Have you ever noticed that branding and SEO have many similar attributes? One of the key principles of branding is repetition of the product or brand name. Watch any television commercial or listen to any radio spot and you’ll hear the brand or product name repeated several times. It’s not just: “Wash your hands with soap to kill 99% of germs” it’s “Wash your hands with Dial soap to kill 99% of germs.”
The same thing can be seen in search engine copywriting. Most frequently, keyphrases are nouns: people, places or things. Sometimes they are seen as verbs (buy lobster online) but the majority are nouns (Westinghouse microwaves, used 2006 Lexus ES350). That’s why, when writing SEO copy, you’d typically find content like: “Westinghouse microwaves offer the unique features of…” instead of “Microwaves offer the unique features of…”
But keywords often go beyond the search engines. They help others navigate because keywords bring familiarity. If you went into a brick and mortar store looking for running shoes and immediately after opening the door saw a large banner that read, “35% off on All Running Shoes” you’d know you were in the right place. You had running shoes on your mind. The sign had running shoes in its copy. Your brain linked up with the store’s sign for a perfect match. The same happens when people go to search engines and type in a query.
Because they have the phrases in mind when they search, they will be naturally drawn to those words when they navigate through the search results or when they click to any websites. When you write SEO copy, think through the big picture. You’ll have more success if you realize there are way more reasons to include keywords in your copy than simply to rank high with Google.
We’re quite new to this SEO stuff, but there are many useful tips here that we will be deploying when working with our new clients.
Can the branding be used “too much”?
Thanks for all the great tips.
Not sure what you’re asking here about the branding.