Why Your SEO Strategy Needs to Zoom Out: The Shift from Backlinks to Brand Authority
If you're still relying on old-school SEO tactics (think backlink bartering and keyword research) it's time to be more critical.
At the recent Semrush event in Barcelona, I laid out a new blueprint for SEO in 2025: one that’s driven by brand authority, meaningful conversations, and an omnichannel approach. For those who couldn't attend, here it is.
Dear Founders and Marketers, I know how hard you've been working. The website is optimised for relevant searches and filled with valuable content. And still, pipeline results do not match expectation. The Board are asking questions.
Meanwhile, your competitors are ranking higher and snagging more leads.
So, what’s going wrong?
The issue likely lies in the fact that your SEO strategy is one-dimensional. Traditional SEO approaches focused solely on keyword rankings and backlinks are no longer enough to keep up with the evolving digital landscape.
To stand out, your strategy needs to embrace a holistic, omnichannel approach. Let's unpack this.
The Rise of Omnichannel SEO
Omnichannel SEO is the practice of optimising your brand’s digital presence across every potential touchpoint, not just your website. This strategy doesn’t just focus on web search. It includes optimizing for mobile, voice search, video platforms, social media, and more.
Why? Because over 70% of consumers interact with brands across multiple channels before making a purchase.
Once upon a time, the user journey of "discover, explore, and convert" happened on a company's website. Today, the "discover and explore" stage happens everywhere but the website - on socials, podcasts, media websites, local listings, and thanks to AI, via voice assistants.
In 2025, prospects have formed an opinion about you before they have visited your website.
We all know this, so why do so many companies still have marketing teams in silos? Internal ops needs to be ironed out - because siloed teams perpetuates a disconnect between how companies function and market need.
In other words: if your SEO strategy isn’t integrated across all platforms, you’re missing out on more and more opportunities.
Think about voice search. As more users ask Siri or Alexa for recommendations, optimising for long-tail keywords and natural language queries can drive new traffic to your business.
Similarly, optimising video content can help you show up in YouTube search results, while social media content can boost visibility across platforms where your audience hangs out.
In fact, research shows that omnichannel customers spend 30% more than those who engage with a brand through a single channel. By diversifying your SEO efforts across multiple platforms, you create a more robust presence that attracts and retains customers, increasing your revenue and brand authority.
The Shift to Brand-Driven SEO
SEO as we know it is changing. Brand-driven SEO means focusing on how your brand is discussed and mentioned online. It’s no longer just about backlinks. It’s about creating conversations around your brand, ensuring that your audience (whether through social media, podcasts, blogs, influencer partners or forums) mentions your brand name in relation to important keywords.
In the age of AI-driven search, these unlinked brand mentions are becoming as important as traditional backlinks.
Remember Jaguar's rebranding campaign that caused such a stir? By provoking confusion, admiration and outrage, the brand won millions of page views and brand mentions through press coverage and social media comments after their electric car launch, pushing them to the top of search rankings for some of the following keywords:
Electric Car - highly strategic as the company wanted to dominate search for the electric vehicle category.
Jaguar Rebrand – the company had been losing sales for years and needed a new target audience, these searches would have captured a % of the population who are (i) their new (younger) target audience and without this campaign (ii) may never have considered buying the car make before.
OK, I sense what you're thinking. Our friends at Jaguar had a multi-figure marketing budget and the leadership team were ready to go against the grain. Most companies lack budget and are terrified of being bold.
But. It doesn’t take a lucrative global brand with cojones to leverage this approach.
Small Brands, Big Results
In last night's SEMrush community meetup, I shared the example of ParkDean Resorts to prove that you can be small, mighty - and still win. This UK travel company wasn’t well-known outside its niche and during the pandemic, their SEO traffic took a big hit.
Now, instead of relying on a traditional SEO strategy, they leveraged a creative omnichannel approach. With an agency partner, ParkDean mapped the colours of UK beaches’ sands into unique paint tins, which customers could purchase as part of their “Colour of Summer” campaign.
This unique, fun story was shared on billboards, press outlets, and across Instagram, and the results were impressive: 72,200 website visits, 67 holiday bookings during a pandemic, and Tier 1 media coverage.
You don’t need a massive marketing budget to create something powerful. With the right omnichannel SEO approach, even smaller brands can thrive in competitive markets. The key is to create a story around your brand that people want to talk about, share, and engage with.
Being playful and winning hearts. Source: ParkDean Resorts
Let's not ignore AIO
Another key player in the future of SEO is AIO: AI Optimisation. As AI tools like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini increasingly shape how users discover content, brands must adapt their strategies to optimise for these systems.
This isn’t just about stuffing content with keywords; it’s about training AI to recognise and recommend your brand.
That means ensuring your brand shows up with structured data, consistent messaging, and context-rich content across platforms. From AI-generated summaries to voice assistants serving up answers, these algorithms are deciding which brands get surfaced first.
If your content isn't AI-friendly, you're invisible in the next wave of search. AIO is no longer a nice-to-have: it's a foundational to be futureproof.
The Role of Analytics and Attribution
Of course, none of this would work without tracking your efforts. Today's SEO strategy requires an understanding of how customers interact with your brand across various platforms. This means tracking key metrics across social media, your website, and video platforms.
By using tools like Google Analytics and attribution modelling, you can determine which channels are driving traffic and conversions, and optimize accordingly.
This data-driven approach allows you to tweak and refine your strategy to ensure you’re getting the most out of your omnichannel efforts. You can identify which campaigns are working, where you’re getting the most brand mentions, and how to amplify your presence even further.
The Bottom Line
Omnichannel SEO is no longer optional. It's a must. In an age where customer behaviour is spread across multiple platforms, you need to ensure that your brand is visible wherever they are. By focusing on brand mentions, local SEO, voice search, and video, you can optimise your presence across all touch points, driving more traffic and boosting conversions.
But doing this on your own? It’s tough. That’s where I come in.
How I Can Help
As a brand advisor, I help companies dominate in their category (I've been known to knock brands with green owl mascots off top-spots for brand awareness) and do it with tailored strategies that help you break through the noise.
Whether your business is struggling with rising lead costs, customer churn, or just feeling lost in the sea of sameness, I’ll work with you to define your customer persona, refine your positioning, and craft messaging that resonates across multiple channels to collect those all important brand mentions at scale.
In just a few short months, I’ll help you attract cheaper, higher-quality leads and build long-lasting relationships with them. I work independently and get deep into my client's businesses, so I only take on a couple of new clients per month.
So if you’re ready to start your journey to better SEO and brand authority, reach out to me today for a free 15-minute consult on Calendly.
