MediaWhiz Senior Vice President of Media Services Peter Klein is a fount of information about performance marketing. Especially affiliate marketing. The guy loves affiliate marketing. The good kind, of course. Not the fraud-based affiliate marketing of the past. That kind of junk pains him. It

It’s with this perspective in mind that I recently sat down with Pete, who oversees MediaWhiz’s affiliate marketing business, to discuss a topic that he is particularly passionate about: launching performance marketing campaigns. damages the industry’s reputation, he says, and makes it harder for reputable affiliate networks, such as MonetizeIt, the MediaWhiz affiliate network, to earn the trust and business of today’s digitally savvy CMO.

Pete’s so passionate and informed about this topic, in fact, that he’s written an eBook on it called “The CMO’s Guide to Performance Marketing.” You can download a free copy here.

Download the Free eBook

Recently, I asked Peter to describe how marketers can launch their own performance marketing campaign. Here he outlines the five steps every marketer needs to take to launch a successful performance marketing campaign:

Step 1: Define Your Goal

Defining the goal is important because in most cases campaigns fail because there is no strategic goal in place. What are your goals? Are you interested in generating leads or interested in generating sales? It’s best to figure out what your desired outcome is and have a defined goal that you will be targeting for the campaign.

Step 2: Choose the Right Affiliate Network

I highly recommend conducting thorough due diligence when searching for an affiliate network, just like you would with any other business partner. Make sure you figure out how long they have been in business. What kinds of support team is in place? What verticals do they specialize in? Learn the affiliate network’s financial background and history.

All of those factors are important when figuring what affiliate network you want to work with. Once that is done, it’s best to start with one affiliate network because it will allow for a smaller budget at the start of the campaign. Get some success under your belt with a small affiliate campaign and then start branching out and expanding your campaign with multiple affiliate networks.

Step 3: Plan the Media Mix

The beauty of a media mix with performance marketing is that you have access to so many different media channels like social, mobile, display, search, email, incentivize, co-registration and so much more. The list goes on-and-on.

Make sure you know how much money you want to spend and what channels you want to test. After picking your channels invest between $5,000-$10,000 in each channel. Based on your results, either hone in and remove channels that didn’t work or expand into other channels.

Step 4: Monitor the Campaign

Once your performance marketing campaign has launched you must follow the key objectives and needs of your campaign. There are compliance issues and regulations that could arise. It’s important to ensure every aspect of your campaign – and the work of your performance marketing agency or affiliate network – is compliant and that your brand integrity is being maintained and accurately represented within the marketplace. It’s also important to ensure results are trending in the right direction, your budget is being filled in a proper manner and your key performance indicators are being hit.

Step 5: Optimize

Optimizing your performance marketing campaign comes down to looking at all your media spend and making sure that within each channel you are paying appropriately for the leads. Some quality sources might be fantastic and you might want to pay more for those leads in order to bring in a larger volume. Other quality sources might be poor but will still viable. In that case, you may want to pay less for those leads. Really focus on optimizing to hit your target return on investment.

To get a more detailed description about affiliate marketing and how to start your own affiliate marketing campaign download our free guide, “The CMO’s Guide to Affiliate Marketing.”  To keep up to date on all things MediaWhiz follow us on Twitter @MediaWhizInc, like us on Facebook  and follow us on LinkedIn

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By Marc Purtell | Director, SEO

Choosing the right target keywords builds the foundation for an entire SEO campaign. If the right keywords with the highest potential for return are not selected, the foundation of the campaign will be weak and, therefore, success is nearly impossible.

In order to select the right keywords, data must be collected and analyzed so projections on return can be made. Gathering the necessary data, however, can be expensive and many businesses will not invest in best-of-breed SEO tools.

For those with limited budgets and without access to paid SEO tools, impactful keyword data is not out of reach. There are plenty of data sources and tools that can be used for free or offer free versions. By leveraging several free tools, advertisers can generate enough information to make informed decisions on keyword targets and set themselves up for successful SEO campaigns.

Below are three such tools. In subsequent posts, I will examine the best free SEO tools for auditing, troubleshooting and gaining competitive intelligence. For a full account of the 10 best free SEO tools, download MediaWhiz’s new report, “10 Free, Must-Have SEO Tools.”

DOWNLOAD THE FREE EBOOK

Google Adwords Keyword Tool

The first step in choosing the right keywords is to understand what keywords consumers are searching and the demand of each of those keywords. This data can be determined using the Google Adwords Keyword Tool. In order to gain full access to the data you need to sign up for an Adwords account. You do not need to set up any campaigns or spend any advertising money.

There are three main ways to find relevant keywords using this tool, including inputting the website or page that is to be optimized, the category of the products or services the website offers, or a seed list of keywords related to those products or services. Before researching the keywords, however, it is important to implement the correct settings. Since we are looking for specific keywords that the market is searching, we want to analyze at the demand of exact match keywords rather than variations. In order to see the demand (search volume) of the keywords, use the “Match Types” option in the right sidebar and select [Exact].

The first way to identify keywords is to input the domain or page you are trying to optimize. Google will crawl the website and return a list of suggestions based on the content. For example, if you are looking for keywords relevant to www.MediaWhiz.com, you would enter the domain into the Website field and click the Search button for a list of relevant keywords. Once results are returned, be sure to select the Keyword ideas tab as opposed to the Ad group ideas tab. This will provide a comprehensive list of keywords with associated search volume. This can also be done using the domains of direct competitors.

For keywords related to a specific page, simply input the URL of the page rather than the domain into the tool for a list of keywords specific to that page.

The second way to identify relevant keywords is by selecting the category. In this instance you would input the category of the products or services offered instead of a domain or URL. For example, if the service offered is “marketing,” you would select the “Advertising & Marketing” category in the Category field and click Search. This is not always the best use of this keyword tool, however, because the categories are often very general and some categories are not available.

The third and most common way to leverage the Google Adwords Keyword Tool is to input a list of seed keywords (typically the names of the products or services offered) into the Word or phrase field. This will return a list of popular searches related to those seed keywords.

Google Analytics

Another method of identifying potential keyword targets is to look at the phrases that are already generating organic traffic to a website. This gives insight into the possibility to increase that traffic via optimization. Using Google Analytics, advertisers can review the keywords that are driving traffic organically to a website. Of course, having a Web analytics platform in today’s digital marketing world is essential for many reasons and this is just one. There are many good analytics platforms, some of which have very high price tags. The standard version of Google Analytics is, in my opinion, just as useful as any other platform, with the only difference being it is free of cost.

The keywords driving organic traffic can be seen in Google Analytics using the Organic Search Traffic report. This can be found by navigating the following sequence within the right sidebar: Traffic Sources>Sources>Search>Organic.

In order to see the specific keywords generating traffic, ensure “Keyword” is selected as the Primary Dimension.

This report will pull up the keyword level organic traffic metrics for the time period specified. It’s recommended to look at a minimum of the last three months of data. If the business is seasonal, look at the time period reflective of high season.

Since this provides a list of keywords that are already sending traffic to the website, it is often the case that this traffic is generated because the keywords have some organic presence in one or more search engines. Optimizing against those keywords provides the opportunity to rank higher in the search engines in which the site is already ranking as well as infiltrating the organic results of additional search engines. Make a list of non-branded keywords from this report for further investigation. This may include inputting keywords into the Adwords Keyword Tool mentioned above to check the demand and into the Rank Checker tool mentioned below to see where the website is currently ranking.

There are some other important metrics to look at when determining target keywords for an SEO campaign. This analytics report also gives insight into engagement factors, such as bounce rate and average visit duration at the keyword level. By focusing on keywords with low bounce rates and a good amount of time spent on the site, the campaign will be focused not only on the keywords most likely to drive traffic, but also to drive visitors that are likely to perform an action on the site.

Rank Checker

Finally, when starting a new SEO campaign, especially with a small budget, it is helpful to identify and target the low-hanging fruit. A good strategy is to target keywords that a website already ranks for but are not yet in a position capable of garnering strong results. Oftentimes, a website will rank low on page 1 or on page 2 for a strategic keyword without any optimization effort. By implementing an optimization plan for those keywords, the website can often quickly move up the ranks into a position that will garner strong results.

There are many paid tools to track keyword rankings but there is an excellent free tool that allows users to check the rankings of up to 100 keywords on the fly. Rank Checker is a Firefox extension that can be downloaded after signing up for a free SEOBook account. Once downloaded, Rank Checker is available via an icon located at the bottom right of the Firefox browser.

The usefulness of Rank Checker for keyword targeting comes in conjunction with other tools for keyword discovery such as the Adwords Keyword Tool or Google Analytics. After using those tools to identify lists of potential keyword targets, it’s easy to find some low hanging fruit using Rank Checker.

The first step is to set the options by right clicking the Rank Checker icon at the bottom right of Firefox and selecting “Options”.

You can opt-in to check the rankings of your keywords in Yahoo and Bing as well as two different country-specific versions of Google simultaneously. The country-specific versions of Google and Yahoo can be selected using the drop-downs. Finally, in most cases you will want to check off the “Don’t use Google personalized search results if any” option to get an idea of where the site ranks in general, not using your browsing history.

Now you’re ready to run Rank Checker. Simply add your domain and keyword list (up to 100 keywords at a time) and usually within about a minute you will have the rankings. Look for high-value keywords that the site is already ranking low on page 1 or on page 2 or 3 to see what low-hanging fruit is available. The fact that the site is already ranking on one of the top pages shows there is already some authority for that keyword that can be built upon. These are typically quick-win keywords.

The above tools are my recommendations as three of the best free SEO keyword resources marketers can find. In my next post, I will analyze free SEO auditing and troubleshooting tools.

What are your favorite free SEO tools for identifying target keywords? Share your recommendations in the comments.

Want more insight like this? Download our new report, “10 Free, Must-Have SEO Tools” today. 

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Today, we’re releasing a new eBook in our growing stable of Insights reports (read them all here). Titled, “10 Free, Must-Have SEO Tools,” the report outlines our top picks for the best free SEO tools and resources marketers can use to identify target keywords, audit and troubleshoot onsite SEO issues and gain competitive intelligence.

Below is a snippet of the many useful insights you’ll find inside the eBook. Download your free copy to find more.

Download the Free eBook

Performance in organic search engine marketing requires an investment. Depending on the goals of a search engine optimization campaign, that investment can be quite substantial. Budget often must be allocated strategically in order to stretch it enough for success.

Part of the investment in any SEO campaign goes toward tools that help brands analyze data, strategize and track results. To do so, marketers need a bevy of tools and resources.

This is an area in which marketers can be frugal, if necessary. There are hundreds of great paid search marketing tools that will help generate a strong return from an SEO campaign. If budget must be used sparingly, however, there are ways around paying for high-end tools.

This report analyzes the best free tools marketers can use to track and measure the success of their SEO campaigns, troubleshoot problems, gain important competitive intelligence and plan for future SEO success.

Key Takeaways

1. Using a free tool or combination of free tools can often eliminate the need to invest in a paid search marketing or SEO tool.
2. SEO tools are important in selecting the right keywords to target in an SEO campaign.
3. Troubleshooting on-site SEO issues becomes much easier with access to the right tools.
4. Competitive intelligence tools can be a great asset for building a successful SEO strategy.

Download the Free eBook

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Content marketing can provide tremendous value to a search engine optimization campaign, as outlined in our recent eBook, “Content Marketing Like a Pro.” There are many different content types that can be leveraged as a vehicle for lead generation with a strong return on investment. Today, we’ll examine how you can choose the right content type to increase your brand’s SEO value.

RELATED: Download MediaWhiz’s FREE eBook, “Content Marketing Like a Pro”

eMarketer recently published a study conducted by CopyPress in which marketers were asked which types of content are the most cost effective. Results of the study showed the growing demand among marketers of content marketing as a leading digital focus. Thirty-five percent of marketers surveyed identified content marketing as their leading focus in 2013 as compared to 19% in 2012. It is no secret that content marketing is a powerful lead generation tool and that the return on investment is high.

When it comes to segmenting the various types of content, a vast majority of the marketers surveyed identified featured articles as the content type with the best ROI. The main differentiator between featured articles and other media types is the relatively small cost and simplicity of development which makes the investment very low. The minimal hard costs and effort associated with producing featured articles combined with the innate value of any content marketing piece that follows best practices, makes these articles very attractive to utilize.

Another advantage of featured articles that makes them a priority content marketing piece is the ability to use authorship mark-up to help promote the content and improve organic search authority. Since featured articles typically contain a byline, the rel=“author” rich snippet can be leveraged to tie the content to an authoritative author, making it much more likely to rank for keyword-targeted search queries in search engine results.

One thing that has been overlooked by many respondents in this study is the indirect return value of the various content types. For example, infographics scored relatively low for ROI ability because of the higher costs involved with production and implementation. Therefore, when looking at top-level numbers, they wouldn’t show the same level of ROI as a featured article. However, rich media such as infographics provide a great deal of SEO value because they are more commonly shared via social media and linked to, which increases the organic search rankings of the website hosting them. The website authority generated from a content marketing piece is much more difficult to measure than direct ROI and is therefore not always considered when deciding what type of content to invest in.

Regardless of the type of content used, content marketing is a growing initiative with strong potential for high return. In order to be truly successful, a full content marketing strategy should leverage multiple types of content and include strategic planning for a distribution schedule. It is also important to look past the top-level metrics and dig in to gain as much learning as possible on how content marketing is affecting other channels and indirectly increasing the ROI of those.

Download our new eBook, “Content Marketing Like a Pro,” to learn how you can improve search engine visibility and your brand’s SEO value with content marketing. 

How is your brand using content marketing to improve SEO? What are some of the best practices you have found for incorporating authors’ authority to improve the search rankings of your content marketing pieces?

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Today, we released a new eBook on content marketing. Titled, “Content Marketing Like a Pro,” the report outlines the key pillars to content marketing and advises marketers on best practices for crafting and executing successful content marketing programs.

Download the eBook

This eBook also provides a framework marketers can use to improve their brand’s SEO and generate leads via a content marketing program.

When consumers first encounter a brand digitally it’s not always the brand’s website that makes the first impression. What makes the greatest impression is the authority of the brand’s website measured by where it ranks when a consumer searches.

Content marketing is a method to build this authority and rank.

Learn how to use content marketing to generate leads and improve your brand’s SEO with MediaWhiz’s new eBook, “Content Marketing Like a Pro.”

Key Takeaways

1. Content marketing can drive leads directly and indirectly. Direct click-throughs can be created from content marketing pieces to a website for lead-generation purposes. Leads can also be generated indirectly by impacting the performance of other channels, such as SEO.
2. Focus on the audience. Even if content marketing efforts are utilized with the goal of improving SEO, it is important to focus on how the content will benefit consumers. By defining the target audience and performing the research necessary to understand what that audience values, content can be created to provide value to the consumer that will in turn lead to engagement and success.
3. Measure results. There is a great deal of learning that comes from each content marketing campaign. By tracking and analyzing key performance indicators associated with the efforts, this data can be leveraged to improve future campaigns and understand the types of content that resonate most with the target consumer.

Download the eBook

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Editor’s note: This is the second post in a two-part series on predictions in search engine marketing and SEO in 2013. The series is based on MediaWhiz’s new white paper,“SEO in 2013: The Year of the Consumer.” Download your copy.

Last week I predicted that AuthorRank will play an increasingly important role in marketers’ SEO strategies in 2013. This week, I examine what 2013 has in store for content marketing and its increasing value to search and SEO.

Content marketing has been a hot topic in digital marketing this year. The positive benefits it has on SEO are invaluable if done correctly. There are two main ways a good content marketing strategy can benefit organic search results: expanding a brand’s reach by syndicating useful content throughout the Web; and including links in syndicated content to build authority back to the brand’s website.

In order to employ an effective content marketing strategy, SEO experts must take more of a PR approach to developing topics to write about. Content must be cutting edge and ground-breaking to gain the momentum needed for success through social sharing and PR. In today’s landscape, there is little to no value in developing content based on a keyword. Instead, it must be based on a compelling idea.

Creating truly valuable content is only the first step in successful content marketing. Once the content is created, the focus should shift to deployment. Finding the right outlets for various topics and media types (infographics, videos, articles, etc.) is crucial to seeing a strong return on content marketing efforts. Syndicating an article on an article distribution network will not add value. Rather, reaching out to respected industry blogs for guest posting opportunities is a great way to promote content.

2013 will be all about maintaining a clean link profile, monitoring that profile to ensure it stays clean, and continuing to build out that profile through content marketing. Although link development will require a more substantial investment than it did in the past, doing it the right way will allow your brand’s SEO results to flourish over time.

What are your predictions for SEO in 2013? Share them in the comments section. 

Want more insight like this? Download the new MediaWhiz white paper, “SEO in 2013: The Year of the Consumer.”

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Editor’s note: This is the first post in a two-part series on predictions in search engine marketing and SEO in 2013. The series is based on MediaWhiz’s new white paper,“SEO in 2013: The Year of the Consumer.” Download your copy.

When considering major trends that will impact SEO in 2013 it’s clear that AuthorRank will play an increasingly important role in marketers’ search and SEO strategies.

PageRank has long been the standard high-level metric used to identify the relative quality of a Web page. There is arguably limited value in using PageRank as a quality metric over the last few years, but it can still be meaningful in conjunction with other quality metrics (i.e. domain authority, page authority, etc.)

In 2013 a new quality metric will take the spotlight when it comes to page quality and search engine ranking. This metric is affectionately known as AuthorRank (or Agent Rank, according to Google’s patent).

Here’s why AuthorRank will help reshape SEO in 2013:

AuthorRank: A Brief Overview
Content quality, as measured by search engines, is no longer based solely on the authority of a domain or Web page. It is increasingly based on the reputation and authority of the individual that authored the content. This reputational score grades authors on the Web and used that grade when ordering natural search engine results.

How is AuthorRank Established?
The standard method for an author on the Web to be credited by Google with the content they produce is to tie pages they have written to their Google Plus profiles. This is done using rich snippets. Authors are then ranked based on the engagement factors of the content they produce. These factors include: social endorsements (tweets, +1’s, shares, likes); the influence and relevancy of those providing the social endorsements; comments on social networks (such as Yelp); the influence and relevancy of those commenting; and the quality and relevancy of inbound links pointing to the content. The more an author writes on a topic, and the more engagement with that content, the higher that author’s rank will be for a specific topic.

Leveraging AuthorRank for Search Engine Rankings
There are several ways for marketers to improve AuthorRank on their brand’s website. These include finding authors who already have AuthorRank and building the AuthorRank of those within the organization.

Brands that do not currently have authors with a strong online reputation should conduct author outreach for short-term content. They should also build up the AuthorRank of those within their organization to leverage in the long term.

Author outreach consists of identifying and reaching out to authors that already have authority in the space most relevant to a brand’s industry.

Conducting Google searches for a set of keywords that the brand trying to rank for and looking for rich snippet-enhanced results is a great way to identify authoritative authors in the space. Within those rich-snippet-enhanced results will be a line item indicating how many Google Plus circles the author is included in. That number is a good metric to consider when assessing the writer’s relative AuthorRank value to a brand. Scoring authors based on the number of Google Plus circles they are included in, combined with the number of relevant search queries for which they appear, will provide a prioritized list of potential authors to engage for content marketing opportunities. Connect with those authors and reach out to them to provide fresh content for your brand’s site.

Targeting popular websites and blogs is important so that more eyes will be on the content. This will increase opportunities for online engagement and commenting, two critical factors in improving a site’s AuthorRank. As the presence and influence of the author’s work increases so will the brand’s AuthorRank, which will increase site traffic over the long run.

As search marketing and SEO become more content-focused disciplines, marketers in 2013 will need to pay attention to AuthorRank. The days of PageRank’s hold over SEO are numbered. The era of AuthorRank’s dominance of SEO is here.

What are your predictions for SEO in 2013?

Want more insight like this? Download the new MediaWhiz white paper, “SEO in 2013: The Year of the Consumer.”

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MediaWhiz’s SEO experts share their wisdom in a new white paper, “SEO in 2013: The Year of the Consumer.”

The New Year in SEO is all about the consumer. Long live the consumer.

Search engine optimization is an ever-evolving challenge for webmasters and marketers alike. The SEO landscape in 2012 went through some of its most impactful changes to date. Looking ahead to 2013, it’s necessary to start implementing more complex processes in order to remain  competitive in organic search. The rate at which search engines update their ranking algorithms makes it essential to avoid optimizing for short-term results and start planning campaigns with the future in mind.

In 2013, optimizing websites for search engines will not win the game. The necessary shift will be optimizing websites for users.

The path to SEO success in 2013 comes down to two principles: keeping user experience in mind when optimizing and closely monitoring, and adjusting to, changes in search engine algorithms.

MediaWhiz’s SEO experts share their predictions for SEO success in 2013 in a new report,

“SEO in 2013: The Year of the Consumer.”

MediaWhiz’s guide to the state of SEO in 2013 is full of valuable insight. We help you navigate the ever-changing SEO space. Learn the value of producing unique content for your website. Gather best practices for reaching new consumers — and influencing current customers — through improved site optimization.

More than a how-to resource; this guide offers detailed insight and knowledge that marketers need to know to navigate the choppy waters of SEO in 2013.

Here’s a bit of what’s inside:

• SEO in the era of Penguin and Panda.
• How to optimize your content for users, not the search engines.
• SEO tactics to avoid in 2013.
• Content quality guidelines that will help you create compelling content.

Download your copy today.

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With 74 percent of consumers conducting online research before making a purchase decision, any negative sentiment around a brand can deliver a significant blow to the brand’s bottom line. In many instances of a brand’s reputation being tarnished online SEO is the only way to clean it up and present the brand in a positive light.

Social Media’s Effect on SEO
The popularity of social media and blogs, combined with the emergence of consumer complaint websites, has been detrimental to the reputation of many brands. Both allow one person’s bad experience, or even a deceitful competitor, to drag a brand’s reputation through the mud for the entire Web to see.

When a critique of a brand is posted to a popular website, search engine queries for that brand will often include that critique on the first page of organic search results. This can be very damaging to the brand. Potential customers who come across such a critique may be disinclined to engage with a brand they otherwise would have after finding such a negative organic search result.

Blog posts and social media updates that speak negatively about a brand and rank for the brand name are on third-party websites; the brand has no control over them. Since it is unlikely that the pages will be removed from the websites, the only recourse the brand has is to get them removed from the search results. This is done by leveraging SEO for online reputation management.  

Managing Online Reputations through SEO
Online reputation management is accomplished through SEO by creating fresh, engaging content with a positive spin on the brand and optimized for the brand name. Marketers should then publish that content on popular sites that already have a great deal of domain authority.

Once the positive content assets are published, the next step is building page authority by pointing links and social signals at it. As the authority of each page begins to grow, they will move up in the rankings, eventually occupying the search engine real estate that once housed the negative critiques, therefore moving them off the first page of organic search engine results.

This practice not only assists with enhancing the reputation of a brand, but also with customer retention. Repeat customers are ready to re-engage with a company, they very often perform branded searches to return to their website. Once the search engine results are returned, if they notice a complaint or other negative sentiment on the results page, they will be less likely to continue business with the brand and could decide to choose a competitor instead.

Zazzle is a good example of a company that appears to be leveraging the reputation-enhancing powers of SEO. A brand search for “zazzle” in Google returns both Squidoo and Crunchbase profiles. These are two Web properties on which companies are free to publish and promote positive brand content.

Whether or not there is negative sentiment about a brand online, SEO can be leveraged to enhance the brand’s reputation. Saturating the Web with branded content will position the brand as an authority and put the right messaging in front of consumers as they navigate the web or search a brand name. The more positive content they come across, the better the reputation of a brand.

Want more insight like this? Download the new MediaWhiz white paper, “Leveraging SEO’s Brand-Building Powers.”

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Look beyond SEO’s traditional uses for brand- and reputation-enhancement benefits.

SEO is not typically considered a branding mechanism. But below the surface, there is intense brand-building value. In order to fully understand the value of a search engine optimization campaign, it is necessary to look beyond traditional key performance indicators (KPIs) such as rankings, organic traffic, etc. and look also at the value search engine optimization has on a brand. Our point of view is that SEO is not successful if it is not building both brand awareness and brand influence.

That is the basis of our new white paper, “Leverage SEO’s Brand-Building Powers.” Download your copy today.

Building Brand Awareness through SEO

Brand awareness via SEO is built by saturating the most relevant channel with positive brand content for increased visibility. For example, a brand selling dietary supplements should publish engaging content with a positive brand spin throughout the health channel, both on their own website, and other authoritative sites related to health and wellness. This channel saturation will lead to increased visibility by casting a wide net of content around the Web.

It’s not just about volume, however. In order for a saturation strategy to perform, your brand’s content assets must provide value to the channel’s audience andconvey the brand messaging in a positive manner. If there is no value to the audience, the content will not perform in organic search, reducing the benefits of increased visibility.

Rather than simply promoting the brand, the content must provide consumers with information that is of value to them and that they are looking for. The more engaging content a brand has saturated within the channel, the more likely consumers are to come across the brand online. The example below shows how consumers’ first online interaction with brands has changed.

Building Brand Influence with SEO

Brand influence via SEO is built by positioning the brand as the authority of the products and/or services it offers. Consumers trust organic search results. In fact, studies have shown 77% of consumers to trust organic results over paid results. When a brand ranks high in organic search results, consumers will begin to trust the brand and view it as an authority, therefore becoming much more easily influenced to value the brand over competitors and complete a desired action (conversion) on the website.

Consumers who are familiar with a brand are more likely to click on search engine results leading to that brand’s website. This helps to increase click-through rates of a brand’s non-branded search results. As that click-through rates increase from more people trusting the brand, search engines will recognize that behavior and begin to rank the site higher as well.

There is a mutually beneficial back-and-forth relationship between branding and search engine optimization. Just as SEO helps with building a brand, a strong brand presence helps with SEO performance. Taking all of this into consideration, when beginning a new SEO campaign or refining a current strategy, advertisers should always ask themselves how the strategy will help with brand-building and then make the necessary adjustments to make sure that it is part of the focus. Not doing so will result in a great deal of missed opportunity.

In an era when brands’ online reputations are equally as important as their offline reputations marketers must make the case for leveraging the brand-building powers of SEO. Decision-makers will be much more likely to pull the trigger on a campaign when they see the full spectrum of benefits on both the brand and the bottom line.

Want more insight like this? Download the new MediaWhiz white paper, “Leveraging SEO’s Brand-Building Powers.”

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