Branding your newly-established website requires extensive effort and time to initiate activities that will help build the solid foundation of your site.

With so many tasks needed to complete the overall branding, there are chances that you will overlook one or two important activities.

To help you get started with website branding, here is a short checklist of tips that you can consider to solidify your website and pursue branding awareness within your community.

Let’s get started.

Invest in design and website structure

First impressions last.

This also applies to online branding, as you need to present your website in the way that you want your brand to be perceived by your users.

Here are some tips for a strategic design and site architecture:

• Identify your brand’s theme and message. Ask yourself, “What theme do I want my brand to be known for?”. It may be professional or casual. It really depends on the status of your brand and your target audience.
• Hire a professional graphic designer to create a logo for your brand. Alternatively you can do it by yourself, but make sure you think five times before you finalize the image as your logo.
• Make your blog posts/pages targeted to what your audience want to see from them. If it is a resource page, then you want to get your users to receive the information in the fastest manner. Avoid any distractions that would mean the user might bounce back from your site.
• Execute a usability analysis on your website. Look at how your users flow through each of your webpages (e.g. you could use Google Analytics to track this). Make it easy for your users to complete a goal by removing any pages/phases that are not relevant to that path.
• Identify the top converting pages on your site and think of ideas on how you can make them visible by including links on the most important areas on your site (e.g. sidebar, right header, etc..)

Set a solid content strategy

Content marketing is king and content distribution is queen. Both elements need a strategy to better implement tasks effectively.

When creating content pieces, your top consideration is to make them linkable (earning natural links) as much as possible.

• People only link to your assets when they are:
• Topical content authorities that continuously provide unique and valuable ideas/information to targeted audience.
• Well-design and/or well-formatted.
• Likable to a specific group of users, making them easy to understand and consume by the audience.
• Are distributed appropriately to interested users using blogger outreach and/or white hat link building techniques.

When these content assets are published on your blog, you can now promote through different means:

• Earn mentions from news sites by pitching journalists to cover your story/message conveyed in your content asset (e.g. you could use HARO for this technique).
• Reference your content on community discussions or forum boards to get your audience to learn more about your asset.
• Email blast to targeted people to increase readership/visits on your blog. Identify other blogs with massive subscribers and let them know about your piece.
• Reach out to key influencers in the industry and give them incentives to get them promote your asset (monetary / non-monetary).

Spread your brand’s message appropriately

Your brand’s message is tailored only to certain groups of people. It can be spread to other industries but focuses only on those people who’re interested about your business.

How can you spread the message of your brand? Here are a few tips to consider:

• Integrate offline activities to your online assets. If you sponsor conferences/seminars/meetups offline, you could create a category or press page on your site to make these events visible to your audience.
• Write articles and design infographics according to the message your brand wants to promote.
• Use your assets (articles, team members, email list, etc…) to spread the message of your brand accordingly.

Final thoughts

Leveraging your content assets and search marketing efforts can help you start building the overall branding of your website. Make sure you follow some of the tips above and watch your message spread easily.