| Chapter
1- 5
There are
certainly limits to what can be done visually or in multimedia to
differentiate the company, its products, services and communication
style. On TV, only wealthy corporations could afford to advertise,
therefore a brand was easy to establish. Other companies simply
couldn’t muster the financial resources to erode the competition’s
brand positioning. On the Internet, brand differentiation is eroded
quickly when competitors circle like sharks waiting to pick off
hard won customers and sales. Now timing and coordinated blitzes
are the order of the online marketing day. Get in; score your sales
before your well-funded copycat competition can move in to take
over your territory.
Back to
your Web site. After space for brand graphics and slogans, the company
name and vision statement are often the next priorities. Graphics
are used as navigation, and branded words used as button labels.
The priorities then are not really personal and interactive communication
in text form and certainly not search engine keywords. The priorities
are a branded image and a brand experience. This is the expression
of corporate integrity, quality and confidence, although it is often
impersonal and non-interactive. Keywords can often be personal and
psychologically interactive, therefore a brand safe web site is
a poor candidate for search engine optimization. The concept of
brand means nothing to a search engine database program so the brand
will have to give in a little to our practical needs.
Aside from
the questionable long-term value of Web site branding, the brand
emphasis constricts what types of words can be included in the copy,
and how that copy reads. Keywords are often considered obtuse, unsophisticated
and pedestrian. Most branding strategies attempt to elevate products
and services above the mundane level of what they really are. For
instance, a Mercedes Benz is a luxury automobile, not an expensive
car. It has a powerplant, not a motor. It is described as dynamic,
intelligent, exhilarating and cinematic.
These are
the words that create an exquisite brand image for a definitely
upscale product. The marketing team at Mercedes Benz would consider
it laughable for you to position “luxury automobiles”
or “new cars” several times on the Web site home page.
It’s taken for granted that they sell new luxury automobiles
so plastering it on the home page would appear obtuse. The writer
would be accused of being ignorant of the branding already achieved
through other media. Perhaps in another Web page these words might
find a home.
However,
if the words are not included in the home page, it is going to be
very tough to get the site ranked highly for the phrase “luxury
automobiles”; unless other expensive search engine optimization
techniques are employed. Having product spec pages, white papers,
personal endorsement pages, test ratings pages, or other types of
articles that include discussion of fine automobiles and containing
hyperlinks that point to the home page, might work.
This
is the type of workaround for brand
or content priorities you may have to do to get your site ranked
highly. Yes, they are hurdles, but there’s always a way over
or around them. Don’t worry, you’ll become very creative
at it.
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