Hand in Hand: SEO and Company Branding

We all know SEO is not based on exact guidelines. Rather than being a hard science, it is a flexible art. SEO and company branding have a two-way relationship, as they each affect and can tremendously strengthen one another. It can be challenging trying to balance SEO and company branding. SEO involves keywords, phrases, and much more, while branding relates to the company’s offering quality (whether it be services, products, or information) and the sense of loyalty amongst a customer base. Ideally, there is a fine balance that should be achieved, as they are both important in terms of reaching overall goals. You cannot have success in one without the other.

SEO ⇔ COMPANY BRANDING

As Moz’s SEO: The Free Beginner’s Guide states, “SEO isn’t just about building search-friendly websites. It’s about making your site better for people too.” What this means is that first and foremost there should always be a focus on quality, from products and services to guides and any information your site provides. The importance of quality cannot be stressed enough. What does it matter if you implement great SEO strategies if you don’t have the quality content to back it up?

When you are first building your online business, it might make sense to focus more on SEO than worrying about company branding, which will naturally come into play later. Also, implementing SEO strategies is only going to help build your brand later on down the road. The reasoning for this is that in the beginning stages, people don’t necessarily know your company name. They are simply performing searches for specific products or services. If your company has focused on implementing effective and relevant target keywords and phrases based on your offering rather than on the business name, then you will naturally increase traffic from these searches.

Once you are capturing leads and increasing traffic from organic searches, you will naturally begin to build a customer base. You will begin to strengthen your brand’s reputation and establish a sense of loyalty among your customers. Make sure you stand out from your competitors and that your business is focused on a particular area where you really stand out. Also, your website should be adequately optimized in terms of quality content in order to convert new traffic to lifetime customers before you begin implementing a SEO strategy. A SEO campaign can get those lead generations, while a quality brand will keep those customers coming back time and time again.