other content that is relevant to your local area, such as events or news related to your business or industry. This can help establish your brand as an authority in your local community and increase your visibility in local results.
By using these local SEO strategies, businesses can improve their online visibility, attract more potential customers to their brand, and ultimately increase brand awareness in their local community.
The importance of backlinks for SEO and brand awareness
Backlinks serve as endorsements from other websites, demonstrating to search engines that your content is valuable and trustworthy. A diverse and authoritative backlink profile can significantly improve your search engine rankings, helping to increase brand awareness and visibility.
Having a strong backlink profile is essential for businesses that want to establish themselves as thought leaders in their respective industries. By securing backlinks from reputable websites, you can demonstrate your expertise and authority to potential customers, increasing the likelihood that they will choose your brand over competitors.
Furthermore, link-building can also help you build relationships with other businesses and industry influencers. By collaborating with these individuals and organisations, you can create new opportunities for growth and establish your brand as a respected and valuable member of your industry.
Strategies for earning high-quality backlinks
There are numerous strategies for link building, including guest blogging, outreach, and content promotion. Focus on creating exceptional, link-worthy content and proactively engage with influencers and relevant websites to secure valuable backlinks that can boost your brand's online presence.
Guest blogging is a popular strategy for earning backlinks, as it allows you to share your expertise with a new audience while also securing a valuable link back to your website. When guest blogging, make sure to choose reputable websites that align with your brand and industry and create content that is informative and engaging.
Outreach is another effective strategy for link building. By reaching out to other sites and influencers in your industry, you can establish relationships and secure valuable backlinks. When conducting outreach, make sure to personalise your messages and offer something of value in return for the link.
Content promotion is also a powerful way to earn backlinks. By creating exceptional content and promoting it on social media and other channels, you can attract the attention of other sites and influencers who may be interested in linking to your content.
Monitoring and maintaining your backlink profile
Regularly analyse and monitor your backlink profile to identify any potentially harmful links and capitalise on new opportunities for growth. Use tools like Google Search Console, Ahrefs, or Moz to gain insights into your backlink profile and take the necessary steps to enhance your overall SEO and brand awareness strategy.
When monitoring your backlink profile, make sure to look for any low-quality or spammy links that could be harming your search engine rankings. Disavow any harmful links and focus on earning high-quality backlinks from reputable websites.
Building a strong backlink profile is essential for businesses that want to improve their search engine rankings and establish themselves as thought leaders in their industry. By focusing on creating exceptional content and proactively engaging with other websites and influencers, you can secure valuable backlinks that can boost your brand's online presence and attract more targeted traffic to your website.
Leveraging social media for SEO and brand awareness
Social media platforms play a significant role in elevating brand awareness and enhancing your SEO efforts. By strategically using social media, you can improve your content's visibility, attract more backlinks, and foster a loyal online community around your brand.
Creating shareable content to boost SEO and brand visibility
Creating engaging, shareable content is key to boosting your brand's visibility and SEO efforts. One way to do this is by incorporating relevant keywords and optimising your content for social media sharing. This can be achieved by using eye-catching visuals, including compelling headlines, and crafting share-worthy narratives that resonate with your audience.
Another way to create shareable content is by leveraging user-generated content. This not only saves you time and resources but also helps build trust and credibility with your audience. By sharing user-generated content, you're showing your audience that you value their opinions and that you're willing to showcase their experiences with your brand.
Leveraging social media for SEO and brand awareness is essential in today's digital age. By choosing the right social media platforms, creating shareable content, and engaging with your audience, you can elevate your brand's visibility and foster a loyal online community around your brand.
What brand-building tactics are also SEO-friendly?
With so much going on when marketing your business, it’s a good idea to kill two birds with one stone. Here are a few ways to build your brand awareness while helping your SEO.
Digital PR
Digital PR is able to reach a much broader audience than traditional, offline PR efforts because of the large number of publications and blogs found online. The aim of digital PR is to make a brand more recognisable, improve a client’s reputation and put their brand in front of their target audience by using digital tools. This can include using social media, content marketing, influencer marketing and, of course, SEO.
Google is always looking for websites that show E-A-T (Expertise, Authoritativeness and Trust). And the more high-quality, related websites that link to yours, the more you can build your authority and improve your rankings.
Podcasts
Whether you have your own or are a guest on someone else’s, podcasts work in a similar way to digital PR. You’re increasing your online visibility, putting yourself in front of your target audience and increasing the links to your website.
But, it also allows you to increase your online visibility for specific keywords by including them in your podcast name, show notes and even audio now that Google has integrated indexing of audio content.
Social media
While Google has confirmed that social media doesn’t directly influence your SEO, social signals correlate strongly with brand awareness and user interaction with a brand. Having social media profiles also builds trust and shows you are a legitimate business.
Content hubs
The most recent broad core algorithm update in May 2022 showed the importance of high-quality, valuable, relevant content. Thin, poorly written, obviously-for-SEO articles just won’t cut it. Focusing more on content marketing principles and creating a content hub will ensure you’re consistently creating great content that your audience, and Google, will love.
An example of a great SEO strategy to build brand awareness
One good example of a brand using SEO to improve brand awareness is the outdoor clothing company, The North Face. The company created an SEO campaign centred around their “Never Stop Exploring” slogan, using the hashtag #neverstopexploring in their content and social media campaigns.
The North Face also optimised their website for search engines by targeting specific keywords related to outdoor activities and adventure, such as “hiking trails,” “camping gear,” and “outdoor apparel.” They created informative blog posts, videos, and interactive content on their website that provided valuable information and resources for their target audience.
As a result of their SEO efforts, The North Face’s website started ranking higher in search engine results for relevant keywords, which increased their online visibility and helped drive lots of traffic to their website. This, in turn, led to increased brand awareness as more people became familiar with the company's products and ethos of exploration and adventure.
Overall, The North Face's SEO strategy successfully helped them increase their brand awareness, engage with their target audience, and establish themselves as an authority in the outdoor industry.
How to measure brand awareness and SEO
Effectively measuring the impact of your SEO efforts on brand awareness is crucial for determining the success of your strategy and identifying areas for improvement.
Key performance indicators to track
Select key performance indicators (KPIs) that align with your brand awareness goals, such as organic search traffic, keyword rankings, branded search volume, backlink acquisitions, and social media shares. Tracking these metrics can help you gauge the effectiveness of your SEO efforts and their impact on brand visibility.
Analysing and interpreting data
Regularly analyse and interpret the data gathered from your chosen KPIs. Look for trends, correlations, or anomalies to gain insights into which aspects of your SEO strategy are driving brand awareness and which areas may require refinement.
Adjusting your strategy based on results
Lastly, continuously adjust and refine your SEO strategy based on the data and insights you gather. By identifying what works and what doesn't, you can stay agile, optimize your approach, and ultimately maximise the impact of your SEO efforts on brand awareness.
Build brand awareness for long-lasting SEO results
Leveraging SEO for brand awareness requires strategic planning, content creation, optimisation, and analysis. By understanding the link between SEO and brand awareness, targeting brand-focused keywords, and engaging with your audience both on your website and social media platforms, you can build a strong online presence and substantially increase your brand's visibility and reach.
Finding an SEO agency that understands the importance of building brand awareness is essential for long-lasting results, and we're proud to offer SEO services that combine SEO and brand building. Get in touch if you want to work with an SEO agency that can give you the best of both worlds.
