If you want to get people to visit your website, you need it to appear at the top of search engine searches. Most people (nearly 75%) never look past the first page of any search results. More than 93% of all internet experiences are started with a visit to a search engine. Most often, this is Google, who owns between 70 and 80% of the search engine market share. Google switches up the way the searches find websites all of the time. Search engine optimization (SEO) is critical to the success of your website. A good SEO branding strategy is crucial to this.
- Make sure all your branding materials say the same thing. Your message for your printed marketing materials needs to have the same message as your website. Repetition is the cornerstone of effective marketing. That means your SEO branding strategy needs to complement your overall branding strategy. If you have a different message on one platform than you have on another, the two will work against each other. This would be the same thing as using a different message on television ads than you use in print advertising.
- Use keywords in your tagline. Think of the tagline as a summation of your brand in one simple sentence. Thing about the ad campaign for milk. Their tagline is “Milk does a body good.” That is a simple message that gets the point across. Anyone who reads that knows they are trying to tell the public to buy and drink more milk because it is good for you. Put the tagline just below your company or brand name. Give it a prominent space on your website so people will see it. The more visible it can be, the better. The best case scenario has people look for something and the result is your tagline popping up at the top of a search engine search.
- People really do love images. When you are devising your SE branding strategy, you need to include the use of images on your website and elsewhere. From your logo to graphics and photos, images make all of your marketing materials more interesting and easy to take in than long blocks of dense text. SEO consultants recommend including a lot of “white space” on your website. You need to make sure your images fit in with your brand and that you use them across all of the platforms. From Facebook to your newsletters to your website, you need all of your materials to echo the same message.
- Feature your logo. A company’s logo is a key part of the entire marketing strategy. This is very true also of your SEO branding strategy. Your logo is your brand in image form. Can anyone see the Nike swoosh without thinking of that company? When you are designing your logo, pay attention to the colors you use. The colors you put on your logo should be used throughout your website and other marketing materials such as your newsletter or your press releases. Again, repetition is the cornerstone of advertising and marketing campaigns.
- Highlight your brand name. You want to make as many more people as possible know your brand name. Your brand name should be repeated often throughout your marketing materials. This is another big part of any great SEO branding strategy. Use it on your Facebook page, website, Twitter posts, everywhere you are, so should be your brand name. Use this all the time. It is who you are and what you are trying to do. Your brand is your promise to your clients and customers. Keep that in mind when you are putting together any of your marketing materials.
Some people who work in internet and traditional marketing have said, more than once, that “Search engine optimization is dead.” This is simply not true. When people go online, the first place they go is to a search engine. They will return to their preferred search engine multiple times during their internet experience. If they are looking for the goods or services that you provide, you need your site to pop up near the top of the search results. A good SEO branding strategy will make that happen for you.
