About the Author
Corey is the owner and President/CEO of VOLTAGE. He is also founder and author of The Digital Marketing Success Plan™ and the START Planning Process. Corey has spent 20+ years working in strategic and leadership roles focused on growing national and local client brands with award-winning, ROI-generating digital strategies. He's the recipient of the KCDMA 2019 Marketer of the Year award and his team at VOLTAGE has won nearly 100 local, national, and global awards for ROI-focused client work in the past decade.
At VOLTAGE, we’ve been in the digital marketing game for two decades. We’ve worn a lot of hats—strategy, creative, technical, and tactical. For years, we offered branding services alongside SEO and paid search. But it wasn’t until we intentionally stepped away from branding that the interdependence between brand and search strategy became strikingly clear.
We didn’t expect to have more perspective by doing less. But that’s exactly what happened.
Search marketers often operate at the tail end of the funnel. We’re tasked with capturing demand, driving leads, and generating measurable results. Meanwhile, branding is upstream—focused on positioning, identity, and perception.
On the surface, it can feel like these functions are separate. But in practice, they’re deeply connected—and their success is often mutually dependent.
Search Without Brand = Noise
When companies invest in SEO and paid search without a defined brand strategy, search practitioners are left in the dark.
We can optimize content, craft ad copy, and structure campaigns—but without clear brand messaging, positioning, and differentiation, we’re guessing.
Guesswork leads to generic content. It makes it harder to stand out in search results. And ultimately, it affects performance—especially in competitive spaces where the lowest bidder isn’t the only (or best) option.
Strong brand strategy gives us the foundation to:
- Create consistent, on-brand content across SEO and SEM
- Communicate unique value propositions that move beyond price
- Connect with the audience’s emotional and practical needs
In short: branding fuels better performance, even in “numbers-driven” channels like search.
Search Data Can Make Branding Stronger
Brand teams often focus on customer research, positioning frameworks, and creative development. But they don’t always tap into the rich, real-time data available through search marketing.
SEO and SEM teams live in keyword research, analytics dashboards, and user behavior patterns. We see how people actually search, click, and convert—and what makes them hesitate. That kind of feedback loop can be incredibly valuable for refining brand messaging and creative strategies.
When branding is treated as a one-time project, companies miss opportunities to adapt and optimize. But when search and branding are in sync, ongoing refinement becomes possible—and powerful.
More Integration = Fewer Silos
Think about the last time you had a website project that required input from multiple stakeholders—SEO, writers, designers, developers. If brand voice, tone, and creative guidelines weren’t well documented or easily accessible, chances are, you ran into delays or inconsistencies.
We’ve seen it time and time again. Teams waste hours reinventing the wheel or making decisions without context. Search teams write ad copy that contradicts sales messaging. Designers interpret brand visuals in ways that weren’t intended. Writers don’t know whether to be clever or clear.
A well-articulated brand strategy, paired with strong collaboration between teams, removes friction and speeds up delivery. It also creates a better customer experience—because the messaging is aligned from first impression to final conversion.
The ROI Pressure Point
One of the reasons branding and search need each other is because of ROI pressure.
Branding often struggles to connect to KPIs in a clear, direct way. But the downstream impact of branding shows up in marketing performance—especially in how well search campaigns convert.
Likewise, search can sometimes focus too narrowly on traffic and lead metrics without considering the impact of brand reputation, clarity, and trust. The best ROI comes when these disciplines work together—not in isolation.
Implementation Matters
Branding projects can look great in pitch decks. But if the strategy never makes it into actual campaigns, landing pages, or content, the effort falls flat.
Search marketing is where messaging becomes execution. It’s where strategy gets pressure-tested in the real world.
The teams who define the brand should be connected to the teams implementing it. Otherwise, something always gets lost in translation.
Final Thoughts: This Isn’t Just a Marketing Alignment Issue—It’s a Business One
Connecting branding and search marketing isn’t just about improving performance metrics (though it absolutely does). It’s about breaking down the silos that lead to inconsistent messaging, weak differentiation, and missed opportunities.
If your brand and search teams aren’t talking—or worse, don’t know what the other is doing—now’s the time to fix that.
You’ll see better alignment, better performance, and better business outcomes.
Read the full article on Search Engine Journal:
https://www.searchenginejournal.com/search-marketing-branding-need-each-other/512378/