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Business owners often consider SEO a vehicle to direct consumers from search results to a company website. But that only scratches the surface of what strong SEO can accomplish. It’s also a powerful tool to help increase your brand’s overall recognition and market share, ultimately boosting traffic and conversion rates. 

The SEO Brand Awareness Essentials

According to a 2022 Salsify report, almost 50 percent of U.S. consumers pay more for brand names they know and trust. But to create familiarity with customers, you must be visible on the platforms they use —and that’s where SEO comes in. Follow these action steps to cultivate your SEO brand awareness strategy:

Ramp Up Your Backlink Acquisition Efforts

The point of SEO brand awareness is to be visible. To achieve this, you’ll need to create a noticeable presence on relevant channels (ideally, ones your target audience often visits). Link building is an effective way to establish that presence.

Here’s how it works: when another brand cites your website in their content, they’ll form a backlink that re-directs their audience to you. This connection drives more organic traffic, and will increase brand recognition. To improve SEO ranking, focus your backlink acquisition campaign on trustworthy sites with high domain authority.

Include Long-Tail Keywords in Your Content

Keywords are vital to a robust SEO strategy. Including keywords in content tells Google that it’s relevant to your target audience’s search intent, boosting its ranking on the SERP. 

However, keyword stuffing to catch Google’s attention can backfire and come across as spammy—it’s wiser to use a few well-placed long-tail keywords. These 3-to-5-word phrases with low search volume but high conversion have potential because they’ll attract a niche audience that’s looking for what you offer. 

Optimize Your Site for a Local Search Intent

Localizing your content is another surefire method to improve SEO brand awareness and boost website traffic. A recent survey from BrightLocal found that 79 percent of consumers search for local business information more than once a week. To optimize your site and show up in local searches, we recommend the following five tactics:

  1. Place location-specific keywords (city, state, etc.) in the website copy, titles or subheads, image captions, meta descriptions, or other content elements.
  2. Elicit user-generated content, online reviews, or video testimonials from local customers who are satisfied with your business’s products or services.
  3. Build a comprehensive Google My Business (GMB) profile with accurate operating hours, contact information, quality images, and map directions. 
  4. Publish content on local news, topics, events, attractions, or other (non-competing) small businesses to establish yourself as a fixture in the community.
  5. Make sure your website is mobile and voice responsive so customers can find you in local searches via Siri, Alexa, Cortana, or Google Assistant. 

Keep All Your Branding Elements Consistent

Visibility is the first step in SEO brand awareness—but it’s not your endgame. The goal is for consumers to immediately recognize your business and feel an emotional connection each time they see it. You’ll achieve this with brand consistency.

When your visuals and message are consistent across marketing channels, the audience will be able to identify the brand on any platform. This combination of design and content will ultimately yield more conversions. As a Lucidpress survey points out, consistent branding can even increase revenue by 33 percent.

Take Your SEO Brand Awareness Strategy to the Next Level

If you want to elevate brand awareness but are unsure where to begin, reach out to our team of SEO specialists here at 10x digital. We’ll craft a personalized online marketing plan that will optimize your business’s SEO ranking, promote visibility and recognition, increase website traffic and generate the conversion rates you want to see.