31 October 2024
Google’s algorithms have always been ever-evolving and are notoriously shrouded in mystery. One of the few certainties is that such updates always bring about change for digital performance marketeers as we seek to achieve the very best search results for brands.
And while the latest updates were no exception to that, they also bring to the forefront how Brand’s role – encompassing PR as a crucial component to enhance reputation, visibility, authority and engagement – has been on an evolving journey for some time.
Over recent years, there has been a drive to integrate Brand into SEO strategies across the industry. It’s now at the point where it is starting to be seen as a crucial fourth pillar for SEO strategies, in my view. Put simply, an alignment of Brand and SEO strategies now enables brands to achieve better results.
Some brands which had perhaps previously put all their energy into the three traditionally core areas of SEO – technical performance, content and authority (link acquisition) – risk seeing performance growth stall without the adoption of an aligned digitally-focused Brand strategy. Channels underneath that Brand strategy – including PR, organic social media, video content and influencer marketing to name a few – now appear to often carry more weight when considering SEO because Google is increasingly expecting brands to demonstrate trust, authenticity and credibility to rank well.
Ultimately, the harder these aligned Brand and SEO-minded assets work for every brand – and by that I mean ensuring that they also reach the right target audiences with relevant, quality content which reflects brand values and messaging – then the far better success for Brand equity and awareness, and the greater the potential visibility improvements in Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs). This wasn’t deemed as vital a few years ago and adoption of an aligned approach isn’t as widespread as it could be, hence why it’s important to really double down on it now as things continue to move at pace.
Trust and authority
It’s so important for brands to be viewed as authoritative voices in their fields. Building brand trust and authority through consistent messaging and PR efforts also enhances SEO by improving backlink profiles and domain authority. This area of the industry has been on a journey for some time and I’m never going to profess that backlinks are the answer in isolation; it always has to be quality content via PR – think of landing that one in-depth piece of content which talks directly to a target audience. That’s going to achieve far more than an output of 50 other pieces across random titles. And this helps to build that credibility Google now favours alongside the technical SEO pillars that have been established over the years.
Social synergy
While it may be the case that social media does not influence a brand’s SEO rankings directly at this point, it does play a role in brand exposure and traffic generation. Efforts to promote quality content through social channels can enhance brand awareness and drive referral traffic. This channel will no doubt play a more dominant role in the future for SEO, so it’s always good to be ahead. Some people are calling TikTok the new Google, so while the exact format Google will take ongoing is unknown, it’s not farfetched to suggest that the search engine will adapt to have more of a social feed style, with more video led content ongoing.
Keeping it local
With the rise of local search, brands can also benefit from prioritising local aligned SEO and Brand strategies, ensuring that their presence is optimised for local searches, which often tracks back to PR efforts in terms of regional media coverage. Often community engagement can play its part here too. Ensuring locality sits as part of the wider strategy will help to drive longevity for SEO results.
A combined approach to make data-driven decisions
Our PR and SEO teams work hand in hand at IDHL, and we are continually monitoring data analytics and performance of the brands we work with. While we emphasise the essential part that Brand plays in SEO strategies, having the data points that indicate impact has made sure we’ve been able to finetune workstreams over the years; ensuring Brand sits among the myriad of technical elements of SEO which are still vital to the strategy.
The last few weeks, since the latest Google algorithm changes, have also been about liaising with and educating clients since the alterations came into play; demonstrating the benefits they’ve already seen by integrating Brand as a key pillar.
Data and digital have to be paired with Brand teams across the industry and we need to be more confident as a sector in quantifying what this looks like and how to demonstrate its worth; otherwise brands run the risk of losing momentum on those all important search metrics that they’ve built up over recent years.
Quality reporting
For some time, we’ve recognised at IDHL that Brand awareness and reputation insights can and should feed into SEO reports. Yet this doesn’t seem to be industry-wide at the moment.
By working in the way we do, we’ve been able to showcase how brand search volumes and referral traffic can demonstrate Brand improvement as well as SEO for a multitude of brands. It’s also enabling us to optimise and accelerate growth for our clients via a fully-integrated approach.
In summary, I believe that performance marketeers who look to unite Brand and SEO strategies, and integrate broader reporting metrics, can help businesses adapt to and see SERP improvements from the recent algorithm updates.
As professionals in this space, we need to ensure brands we work with have the right attitude and agility to keep abreast of the fast changing landscape that SEO presents; giving them the technical capability and Brand knowledge to empower decisions that drive results to grow their business. That way, search algorithm changes will be seen as a way to unlock future growth, rather than challenge historic success.
If you’d like to speak to us about how IDHL can build and execute a combined Brand and SEO strategy based on data, get in touch.
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