BIC Magazine: Branded SEO is Priority No. 1 in the Industrial Sector

The Misconception About SEO Priorities

One of the misconceptions surrounding search engine optimization (SEO) is prioritizing action or intent keywords, keywords that indicate a "buy decision" is being made — for example, working to rank in search engines for "laser welding" for a welding company. It seems logical, and while not insignificant, it's absolutely the wrong priority. It may come as a shock since this is how conventional SEO wisdom is often presented, but the real concerns business owners should have about SEO instead surround your own brand and trademarks. It sounds wild at first, but if you lack control over how your own brand and products are presented to the public, then you need to focus on this area first before investing in keyword-driven SEO.

Whether potential customers find out about your business through a Google search or word of mouth, they will do their research on your brand before contacting you for a quote. Therefore, you need to not only reach the top rank for your own trademarks in search results but also dominate that entire first page of search results.

The Challenge Ahead

A couple of facts that may apply to your company: (1) What you sell is not an impulse buy. People will carefully evaluate their choices before arriving at a final decision of whom to hire or buy from. (2) You have competitors. Your potential customers have options; you are one of those options.

It can seem counterintuitive that small businesses with lower budgets and less brand recognition than their Fortune 500 counterparts should focus their marketing muscle on branded SEO. After all, traditional keyword SEO is likely to be the first way people discover your brand. But in moving past that discovery stage and context, where do potential clients find out about your company by looking up specific products, services or problems? Companies need to focus on what comes after that discovery: potential clients scoping you out.

Branding as Part of Your Strategy

To truly make branded SEO effective when you're unsure if brand recognition is on your side, your company's name and information need to be in several different places. You also need to have control over the message being conveyed. This is especially important in the industrial sector, where the average user is likely to do more research on each individual company. By focusing on branded SEO instead of keyword-driven SEO, you're not only increasing your company's visibility but also contributing to the overall positioning that will make you compete on trust and recognition in your brand, as opposed to pricing. That positioning is what will make clients specifically source you and not merely choose you after shopping around, so you're no longer relying on requests for proposals (RFPs) and requests for quotations (RFQs).

Not only will you have the ability to demand higher prices, but investing in branded SEO also conveys authority. By making it part of your positioning efforts, you're demonstrating the ability to deliver a superior product in comparison to the competition. Positioning is the message that not only sets you apart from the other players in the market but also places you above and beyond them. Setting premium prices isn't just about the quality you're delivering to the client; it's also about being perceived and trusted to provide real value.

For industrial companies, branded SEO is the foundation that enables all other marketing efforts to succeed. Start at the beginning to establish and strengthen your name and brand. The companies that do this separate themselves from their competitors and sell themselves on qualities like trust and value, not price.

This article was originally published in BIC Magazine, June/July 2019. Read more published works by Doug Mansfield.

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