Here’s Why It’s More Important Than Ever to Take Control of Your Brand’s Online Strategy & Search Results

 

Online search has become an essential part of our everyday lives. And as M:7’s Manager of Content and Research, I can tell you that in order to thrive in today’s digital age and connect with your target audience, your brand has to have a strong search presence and a focus on generating online leads.

Don’t believe me?

HERE ARE THE FACTS:

        • 8.5 BILLION SEARCHES HAPPEN PER DAY
        • OVER 99,000 SEARCH QUERIES ARE PROCESSED BY GOOGLE EVERY SECOND
        • 93% OF ONLINE EXPERIENCES AND WEBSITE VISITS START WITH SEARCH 
        • 75% OF USERS DON’T SCROLL PAST THE  FIRST PAGE OF SEARCH RESULTS 
        • 85% OF CONSUMERS REPORTED RESEARCHING PRODUCTS OR SERVICES ONLINE BEFORE MAKING A PURCHASE DECISION

Regardless of your digital standings, your target audience is online, and to reach them you must have an effective online strategy that increases your brand awareness and breaks through all of the white noise.

The thought of this can be overwhelming, which could be why most businesses still choose to overlook the importance of optimizing their online strategy. But you can turn their missed opportunity into your marketplace advantage by making your online presence a priority.

Where Do You Start? 

One of the most important evolutions of the digital age is the ability for brands to level the playing field by utilizing websites, social media and other digital channels to develop cost-effective marketing strategies.

These tools enable brands of all different shapes and sizes to be competitive without spending tons of money. Despite these changes, the internet is still a highly competitive place flooded with choices. Finding sustained online success requires a comprehensive and data-driven approach built on a unique blend of organic, paid, and strategic methods.

Let’s dive into each of them.

 

1. THE ORGANIC METHOD

The Organic Method of SEO includes all methods, tools, and strategies that increase your online presence and improve your rankings on search engines like Amazon, Bing, Google, and YouTube at no cost to you (i.e., organically). But, to understand how to increase your online presence organically, you first need to understand what domain authority is and how it affects your searchability.

Domain Authority is a score (on a 100-point scale) that represents how well a website ranks against competing sites on search engine results pages (SERPs). It is calculated using over 40 factors, including the amount of backlinks you have, how relevant they are, what keywords are used on your site, your site’s health and speed, and of course, every digital marketer’s favorite factor, and by far the most important, Google’s ever-changing algorithm.

To combat these factors, you need to use advanced SEO techniques that not only look at your four core SEO pillars but also take an in-depth approach to improve your technical structure and content. First, start by running a full content and technical audit of your site. From a content perspective, start by upgrading and improving all existing content. Make sure to include high-ranking keywords and backlinks that authentically reflect your brand and what you are trying to sell. While most brands skip this crucial step, it often represents one of their best opportunities to improve domain authority of their websites and is a critical step that you should be taking advantage of.

Next, build out new topic ideas you want your brand to be searchable for and create website content and blogs that relate to these topics. Now review your site from a technical standpoint, starting with your site health and hierarchy. Ask yourself questions like:

          • “How fast is my site running?” 
          • “Is my site optimized for mobile use?” 
          • “Are all my internal and external backlinks up to date and working properly?”
          • “Are my log files optimized?” and 
          • “Am I using tools like FAQ Schema to expand my SERP real estate?”

Once you can answer each of these questions, you’re ready to move on to the next stage of outranking your competition through search.

 

2. THE PAID METHOD

The Paid Method or Search Engine Marketing (SEM) is one of the most effective and valuable ways to earn the all-important top spot on search results. Focused on data analytics and the strategic use of keywords, it’s both an art and a science. Even though the Paid Method requires some level of financial commitment, the size of that investment doesn’t necessarily equal or guarantee success for these campaigns. Without thorough research and a comprehensive strategy, your campaign will not see results.

These types of campaigns include search ads or PPC ads, shopping ads, display ads, Gmail ads, and Youtube ads. When set up correctly, all of these can help you reach your target audience in a short amount of time and drive relevant, high-quality conversions to your site. They also offer the ability of localized targeting. And depending on the products or services your brand offers, I highly suggest using this feature to your brands advantage by microtargeting your audience.

Backed by in-depth search analysis of location-specific and user-specific data, the Paid Method focuses on understanding your target audience, their demographics, psychographics, geographics, and behaviors. You use this data to predict how the targeted user will move down the sales funnel. Then you establish influences and conversions along the way to track how well your hyper-targeted ad strategy is performing.

 

3. THE STRATEGIC METHOD

In order for your brand to stay on top and build substantial brand awareness, your team needs to be actively monitoring and assessing everything involving your online brand. This is where the Strategic Method comes in.

On a daily basis, your team should be keeping an eye on everything from social posts to news stories, and engaging with your target audience every chance you get. When an unflattering story comes out or an outdated result gains traction, you need to handle it quickly or it can haunt your brand in searches for years to come.

Likewise, your team should be actively monitoring and assessing search result status for both your brand and your competitors to give you a better picture of what customers are searching for and how well your organic and paid efforts are performing.

 

While the ever-changing world of search engine algorithms, analytics, and keywords can be intimidating, our team is here to help you navigate it; especially when you don’t have the expertise, time, or resources to do it yourself.

Through an ROI-focused, data-driven, and search-centric approach, we analyze and monitor your search engine status, identify industry search words and develop effective strategies to optimize your online presence and increase traffic to your site.

Ready to outrank the competition and connect with your target audience on search? Check out our Search Brochure below and contact us today.

AUTHOR:

Alyssa Kasper