Attract More Clients With Online Visibility Optimization

I see you.

You’ve spent years developing your professional skills.

You’ve poured blood, sweat and tears into building your business, providing the best service, and collecting a client base.

Yet, despite your best efforts, you’re not showing up in search results, your website traffic is stagnant, and you know you’re missing out on potential clients who can’t find you.

In the early days of SEO, search engine optimization was all about the website. But today, optimizing for search engine visibility encompasses traditional SEO practices, but it doesn’t end there. It necessitates a broader approach that considers brand authority and proactive online visibility (–> PR).

In fact, as Google places ever increasing emphasis on brand reputation and reach, “search engine optimization” might be more aptly called “online visibility optimization”.

In this post, we’ll explore the synergy between SEO, brand authority, and PR and how small businesses like yours can integrate these elements to create a cohesive online presence that drives traffic and converts leads.

We’ll also cover practical strategies you can start implementing today to strengthen your brand’s online footprint and ensure you’re attracting the right clients consistently.

The Changing Landscape of SEO

This past June, I had the opportunity to attend MozCon in Seattle, WA, where Ethan Hays, General Manager of Moz, opened the conference with a statement that really hit home:

“In the last 10 months, SEO has changed more than in the last 10 years.”

As both a small business owner who’s built two businesses through SEO and as an SEO strategist, I’ve had a front-row seat to these dramatic changes.

One of the most notable shifts in SEO has been driven by the rise of low-quality AI-generated content, facilitated by tools like ChatGPT. In response to the flood of questionable content, Google has doubled down on promoting content created by verified experts, real people with real experience, to ensure that valuable, credible information stands out in search results.

In alignment with this goal, it’s been refining its algorithm to better identify and reward content that meets the E-E-A-T standards (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness)[1].

A major step in this direction was the Helpful Content Update (HCU) released in September 2023, which targeted content packed with keywords but lacking true value for users.

The update had a mixed impact. While it aimed to penalize content created for search engines rather than people, it unintentionally hit many legitimate small businesses (mine included!) and content creators.

Larger, more established brands benefitted from the HCU, while what Google refers to as “small personal sites” saw their visibility drop.

While Google is attempting to address the fallout of HCU on small sites and bloggers, this update continues to challenge small businesses[2, 3, 6]. It sends a clear signal that brand reputation and authority are becoming more crucial in the evolving SEO landscape.

Here’s the takeaway:

As Google’s algorithm evolves, it increasingly rewards websites and brands backed by strong brand reputation and a broad online presence.

The days of simply stuffing pages with keywords or generating a slew of backlinks are over. While keywords and links remain foundational to getting indexed, they’re no longer enough to secure top rankings.

If you were on the losing end of the HCU, I feel your pain. While it’s never “fun” to land on the losing end of an update, I assure you that there are lessons to be learned and paths forward through this new territory.

Throughout the rest of this post, I’ll share the opportunities I see for you to update your SEO strategy to come into alignment with Google’s new priorities so your small business can continue to benefit from organic search traffic.

Four Pillars Of Modern SEO

With all these recent changes, it’s clear that SEO today requires a more strategic approach than ever before. It’s no longer just about keywords, backlinks, and technical fixes.

Modern SEO strategies are built on four key pillars that work together to strengthen your visibility across the web: 1) Keywords and Content 2) Technical Foundations 3) Brand and Authority and 4) User Engagement.

Of these four pillars, one that often goes overlooked—but is increasingly critical to your business’s success—is Brand and Authority. Let’s dive deeper into what this means and why it’s become a game-changer with respect to online visibility.

In today’s search landscape, your brand’s visibility and reputation across the internet are key to your performance in search results.

Google looks beyond your website and evaluates how your brand appears and interacts across various platforms, including social media activity, backlinks from other relevant, authoritative sites, media mentions, and reviews[4].

Google also measures brand strength by tracking branded search volume—how often users search for your brand or products—and their subsequent behavior, from search results to your website.

Your larger digital footprint—how your brand is perceived, mentioned and sought out online—plays an important (and often under-appreciated) role in your overall SEO strategy.

To improve your search rankings, you need to focus not only on traditional SEO practices but also on building and maintaining strong brand authority across the web.

What Is Brand Authority?

We’ve talked about how building and maintaining brand authority is key to your SEO strategy. But what exactly is brand authority?

Think of “brand” as the personality or aesthetic of your business—your logo, visuals, voice, and the vibe you create.

Brand authority, on the other hand, is about how much people trust you and see you as an expert in your field.

While branding sets up who you are, brand authority tells the world that you’re the best at what you do.

You can buy branding. But brand authority? That’s earned.

Brand authority is earned by showing off your expertise and being present online. By regularly sharing helpful, insightful, trustworthy content that people want to share and link to. By engaging with your audience on social media. By collecting positive reviews and media mentions.

How Branding Affects SEO

Clearly, Google loves authoritative brands and rewards them with higher visibility in search results[5,6].

This is why you can often find big brands topping search results with articles that are clearly less optimized (not to mention polluted by ads and popups) and less authoritative than pieces by smaller, expert creators lower in the search results.

If Google sees your brand as credible and authoritative, it’s more likely to rank your content higher, making it easier for potential clients to find you.

Brand authority essentially amplifies your on-page SEO efforts (that’s your “traditional” SEO), making your content more likely to appear in search.

And on the flip side, having your content appear at the top of search results does wonders for your brand awareness and trust with searchers. People tend to trust the brands they see at the top, assuming these are the most relevant and credible.

This creates a virtuous cycle of online visibility in which brand authority and SEO continuously work together to bring more attention to your brand and more traffic to your website.

While building brand authority amplifies your SEO efforts, it’s not something that happens passively. You need to proactively grow your brand’s reach—and this is where PR comes in.

The Power Of PR

PR is a third element that amplifies both brand authority and SEO, making it an invaluable part of the online visibility equation.

While SEO directly influences search engine rankings, PR efforts extend your brand’s reach by fostering omnipresence across a variety of publishers and platforms.

These activities not only increase your brand’s visibility but also directly drive traffic to your website and provide valuable, topically relevant backlinks that strengthen your SEO performance,[8].

PR also significantly boosts brand recognition.

By positioning your brand in front of the right audiences through media placements, thought leadership opportunities, and public speaking engagements, PR enhances your brand’s visibility and authority. This increased recognition doesn’t just attract more clients—it feeds back into your SEO efforts because searchers are more likely to choose your content, further boosting your search rankings.

When aligned with your SEO and branding strategies, PR acts as a powerful multiplier. It ensures that your brand is not only well-ranked but also widely recognized as credible and authoritative.

This strategic integration of PR supercharges your overall online visibility strategy.

As you can see, PR doesn’t just enhance brand recognition—it feeds into both your SEO and brand authority efforts, creating a powerful synergy. This evolving relationship marks the beginning of a new era, where online visibility optimization goes far beyond the traditional bounds of SEO.

The New Era Of Online Visibility Optimization

As SEO and brand authority become more and more intertwined, I believe the conversation will shift more towards improving your online visibility optimization rather than simply optimizing your website for search.

The cycle of online visibility optimization. — Online visibility operates as a virtuous cycle where SEO, public relations efforts, and brand authority continually reinforce and enhance one another. SEO drives both PR and brand authority by improving search engine rankings and increasing the brand's perceived credibility and authority. PR efforts amplify these gains by securing media mentions and building brand recognition, which in turn further strengthen your brand authority and SEO. As brand authority grows, it feeds back into both SEO and PR, strengthening Google's trust in the brand and helping to position the brand more prominently in search results for bigger PR opportunities. Together, these elements work in a loop, driving greater online visibility as the overall outcome.

In this new era, ranking on Google is about more than simply optimizing your website. It’s about how consistently and effectively your brand shows up across the whole internet.

Your online presence extends far beyond your website—it’s the sum of your social media profiles, review platforms, guest posts, and even the comments you leave in industry forums.

However, and I can’t emphasize this enough, a high-authority website remains the hub of your digital presence, anchoring all these efforts and serving as the central point where all roads lead back.

By positioning your website as the cornerstone of your online presence, you’re making an investment in the only platform you own and taking control of how your reputation is presented and perceived.

Optimizing online visibility means taking a holistic approach to ensure your brand is consistently represented and easily discoverable wherever your audience might be looking.

This shift acknowledges that 1) today’s clients don’t just visit your website; they research your brand across multiple platforms before making a decision and 2) Google is looking beyond your website to make decisions about how to rank your content.

The Importance of Brand Consistency Across Platforms

As we move into this new era of online visibility optimization, where SEO, brand authority, and PR work together to amplify your reach, maintaining consistency becomes increasingly important.

It’s not enough to simply show up on various platforms- you need to present a cohesive brand experience wherever your audience encounters you. This uniformity not only reinforces your brand’s identity but also plays a crucial role in building trust and recognition.

This makes sense if you think about your own consumer behavior:

What would your impression of a business be if they show up one way on social media, another way on their website and then another way in person? It’s jarring and it doesn’t inspire trust.

When your branding—logos, colors, tone, and messaging—remains consistent, it creates a reliable and professional image. This consistency helps clients and potential customers easily recognize and trust your brand, whether they encounter it on your website, social media, or elsewhere.

A consistent brand presence not only strengthens your identity but also simplifies the process for search engines to understand and categorize your content, making your website more likely to get served to the right searchers.

Search engines, like Google, also look for consistent brand signals across platforms.

A cohesive brand presence signals to search engines that your brand is well-established and trustworthy. For example, using the same logo, color scheme, and slogans across your website, social media, and review sites strengthens your brand’s credibility.

Consistent content and messaging further help search engines accurately index and rank your content, as they can more easily build a consensus understanding of your brand’s niche and expertise.

Consistency also plays a key role in enhancing the user experience.

When potential clients encounter the same look and feel across all of your platforms, it creates a more seamless and professional experience. It builds confidence in your brand.

And this consistency encourages people to engage more deeply with your content and services.

A strong, consistent brand presence not only improves user engagement (which happens to be another SEO ranking factor) but also signals to search engines that your brand is relevant and reliable, which can lead to higher rankings.

By maintaining consistency across all platforms, you improve your brand’s visibility and credibility, and attract more of your ideal clients to your website.

How to Align Your SEO, Brand Authority, and PR Efforts To Attract More Clients

The ultimate goal of SEO is threefold: to attract the right audience with an optimized website and digital footprint, to engage them with valuable and relevant content, and to convert them into loyal clients through effective calls-to-action.

But in today’s search landscape, traditional SEO tactics aren’t enough. They lay a foundation. But to truly leverage the power of organic search, you need to understand how SEO, brand authority, and online visibility work together.

These elements create a virtuous loop that not only improves search rankings but also builds trust and recognition with your audience.

To create a high-authority website that ranks well and serves your audience, begin with the “SEO basics”. But then? Take the next step and optimize your brand authority and online visibility.

As a small business, you might not have a full PR team backing you, but there’s a lot you can do to incrementally improve your SEO and online visibility.

Here are some practical steps you can take to build your brand authority, SEO, and online visibility:

Regularly publish high-quality, helpful and original content that addresses your audience’s needs and showcases your expertise. Content can be blogs, YouTube videos or podcasts. This will improve your topical authority and position you as a thought leader with your audience, boosting both your SEO and brand authority. Repurpose your content across your platforms so that they are each up-to-date with consistent content, creating a seamless experience for your audience as they navigate through your digital ecosystem.
Optimize your website for user experience by making sure it’s mobile-friendly, fast-loading, and easy to navigate. Make your website about the searcher, not just about yourself. Include clear calls-to-action to foster engagement. A well-optimized site encourages longer visits and reduces bounce rates, positively impacting SEO.
Engage with your audience on social media to nurture relationships and increase your brand’s visibility.
Earn and display positive reviews from happy clients. Reviews build trust with potential clients and enhance your site’s cred in search engines.
Guest on podcasts or write guest blog posts to increase your brand’s visibility and drive traffic back to your website. Curate a short list of topics you can confidently speak and want associated with your brand and pitch those topics over and over again. Consistency will build your authority.
Put yourself on bigger stages. Continue to look for new audiences. Pitch yourself to public speaking opportunities, panels and roundtables.
Participate in niche-specific forums and communities, such as Reddit, to further expand your reach and engage with potential clients where they already spend their time.

By taking these steps, you’ll not only improve your SEO but also build a robust online presence that continually attracts, engages, and converts your ideal clients.

SEO is a long-term lead-building strategy. But the work you do to build your brand and stand out online has a short-term ROI that increases your visibility and credibility almost immediately, setting a strong foundation for a business that beats the odds and supports you for years to come.

Before You Go

Optimizing your online visibility is a marathon, not a sprint.

By consistently refining your SEO, intentionally building your brand authority, and creating an impossible-to-miss omnipresence on the internet, you’re not just chasing rankings—you’re establishing your digital legacy.

Every piece of content you create, every interaction you have, and every review you earn is a building block in your brand’s online reputation.

As you move forward, keep in mind that these efforts are cumulative. The work you put in today will compound over time, leading to not just more visibility, but more meaningful connections with your audience.

Your expertise deserves to be recognized, and with a strategic focus on SEO, brand authority, and online visibility, you’re positioning yourself to be seen, trusted, and chosen by the clients who need you most.

Ready to take the next step?

Let’s start by auditing your current online presence. We’ll identify areas where your brand authority can be strengthened, where your SEO strategy might need refinement, and where your online visibility could be expanded.

SEO is my jam, and I’m here to help you simplify things.

Book a free call, and let’s get your SEO on the right track together.