Key Takeaways
- Branded SEO drives traffic and builds trust across the board. Not just with your audience, but with the public, Google, and every AI tool scanning the internet for answers.
- Branded optimization strategies include targeting keywords with your brand name and getting backlinks, mentions, and reviews.
- Helpful, authoritative content can improve your rankings.
Branded search engine optimization is a powerful strategy that helps grow and solidify your online presence, which then can organically build long-term trust and loyalty.
Those who benefit the most are well-recognized brands and brands who rely heavily on high-intent searches. However, using SEO strategies for brand awareness, visibility, and recognition can be advantageous for any business looking to control the narrative of their branding right from the jump. That will help lay a rock-solid foundation upon which to build an empire.
Branded optimization can support non-branded SEO and digital marketing strategies by helping search engines and AI models to directly associate authoritative content with the brand’s name. Ideally, this leads to higher rankings on SERPs (search engine results pages) and citations in Google AI Overviews, AI Mode, and Gemini, as well as other LLMs like ChatGPT and Perplexity.
We’ll explain why brand awareness in SEO actually matters and walk you through real steps to help your brand get seen and remembered.
Table of Contents
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the difference between brand awareness, visibility, and recognition?
These three terms are often used interchangeably, but they do have some nuances between them.
- Brand awareness is when your brand is well-known and top of mind.
- Brand visibility is how often your brand appears and how noticeable it is online.
- Brand recognition refers to how easily your brand can be identified by elements like logos, colors, fonts, and imagery.
What is an example of a branded search?
A branded search references a specific brand. “Coalition Technologies SEO services” is a branded search. “SEO services” is a non-branded search.
Beyond using SEO for brand awareness, branded SEO directs the searcher to the correct destination, such as your official website or a product or service page.
Is SEO just keywords?
Not by a long shot! SEO is a multifaceted, complex, and comprehensive strategy that encompasses a broad range of disciplines, including creating authoritative, well-structured content, link building, optimizing UX (user experience), reputation management, and much, much more.
Why Branded Search Engine Optimization Matters
You might be wondering if you even need to optimize for branded searches. While traditional SEO strategies often make more sense for businesses that don’t have a strong brand identity yet, implementing SEO strategies for brand awareness and visibility can still work in your favor, especially if they are holistically combined with non-branded optimizations. Here’s why.
Control the Narrative
Just because someone searches for your brand doesn’t mean they are planning to convert. They may be in the awareness or interest stage of the marketing funnel, researching your company, products, or services before making a decision. This is where branded optimizations come in to direct these users to your desired pages and help ensure that your business is portrayed on your terms.
Overcome the Competition
Just because someone searches for your brand doesn’t mean they’re going to arrive at your official website. For example, we searched for “Duracell batteries AAA.” The first result isn’t the official Duracell website, but Costco.
SEO for brand awareness prevents other businesses from stealing your direct sales.
Establish Trust With Search Engines & AI
Branded SEO helps search engine algorithms and AI models identify that your brand is the leading authority when people search for your brand. It sounds silly, but just having the domain name doesn’t automatically mean you’re the top expert. When searches for your brand lead to low bounce rates and positive engagement, that signals to the machines that your brand can be trusted and shown to a larger audience.
Preserve the Strength of Your Brand
59% of American searchers click on results of brands they recognize, and 81% of consumers will only consider purchasing from a brand they trust.
Using SEO for brand awareness, recognition, and visibility is the key to building trust that leads to conversions. After all, if your brand isn’t showing up when someone searches for you, that says a lot. Imagine searching for Coca-Cola and Pepsi is the first recommendation. Which cola would you think has a stronger brand?
Keep Searchers Happy
The goal is to facilitate a rapid, seamless transition from search to click. With every millisecond spent trying to find your website, the chance of getting the click diminishes.
According to Semrush, there are 5.9 million Google searches every minute, and the average CTR (click-through rate) for the #1 position is 22.4%. The CTR declines significantly the lower you go: 13% for #2, 10% for #3, and a sad 2.3% for #10. Without SEO for brand awareness, you risk falling down the list and losing a massive amount of clicks.
Tips and Techniques For Branded SEO
Good SEO depends on a lot of moving parts. But a few tactics consistently pull more weight than others. The ideas below are a solid place to start. Just know that real results come faster when the strategy’s built specifically for your brand by people who’ve done this before, like our SEO agency.
Get Backlinks and Mentions
Backlinks and mentions aren’t just for establishing your brand’s presence among humans. The more you get from reputable sources, the better you’re viewed by search engines and AIs.
- Make content worth sharing. Helpful, honest, sharp…whatever makes someone hit “send” or post it themselves.
- Pitch content to real people, such as journalists, bloggers, influencers, or anyone with an audience that overlaps with yours.
- Write guest posts for real websites with actual authority, not spammy link farms.
- Show up at events. Get mentioned in the press. Make it easy for people to talk about your brand.
- Find broken links or weak content out in the wild and offer something better. It works more often than you’d think.
- Incorporate traditional SEO strategies that boost your overall presence.
Request Real Reviews
Search engines and AIs look at reviews to decide if your brand can be trusted. Good reviews on places like Google Reviews, Yelp, Trustpilot, and the Better Business Bureau help your rankings and your reputation. It’s not just about keywords to improve your SEO for brand awareness. Credibility matters a lot.
Of course, this part of a branded SEO campaign is easier said than done. While providing excellent products or services can lead to reviews organically, you may need to send a polite, friendly reminder (with links) or even incentivize your audience with freebies.
Be Part of Google’s Knowledge Graph
Google’s Knowledge Graph is a vast database that Google uses to provide contextually accurate and relevant results. Becoming a recognized entity can be tough, but well worth it. Establishing a strong reputation and optimizing the structure of your website’s data are crucial.
Create Niche Educational Content
Content creation is integral to SEO for brand awareness, not only for generating backlinks and mentions, but for organically building meaningful relationships with your audience. You don’t want them only visiting your website when they need to buy something. The goal is to be their go-to resource whenever they need relevant information.
Social media marketing is a great way to stay top of mind, but producing in-depth content is essential for establishing trust in the long-term. For example, you’re reading our SEO blog right now! That means you probably value our opinions (or at least care enough to read them!), because we’ve proven to be a trustworthy and valuable resource in the industry.
Competition is fierce in the blogging arena, so you may need to narrow your niche when implementing SEO strategies for brand awareness. Speaking of fierce, let’s use our client, Fierce Fruit, as an example. They have a blog post titled: “How Fruit Purees Can Spice Up Your Fall Drink Menu.”
Rather than writing a generic blog like “How Fruit Purees Can Improve Drinks,” they focus specifically on fall menus for businesses. A bartender prepping for the autumn season is far more likely to click.
Establish and Stick to a Brand Identity
Branded SEO requires a strong brand. Don’t overlook the visual and even auditory side of your online presence. From iconic logos to earworm jingles, the way your brand is portrayed directly affects how shoppers think about you (or if they even think about you at all).
These aspects of SEO for brand awareness and recognition may seem superficial, but they matter. 75% of consumers recognize a brand by its logo, and a signature color increases the chances of being recognized by 80%, according to WiserNotify.
Beyond just picking an eye-catching logo, you can use differentiating and defining elements of your business to your advantage. For example, Lea Black Beauty is a skincare client of ours founded by Lea Black, a public figure.
Lea is the face of the brand, so her face is featured prominently. People search specifically for Lea Black skincare products. Right as someone lands on the site, they know they’re in the right place.
And, to further highlight the benefits of SEO for brand awareness, when you search for “Lea Black skincare,” Lea herself shows up in the SERPs right above a link to the Lea Black Beauty website. This makes finding the brand a simple, seamless experience.
Let’s Boost Your Brand
Chat with us if you’re ready to launch a branded SEO campaign. Our team consistently generates exceptional results for our clients, including increasing revenue and the triple threat of brand visibility, recognition, and awareness. We can do the same for you. Contact us now for a free consultation.
