How many people in marketing are creating content just for Google, right at this moment? How many approaches are you getting from SEO agencies promising cheap, quick fixes and masses of links? I’m getting so many! And as a professional brand marketer, with 26 years under my belt, it’s concerning because I know the way to see through a downturn is to have a brand that means something to humans. Businesses have seen the chance to capitalise on cajoling Google, 'tweaking nobs' to chase eyes, but are they building meaningful brands?

Vista is a brand building agency that improves SEO via proven, Google advised tactics.

The top 5 brand building SEO tactics that Google advises will build equity:

1.    Positive reviews and recommendations on good DA (40+) ranking sites that link back to your site

2.    Placement in ‘Best of’ lists in good DA ranking sites

3.    Collaborating with experts and other trusted sources to reciprocate with link backs and recommendations in articles in strong DA ranking sites

4.    Showing all the ‘value’ that your product delivers – not just the obvious ones

5.    Creating meaningful connection with your target audience.

Not one of those tactics is to buy key words against products you don’t sell, or spam your website with blogs based on key search terms that are based only very loosely on your area of expertise. Unfortunately, a lot of this is happening in order to manipulate the algorithm, and as I understand it, people are turning away from Google search as a result.  

When a human ends a search by clicking onto your site and it bears little relevance to their need, or the products that you are selling, they are unlikely to continue to search your site, or make a purchase. Worse still, they might bounce away quickly. And in this scenario, Google will perceive your expertise and website as poor. If you use spurious link systems to trick Google, your site will be penalised. And when none of your traffic leads to a sale, your FD will look pretty dimly on your performance.

Some SEO experts proclaim to think ‘outside of the box’ for backlinks. At some point within the creative industries, ‘thinking outside of the box’ became an exciting claim. Unless the ‘out of the box’ creative builds the brand expertise and equity within the box it operates, it’s not a good idea.  A lot of this unnecessary content, is purely to make website’s look busy to Google and will have no effect on human perception or sales.

At a time when we are staring down the barrel of recession, with living costs rising fastest for 30 years, I guess it’s no wonder that businesses will look for cheap tricks.

I received an ad last night that offered SEO consultancy ‘from as little as £50 per month’. A few had commented ‘Interested’. Sadly no-one had liked the post using the laughing emoji. Unfortunately there are no cheap tricks to win in a downturn.

I also got an ad in my Facebook feed that promised: Automate your PR and get coverage without pitching to a single journalist. This is a business preying on vulnerable brands desperate for backlinks. If you are tempted by the offer of ‘10,000 pieces of coverage every month for brands’ first ask what quality sites they land coverage with. Unless these are good ranking DA sites (40+) Google won’t perceive them with particular merit and you won’t benefit. Also, there are only a few reputable newswires that decent news sites trust. And getting posted onto these, requires human interaction.

As Seth Godin would put it, this is the fastest race to the bottom.

It boils down to brand awareness verses brand understanding. Brands making noise and demanding attention verses brands building meaning and connection. In this coming downturn, the brand that shouts loudly without having made any meaningful connection is shouting into a void. When a family’s budget is tight, they will select a product they understand, and one they trust.  And if they haven’t tried it before, they will try it because someone they trust is telling them to try it.

If you click on an interesting ad that leads you to a brand you know nothing about, the website is poorly conceived, loads slowly, doesn’t lead you to the product you saw in the ad, has a poor search function and no consumer recommendations, you don’t buy from them do you?

Vista's 3 top tips for brand building SEO in a downturn:

1.    Sort the functionality of your website before you do anything. How is the user experience? The page loading performance? Navigation? Product pitch? Journey to purchase? Purchase options? Delivery and returns cost? If your experience is rubbish, you won’t get anywhere with a human or Google.

2.    Words and links are the most important in the search category, accounting for 40% of the ranking factors. Work hard to get third party sites to write about your business positively – a link back is great, because Google will rank your site as a trusted resource, but a glowing endorsement is greater. It works for SEO and it works for humans!

3.    Create content that is relevant to your product portfolio and builds on your brand equity to drive a deeper meaning with consumers and value to the products you sell.

We help to make memorable brands. One that we don’t work with, but I want to shout out as exceptional this week was – EE #NotHerProblem raising awareness of female football players receiving death threats from men. The campaign points out that a. this is a male issue to tackle and b. it’s not the woman’s issue. Honestly couldn’t care less if EE fibre broadband is so fast it can land a plane from a house in the suburbs. But notice this crime and call it out? I’m aligned and will most certainly consider you next time I change one of the (copious) mobile accounts we have in our family.