The search engine industry has constantly been plagued by algorithmic updates and there is visibly no sign that this will cease any time soon.
While industry experts are still struggling with the swollen list of Google Ranking factors, the search giant keeps updating its algorithm in an effort to kick off poor quality websites from its front page.
Link-building has always been a strong search engine ranking factor. However, in recent past, there have been speculations that this will soon carry less importance in Google’s ranking algorithm.
A common factor discussed among SEO experts is “brand authority” but how does Google measure this? To clear the cloud, Google just released this patent that gives us insight about how the authority of a brand is measured.
Implied Links and Express Links
In the patent, Google calls brand mentions, “implied links” and the regular backlinks, “express links”
Here is a quick example…
My website is enstinemuki.com and my brand is ‘EnstineMuki.com’ or simple ‘EnstineMuki’
If my brand is cited or mentioned on other websites (not linked to), once somebody is typing it in a search query, a connection is being made in Google’s eyes. Google stores this information and will consider that I earned an implied link.
What does this mean?
In order to improve brand authority and gain more search engine visibility and natural traffic, you will need to pay considerable attention to increasing the number of mentions – linked or unlinked. However, with the ‘nofollow’ link attribute being commonly used, some linked citations may not have any SEO effect.
Should you integrate implied links to your SEO strategy?
My answer to the question is yes! Having your brands mentioned on popular site will certainly improve your natural visibility. That also will hugely improve your brand awareness.
2 ways to get mentions and building a long lasting brand awareness!
There are many ways to attract citations and build brand awareness online. While I encourage you check out this guide by Neil Patel, here are some few points to help you out;
1 -> Do it Yourself
- Guest post authority site. Mention your brand on your guest articles.
- Answering questions on Q&A sites.
- Commenting on authority sites.
- Forum participation – Get active on forums in your niche.
- Sign up to Google alert and get notifications to email whenever content is published on topics you are interested in.
- Use Buzzbundle, a paid tool to monitor topics on social media, blogs and forums. This tool allows you to respond to discussions using the software. It also allows you to track your brand, company, products and services mentions.
- Use infographics: Allow your readers to re-post your infographics. Create an easy copy paste html script and include your brand name just under main graphic content.
-> Check this post for how to get free professional infographic for your blog.
2 -> Outsource to experts
One of the best ways forward in business is to outsource tasks to experts who dedicate time to guarantee your success.
In order to improving online brand awareness, I recommend outsourcing to BrandCitations. They take guess work out of the way and manually submit your content to forums, blogs and Q&A sites.
BrandCitation takes your white hat link building and brand awareness as a priority. Looking at their packages, I think these are quite affordable.
Rather than paying for some junk SEO service that exposes your sites to Google penalties through link spamming, I highly advise dealing with a proven service that puts energy to work for natural result.
Brand Awareness Case Study – 15% Up after 1 month
In this case study, BrandCitation was able to improve its awareness and traffic by up to 15% in 30 days just by using one of its awareness strategies – questions and answers.
Here are ways BranCitation promotes your brand for more mentions and natural visibilty
- Blog commenting
- Posting answers on Q&A websites
- Forum posting
Measuring your brand awareness online
It’s important to measure your Growth and Return On Investment (ROI). This will help in your present and future campaigns. Fortunately, there are free tools you can use.
One of these tools is Google Webmaster Tools (Search Console). This is simple in that it shows your impressions and clicks on your brand name and brand keyword on SERPs.
Another free tool to measure your awareness online is Google Trend
Here is an example for Pat Flynn
That’s it!
While you take time to check out BrandCitation, do drop a comment and let me know what you think about your brand awareness. What are your strategies to promote your brand and how successful are these?
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