While the search ranking position is highly touted as the main way to make money with the traffic and visitors turning into buyers, less is thought about the benefit to the brand itself. When branding and brand credibility is at stake, there are unforeseen benefits to ranking well, and they can be found in different ways.
In this article, we explore some of these benefits and why search ranking can deliver credibility as a by-product.
Ranking for Your Own Brand
When searching in Google for a brand name or company name, searchers expect to see the company ranking at the top spot. It looks a little strange if another website ranks higher and the brand is sitting at the number five position below-the-fold or back on the second page of the search results.
Should the brand or company name not show up in the number one spot, then it’s easy for someone to question if the company is real or the brand is respectable. After all, if the brand is significant enough, wouldn’t Google know that? It sows doubt in the mind of the potential visitor and that costs site visits and ultimately, sales and lost revenue too.
Ranking for Different Pages & Social Platforms
Along with ranking the home page, it’s useful when Google ranks the major inner pages of the website too. This information is usually derived from the navigational menu pointing to sub-sections on the site.
For instance, Google might pick up the Products, Services, About Us and Contact pages and show them in a box below the home page name and URL. This helps to further establish the business as reputable and long-standing because the search engine doesn’t do this with a company or website that only launched a couple of months ago.
It’s also useful when different social media platform pages are listed for the company. These are often shown lower down in the search results because they directly link to the home page and identify as being operated by the brand. Searchers can look at the social media activity which indicates how recently they were updated and what type of content is posted on behalf of the company.
Ranking for Important Industry Search Terms
The next step in the importance of search is ranking for significant industry terms. This is another way that searchers that already know what terms relate to the type of products or services get to see which brands rank for them. They then make a further connection between those brands, their industry and products/services. The more connections they make, the more seriously they take the brand.
Also, it’s been proven in advertising that with frequent exposure to a brand, it’s more likely that a person will remember it the next time. Therefore, people remember the brand when it’s seen in a range of highly-relevant industry search terms. The higher ranking for those terms effectively says that Google thinks the company means business on these topics and, in turn, that lends greater trust and credibility to the company.
For instance, it would be helpful for a company like Vie Financial Brokers that offers access to different types of commercial lending if they ranked not only for their brand, but also related search terms. Something along the lines of ‘commercial lending’, ‘commercial loans’ or ‘commercial property lending solutions’ are all useful. It may take a business months or years to rank for these high-traffic terms, but it’s worth pursuing because it brings with it more traffic and delivers greater credibility.
Ranking for Niche Search Terms
Ranking for niche search terms – ones that have a smaller monthly search volume and are more specific or exacting – is a faster way to go. These tend to be easier to rank in Google and Bing and take less time to do so. This is because many companies aim at the larger industry terms to the exclusion of more niche search terms. However, potential customers and business contacts search across the board.
Of course, ranking for both industry terms and niche terms is useful, but the latter usually come before the former. Both are useful in establishing which brands are a player in their industry and those that continue to be invisible because they’re way back on page ten.
Hopefully, now you have a better picture as to what healthier search ranking positions can do for making a brand more trustworthy. It’s all about positive associations that searchers draw in their mind which ultimately gives them the confidence to click on a link to the site, go through with a purchase or take some other action. It puts a whole new perspective on why search ranking is so important.