When launching a new brand, there are many things to consider to ensure your long-term success. One that is easily overlooked is your SEO strategy. SEO yields results months, if not years, down the road, and planning a content strategy early can be extremely beneficial.
Strategy 1: Brand coverage
I knew it would be crucial for Shogun to have a strong brand presence. This would add credibility and trust, which is crucial for a new brand.
The first port of call was to create and optimise their Google Business Profile. This widget is very often displayed above the fold and aggregates useful information in one place. I ensured this was fully optimised, adding contact information, pictures, descriptions, and tours.
The next port of call was to ensure that we had created accounts for our planned social-media activity. This included creating handles for Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube, and linking these with our Google Business Profile.
Finally, I added on-site SEO organisation schema to link all this information together.
The results have been excellent, and Shogun’s organic brand coverage now includes multi-modal content with 100 % coverage on the first page. This includes organic listings, social profiles, and video content.
Strategy 2: Quality & Quantity
The second strategy was to plan thematic blog content related to travelling and riding in Japan. The goal here was quality and quantity. I wanted to ensure we put out as much relevant content as possible that would be useful for touring Japan. This would not only help with SEO but also add credibility to Shogun’s expertise in the region.
The first batch of content focused on stand-alone blog posts, ranging from topics such as Japanese motorcycles to how not to be a sh*tty tourist. In total we launched 17 blogs on the site.
For the next batch of content I recommended a series of related blogs titled “Motorcycle Diaries”. These focused specifically on riding certain roads in Japan. Interlinking thematic content like this can help to boost SEO ranking.
Results
Since launching in August 2024, there have been nearly 7,000 clicks to the site, with the site now surpassing 1,000 clicks every month. We have had success ranking on the first page for informational queries such as “Izu Skyline” (from the Motorcycle Diaries), as well as transactional terms such as “Japan motorcycle tours”. Overall this was a best-case scenario for launching a new brand. We were able to break onto the front page for high-value queries with high-quality, thematic content.
Phil has been an incredible partner. Professional, responsive, and truly invested in delivering top quality work for our brand. He consistently goes above and beyond to bring ideas to life in a way that’s both creative and technically impressive. His work has played a key role in helping grow the brand and maximise exposure across digital channels. It’s been a great experience from start to finish.
