4 reasons why you can’t afford to ignore your brand’s SEO strategy

Search engine optimization is perhaps one of the most important aspects of any brand’s marketing campaign, yet many brands are so fixated on social media and influencers that they neglect the data-driven, search engine side of their marketing strategy. This isn’t to say social media isn’t crucial to any brand’s success online, of course – rather, there’s not enough emphasis placed on SEO compared to other marketing channels that are easier to understand and implement.

If you’re hoping to boost your website’s ranking in the search engines and revitalize your brand’s reputation on reviewing platforms like Google, Yelp and Facebook, then here are four things you should prioritize in your 2019 marketing campaigns:

Grow Your Presence with Directory Listings

Directory listings are just like phone books, except they’re in a digital format. These allow potential customers and business partners to easily find your business, while also creating more backlinks for your website. There are more than 160 directories online today, and so many brands miss out on this super simple opportunity to expand their network and boost their online visibility. Don’t make this common mistake. Be sure to add or update your brand’s information in the top 100 business directory listings as soon as possible.

Save Money on Paid Search

Why spend hundreds or thousands of dollars each month on paid search when implementing a more in-depth SEO strategy could bring in much more traffic for a fraction of the cost? When a brand’s blog begins to optimize articles for keyword searches, it increases the likelihood that you’ll drive more traffic to your website. Researching the best short and long-tail keywords and including these in both your regular website content and blog articles is one of the best ways you can boost your online visibility while saving money on paid search.

Revive Your Brand’s Reputation Online

Did you know that many brands are unaware or indifferent to their company’s reviews on platforms like Yelp or Google? Letting reviewers take the reins when it comes to your brand’s reputation management is a terrifying strategy for anyone hoping to grow their business because customers with bad experiences are more likely to leave reviews than customers with positive experiences.

This means you could be losing customers to competitors who are much more in-tuned with their reviewers’ needs and concerns, which involves monitoring your brand’s reviews and responding to customers in polite, professional ways. A new SEO strategy that encourages satisfied customers to leave honest reviews and professionally manages reviews from unhappy customers is absolutely necessary in 2019!

Embrace Analytics

Even the best marketing strategies can fail from time to time. Why is that? Typically, marketing strategies fail because they ignored key analytics that could’ve informed the brand about which ad copy and images were working and which ones were performing poorly. If you’re not closely analyzing various ad metrics, then you could be unintentionally producing and promoting ineffective campaigns. Fix this by learning how to analyze SEO and social media metrics or hire a professional SEO strategist or agency to do it for you.