As a new business owner, it’s definite that you have done some necessary research on the business you are venturing into. Knowing search engine optimization meaning is a prerequisite if you truly want to know the pros and cons associated with your new business. Making some important research is also a prerequisite if you are intending to build a brand. Building a brand requires you having to create a platform with the sole intention of revealing your presence online. Revealing your online presence says a lot about your business, its genuineness and credibility. There are so many ways you can create your brand by building a platform to show your presence.
As a new business owner though, you have to understand the fact that creating awareness for your business is more than having to build a personal or corporate brand. You need to be able to maintain that brand as well, and there is one key piece in being able to maintain your brand. SEO shouldn’t sound strange to you anymore, if you have done concrete research, you would surely have heard or have read about Search Engine Optimization meaning by now. Possibly you don’t understand how it works yet, but it is imperative that you acquire knowledge on why you need to have your personal or corporate brand platform optimized.
Are you looking to set up a personal brand or corporate brand for your new business? Then read through to understand why SEO is of utmost importance to building your brand.
In order to understand why you need to optimize your corporate brand platform with SEO, you need to first understand what search engine optimization meaning is all about. To have a brand, it is a necessity for your business as it aids recognition to potential clients.
What is SEO?
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization and can be defined as a discipline of digital marketing that uses search intent which allows a website to be positioned in the search results. It can also be described as the art and science of making a webpage attractive and appealing to human and search engine algorithms.
This requires that you optimize your website and position your contents with keywords that will attract and bring you resourceful and qualified clients.
What is Branding?
Personal or Corporate Branding is a conscious and deliberate effort to create and influence public perception of you by positioning yourself as an authority in your industry and elevating your credibility to ultimately advance your business, increase your circle influence and have a larger or greater impact.
Let’s talk about Personal Branding
Being an entrepreneur or an online business owner, personal branding is actually the first step you take in creating awareness to your audience.
Personal branding platforms are basically the general social media platforms everyone including you use to connect socially during leisure time.
Social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, etc. are platforms that have been created for the sole purpose of social interactions and is used all over the continent.
Using this social platforms to build influence is a deliberate and intentional act to create engaging activities that essentially drives your target audience to your contents and converts them into customers.
Facebook Page
There are ways and methods you can use to make your Facebook profile stand out from the crowd.
- Use a name that depicts the purpose of your page.
- Use a profile picture that reveals your identity and a Facebook banner that reflects your brand summary.
- Facebook page allows for featured image so use this to your advantage by revealing exactly what your brand is being created to offer.
- Add a call to action button. This enables your users to interact with your page or help learn more about your business. This could either be “Call now, Contact us, Subscribe now etc.”
- Use SEO keywords in strategic locations of your page i.e. about us, welcome note, etc.
- Include your contact details, your email and phone number
- Backlink your page on other channels. That is linking your Facebook page to your website and other social media channels.
LinkedIn Profile
This is a social but corporate platform, and it gives your new business an edge to rank high.
To optimize your LinkedIn profile, do the following:
- A professional display picture
- An header or banner that depicts the nature of your brand
- The use of headlines to define your brand
- Make use of the name pronunciation feature
- The use of cover video feature
- Your about section is simple and readable
- Make use of the featured session to show your work or achievements.
- Include your work experience
- Recommendations and endorsements
- Add License/certification if any.
You should know that your Facebook page and your LinkedIn profile are your personal brand. It gives you an identity but not a corporate identity. It defines you as an individual, not a firm or an organization.
To establish a corporate identity thereby building a corporate brand, you need to take some steps further. This involves having to create a website, make use of a blog or create a LinkedIn page for it.
WEBSITE
This is the best platform you can create for your brand. A website gives you an official presence. You are not just an individual but a corporate entity. It creates recognition and accessibility. It gives your brand goodwill and credibility. Your website continues to find and secure new customers even after business hours. To increase recognition and awareness for your corporate brand though, you need to employ the use of SEO.
The point is that the Search Engine never stops running. People are always looking for one information or the other and the only method your website can be recognized as an answer to a search is when your website content is duly optimized.
The aim of using search engine optimization meaning is to rank your site in the top results. The most important goal here is to produce and maintain high quality content. You can start by making a list of twenty to fifty keywords that your potential clients will use in their internet searches to find your services. Pick terms that make you stand out and create content based on those keywords to drive traffic to your website. To optimize your website; optimize your on page SEO and off page SEO.
On page SEO is all about optimizing the pages of a website such as your headlines, Meta tags, etc. so that they are better positioned in the SERP (Search engine result page). This is basically done on the website.
Take note of the following technical aspects also:
- Mobile responsiveness
- Page speed is reasonably low
- Secured site through the HTTPs protocol.
- The architecture of your site must be coherent and organized
- Your markup should be consistent and should contain your targeted keywords
While Off page SEO focuses on everything that happens outside the website. This is possible through creating backlinks to be used on all social networks or other media. Backlinks are links from one website to a page on another website. The benefit of backlinks is in twofold. On the other hand, they can be a source of traffic when used by visitors to the referring sites they are on and on the other hand, they promote search engine optimization meaning. The backlink is generally carried out as part of an SEO strategy and its off site component.
It is also wise to make efforts to multiply the links to your site because these links are one of the main parameters that Google uses to rank on search results. The more inbound links to your site, the higher it will appear in the search results.
Both methods have the same objective and that is to increase it’s ranking in search results in order to come out on top.
What’s a website without a blog? Blogging is the best opportunity to release contents that provides answers to a search. When you provide optimized contents through your blog with SEO keyword
BLOG, your content is bound to rank on top in the SERP.
As a new business owner, your blog is your corporate platform, it represents your online office where you get to show your clients the details of your work. The only way your blog can attract these potential clients in a quick amount of time is by ranking higher.
How do you optimize your contents for SEO? Use keyword tools. There are SEO tools like Google Analytics, Google search console, Uber suggest, SEMrush, Moz bar, etc. These keyword tools are very easy to use with the right amount of research and understanding. As a small business just starting out, it is advisable that you make good use of any of these tools in order to rank high.
LINKEDIN PAGE
LinkedIn page is clearly not a corporate website but LinkedIn is a corporate platform and having a page on it is to your advantage. Your page serves as a representation of what your website has to offer.
Posting a fully optimized article on LinkedIn increases awareness for your page and website. You get clients from this page to your website.
Assessing the full opportunities of a LinkedIn page increases your corporate brand as a new business owner, and you build credibility and recognition
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