The #1 Way To Get Your Brand Noticed Online (Hint: It's Not Ads)

It’s no secret that brand awareness is key to success. Customers who can easily identify and relate to your brand are more likely to buy your products, share your stories, and recommend you to family, friends, and followers.

In recent years, the internet has changed the way people connect to and learn about brands.

Consumers are now faced with an overabundance of information and choice. As a result, they’re much more discerning, and less inclined to connect with businesses they have trouble relating to or feeling good about.

If you want to compete, you need to stand out from the crowd.

Search engines are now the #1 source of new brand discovery

Before the Internet, businesses had few ways of connecting with consumers.

Television and newspaper ads were prohibitively expensive, privileging conglomerates and big corporations, and word of mouth was the primary means of brand discovery.

Times have changed. According to a 2020 survey by DataReportal, search engines are now the #1 way consumers find new brands. The first page of a Google search now has more value than ad space anywhere, where it be on TV, social media, or a website.

Search Engines beat out TV ads, word-of-mouth recommendations, and ads in social media.

The importance of high-quality content

What this all means is that, to get your brand noticed online, you need to start appearing at the top of Google search results.

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Businesses that fail to do so are likely to be left behind. In fact, more than 90% of all pages on the Internet receive no traffic from Google.

Punchy internet ads and a strong social media presence have their place in your marketing plan, but they should no longer be the sole cornerstones of a successful campaign.

Instead, your focus should be on generating high-quality written content, in the form of blog posts and other online articles, to attract interest and drive conversion.

Case in point: businesses with blogs generate 63% more leads than those without (HubSpot, 2010).

5 key takeaways from Ahrefs’ success

Building a standout blog that gets top results in Google and other search engines requires marrying high-quality writing with an intelligent content plan.

Tim Soulo is the CMO for Ahrefs, an SEO software suite whose blog consistently appears at the top of search engine result pages. When he gave readers a peek behind the curtain, he underscored the importance of five key factors.

1. Intelligent keyword research

No matter your sector, service, or product, there is an endless number of topics you can write about.

To find the right ones, you'll need to conduct thorough keyword research. This will allow you to find topics your audience and prospective customers actually care about, instead of chasing down dead-end leads and wasting time writing content nobody will read.

2. Write for conversion

Your business’s blog is a customer acquisition channel. Make sure you’re writing about topics that are directly related to the product or service you’re offering and which improve the quality of your relationship with your customers.

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If your business sells apples, don’t write about orange juice and marmalade. Write about fresh-baked apple pie and the benefits of your organic-apple supply chain.

3. Importance of quality

Aim to meet the highest possible standards of writing. You want your posts to be error-free, easy to read, and visually appealing.

4. Have a fresh take

Remember also that, whatever your topic, it’s probably been covered a hundred times over. Try to bring something new to the table and provide a unique perspective. Write from your company’s point of view, and enliven the text with unique, personal examples.

5. Demonstrate authority

Finally, aim to demonstrate authority by drawing on your expertise and that of your colleagues. A well-researched, authoritative article has lots of drawing power.

Final words

Search engines are now the #1 source of brand discovery. If you want to grow your brand, you need to rank well on search engines—and the key to achieving this is a steady stream of high-quality, unique content organized around an intelligent content plan.