When people talk about business, they often mention the location. Where your business is located can greatly impact how much money it makes. While this is true in the physical realm, what about the digital space? Location matters as well. More specifically, where your business pops up in relevant internet search results.
If someone performs a Google search and your business comes up at the top of the list, more people will interact with your business. The process of getting your business to rank highly in internet search results is called search engine optimization, or SEO. SEO can build your business’s brand awareness, and we’ll cover how that works in this article.
How Search Engine Optimization Works
If you’re a small business owner, you need to use all the tools available to grow your business and increase your brand awareness. Search engine optimization is a valuable, cost-effective strategy that can boost your business.
Search engine optimization is a fairly complicated process. A search engine like Google uses an algorithm to look through the entire internet for relevant results matching a user’s entry. From here, several factors come into play.
These include but are not limited to keywords, article length, article quality, relevant outbound links, user experience, mobile friendliness, and metadata. There are entire digital marketing companies that specialize in search engine optimization because it’s integral to building your brand awareness.
How Search Engine Optimization Builds Brand Awareness
As a small business owner, your goal is to get the word out about your business. Word of mouth is a great organic advertising tool, but it can’t be relied on as the primary method of building your brand awareness. Your business needs a website to create an internet footprint.
This is where SEO comes into play. If your company ranks higher on search engine results, you’ll generate more website traffic. The more website traffic you generate, the more people are aware of your brand.
There are several specific ways to use SEO to build brand awareness. You can use content marketing which is the posting of relevant content like topical blog posts to your company’s website. The content can and should contain relevant and targeted keywords to drive potential customers to your website.
Quality content can be referenced by other websites using “backlinks” which are hyperlinks that link back to your business’s website. Backlinks are a top-five search factor in Google’s search engine algorithm. Another way to increase your brand awareness is to localize your search results. This will increase your website’s search ranking to people that are in your area searching for your type of business.
SEO Brand Awareness Tips for Small Business Owners
Before you increase your small business’s brand awareness, you need to know what your brand is. A company’s brand is an intangible business and marketing concept that distinguishes a person, company, or product. Think of it like word association. When you think of Wal-Mart, you probably think of low prices. When you think of Volvo automobiles, you probably think of safety. Low prices and safe cars are Wal-Mart’s and Volvo’s brands.
Many small businesses want their service to be their brand. Satisfied repeat customers are the lifeblood of small businesses. You can craft your company’s website to reflect your emphasis on superior customer service. You can use relevant keywords to showcase your company’s commitment to service. You can even take it a step further and respond to both positive and negative Google reviews discussing your business. This is just one example of how you can use SEO to increase your brand awareness.
Your goal as a small business owner should be to create a cohesive and cogent digital marketing strategy that ties everything together. It should get potential customers to your website and keep them there as long as possible. It should also give them information about your business. This may include your company’s mission statement.
All of this can be achieved with content marketing and search engine optimization. The two complement each other, as the content you create (or hire someone to create) should increase your company’s search engine ranking, provide valuable information to your potential customers, and give them an idea of your company’s values.
If that sounds like a lot to handle, there are experts who specialize in raising a company’s brand awareness through search engine optimization.
Bauertech
It seems like everyone is constantly online these days. If you’re a small business, you need a way to capitalize on that. To improve your company’s search engine rankings, contact us at Bauertech. We have a team of experienced digital marketing experts that can improve your company’s search results and make your brand a known commodity. To increase your business’s digital footprint, call us at (651) 432-4404 today!
