We are witnessing a start-up boom in India. As a result, a lot of brands are emerging— increasing the competition. This is the reason why branding has become more important than ever.
There might be many businesses like you selling the same product or service. So, why will a consumer buy from you? That’s where SEO for branding comes into play.
You must be aware of other ways of branding. However, you might not be familiar with SEO for brand awareness as it is often a less talked about aspect of branding.
But, let us tell you – it gives amazing results in terms of building brand loyalty and generating revenue. It has worked wonders for our clients.
And guess what? Baby boomers search brands through Google. So, it’s a good opportunity for you to reach them.
Here’s how SEO can strengthen your brand online.
Table of Contents
- What Exactly is SEO for Branding?
- Branded Search vs Non-Branded Search in SEO Branding
- How to Use SEO for Branding?
- SEO Branding Mistakes to Avoid
- Conclusion
- FAQs
What Exactly is SEO for Branding?
While traditional SEO focuses on driving traffic to your website, SEO for branding goes a step further. It includes spreading awareness about your product using your unique brand voice. It could also mean communicating your USPs to potential consumers. This builds more trust and familiarity.
Additionally, your long-term goal with SEO is to bring more branded searches. Let’s discuss it more in the next section.
Branded Search vs Non-Branded Search in SEO Branding
Now what are branded searches? Usually, people just type the name of the product or service, However, if they start using your brand name along with the product — it’s called a branded search.
Let’s take cafes for example. A typical college student will type “affordable cafes near me” in a Google search. However, if they know the cafe’s name, they will search for that particular one. Here’s an example — “Ajay’s Cafe near me”.
Therefore, your aim should be to rank in both branded and non-branded search results.
How to Use SEO for Branding?
SEO branding is much more than just posting blogs. Let’s say you’ve figured out your brand voice and posting blogs regularly.
However, no one will read it if they do not appear in the top search results. How will someone know your brand then?
Now let’s think of a scenario that is quite the opposite. You are using correct keywords and somehow ranking well in search results.
But, you don’t have a consistent brand voice and there’s nothing unique about your blogs. Then, people will not remember your brand.
So it’s important to find that balance to build a brand with SEO. Let’s understand how you can achieve it.
1. Define Your Brand Identity
Before you even implement SEO strategies for branding, It’s essential to have clarity about your brand identity. To get a clear understanding of your brand identity — write down your brand’s mission, vision and values. This will help you form a brand personality and a tone to use while communicating.
If you’re having trouble figuring this out, reach out to us. Our branding agency helps business owners like you form a unique brand identity.
2. Conduct Comprehensive Keyword Research
Keyword research is the backbone of SEO. You can use tools like Google Keyword Planner or Semrush to identify keywords that people are using to search your product/service or find information related to the same. For branding purposes, focus on keywords that not only drive traffic but also align with your core values.
For example, you are a sustainable fashion brand. The keywords like “sustainable fashion”, “eco-friendly clothing”, “ethical fashion brands”, “organic cotton apparel” might align with your core values.
An expert SEO company can help you optimise your website with relevant keywords like these.
3. Optimise On-Page Seo Elements
Optimise individual web pages to improve their search engine rankings. There’s a meta title and meta description for each web page. You must have seen it when you go on Google to search for something. The headlines you see are meta titles and the content that appears below is meta description.
You need to optimise those with relevant keywords in order to drive traffic to your website.
Here’s an example:
Meta Title
Eco-Friendly Clothing | Sustainable Fashion by [Your Brand]
Meta Description
Explore eco-friendly fashion with [Your Brand]. Our clothing, made from organic and recycled materials, offers stylish and sustainable options.
4. Create High-Quality Content
Content is king in SEO and branding. So, try producing high-value content to attract your target audience. Communicate your core values and what you stand for. Guide them about your offerings.
If we continue with the example of sustainable fashion brands, relevant topics could be “How to Build an Eco-Friendly Wardrobe” or “Benefits of Sustainable Fashion”.
And remember, to keep a consistent brand voice. It’s essential for building a brand online with search engine optimisation.
Additionally, make sure your content is not AI-generated as it can affect your ranking or even ban your website.
5. Build a Strong Backlink Profile with Off-Page SEO
Off-page SEO includes building backlinks to your website. Backlinks are nothing but links that will bring users to your website. Let’s say you include a link to your Contact Us page in one of your blogs to reach you. That’s an example of strategic backlinking. You can also build backlinks by approaching other high-traffic websites to include your link in their blog post. In technical terms, we call it guest posting.
6. Audit your Website Regularly to Fix Technical Issues
Ensure your website is technically sound, with fast loading times, mobile optimisation and a secure connection (HTTPS). Because you don’t want users to leave your website and hop onto your competitor’s website. A well-optimised website must be excellent in terms of user experience. This will compel them to spend more time on your website directly impacting your ranking.
7. Monitor & Analyse
You can use tools like Google Analytics and Google Search Console to monitor your SEO efforts. It will help you track your website’s traffic, rankings and user behaviour so that you can identify gaps and strategise accordingly.
This is the most complex part of SEO branding. Because working with data demands expert analytical skills. You can easily track the data, however using it to improve further is difficult.
Our expert digital marketing agency in Mumbai can do such complex tasks for you. Our team will build brand identity and create and implement an SEO branding strategy for you.
SEO Branding Mistakes to Avoid
As we’re a digital marketing agency, we’ve seen many business owners making a few common mistakes that hamper their SEO efforts. As a result, we would like to mention those mistakes here so that you can avoid those pitfalls.
Here are some mistakes to watch out for
1. Ignoring Brand Consistency
Inconsistency in branding can confuse your audience and dilute your brand message. So talk in a consistent brand voice and maintain the same tone on all your blogs with quality content writing service. Additionally, make sure that your overall brand identity is consistent across all digital channels including your website and social media.
2. Overlooking User Experience
A poor user experience can negatively impact your SEO and brand perception. Because think about it — Would you stay on a website that is just not loading? You will quickly move to another right?
Similarly, your traffic will immediately go to your competitor’s website if your website has technical issues.
So, prioritise website speed, mobile-friendliness and easy navigation to create a positive user experience.
3. Keyword Stuffing
If you try to force the use of keywords on your website, it will make your content less readable. If this happens, users will not stay for a long time on your website which will signal Google that you are not providing value.
Ultimately, your rankings will be impacted. So, focus on creating content that naturally incorporates keywords. Outsource content writing services to avoid keyword stuffing on your website.
4. Focusing Solely on Rankings
While rankings are important to boost visibility and attract more traffic, they shouldn’t be your only focus.
See the ranking as a by-product of providing valuable content to your customers. Solely focusing on rankings might demotivate you. You are likely to discontinue it if your website is not ranking.
So, keep your vision clear. Focus on building authority with content.
Benefits of SEO Branding
SEO is not just important for branding. It’s also beneficial for business as it has a direct impact on sales in the long run.
It helps you lead the buying journey of your customers. First of all, they will start reading your blogs. They are at the awareness stage at this point.
This will also build a foundation of trust as they can see everything on your website. Next time whenever they come across your brand, they will remember your blogs.
Since they’ve been reading it and already know your brand — they will buy your product. Hence, SEO helps you cut competition also.
Conclusion
SEO can explode your sales by making you a well-known brand in Google search results. More people will find you online and get to know your brand in and out. For this to happen organically, it’s important to optimise your website with on-page and off-page SEO.
It includes posting blogs with relevant keywords. However, remember to maintain a consistent brand voice. The blogs should reflect your brand personality. This is the trickiest part. So taking help from a Digital marketing agency is beneficial.
Additionally, mention how your brand is different in your blogs. However, don’t make it obvious that you are promoting your brand. Mention it subtly and strategically. Most importantly include internal links for users to navigate easily within your website.
Contact us at hello@florafountain.com to grow your brand online. We are a digital marketing agency with a team of experts that promises results.
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The founder and partner of Flora Fountain, Shefali leads the Content and Technology divisions. A one-time engineer who started her career writing front-end code, she took a detour sometime during her 9 years in New York, studied journalism and started writing prose, poetry and sometimes jokes. She now has 15...
