We often get questions about how the concept of using StoryBrand website design conflicts with search engine optimization or marketing principles in general. When you remove content, simplify the message, and likely use fewer search keywords it creates friction with using specific search terms and more content on a page for the search engine. The idea to take out any specific words and simplify while reducing the content on the website certainly appears at odds.
With a StoryBrand website design, the simple idea is to keep things really simple and clear. The communication is on a second-grade level so that nothing that is said confuses the reader and to position the reader as the hero in the story of your brand. The website content is problem and solution-oriented, which means you’re always starting with the customer’s problem and discussing what you do as the solution to solve that problem. Removing excess content to keep things simple allows the customer to focus on what is important and not burn all the extra calories processing information that they don’t actually need to solve the problem. With StoryBrand, keeping it simple and being really clear improves conversion rates because there are fewer barriers between the customer and the call to action. This, of course, is at odds with SEO and marketing specialization for a variety of reasons. We will discuss those and how it is not an issue and we can navigate around them.
First let’s talk about SEO. Search engines look for a certain amount of keywords on the page in certain places like heading tags and they look at the contents of the text to see if there’s enough information to get the page authority and to talk about what the reader is looking for. The issue with a StoryBrand website design is that you are inherently reducing the amount of text on the page and major headlines may not contain keyword stuffing because that is unclear. So obviously this seems to be at odds with using the framework.
The first thing we want to point out is that google indexes every page on the website. It does this in two ways: one by each page and, two by the site as a whole. If the keyword is important then it is important to write articles about that keyword and to have a landing page that focus specifically on that key word. The page that the customer is searching for does not necessarily have to be the page that converts the customer. Every article on the website is not going to be a sales letter.
One form of differentiation is the separation between pages that are optimized with a StoryBrand website design and pages that are optimized for SEO. That said, Google values quality and speaking simply improves quality because people will be able to understand and want to read more. In this case, you want to direct them to a landing page where the StoryBrand framework has been implemented, which improves the likelihood that the customer will convert. It would also be faulty to assume you understand what someone’s problem is based on some of the keyword searches. For instance, one of the search terms that we value because of the correlation between the need specific to our industry and the amount search results per month is “Nashville web design”. If we think about this we don’t really know what the customers problem is. We know that they are looking for design here in Nashville and most likely that means a website but this is not a qualified search. In this case we have a landing page and a substantial amount of content that targets this keyword. At the end of the day, we want to direct people to a page that tells about what we do to decide if it’s a good fit or not.
The next point with SEO is the amount of content. While we can create additional pages that have higher likelihood of ranking in the search, it is also important that our landing pages get indexed because they are the primary pages on the website. Google looks at the main navigation and if those pages are listed there then it will understand that they are considered primary. On these pages the headlines will most likely not be keywords specific, although they can certainly contain some of the keywords that people are using to search.
Google indexes the website as a whole to understand if the website is relevant for the search term and the likelihood of a specific page being relevant will go up if the website is also optimized for the search term. In this case, if we have a landing page focus on our search term but our landing page that is StoryBrand optimized isn’t, it may not rank as high but will gain some of the benefits from the rest of the site. Additionally, Google can read and understand text so using partial keywords will still have an impact on the search results. For instance, if the title of our landing page was we build websites for businesses in Nashville. The search engine is smart enough to put web and Nashville together to see if this page is relevant. Of course, there are better ways we could say this that benefits both the customer and the search engine but that’s beside the point.
Another tactic that can be implemented is to use show-more and show-less toggles to have additional text that goes into a specifics under a headline that can add value. This allows for more text on a page but keeps it hidden to avoid visual clutter and improve clarity. Keep in mind this tactic should not be misused. Keyword stuffing in hidden text could have negative consequences from the search engine.
One of the measurements that Google uses is the user experience, including the amount of time on the page, or number of times the visitor goes back to the search engine results page (presses the back button to get back to Google search). If the website is clear and points the user to the landing page, this signals to Google that the visitors finding what they want. This is possibly equally as important as the contact because Google knows that it sent someone to a place they are interested in or finding what they’re looking for. I have a theory that Google is smart enough to figure out which page is our contact or action pages and values the search results higher as well. Frankly I’ve not found that posted anywhere but Google has all this information and is smart enough to use it, so it is likely that it signals to Google that it has successfully completed a good experience for the customer.
In conclusion, a StoryBrand website design and search engine optimization can work together by creating landing pages that are designed to convert using StoryBrand framework with some elements of SEO, creating landing pages that are designed for search engine optimize terms yet implementing some of the StoryBrand framework so that customers don’t immediately bounce, and flushing out the site to have authoritative content on the subject matter. Sprinkling in elements of the framework in the way that you these pages are written will simplify things for the visitor, enable you to drive a call to action to a landing page or sales final, and shapes the way the page is talking or written. They are paired together to give your customer a win.
Does StoryBrand work better for a certain market focus? And is there a time when it’s not needed?
In this article, we want to focus on three different market focuses and talk about how to use the StoryBrand framework within each.
First, let’s dive into a platform focus. A platform focus is when the business is leaning on a platform to gain visiblity. An early adopter of a platform can use the platform for their clients and market themselves as a platform export. In turn, the platform will promote the business because it’s good for the platform. Often this is an early adopter of the platform who gains visibility as people are searching for the platform by name, the type of tool the platform is (ie project management software for dev teams), or the problem the platform solves.
Leaning on a platform for visibility is a great way to market your business (at least until the platform closes). Using clear messaging to position your business as the guide to the platform is always the best approach. Positioning your business as the guide to solving the customer’s problem and the guide to helping navigate the platform is a double win. Using a clear message increases the likelihood that your customer will choose you, even when leaning on a platform for your marketing visibility. There are several things to remember:
- Your landing page and sales funnel should have no platform language – save it
- Don’t mix your messages, you are solving ONE problem – one page, one problem
- As you demonstrate the platform, explain it simply before using their terminology
While we gained no visibility for it, we were an early adopter of Monday.com, the project management software. I’m pointing this out because when you add an item to a project, it’s called a pulse. That’s confusing, insider language. The consultant may need to call it a pulse, but explain it, using a common language first.
Let’s go through one example. We’ll pretend that your platform is accounting software like QuickBooks and you help companies