The Art of SEO, 2nd Edition

SEO for Mindshare/Branding

A less popular but equally powerful application of SEO is its use for branding purposes. Bloggers, social media/community websites, content producers, news outlets, and dozens of other web publishing archetypes have found tremendous value in appearing atop the SERPs and using the resulting exposure to bolster their brand recognition and authority.

The process is fairly simple, much like the goal in traditional advertising of ad repetition to enter the buyer’s consideration set. (Read about the three laws of branding at http://www.palgrave-journals.com/bm/journal/v16/n3/full/2550139a.html for more information on this topic.) Online marketers have observed that being at the top of the search rankings around a particular subject has a positive impact on traffic, consideration, and perceived authority.

Here are some factors to think about when considering SEO for mindshare/branding:

When to employ SEO for mindshare/branding

Using it when branding or communicating a message is your goal. If you do not have direct monetization goals for the moment or for the foreseeable future, this is the approach for you. This approach can also be used on portions of ecommerce sites that are not about conversion but more about long-term branding and mindshare.

Keyword targeting

A keyword focus is less critical here—you’ll likely have a few broad terms that receive the high traffic you want, but the long tail may be far more achievable and the better target. Focus on keywords that ...