It’s easy for many online business owners to forget, at times, that it’s possible to compose content for their site that fits in with their brand image, while also helping them achieve strong search engine rankings. There really isn’t any big contradiction between those two objectives.
In fact, written content is among the most powerful ways of getting your brand ‘up there’ in Google’s search engine result listings, and presenting your organisation in a manner that appeals to your target audience. So, let’s look at some of the ways to do just that.
Ensure your content is unique
Sure, when you’re seeking out ideas and inspiration for your online store’s content, you’re likely to encounter certain useful sources. But your content shouldn’t come across as if someone’s just rearranged whatever is written on Wikipedia about the subject at hand.
Even worse is when someone simply directly copies and pastes content from elsewhere – an offence that Google typically punishes with heavy search ranking penalties. So, don’t – unless it’s specifically intended and framed as a direct quote from someone else.
Uniqueness in your site’s written content will help your brand to stand out for the right reasons.
Write to a high standard
You might not have your old school teacher looking over your shoulder at your writing anymore, lecturing you about your spelling and grammar, but that doesn’t mean these things cease to be important. Instead, with your written copy, it will be your brand’s would-be customers who will be making the judgement – and possibly deciding whether to buy from you accordingly.
If you want to present the best possible brand image while maximising the chances of the search engines looking fondly upon you, it’s crucial to avoid typos, awkward phrasing, or even just information that is plain old wrong.
Be guided by your brand image, not ‘marketing speak’
If you’re unsure why your organisation requires a strong brand voice at all when promoting itself online, the short answer is that it’s what will help set you apart from competitors. Your brand image – including your tone of voice – is one of the key factors that will tell the reader your organisation is the one they are hearing from, rather than any rival.
So, don’t lapse into the usual cringe-worthy marketing clichés, if you can at all avoid it. Instead, ask yourself what your brand’s ‘voice’ truly is (formal and prestigious, or informal and offbeat?), and infuse your written content with it.
Speak like a customer, rather than an insider
Before you reach for that industry jargon you’re so used to using with co-workers, ask yourself: is your target audience for this web copy or blog post likely to immediately understand it?
If not, consider what terms the actual target customer uses – not just so that they can understand you more clearly, but also so that you can maximise the chances of them finding you via Google in the first place.
Be concise and ‘to the point’
While pages with a lot of text on them can certainly achieve strong Google rankings, this is attributable to the usefulness and relevance of the information on them, rather than ‘length for length’s sake’.
The truth is, human users seeking out details about something will want those details quickly. They won’t want to have to sift through irrelevant and repetitive content to get there – so search engines will serve them the results that help ensure they don’t have to do so.
Call or email the Piranha Designs team today, and we will be pleased to talk to you about how our search engine optimisation and other digital marketing services could ensure your brand makes the right impact – among both customers and the search engines – in 2021.
