The original search engines were very simple compared to what we are used to today; you would type in your preferred search term much like now, but the results were received in one of two orders;
1. First found, first shown.
2. A pre-set human generated list.
Neither of these were able to be manipulated, meaning that showing up at the top was mainly luck. As time went on, Google recognised this and started to implement the ‘relevance’ strategy that is still in use today; depending on what words the user types, the most relevant site is chosen and ranked first.
This led to savvy website owners making their websites optimised for search engines as a way of beating their competitors. The news about this free advertisement strategy has grown in popularity and is now a ‘must have’ for any serious business owner.
SEO is completely cost effective as improving your website is key to any growing business anyway; it is just a good idea to add in some key phrases and become optimised in order to take advantage of this free marketing at the same time.
Yes and no is the short answer to the question, ‘is SEO good for business branding and visibility?’ as it depends on a few different factors. First and foremost, you will need some other marketing strategies, i.e. social media to make people aware of your website and secondly, the content has to be top quality to keep people returning.
If the previous points are taken care of, then any visibility you receive will build your brand. If the opposite is true, then you and your brand will receive bad publicity, so always make sure that your ‘content is king’.
Cambridge Local Marketing 