With ad costs going up and going awry (looking at you, Zuck in the Metaverse), we started looking at other channels for brand growth.
I’m no SEO expert so this is by no means a definitive guide. Think Howard Wolowitz in Big Bang Theory. He’s an aeronautics engineer who understands how a combustion engine works, but doesn’t actually spend his days building car engines. This is my attempt at building that car engine. ;)
(If you need pro tips from an SEO expert, check out one of my favourite channels on Youtube: Ranking Tactics.)
The idea came about during our brand growth strategy call with a client. We discovered that one of our biggest keywords or searches was "<client name> review". Which meant that people were looking for reviews specific to our client's product. Our one-page reviews site was coming up first...but why stop there?
Why we think reviews are important for SEO and brand growth
Reviews are one of the most powerful tools available to online businesses looking to increase traffic and sales.
They're free, easy to set up, and they don't require any technical expertise or special SEO skills.
Reviews are great for growing brands organically.
If someone has had a positive experience with your product, they're likely to share that information with others. This helps build trust and authority in your niche, which will increase search engine rankings.
Reviews are rich in SEO keywords.
Our theory is that it's one of the easiest ways to get ranked on Google because reviews tend to use keywords that users themselves search for. It's massaging (sounds kinder than hitting) the SEO and credibility birds with one stone.
Brand Growth SEO Strategy: Quick & Simple Workflow with Reviews
We came up with a quick and simple workflow to grow a brand organically with reviews and SEO.
What you'll need:
- Collect customer reviews or testimonials. If you need a guide with our favourite questions, comment below that you're interested, and we can whip one up for you. Proofread/edit the testimonial for grammatical errors.My favourites are ProWritingAid. You can also use Grammarly or Google Docs.
- Choose a place to publish your reviews or testimonials. We chose to create a new Reviews blog in Squarespace. (I recommend using Squarespace over Wordpress for the best balance on simplicity and functionality, especially if you don't love tech or updating plugins every month.)
- Any keywords you'd like to rank for. Optional, don't overthink it. You can always use some SEO tools later to find your keywords.
Publishing the Review or Testimonial in 3 Simple Steps
Step 1. Simplify the testimonial to prepare it for a summary.
I like using Quillbot to rephrase. Use Hemingway as well if you'd like to manually simplify yourself.
Example Review:
I worked with Gretchen to produce the new logo for my brand, Mademoiselle Organic. “Work” is actually not the word I should use, as the whole process felt incredibly easy.
As a marketing professional, I’ve briefed many (many) designers in the past and always dreaded the moment I would receive the first draft of their work. Quite often, I was disappointed and ended up sending long emails of changes, which also made me feel quite bad and wondering what was wrong with my briefs. This time, I also felt that anxiety before opening the project I received from Gretchen (is it going to reflect my brand, my personality? Did she do her research, checked my website and the colors I use? Etc…) Well, for one of the first times in my professional life, I looked at her draft and could not find ANYTHING to say. It was creative, beautiful, in line with all the values the brand stands for. Perfect to me. I showed the design to a few people who suggested ONE minor change, and I then received THREE different designs from Gretchen, all of them in line with my original brief. The final result? An amazingly awesome logo that I am proud to display on my website and on all the marketing collateral I produce. I love that it looks incredibly professional, neat and simple, while representing the brand name, origin and values. AND it also stands out!!
I am truly blown away by how talented and creative Gretchen is - really! I highly recommend her for any type of branding project. She exceeded all my expectations – by far.
Edited Review:
As a marketing professional, I’ve briefed many designers in the past and always dreaded the moment I would receive the first draft of their work. Quite often, I was disappointed and ended up sending long emails of changes, which also made me wonder what was wrong with my briefs. For one of the first times in my professional life, I looked at her draft and could not find ANYTHING to say. It was creative, beautiful, in line with all the values the brand stands for. The final result? An amazingly awesome logo that I am proud to display on my website and on all the marketing collateral I produce. I love that it looks incredibly professional, neat and simple, while representing the brand name, origin and values. AND it also stands out!!
I am truly blown away by how talented and creative Gretchen is — really! I highly recommend her for any type of branding project. She exceeded all my expectations – by far.
Quillbot Output:
As a marketing professional, I've briefed numerous designers in the past and have always dreaded receiving the first draft of their work. I was frequently dissatisfied and ended up sending lengthy emails of changes, which made me wonder what was wrong with my briefs. I looked at her draft for the first time in my professional life and couldn't think of anything to say. It was creative and beautiful, and it embodied all of the values that the brand represents. What was the end result? A fantastic logo that I am proud to display on my website and on all marketing collateral I create. I like how it looks so professional, neat, and simple while still representing the brand name and origin.
Step 2. Generate a summary for the title and meta description.
Grab the catchiest phrases for use in the title and description / preview text. I like using Frase for this. Here's a template I created.
Frase Summary:
As a marketer, I've been working with clients for years now and have never received a brief that I didn't dread. I was frequently dissatisfied. This client's brief was different. I loved it from the beginning. It was creative and beautifully executed. I was able to make many suggestions without being intrusive or overly critical. I love how it looks so professional and neat, yet still represents the brand name and origin perfectly.
Edited for the description/summary:
Aurelie has briefed numerous designers in the past and dreaded it, as she was often dissatisfied or left wondering if she got the brief wrong. With Gretchen, she loved the logo from the beginning — creative and beautifully executed. Professional and neat, yet still represents the brand name and origin perfectly.
Step 3. Polish then publish!
Yeah, that's it. Our target is to publish 10 per month.
Create a graphic with the key phrases. Optional. Use a Pinterest-friendly size if your customers are usually on mobile. Rename for SEO and optimise the size (I like to use ShortPixel for optimising images). JPG image format tends to be a smaller size than PNG, but the latter has better quality.
Give it a go
If you want to start growing your business through reviews, I hope this quick workflow helps you. I'll do my best to keep you posted on the results.
Need sustainable branding, strategy, or an audit?
Check out our consulting services at createrati.com
