How to brand a website in 5 easy steps

How to brand a website in 5 easy steps

Branding a website isn't always the easiest thing to do because most people think that it only takes a nice looking logo and you're done.  Well I'm here to tell you that it takes much more time and effort than that to brand your website and business.  You need to do various things in order to get the people, the ones who will buy from you, to see you as the authority within you niche.  Now some people will say that all you have to do is to get ranked #1 for some competitive keywords and then you're branded.  What happens if no one knows who you are and you're ranked #1?  You're not branded lol. 

Achieving top rankings in the search engines is definitely awesome, but that falls into the category of SEO and not branding.  You'll need to get a logo, have interviews sprinkled around the internet, do some basic SEO so you can be found (I know, I said this isn't really branding, but I'll get to this in time), and a few other things.

In this discussion I'll go over a few different ways you can spend your time, and a few bucks, in order to help brand your business so that you can be seen as THEE authority within your niche

5 steps to easy branding
1. Your Logo
You can't just open up MS paint and make a logo, that is unless you're trying to brand a children's website that sells stuff to infants.  In reality you will need to hire a logo designer in order to get the best possible logo for your business and website.  If you already have a logo, you might need to get it redesigned if it doesn't fit your niche very well.

Some people refuse to redesign their logo because they've become attached to the old outdated one, which you shouldn't do.  Embrace the change and see what some logo designers can mock up for you, I'm sure you'd be pleasantly surprised with some of the designs that come back

One of my favorite logo designers here on SEOclerks.com is Sajeewa.  I've ordered from him over 30 times for myself and my clients.  I keep going back to him because he does great work and is super fast.  If I have a revision request, he does it overnight and sends me the new logo for review.  I've even gotten to the point where I just accept the logo and ask him for revisions via PM because I want him to get paid for his time and effort, and not lock up his money until I'm 100% happy (which I always am after we get done lol).

What you'll need is some basic information about what you want to do with your logo such as color scheme, target market, your website (if you already have one up and running), and a few other things in order to give a logo designer an image of what you want so they can get to work.  By just saying "I need a logo for example.com" you are basically saying "I give you full creative control over my logo!" so you can't complain if you don't like the results, the designers aren't mind readers lol.


2. Your Websites Design
If you're trying to brand yourself and you're on an outdated free WordPress design, you will need to step up your game a little.  I'm not telling you to go out and spend a few thousand dollars on a custom design, I'm saying that you can get something that is more modern and people will see you as more of an authority.  Think of your design as a business card you're handing out to every person who comes to see you.  The only difference with this is that you can't see the expressions or hear the comments the people are saying as you hand them the card.  This is why you need to do your website the right way before you get any type of traffic or try to brand yourself.  If you already have an outdated design, it's time to revamp yourself!

A modern design is what people want to see when they come to your website.  They want to see clean lines and it MUST be user friendly.  If you don't make your website user friendly, simply kiss your sales goodbye because people will get annoyed when they realize it's difficult to navigate your site.  You will also need your design to be responsive (mobile friendly) for all the traffic that will be viewing your pages on their smart phones or tablets.  If your site isn't responsive, you will lose 90% of your mobile sales because people won't be able to view your pages properly.


3. Are You Advertising?
A lot of people will tell you that with hard work and dedication you can get your website branded, and they're right, but you also need to be advertising and getting people to your pages.  I like to use Adwords and Facebook ads to help brand my website.  I usually stick with just Facebook until I start to plateau, then I'll start up the adwords campaign to get my name out there even more.

I have a new website coming out that will be in the fashion niche.  It's a difficult niche so I'm going to focus more on branding in the beginning and not worry too much about the sales coming in.  I don't need this website to make me $1,000's a month from the start, and that's why I'm going to just focus on branding when it's launched.  I'll be posting to big blogs and websites in order to get my websites name out there as well as get some traffic (hopefully) and a few backlinks for competitive keywords.  After I get my initial posts out there I will start up my Facebook ad campaign and have my goal at $0.10 per click to start out.  If I'm getting a decent amount of sales at $0.10 per click then I'll likely keep it there, but I doubt I will lol.  I will start low just so I'm not putting anything at risk.  You don't want to run a campaign at full blast and then see it's failing, right? 

With the Facebook ad campaign it will be more focused on branding, not sales.  I will try to get my websites name in front of the people who regularly shop online in the fashion niche, and I'm hoping to get email signs ups, shares, and likes to my websites Facebook page.  All of this will be branding for me, and if I start to make sales because of it that's a plus


4. Interviews
How many times have you been to a website and you see "As seen on CNN" or "As seen on Forbes"?  This is due to the website/business owner being interviewed from reporters or journalists from these types of companies and then the content goes live.  Sure, you could pay for a post on these types of platforms, but you'll be paying a ridiculous amount to get on them, and there's no guarantee that you'll have a backlink that sticks. 

What I like to do is message as many journalists and reporters as possible and see who takes the bait.  The ones who take the bait in the beginning are typically lower trafficked and less known media companies, but it's a start.  After you get your interviews on those websites, you'll notice that a lot of the bigger fish are now starting to come to you.  You will get emails from various journalists at big publications who want to get the word out about you because they see the smaller companies publishing your content.  If the big companies think that the little ones found the needle in a hay stack, they will instantly label you as high priority in order to not fall behind in the media lol. 


5. Basic SEO
Now I know I said that you shouldn't look at #1 rankings as a branding play, and now I'm saying you need basic SEO.  What I mean by this is that you need to optimize your website so people can find it if they type in YourDomain.com or YourDomain Review so that you will always pop up at the top of the searches and get people to your pages.

Doing this will help customers AND journalists find you easier, which is what everyone wants   Branding your own domain name within the search engines is the first step you should be taking regardless if you're running a branding campaign or not.  Your website will usually rank #1 for your domains name as a keyword, but you'll want to take up the first 10 to 20 listings just so your competitors can't optimize for your domain name and begin siphoning traffic that should be yours



In Conclusion:
Branding isn't always the easiest if you don't know what you're doing.  With these simple tips above, you can get the ball rolling on your branding campaign and hopefully be seen as the authority in a few short months.  Usually it takes a lot longer than that though, so don't quote me lol



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Thanks!

Razzy