One of the surest ways to finger an SEO that has no clue about building brand nor has the capability of getting you good results in doing so is to take a look at the SERPS.  A common meta tag, the title tag to be specific is an integral part of SEO and most SEOs believe that words placed towards the front carry the most weight and the less words the more weight these frontal words carry as well.  The bottom line is that if your SEO cannot rank you well without building your brand, it may be a long tail sign you’re not working with the best SEO.

People search Google regularly, and  sometimes use the same or multi-variants of similar search terms and view the first page.   The key is sticking out like a sore thumb no matter where you rank on the first page.  More than likely, even if you don’t rank number one for several related terms a good SEO will have you a least on the first page for several highly competitive related terms.  A Rockstar SEO will have searchers remembering your brand well after a searcher leaves his/her screen.  Here are two examples:

Notice Branding in the following highlighted with a pen title tags:

Google Search Results Reflecting Branding

Shawn Brown Law ranks well for all of his targets.  In fact, is on the first page for all of his targets but many may not have the number 1 position at all times.  The question is, if your searching for a criminal attorney in San Antonio and use related search terms doing a thorough first page look… gotta make sure you’re choosing the right attorney to keep the Hot Tub Time Machine Violator out of trouble!  Okay you’ve searched Google with a total of 20 different variants of the word “criminal attorney” and San Antonio, maybe even threw in some DWI lawyer in San Antonio.  Still… just can’t decide after 45 minutes of viewing websites – lets go grab some lunch, its past noon.  I’m eating a Firehouse Sub, what law firm do you remember?

My point here is impressions.  Though a user may not have been on your website for more than 5 minutes, he/she has been on Google longer looking for representation.  You can relate it to promotional products if you like.  Its really no different than giving a client a really nice branded pen and that client using that pen frequently (impressions) you sore thumb you.

I don’t have to say but yes, Shawn Brown Law is a client of ours.  As you can see below, TOTUS does eat its own dog food.

San Antonio Branded Organic SEO TOTUS Listings