Why SEO is so important when creating your brand strategy

February 14, 2023

Many businesses view search engine optimisation, aka SEO, as an optional extra. First you design your brand, then you build your website, then you figure out how to reel in traffic, right? ‘Fraid not. Unlike 100s & 1000s ice cream sprinkles, SEO should be more than just a colourful, sugary afterthought. To be truly effective, it should be considered throughout the entire brand design process.

What is SEO?

Search engine optimisation is about ensuring you’re found on Google, Bing, Ecosia, DuckDuckGo or whatever your customers are using. SEO makes you visible to high-quality leads online and helps convert them into paying customers. Through keyword research, optimisation and analysis, link building and off-page practices, effective SEO aims to bridge the gap between you and your customers. Not sure what all this means? It’s not as scary as it sounds. 

Keyword research & analysis: Identifying the keywords and popular search terms relevant to your brand and then analysing their search volume and how competitive they are.

Keyword optimisation: Strategically placing your chosen keywords throughout your website in a natural, relevant way in order to improve your search engine visibility and then continually adjusting and optimising as necessary.

Link building: Creating high-quality, shareable content with the aim of acquiring inbound links (also known as backlinks) from other websites to increase your site’s authority. Google assesses the quality of inbound links to your site over the quantity.

Off-page optimisation: Any activity that is used to improve your brand’s SEO that takes place outside of your website – such as social media marketing, influencer outreach and brand building.

Why is SEO so important for your brand?

Think that logo creation, web design and font choices have nothing to do with SEO? Think again. When your brand is portrayed consistently online in a way that truly resonates with your (well-researched) target audience, they’re more likely to click through to your site and interact with what you’re offering. Deliver what your customers are looking for and your search engine visibility will improve. Why? Because search engines want their results to be accurate. 

Although many branding agencies leave the pesky SEO stuff until the end of their process, at Taylor & Grace, we know that when branding and SEO hold hands and tackle life together, they can be the perfect power couple. 

User experience (UX)

SEO and UX have to work together because your site is your brand’s online touchpoint. When it’s an intuitive, well-structured, joyful experience, people will stick around for longer and you’ll get more clicks and Google approval – ultimately improving your SEO. Great UX doesn’t just mean responsiveness, speed and navigation – it’s also about understanding your customers and designing consistent brand experiences that really resonate. 

When you undertake branding or rebranding with Taylor & Grace, we do some serious digging into staff, consumer and competitor perceptions of your brand through in-depth research and SEO keyword analysis to ensure you hit the mark with customers and search engines time and time again. 

Brand awareness

We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: if you have the best lookin’ branding in the world but people can’t find you, what’s the point? Before your brand can be recognised and remembered, you need to be discovered. Part of that discovery means designing a brand that stands out, is instantly recognisable and has clear positioning. 

Think about it, when you Google ‘handbag’, what results do you see at the top of the search engine results pages (SERPs)? Even if you’re not into bags, you’ll no doubt recognise the brands at the top of the list and are way more likely to click on them than HANDBAGS R US on page 37. The more recognisable your brand’s personality, values and design are, the more brand awareness you have. That means higher click through rates (CTR), a better SEO score and higher online engagement.

Trust, credibility & confidence

Ever visited a website and felt instantly baffled? Maybe it didn’t seem legitimate, maybe the logo gave you the wrong impression about what the site sold, or maybe the brand values didn’t align with yours. You probably didn’t stick around for long. For that site, your lack of confidence increased their bounce rate, which is a thumbs-down from search engines.

When you’re designing your brand, it’s crucial to be led by strategy. That strategy should build confidence in your brand so that you have an online presence that your customers will positively interact with and Google will love. So, how do you get Google and your audience to trust you? It’s all about consistent, credible branding. From your logo to your tone of voice, your colour choices to your imagery – it needs to be cohesive, recognisable and build trust or your SEO won’t stand a chance. 

Give your brand the gift of online visibility 

The best SEO for your brand will be the consistent, trustworthy online presence that your target audience can’t help but interact with. To us, that just means building a solid, strategic brand that brings in the 100s & 1000s from the get-go, because nobody should have to wait for sprinkles.

Work with Taylor & Grace on your next brand or rebrand and we’ll ensure your business turns the heads of your ideal customers and the Google gods.