StoryBrand SEO. How to Get it Right.

The year has changed, but three things haven't:

1. A clear messaging strategy
2. Email marketing
3. Content marketing/SEO

These three should continue to be a key focus for your marketing strategy.

Our StoryBrand clients who combine StoryBrand Messaging AND our SEO & Content Marketing Services, experience faster growth.

SEO is crucial to get you reliable and consistent traffic.

Here's our framework to help you grow your visibility using StoryBrand SEO (works for new websites too).

Our Result-Driven StoryBrand SEO Framework

• Messaging Strategy - everything starts with getting your message clarified and concise.
  
  Is the copy on your current site effective? Do customers understand what you do? Can customers find the right services you offer?
  
  Whether or not your messaging works is determined by how clear and appealing it is.
  
  Our goal is to clarify your messaging so that it just “clicks” with your best-fit customers across your website and key marketing channels.
  
  To help your brand nail its messaging, we work with your team to clarify your brand’s messaging so that it moves your visitors to action. We’ll ask your team questions, listen carefully and follow-up with questions that go deeper.
  
  The result, more conversions and increased revenue.
  

• SEO Strategy - a clear strategy to help you reach your revenue goals
• Hub-and-Spoke - help you build topical authority in your industry
• On-Page SEO - improve site quality and performance of your website
• Keyword Research - uncover the keywords and questions your ideal clients are searching for
• Content Optimization - improve traffic and conversion performance of your existing content (website/blog)
• Link-Building - a natural link-building process to improve your domain authority and brand awareness

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You're all in on the StoryBrand framework, but you're still determining if it will help your website rank higher on Google.

In this in-depth StoryBrand SEO Guide, you'll discover how to achieve clear messaging and enjoy higher rankings on Google. Let's start.

StoryBrand SEO: What is it?

Every successful business needs an approach to winning traffic and getting more conversions. 

Some businesses rely on Instagram and social media.

Some buy traffic. They try to win the battle of budgets through brute ad spending or outsmarting their competitors in the ad marketplace. 

We believe, when businesses combine the power of StoryBrand Marketing + a Robust SEO strategy, they win more business.

• The StoryBrand framework solves the problem of helping businesses clarify their marketing message, so more customers engage. 
• SEO (search engine optimization) helps businesses attract their ideal customers to their websites.
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Is StoryBrand Good for SEO?

The principles of StoryBrand can indirectly impact your SEO efforts by improving user engagement and user experience on your website.

When your brand message is clear and resonates with your target audience, it can lead to increased user engagement, longer time spent on your site, and lower bounce rates, all of which can positively impact your SEO rankings.

If your home page copy is written pimarily for your customers, then StoryBrand is certainly good for your SEO efforts.

Here are some tips for writing a home page copy that is both good for SEO and for your customers:

1. Use your target keywords: Incorporate your target keywords in your home page copy, but don't overdo it. Use them naturally and avoid keyword stuffing, which can negatively impact your SEO.
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2. Write for your customers: Your home page copy should be written primarily for your customers. Focus on their needs, pain points, and aspirations, and explain how your products or services can help them.
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3. Use clear and concise language: Use simple and easy-to-understand language to ensure that your message is clear and concise. Avoid using jargon or technical terms that your customers might not understand.
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4. Make it scannable: Most website visitors tend to skim through the content, so make sure your home page copy is scannable. Use headlines, subheadings, bullet points, and short paragraphs to break up the text and make it easier to read.
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5. Highlight your unique value proposition: Your home page copy should clearly communicate your unique value proposition and differentiate you from your competitors. Explain what sets you apart and why customers should choose your products or services.
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6. Use persuasive language: Use persuasive language to convince your customers to take action, whether it's to make a purchase, schedule a consultation, or sign up for your newsletter. Use clear calls to action and make it easy for customers to take the next step.
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7. Test and optimize: Use data and analytics to test and optimize your home page copy over time. Monitor your SEO rankings, bounce rates, and conversion rates, and make adjustments as needed to improve your results.

By following these tips, you can create a home page copy that is both good for SEO and for your customers. Remember, your home page is often the first impression that customers have of your brand, so make sure it's clear, persuasive, and easy to understand.

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Why is StoryBrand SEO important?

If you have a clear message but lack visibility on Google, yikes, good luck making any sales. 

If you have an unclear message but good visibility on Google, ouch, you're wasting a lot of missed opportunities in converting customers. 

But, when you have a clear message that engages your customers, and an SEO strategy that attracts your ideal customers, you're on fire; you'll see orders and revenue increase consistently. 

StoryBrand SEO uses the power of the StoryBrand framework to fuel your SEO strategy so that you engage and convert your ideal customers. 

The most successful and best StoryBrand websites follow this model of growth: clarify + SEO.

In today's digital age, people are constantly bombarded with messages from brands. To cut through the noise, you need to create content that is both valuable and relevant to your audience. But simply providing the information is not enough. Your content needs to be engaging and compelling, and storytelling is the best way to do that.

StoryBrand is a powerful tool because it helps people understand what your business does and how it can help them. It's a way to connect with your audience deeper and build trust.

Why does your business need to have a StoryBrand SEO strategy? 

Even as ChatGPT is showing early signs of a direct threat to the future of Google, Google search is still the primary way most of us look for solutions and products. 

But how do you take the StoryBrand Marketing Framework and fuel your SEO strategy? 

The key element of StoryBrand is the use of storytelling to connect with and persuade your audience. And it turns out that this approach can also be highly effective for SEO.

Here's how to use the power of StoryBrand to boost your online visibility.

1/ Use storytelling to define your brand narrative

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Your brand narrative is the story you tell about your business and what you do. It's the core message you want to convey to your ideal customers and why you exist. By defining your brand narrative, you can create a clear, compelling message that will attract the right customers and differentiate you from your competitors.

To create your brand narrative using StoryBrand, start by answering the following questions:

• Who is the hero (your customer) in your story?
• What is the problem that the hero is facing?
• How does your business solve the hero's problem?
• What is the plan (your product or service) that will help the hero achieve their goal?
• What is the successful outcome of the hero using your plan?

By answering these questions, you can create a brand narrative that speaks directly to your target audience and clearly communicates your value.

2/ Use storytelling to create compelling content

Once you have your brand narrative defined, you can use it to create content that resonates with your audience and helps you rank higher in search results. Here are some tips for using storytelling in your content:

• Start with a strong headline that captures the attention of your reader and clearly communicates the value of your content.
• Use storytelling elements in your intro to draw your reader in and set the scene for your story.
• Use the hero's journey structure to guide your content and show how your business helps the hero overcome their challenges and achieve their goals.
• Use compelling examples and anecdotes to illustrate your points and make your content more relatable and engaging.
• End with a clear call to action that tells your reader what you want them to do next.

By using storytelling in your content, you can create more engaging and persuasive pieces that will rank higher in search results and attract more organic traffic to your website.

3/ Optimize your website for SEO

In addition to using storytelling in your content, you also need to optimize your website for SEO to ensure that it's visible to search engines and ranks well in search results. Here are some tips for optimizing your website for SEO:

• Use keywords in your website's content, metadata, and URLs to help search engines understand the relevance of your pages.
• Use header tags (H1, H2, H3, etc.) to structure your content and signal to search engines the hierarchy of your content.
• Use alt text to describe the images on your website to help search engines understand the context and relevance of your visuals.
• Use internal and external links to signal to search engines the importance of your content and to help them crawl and index your pages.

Once you've uncovered what the hero of your story:

1.  Wants 
2.  What their aspiration is 
3. And what problem they're trying to overcome

... you can create an SEO strategy that best attracts your ideal customers. 

4/ Keyword Research: knowing your customers

1. Knowing your customer's needs, problems, and aspirations
2. Understanding how your customers search for your product and services
3. An understanding of the questions they ask on Google.

Once you’ve clarified your brand’s messaging using StoryBrand, you can begin your SEO strategy. 

To kick things off, we start with your keyword research.

SEO Keyword Tools

Here are many SEO tools available that can help with keyword research. Some of the best ones include:

• Google Keyword Planner: This is a free tool from Google that allows you to see the search volume and competition level for specific keywords.
• Ahrefs: This is a paid tool that offers a variety of SEO features, including keyword research. It allows you to see the search volume, traffic potential, and keyword difficulty for specific keywords.
• SEMrush: This is another paid tool that offers a variety of SEO features, including keyword research. It allows you to see the search volume, traffic potential, and keyword difficulty for specific keywords, as well as see how your website is ranking for those keywords.
• KWFinder: This is a paid tool that specializes in keyword research. It allows you to see the search volume, traffic potential, and keyword difficulty for specific keywords, as well as see the trend for each keyword over time.
• Keywordtool.io: This is a free tool that generates keyword ideas based on a specific keyword or phrase. It also shows the search volume and competition level for each keyword.

By using these tools, you can get a better understanding of the keywords that are most relevant and valuable for your business, and optimize your website and content accordingly.

‍Example - using SEMrush to conduct keyword research

To use SEMrush to conduct keyword research, follow these steps:

1. Go to SEMrush.com and sign up for an account.
2. In the search bar, enter a keyword or phrase related to your business or industry.
3. On the results page, you will see a variety of information related to that keyword, including the search volume, traffic potential, and keyword difficulty.
4. You can also use the filters on the left side of the page to narrow down the results based on your specific needs. For example, you can filter by country, language, or search engine.
5. To see more specific data, click on the "Keyword Overview" tab. Here, you can see the average cost per click for the keyword, as well as a list of related keywords and their search volume and difficulty level.
6. To see how your website is ranking for that keyword, click on the "Domain Overview" tab. This will show you the positions of your website's pages for that keyword in the search results.

By using SEMrush's keyword research features, you can get a better understanding of the keywords that are most relevant and valuable for your business and optimize your website and content accordingly.

Seven ways to generate content ideas for your website

1. Monitor your own or your competitors' social media accounts to see what topics and questions are being discussed by your target audience.
2. Use keyword research tools to find out what terms and phrases people are searching for in relation to your business or industry.
3. Check out industry forums and discussion groups to see what topics are being talked about by experts and enthusiasts.
4. Use Google Alerts to get notified when new content is published on specific topics or keywords.
5. Read industry publications and blogs to stay up-to-date on the latest trends and developments.
6. Keep a running list of questions that you get asked frequently by customers or clients, and use them as inspiration for future blog posts.
7. Take a look at your own products or services and think about the common problems or questions that they solve for your customers. These can make for great blog post topics.

By using these tactics, you can come up with a steady stream of ideas for interesting and relevant blog posts.

Ten Catchy and Effective Blog Post Titles to Fuel your Blog Posts

• "10 [Topic] Tips for [Target Audience]"
• "How to [Achieve a Goal] in [Number] Steps"
• "The Ultimate Guide to [Topic]"
• "The Top [Number] [Mistakes/Mistakes to Avoid] When [Doing Something]"
• "Discover the [Number] Best [Tools/Methods] for [Solving a Problem]"
• "The [Number] Most [Surprising/Interesting] [Facts/Findings] About [Topic]"
• "The [Number] [Secrets/Hacks] to [Improving/Mastering] [Something]"
• "The [Number] [Benefits/Advantages] of [Doing Something]"
• "How to [Improve/Transform] [Something] in [Number] Days"
• "[Number] [Expert/Celebrity] [Quotes/Testimonials] on [Topic]"

5/ Link Building Strategy

Links are important to your overall search engine ranking because they serve as a vote of confidence from one website to another. When a website links to your website, it's essentially telling search engines that your website has valuable, relevant content. As a result, search engines view these links as a positive signal, and this can improve your website's visibility in search results.

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Links are also important because they help search engines discover new pages on your website. When a page on your website is linked to by another website, it can help search engines find and crawl that page, which can lead to it being indexed and potentially ranking in search results.

Additionally, the quality and relevance of the websites that link to your website can also impact your ranking. Links from high-quality, authoritative websites carry more weight than links from low-quality or spammy websites. As a result, it's important to focus on building high-quality links from relevant websites to improve your search engine ranking.

Overall, links are an important factor in search engine ranking algorithms, and a strong link profile can help improve your website's visibility in search results.

How do you build high-quality links for your website?

• Create high-quality, unique content that other websites will want to link to.
• Reach out to other websites and bloggers in your industry and ask them to link to your website.
• Participate in industry forums and discussion groups and include a link to your website in your signature or profile.
• Write guest posts for other websites and include a link back to your website in the author bio.
• Create infographics and other visual content that other websites will want to share and link to.
• Offer to write testimonials for products or services that you have used, and ask for a link in return.
• Collaborate with other businesses or influencers in your industry and include links to each other's websites in your content.
• Participate in social media and share your content, as this can lead to more links from other websites.
• Use local citations and directories to build links from websites that are relevant to your business and location.
• Monitor your competitors' link-building strategies and try to identify opportunities to build similar links for your own website.

By implementing these link-building strategies, you can improve your website's visibility in search results and attract more organic traffic.

Should you do SEO in-house or hire an SEO Marketing Agency?

Le's look at the benefits of in-house StoryBrand SEO (performing StoryBrand + SEO in-house, or with your own staff vs hiring a StoryBrand marketing agency).

Here are some benefits of in-house SEO (performing SEO in-house, or with your own staff) versus hiring an agency:

• Cost: In-house SEO can be more cost-effective in the long run, as you only have to pay for the salary of your staff rather than the ongoing fees of an agency.
• Control: With in-house SEO, you have more control over the strategy and implementation of your SEO efforts.
• Customization: In-house SEO allows you to tailor your strategy to the specific needs and goals of your business.
• Culture fit: Having an in-house team allows you to build a team that fits the culture and values of your business.
• Knowledge transfer: With in-house SEO, you can build a team that has a deep understanding of your business, which can be beneficial for knowledge transfer and long-term success.

Benefits of Hiring a StoryBrand SEO Marketing Agency.

Note - a StoryBrand copywriter might understand the StoryBrand Framework but they're not a SEO strategist. In addition, one person on your team cannot do SEO effectively from writing content, optimizing your website, doing the research to draft a well-written SEO-driven article, or efficiently build-links consistently.

However, there are also benefits to hiring a StoryBrand certified SEO service agency for your SEO needs:

• Expertise: An agency has a team of experts with a wide range of skills and experience, which can be beneficial if you don't have the in-house expertise or resources.
• Objectivity: An agency can bring a fresh perspective and objective view to your SEO efforts.
• Time: Hiring an agency can free up time for you and your team to focus on other areas of your business.
• Flexibility: An agency can provide flexibility in terms of the resources and support that you need, rather than being limited to the skills and availability of your in-house team.

Ultimately, whether you choose in-house SEO or an agency will depend on your specific needs, budget, and resources.

So if you want to take your online presence to the next level, don't hesitate to contact us at Creativeo.co. We'd love to help you tell your brand's story and reach your target audience