What does SEO refer to? Does SEO only imply website optimization and paid advertising? Actually, the values and implementation of SEO are much more than that. Let's explore how to supercharge brand impact with SEO in China.

Question 1: What does SEO refer to, and why should brands care about SEO to achieve business success?

SEO stands for "search engine optimization". It is a set of practices designed to improve the organic ranking of website/targeted links and their visibility on search engines.

SEO for branding includes a set of techniques. Besides the popular official webpage optimization, brands can also optimize the show contents in the search results to enhance their rankings and impressions of positive information, finally stimulating user conversion.

Moreover, through SEO, brands can mitigate fake news and disinformation and reduce negative influences on brand reputation.

Question 2: What are the specific SEO strategies for branding?

1. Website optimization to increase brand exposure in search results

Website optimization means to optimize enterprise webpage contents by following the rules of major search engines, further driving more indexed rate and traffic, higher website positions on the search result page, and gaining more conversions and revenue. Website optimization can be divided into two critical aspects: on-page SEO and off-page SEO. These aspects optimize elements such as website structure, keyword layout and density, external links, etc.

The purposes of promotion would significantly influence the aspects of website optimization. For example, when a brand aims to boost its brand awareness, it can choose to optimize website content quality, as well as the brand keyword density on the site. And if it is to stimulate more purchasing, improving search rankings for specific keywords of products and industry on the result page would enable prospects to connect to the brand's webpage more easily. 

Feel free to contact us for more professional advice on building your brand's official website, revision, and other website optimization needs.

2. Optimize the keywords listed on the search box to attract users to click 

People use keywords to find solutions when conducting research online. For users' search efficiency and to guide their search behavior, keyword research collects users' search intents, analyzes, and organizes the content available to offer relevant results that satisfy the search queries efficiently. For example, if the search terms people enter on the search bar are related to certain topics of great attention, the corresponding topics keywords will likely appear in the search boxes below.

Therefore, brands can better customize their brand keywords on the search engine to ensure their content successfully gets in front of the audience and attracts users to click. For example, when people enter brands' keywords into search engines, related brand products and reviews appear immediately. Or, when typing in industry keywords, some specific brands name would come out.

The keyword research can also be optimized by maintaining the list of popular search terms associated with the brand and getting negative content off the front page of the search result.

3. Improve brand's online reputation by releasing positive contents

SEO reputation management is a practice of publishing positive brand contents on media and improving how brands are seen online. For example, brand information and industry insights are often released on popular Chinese media such as Zhihu, Little Red Book (Xiaohongshu), and Toutiao Search. By establishing authoritative endorsements, brands can therefore benefit from strong online recognition and reputation.

Popular forms of SEO reputation management include 1:1 question and answer, multiple answers with 1 question, brand recommending articles, posts, etc.

In addition to the three popular SEO strategies shared above, brands can also carry out a variety of SEO ways, such as public relations and optimizing images and videos to boost their visibility online.

To know more about how to increase brand awareness in China, please feel free to contact us at enquiry@so360.hk.