Brand Optimization: Why Ranking Your Website Isn't Enough Anymore
- Sonia Urquilla
- Jul 22
- 6 min read
TL;DR: Ranking your website still matters. But it is no longer the whole game. Your future clients are searching in more places than Google now: ChatGPT, Reddit, podcasts, Google Maps, other people's blogs. Brand optimization means making sure you show up and get mentioned everywhere they look. |
Let me guess what you are thinking. You built the website. You added the keywords. Maybe you even started a blog. And the right clients still are not finding you.
Here is the shift I want you to make: stop optimizing only your website, and start optimizing your brand. Because this is not a ranking problem. It is a visibility problem.
What "Brand Optimization" Actually Means
When I started out, SEO meant one thing to me: get the website to rank. I lived inside that website, chasing a few backlinks. And for a while it worked. Then it just… stopped working. I kept asking, what is going on, what do I need to do?
What I needed to do was get bigger than the website. Brand optimization is exactly that. It is making sure your brand is found and mentioned across every surface where your audience is paying attention, not just your site, but your social channels, Reddit, podcasts, blog collaborations, local citations, and now the AI tools your clients are asking for recommendations.
As Zak Ali said on the Unscripted SEO podcast, AI "took it from search engine optimization to search everywhere optimization… now it's really about being on every discoverable surface." That is the whole idea. Every discoverable surface.
Watch: Optimize Your Brand, Not Just Your Website
Why Brand Optimization Matters More Now Than It Did Two Years Ago
AI did not kill SEO. It raised the stakes on your brand. When anyone can generate a decent blog post in thirty seconds, the content itself stops being the advantage. Being the known name becomes the advantage.
Nick Eubanks put it bluntly on the same show: "distribution is the only remaining moat when execution becomes infinite." Read that again. When execution is free, distribution, being everywhere your audience already is — is what protects you.
And here is the part most people miss: what other people say about you online is what the AI repeats about you. Patrick Stox, formerly of Ahrefs, said it perfectly in his interview: "if people are complaining on the internet, that's what it's gonna say. So it's business, it's branding, it's so much more." You do not control the AI. You influence what it has to read about you.
Does that mean SEO is dead? No. Grant Simmons said it well: "it's still gonna be SEO fundamentally, which is showing up at the right time, right place, right message in an organic way." The fundamentals did not change. The number of places you have to show up did.
Where Your Brand Needs to Show Up
What other people say about you online is what AI repeats about you. When someone asks ChatGPT to recommend the best career coach or resume writer in their city, the AI pulls from mentions, features, reviews, and references across the web. It does not just read your website. It reads everything written about you.
That means a feature in an industry blog, a mention on a podcast, a Reddit thread where someone recommends your work, these are not just nice-to-haves. They are the signals AI tools use to decide whether to include your name in the answer.
This is the list I actually work through with clients. You do not need all of it on day one. You need to start.
Your website and Google Business Profile — your home base. Still non-negotiable.
Your social channels — where people check if you are real.
Reddit and podcasts — where opinions get formed, and where content gets indexed fast.
Other people's blogs — collaborations and guest features that put your name on sites you do not own.
Press releases and brand mentions — the "someone else said it" signal.
AI answers — the sum of everything above.
Why Reddit and podcasts specifically? Because they get seen fast. As Jason Wade said on the podcast: "Reddit every time, do a podcast every time." And Bradley Benner made the case for PR: "press releases, branded assets, brand mentions on blog posts… those all can act as unstructured citations. And that's what influences LLM or AI search visibility right now, more than anything."
A Real Example: 100 Attendees to Over 1,000
I had a client, a career coach, launching a masterclass. On her own, with just ads and email, she was getting about a hundred people to each one. So we stopped relying on one channel and optimized the whole brand around the launch. A press release. Social. Email. And yes, we even used Reddit.
That masterclass got over a thousand attendees.
No single channel did that. The brand showed up everywhere at once, and the audience came from places we had never seen leads come from before. That is brand optimization in one story.
How to Start Your Brand Optimization This Week
You do not need to do all of this at once. Start here and add from there.
Audit where you already show up. Search your own name and your brand. What comes up? What does not?
Lock down your home base. Fill out your Google Business Profile completely and make sure your website answers your clients' real questions.
Pick one off-site surface. One. A relevant subreddit, one podcast to pitch, or one blog collaboration.
Get mentioned. A press release, a guest feature, a partnership — anything that puts your name somewhere you do not own.
Repeat. Brand optimization is a habit, not a project.
You do not need to do all of it at once. You need to stop hiding inside your website.
FAQs: Brand Optimization for Businesses
How is brand optimization different from traditional SEO?
Traditional SEO focuses on ranking your website pages in Google search results through keywords, backlinks, and technical structure. Brand optimization focuses on getting your name mentioned and cited across platforms you do not own, including AI tools, podcasts, Reddit, and industry publications. Both matter. Brand optimization is what makes traditional SEO compound faster.
Do I need brand optimization if I already rank on Google?
Yes. Google rankings drive traffic to your website. Brand optimization gets you into conversations happening outside your website entirely, including AI tool recommendations, Reddit threads, and podcast discussions. A business can rank well on Google and still be invisible when someone asks ChatGPT for a recommendation in your niche.
About the Author & SEO Consultant
Sonia Urquilla is an SEO consultant who helps service providers get found without chasing clients online. She works with female coaches, consultants, and local service-based businesses that are tired of relying on referrals and social media alone.
Her work focuses on bridging the gap between how people search and how service providers talk about their work, helping websites turn visibility into leads. You can learn more about her approach here or schedule a strategy call.
Key Takeaways
Ranking your website is the floor now, not the ceiling. This is a visibility problem, not a content problem.
When AI makes content free, distribution and brand mentions become the moat.
What third parties say about you shapes what AI says about you.
Show up where opinions form — Reddit, podcasts, other people's blogs, your local community.
No single channel wins. The brand that shows up everywhere at once does.
I talked through this whole framework on the Unscripted SEO podcast with Jeremy Rivera (or watch it on YouTube) — worth a listen if you want to hear the local angle too.
Related SEO Resources
Your ideal clients are forming opinions about who to hire right now, on Google, in ChatGPT, on Reddit, in a podcast. Brand optimization makes sure your name is the one that keeps coming up. If you want help mapping where your brand should show up, that is exactly the work I do.