Q: Do you know of research that links SEO to increased brand awareness?

Dear Kalena...

I am conducting research for a proposal to a large-scale corporation. The purpose of the proposal is to convince the larger corporation to fund the redesign of a smaller organization's web site. (The smaller organization is a collection of independent specialized retailers, and the larger corporation is a product line.)

Our major selling-point is that the corporation would be heavily featured in the organization's web site, which will eventually lead to higher brand awareness. Part of the funding will go towards a search engine optimization service. The proposal needs to convince the corporation that SEO is a worthwhile investment.

After spending a few hours looking for research on SEO as it relates to an increase in brand awareness, I was lead to your blog. Do you know of any research that relates search engine ranking to an increase in consumer awareness? Or how SEO can increase brand awareness?

Thanks for your time,

Laura