If you think about it over the last few years what’s the number one factor that’s helped with Google’s rankings?
Links and content.
In 2019 the change is going to be brand.
If you notice over the last years what’s happened is the more links you build, the higher rankings have moved.
In 2016 that was definitely true. 2017, yes, but not as much as 2016.
2018, yes, links matter but not as much as 2017. We’re continually seeing the trend in which links are still powerful. They drastically can effect how you rank on Google, but brands not only rank but they rank in the long run and they have much more stability with algorithm updates.
Eric Schmidt once said, “Brands is how you separate the good or bad sites.” I’m butchering the quote.
When he talks about this he breaks down things like fake news, which is really popular these days. He talked about this a long time ago. When you build a brand they know that you’re legitimate. You’re less likely to dupe people and for that reason you’re going to have higher rankings over time.
I’m going to take a more philosophical approach around this too.
So when you envision a brand, you think about the Nikes, the Apples of the world. You don’t need to build a mega brand like that to be successful in the SERPS.
You can build a mini brand and still start to get something going.
The reason why I think it’s important to build a brand, no matter if you are just getting started today or if you’re working for somebody else right now, you’re an entrepreneur, here’s the thing.
If you build a brand or a mini brand you’re virtually indestructible.
Here’s why I’m saying that.
If you start a business and you lose it, you completely screw it up, you get the experience by the way, which is I think is really valuable, but you lose it, you lost everything, you still have a mini brand. Worse case scenario, you’ll probably get a high paying job. That’s why I think it’s really important to build a brand.
The question is how do you start building a brand?
Marketing has moved to omni channel approach in which you need to do multiple things to build a brand, SEO, content marketing, social media marketing.
Live videos are a great example of a thing that you can do to help build up your brand, whether it’s personal or corporate. You just need to leverage a lot of channels.
It used to be where you could just build a business through one channel and a brand. For example, Facebook, when they came out they grew by saying, “Hey, sign up,” and they automatically blasted everyone in your address book inviting them as “you” telling them signup for Facebook. That’s what put them on the map.
Those kind of things don’t work as well as they used to.
For that reason you need an omni channel approach because most of these channels are saturated and it’s the only way to build up a brand because one channel is not going to drive enough demand and presence for you.
When you’re building up a brand be patient. In the first three to six months you’re not going to get the results you’re looking for. By the end of year one people are going to say, “Oh yeah, we’re seeing your company a bit more around,” or, “We’re seeing your face more around.” You’ll really start noticing the brand start kicking in around the 2nd year mark. I know that’s not what you want to hear, but it’s the reality.
So you already have a company that is serving clients in the real world?
You just need to build an online brand image that is in line with Google’s guidelines to gain instant credibility and an advantage in search results.
In regards to brands and SEO – All algorithmic changes by Google are focused on making the search experience more reliable and trustworthy.
And this is exactly why Google loves brands. Because brands signify consistency, credibility and quality. By promoting brands in its search results, Google makes sure that its searchers are getting reliable information.
So get building your brand, personal or business!