The Strategic Investment of SEO In Brand Growth
With the digitisation of our economy and online shopping quickly becoming second nature for consumers, it takes a lot for brands to break through the noise and curate a brand strategy that truly cuts through. From the rise of TikTok to Instagram doom-scrolling and streaming platforms, capturing the attention of any audience has become the ultimate challenge.
This places the importance of investing in your brand strategy back to businesses as they compete in established and saturated markets. Instead of jumping on trends and shifting budget towards quick-wins, businesses need to go back to the drawing board and consider their long-term roadmap to future-proof their brand and ensure growth for years to come.
This article delves into brand-building channels that can assist businesses in creating connections with their customers and reach new audiences through owned media.
The Evolution of Branding
As research continues to reveal, it is harder than ever to capture the attention of audiences. This is a direct result of short-form video platforms such as TikTok conditioning consumers to expect short and snackable snippets of content rather than choosing to entertain long-form media such as blogs, YouTube videos or even TV shows.
However, this attention deficit extends to search behaviours too, with only 25% of users scrolling past the first page of search results to find a solution to their search. This places the onus back on brands to produce content that not only captures and resonates with consumers but appears at crucial decision-making moments in their purchase journey.
In recent years, brands have taken a short-term approach to performance by boosting budgets on paid ads, display media and out-of-home advertising to drive brand demand and awareness. However, many don’t consider the long-term implications of such a strategy.
Whilst having a paid media strategy and budget is an important aspect of any marketing roadmap, it is crucial to consider the future of your business and how you are curating a business strategy that generates organic engagement and performance. This is where search engine optimisation (SEO) can play a key role in brand growth.
The Role of SEO In Brand-Building
Search engine optimisation, otherwise known as SEO, is the process of optimising a website and increasing visibility on search engines such as Google and driving more users onto a website. A robust SEO strategy is comprised of different components which each play a part in enabling a website to rank highly in search results and boost brand awareness without investing in paid ads to sit in the top positions of search results.
Quality Content is Key
A key component that connects with audiences and builds user’s relationship with a brand is the content on the website. Producing quality content is a key asset of any brand building strategy that introduces your brand voice to a customer whilst also helping to boost a website’s visibility online for relevant keywords. This is how people online will ultimately come across your website and interact with it for years to come.
User-First Experience
On top of creating quality content that resonates with the brand audience, optimising a website for how people browse is another critical aspect of an SEO strategy. This involves creating a website in alignment with how people will navigate through and use it. Whether they shop on their mobile or are an international website visitor, putting people at the forefront of your website optimisations will produce a finished product that users are more likely to engage with and use. This will create a seamless user experience and make it easier for people to purchase or convert on your website in the long-term.
Top-Tier Technical Excellence
Outside of quality content and a seamless onsite experience, ensuring a website is technically sound is a key part of any SEO strategy to support brand growth for the future. This involves everything from ensuring the website is quick to load to making sure the pages are all live and discoverable online. After all, a business can’t succeed at selling products or generating leads if the website doesn’t function!
A Robust-Backlink Profile
Establishing expertise in the industry your business operates in is another key aspect for brand building and is also a key part of any SEO strategy. Generating links from other quality websites to your own showcases to search engines (such as Google) your authority or relevance and can help boost your position in search results.
Importantly, over time link building can create an association with industry leaders to enhance brand reputation. It also can diversify where your traffic is coming from, rather than putting a reliance on paid advertising to drive user onsite.
The Long-Term Gains Of SEO
Unlike paid platforms which can provide an immediate return on investment, SEO strategies take time and effect to implement. Often it can take from 6 to 12 months to begin to see the impacts of search optimisations on a website.
However, SEO is a compounding investment and when done right can provide incremental gains for the future of your brand. It builds upon your brand work across all platforms including paid media, out of home advertising, email and affiliate to make sure all the traffic you are driving onto the website can convert.
Importantly, the long-term costs of investing in SEO can be more sustainable than other platforms. Whilst it does require ongoing work, organic traffic generated through SEO can over time create a very cost-effective source of leads and conversions for your business.
On top of this, SEO can reduce reliance on branded search. This means your business can diversify your traffic from those who already know your brand or search for your brand online and boost visibility in spaces where potential customers are looking for your product or service. As your brand begins to appear at the top of search results, users will naturally become more aware of your brand to increase recall and recognition.
More than this, brands that appear at the top of search results are perceived as incredibly trustworthy and credible. By investing in SEO to boost your website rankings online, over time you can position your brand as an authority and leader in your industry to create an enduring brand.
Future-Proofing Your Brand
As search engines such as Google evolve, the way in which your website can appear in search results will naturally fluctuate over time. Investing in a strong SEO strategy that is agile to algorithm updates can ensure your brand remains adaptable and visible even as search engines change.
Broaden Your Brand Strategy
SEO is a key marketing tool for long-term brand building and is an important avenue to invest in for continued growth. A well-executed SEO strategy can extend far beyond immediate ranking improvements and traffic onsite by becoming an owned channel of cost-effective acquisition. Adopt a holistic approach to building your online presence and incorporate SEO into your marketing strategy to future-proof your brand.
Do you have a sound SEO strategy in place? Whether you’re looking incorporate SEO into your existing brand growth strategy or want a fresh pair of eyes to audit your account, Alpha Digital has an award-winning team on-hand to help. Invest in the long-term success of your brand today and contact us online now.