Posts Tagged ‘brands’

The Value of SEO

Published: November 26th, 2009

As most reputable SEO companies stress; search engine rankings cannot be guaranteed. So, in the (hopefully unlikely) event that a campaign heads south and you don’t gain that first page listing, you need to make sure it has actually held some value for your client.

And if you strive to ensure that this is the case for every campaign, then the successful ones will prove to be even more valuable than simply high rankings.

As I have stated many times, SEO has grown into a fully fledged part of the marketing mix – it has had to in order to keep up with the constantly evolving algorithms. You can no longer trick a search engine into advancing your position. Therefore, with the methods that are now needed in order to be successful, it should not be hard to see that results can be measured far beyond rankings.

Do you offer valued inputs for your 'input payments'?

Do you offer valued 'inputs' for your 'input payments'?

A campaign that is targeted and implemented correctly using ‘white hat’ methods can dramatically and positively increase brand awareness, regardless of the achieved positions in the search engine results pages. A well thought out social media strategy can positively impact on brand loyalty. And a clever onsite strategy can increase conversions, meaning that even if the highest rankings are not reached, every visitor is likely to be worth more.

These possibilities should be in the forefront of your mind when planning a campaign. After all, an algorithm can change tomorrow, leaving your client searching for any benefits they can find for hiring an SEO company. A campaign that is based on general marketing practices will make these benefits easy to see. And successful campaigns will usually exceed initial expectations!

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SEO must embrace brand principles

Published: October 12th, 2009

In order for SEO to become a fully integrated part of the marketing mix, it must pay more attention to how it fits itself in with overall marketing strategy.

A main element that is currently neglected by SEO is brand.

SEO can no longer simply be about achieving brand awareness, as the methods it uses to achieve brand awareness encompass a far broader spectrum of brand components. Does our SEO strategy fit in with the brand values – is it fun, forward thinking or environmental, for example? What about our interaction with others? And which links will support the brand image?

At present, these questions are ignored by many in the SEO community, but it could be the missing piece in the jigsaw. Thinking about these questions will allow you to work with bigger brands – brands that have developed beyond a mere logo and into a philosophy. A philosophy that you must become part of…or at the very least, compromise with!

It may blur the lines between SEO and other marketing functions, but Google dictates this must be so in order to be successful in the rankings. Buying or reciprocating links will not work for the bigger clients with the popular keywords.

As such, marketing is beginning to realise that SEO is no longer the little brother that can survive off pocket money – it has grown up and must be invited to the party. But to make sure it’s invited back, it must behave appropriately! And this means paying attention to the needs of the brand it’s working with.

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How to come up with a landing page strategy

Published: August 14th, 2009

The most difficult thing at the start of an SEO project can be to come up with a landing page strategy.

The difficulty is to try and avoid an overlap in strategy – the terms you’ve been asked to optimise may be associated with more than one page, and it can be very difficult to completely restructure the site once it’s been built, especially if you’ve been given a long list of keywords.

The effect of this can be confusion with search engines as to which page is the main focus for which term. However, a strategy I believe in is to focus the homepage upon the general, most searched for term and focus the deeper page on slightly different or longer tailed terms associated with the general term. The simple reason is: the homepage is more likely to get natural links.

This should be reflected in the page titles, which are the most important onsite optimisation factor – they are not only highly considered by the search engines but they also provide a clear insight into your strategy. Remember the 65 character restriction and your strategy should fall into place.

So for example, a marketing agency may focus the homepage on general terms such as ‘marketing’ ‘marketing company’, ‘design company’, ‘brand design company’, ‘brand design’. Then you can focus the pages that outline these services on longer tailed/less popular terms such as ‘internet marketing services leeds’, ‘logo design leeds’ etc. This would give you the following page titles, with most popular term at the front and word proximity also determined by popularity of term:

Homepage: Marketing Company & Brand Design Company

Marketing service page: Print, Online & Internet Marketing Services Leeds & Yorkshire

Brand design service page: Brand Logo Design Services & Branding Services Leeds & Yorkshire

The content on each page should then reflect these titles. For example homepage content should focus on what a great marketing and brand design company you are. The content on the marketing services pages will expand on the marketing service you provide with headings for online & internet marketing and print marketing, and how you provide these services throughout Leeds and Yorkshire. The brand design service page would follow suit.

Links gained to each page should use the appropriate anchor text.

Ok the example isn’t perfect but hopefully you’ve got the gist of what I mean!

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The Conflict Between Brand and SEO

Published: August 6th, 2009

Coming to SEO from a marketing background, I immediately noticed conflict between SEO and branding.

When building a brand, a positioning statement is usually drawn up outlining its values and core message. Words are used very carefully in order to portray what exactly it is that the brand stands for. This message is then spread to the world using different marketing channels, such as the internet.

However, if SEO is important to your brand, then good marketing does not appear to equal success on the internet channel in terms of SEO. There are barriers prevent your precisely chosen message being spread across your site and throughout the internet. According to the principles of SEO this will mean there will be a plethora of duplicate content out there to negatively affect your rankings.

I believe there is a way around this though. Google thinks about these things and, using common sense, usually introduces answers to support its overall goal – to return the expected result (most relevant and highest quality). A high quality, popular site cannot help if identical content is spattered across the web. Therefore, Google determines which content is the original by comparing the amount of one way links.

My conclusion then is this: if you go out into the web and spread your message by only using reciprocal links to increase your rankings, then you’d better consider diluting/altering your carefully chosen words in order to avoid duplicate content penalties. If you really believe in the value of your brand message then have the confidence to resist simply relying on a link swapping strategy to get you up the rankings.

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