SoloSEO

Branding and SEO

Posted by Aaron R Stewart on November 24th, 2008

When we create a site, we want to communicate a clear, informative message about our company, and about our services/products. We want our message to be seen by as many people as possible, and we hope this exposure will eventually, if not instantly, increase sales. In SEO we talk a lot about keywords, content, links, and reports and we discuss strategies to get us up in the search results pages as quickly as possible to increase traffic. Then once we get the traffic and exposure we are hopefully diligent enough to keep our sites there with smart and consistent SEO efforts.

However, sometimes in this constant pressure to promote, I think many of us get too wrapped up in our brands and image. We use our brand as a keyword too much, we focus our content around the brand, we make sure our internal link structure uses our brand as anchor text over and over and over. It may make us feel like we are really making headway, but in reality, in search marketing unless those searching know what we are about, and what we do, pushing our brand isn’t going to do much for us in most cases. Let’s take kitchen faucets as an example. I have a kitchen faucet, I know there are brands of kitchens faucets, but I couldn’t tell you which one is best, and frankly, I really could care less. So if you are trying to get me to your site based on my awareness of faucet brand, it isn’t going to happen. If I were in the market for a new kitchen faucet, (I do hate ours, but I don’t know the brand, so no brand bashing today), I would go to a search engine, and would search for something like “best quality kitchen faucet.” Well, the results for this particular search stunk. There was only one organic result, and 11 paid ads.

As I refuse to click on Ads (Sorry Google), I would need to expand my search. The point being, because I don’t know faucet brand, I have to be educated about faucets first, then I can decide on a brand, and search from there. So if you aren’t talking about quality faucets, or best priced faucets, or something more generic, you are missing out on clients that may buy from you, if you educate them a bit.

Just as a note, due to the poor showing in the SERPs using faucets as a keyword, I just might get into the business. In fact this post might just start ranking well for kitchen faucets in about a week.

Now there are some sites that can push popular brands without a problem, but usually the original manufacturer of this brand, has spent millions of dollars to educate the public, and create amazing brand awareness, so reselling these branded goods is made simpler. So while there are situations where just going with the brand in your SEO strategies may work, widening the breadth of a site’s coverage in an industry will never hurt, and for those attempting to build their own brand, it can help tremendously.

As small business owners online, especially those of us who were originally offline, we may need to adjust our mindset a bit. Online we need to get back to communicating the basics of what we do in our business. If we sell stuff, lets talk about that stuff online in very basic terms, making it easy for the search engines to know what we are attempting to present. By widening our approach, and taking it down to the lowest common denominator, we improve our chance of being noticed initially. Once we have our base set, then we can become more focused on the specifics of our business, eventually building brand awareness for our company, which will tie our brand back into our general business description.

There are too many instances where friends and associates of mine have launched sites that are so specialized, it is hard to imagine anyone is going to find them. In fact, in some cases, if a potential client doesn’t know the exact domain, or isn’t searching for the specific brand, with some specific localized terms, the site is essentially invisible, probably forever if they don’t change. I have suggested to some of these friends they might want to consider being a bit more generic on their site, discuss more basic stuff, to which some have replied their brand (of Snowboards) is so superior, they will be just fine. Good luck. They have decided to take the word of mouth marketing or die stance, and between us pals, they are going to die, ignominiously. Their product seems to be pretty good, but snowboarding sucks, ski or nothing.

So if you aren’t getting the traffic you had hoped for, you might want to take some time to look your site over, and make sure it speaks to the those that have absolutely no clue about your business or products.

Here are some steps to widen the net of your site.

1. Have pages that discuss the history of the industry, use words as if you were introducing the company to your child’s elementary school class. I have learned that when I speak to a classroom of kids, I can easily get away from work jargon, and I use words and phrases I know they will understand, while still communicating clearly.

2. Have pages on your education of the industry, and your knowledge, and how you felt when you learned certain points you found interesting. How you got involved, why you were attracted to it, and how you feel about the industry it now, maybe where you think the industry is going in the future. This is a great way to generate content, and to pull in keywords associated with your industry.

3. Discuss the history of your business specifically, what made you decide finally launch and grow. Many don’t like to discuss how tough starting a new business can be, but so many people like to hear these stories you will be amazed. I think there are some out there, who want to start new businesses, but just can’t seem to make themselves make the leap. Your stories will be valuable to them, and might bet you a loyal client.

4. Feel free to post questions others have asked about your business, and then take time to answer them. Chances are, if you have heard the question once in your business, there are hundreds more with the same question. Many searching out there are online to just get answers to questions, if you answer enough of them, you will position your site as authoritative, and that is priceless in the world of search.

Getting back to basics is something I used to hear a bunch growing up. It was a reminder to all of us to simplify things, re-prioritize, and make sure we are taking care of the fundamentals. Getting back to basics online just means we need to make sure we are casting a wide net on the net. Communicating clearly who we are to the search engines, and to the most novice of clients. There isn’t a site out there that couldn’t benefit from doing a little of this time to time.

Visited 1404 times November 24th, 2008 Aaron R Stewart

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