You’ve finally done it. A keyword list representative of your website is complete! But now what? Lots of business owners get to this point and think tracking their progress is the final step in their SEO journey—if only it was that easy.
There are 200+ (confirmed) ranking factors that Google uses to judge websites, as well as a confusingly large amount of information regarding those factors. So, where do you start? This is the first in a series of articles covering three things that can increase your SEO viability beyond keyword tracking and content creation. Today, we’ll start with brand recognition.
90–95% of clicks occur on the first page of Google, so ensuring your website is on the first page—if not the number one result—is essential to your ongoing SEO success. The difference between being ranked first and being ranked last can come down to how recognizable your branding is.
Why Does SERP Ranking Depend on Brand Awareness?
Over the last several years, there’s been an increase in the number of featured snippets, knowledge panels, and People Also Ask panels (PAA) on the Google search engine results page (SERP). These panels appear at the top of the SERP with information attempting to answer the user’s question without making them click on a website.
The information within these panels is pulled from a website with a high amount of authority on the subject, which is coveted within the SEO world for obvious reasons. How do these websites achieve high authority? When sites are read by Google, the algorithm favors websites owned by highly recognizable brands.
Having high brand recognition means a couple of things. Users are more likely to ignore the panels at the top of the page, instead of clicking on your website due to their previous associations with your brand. It also means your website may be selected for one of the coveted panel spots. Through thorough testing, it’s been confirmed that the click-through rate (CTR) in organic SERPs is increased when there is a heavier focus on branding. A higher CTR correlates with higher conversion rates, and brand-aware users are two times more likely to purchase from you.
How Do I Increase the Recognition of My Brand on the Google SERP?
A good place to start improving your brand recognition is to implement ALT attributes for the logos on your website. ALT attributes are one of the main ways to link text to image content, as they help search algorithms strengthen their knowledge about an image.
When used to identify logos on a website, ALT attributes also help increase SERP ranking, since their inclusion on a website is one of the confirmed ranking factors. Using your brand name as the ALT text for the logos on your website will increase the amount of recognition your site gains from Google. The important thing to remember is this: as brand recognition increases or decreases, so does the position of your website on the SERP.
The process of improving your brand’s recognition can be confusing and, at times, agonizingly slow, but we’re happy to help you navigate that process. Contact the experts at BadCat (that’s us) to spice up your brand’s image and reach the position on the SERP that your website deserves.