SEOmoz’s top dog, Rand Fishkin, has reiterated the importance of building a brand name that people can trust as part of their SEO strategy. Discussing the presence of domain bias, Fishkin argues that because searchers naturally have a brand preference, combining branding and SEO will become increasingly important.
Focusing on a Microsoft research paper from the start of the year, he explores how searchers recognise the relevance of a document based on how reputable they perceive a brand domain to be. As a result, brand trustworthiness could become more important than ever in terms of search marketing. Even if your page ranks highly for the query, chances are that users will scan down until they find a domain name that they trust.
Trusted domains may include brands that searchers have previously heard of or perceive to be trustworthy. Where leading SEOs have previously focused on relevancy to the search phrase and providing informative SEO content, research suggests they should also be developing the trustworthiness of brands as domains. By building a credible brand, domains can benefit their SEO. Fishkin discusses how a brand perceived as trustworthy may have better click-through rates, organic links and social shares which ultimately affect website rankings.
To find out more about the benefits of combining search marketing and branding, chat with one of our own SEO top dogs today and see how you can turn domain bias to your advantage.
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