Branding and SEO are co-important concepts. You may be fixated on rising the ranks of the search engine results page to the detriment of establishing your authority as a business. Of course it’s great to reach the number one spot! But what happens next? Why are people going to choose you? Are you overlooking the importance of branding in your strategy for success?
The Importance of Branding and Brand Voice
Without branding and brand voice, you’re essentially introducing yourself to your audience of potential customers or clients as “the people who do the thing.” Do you need the thing? We have the thing. There’s all sorts of stuff that comes with the thing. Do you want to give us money for the thing?
Brand voice is what makes all the difference between “I guess that will probably work” and “This is something I actively want”. Branding makes your customers truly interested in who you are and what you do, versus the need you may solve. It allows them to establish a kind of friendship with you, and with that friendship comes loyalty.
Generic and impersonal transactions are soon to be forgotten. Strong branding forms a connection between you and a customer. It shows them how you solve their needs while benefitting their lifestyles, supporting their values, and reliably performing for them.
How a Successful SEO Strategy Works
SEO is the process of gaining recognition and credibility on the internet. The keywords you optimize for, the content you share, and the quality of the links pointing to your site will help Google establish your legitimacy. If they can clearly see that you’re providing more value that your competitor, they’ll push you closer to the top of the list.
It’s great to be the first thing people see when they’re looking for products or services in your niche, but that may not be enough. Once people click on your link, they need to understand why they should choose you instead of anyone else in the top three results. That’s where branding comes into play.
That is why research is such a key component. For example, knowing whether people are looking for Criminal Defense Lawyers or Criminal Defense Attorneys can make a large difference to a client’s bottom line. Or if “Tucson SEO” or “SEO Tucson” is the most searched term may make me write my own content completely differently.
Your Brand’s Impact on SEO
Both McDonald’s and Wendy’s sell chicken sandwiches. You can tell by the way they taste which one you like better, but what influences you to try them in the first place? It’s their branding. Both companies have designed their image to appeal to a certain audience. McDonald’s expresses themselves as family friendly and all-American. Wendy’s expresses themselves as hip, fun, and sassy. You know these voices. They create a clear portrait in your mind.
When you see a billboard with a chicken sandwich on it, the landscape changes. You don’t so much care about recognition of the brand. You care about how the brand makes you feel, and the way it aligns with your perspectives. You could be inundated with advertisements for McDonald’s, but if their branding doesn’t resonate with you, you’ll find yourself at the Wendy’s drive-thru when you’re fiending for a chicken sandwich. It doesn’t matter whose you saw on that billboard.
This same principal applies to branding and SEO. You may not be at the number one spot on the search engine results page. You could be number three or four. People will still see you at the top when they search. If they recognize your brand and it resonates with them, they’re going to click on what’s familiar. The first result doesn’t matter as much if they already know what they like.
That’s how excellent branding and a strong brand voice can be even more helpful than traditional search engine optimization. SEO makes you convenient, and branding makes people care about you. A business needs both of those factors to work in harmony for true success.
Working With an SEO Company That Values Both
Many SEO companies will help you rank high up in the search engine results. Few SEO companies prioritize whether or not people care about you when they get to your website. Work with an SEO company that values strong copywriting and brand voice just as much as they value your SEO score.