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Branding For SEO

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BRANDING BASICS ON THE WEB

Branding, or brand marketing, is a basic concept in marketing. Essentially, branding involves marketing materials and tactics that help to build and maintain an image with a company’s, or website’s, target market. Branding on the Web is about building recognition of a website, and giving visitors or customers a specific feeling or attitude about the site, based on the message the owner wants to convey. Examples of online branding materials include:

1. A website’s official name.

2. A domain name.

3. A logo.

4. A color scheme.

5. Packaging materials on any products being sold.

6. Images on banner ads for the site.

7. A site slogan.

Building brand recognition, even online where branding materials can be in front of a target market regularly, takes time. Here are some keys to effective branding online:

1. Ensure that all online branding elements actually appeal to the target market.

2. Online branding materials should be memorable, and should portray the company’s intended image.

3. A website’s message to its target audience should be consistent throughout all of its branding materials.

Building a brand image for a website or online business isn’t enough. A webmaster or business owner has to constantly reinforce their branding efforts with their target market. Here are some Internet marketing tactics that help to reinforce brand marketing efforts:

1. Online Advertising (Using the company logo, slogan, color scheme, and message in advertisements when possible keeps a brand visually in front of members of a target market.)

2. Email Marketing (Including a logo and slogan on all email correspondence reinforces branding, while regular communication with members of a target market keeps that message fresh in their minds.)

3. Online PR (Announcing regular news related to a website through press releases or blogging can keep a website’s name and message in front of the target audience. It also provides a way to build and maintain trust in a brand by letting webmasters and online business owners display their expertise in the niche through blog posts and press release quotes.)

Article Marketing For SEO

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ARTICLE MARKETING BASICS

Article marketing involves the process of publishing articles to article directories, e-zines, or websites as a marketing tactic.  The two biggest marketing benefits of article marketing are link-building and reputation-building within a niche. Here are the basic steps of article marketing:

1. Write a niche article (generally in the niche of the writer’s own website or industry in which they work), or hire someone to write a niche article.

2. Create a “resource box” at the end of the article, with the author’s or professional’s byline, and a short bio, which often includes one or more hyperlinks to the author’s website(s).

3. Distribute the article through article directories (for mass publication) or through e-zines and/or niche websites for links or exposure.

How to Use Article Marketing for Link-Building

Article marketing allows a webmaster or online business owner to build a potentially large number of one-way incoming links to their website. This is often done by using article directories, which are large collections of articles.

Article directories generally require an author to grant distribution permissions which allow visitors to the article directories to use those articles on their own websites, e-zines, or elsewhere online. Many directories then require users of the articles (or publishers) to maintain the resource box, including live links.

Every time an article submitted to an article directory is re-published, it provides an additional backlink to the author’s website. Article directories generally allow an unlimited number of publishers to re-publish the content submitted to the site.

How to Use Article Marketing for Reputation-Building

Using article marketing for reputation-building is very similar to using article marketing for link-building. An author would often follow the exact steps as in the previous case, but with a different end goal in mind. The links included in the resource box would point to their business website (such as a lawyer writing legal articles, and then linking to their law firm’s website). In this case, the authors would write on topics in their area of expertise. The idea is to build trust with readers, and their reputation as an expert in the subject matter, to hopefully encourage visits to their business site from potential clients.

Another option for article distribution when using article marketing for reputation-building is to keep the distribution more limited. Some authors will write only for one authority website in their industry or niche, which allows them to include a resource box or otherwise link to their business website. Some authors will distribute an article only to hand-picked niche outlets, although to none exclusively. Still others will distribute their articles through e-zines that reach a targeted email list of potential clients.

SEO making pigs fly

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Search engine optimization also referred to as SEO, is the science of search as it relates to marketing on the web. Search engine optimization marketing is the process of positively influencing the quantity and quality of visitor traffic to a web site from search engines via natural or organic search results utilizing the basic comprehension of search engine algorithms. Generally, the higher a site appears in the search results, the higher it “ranks” for that particular search engine. The higher a website ranks increases the likelihood that more searchers will visit that site.

Search engine optimization marketing is amazingly fluid and is constantly evolving, and while it is mostly technical in nature, SEO has become a philosophy for excellence in online marketing. It is no longer just technical tweaking, great copywriting, numerous links, or just search engine submission. The very best search engine optimization marketing practises benefit from a blended approach and knowledge of how the various facets of a website relate to each other.

SEO is more than just simple techniques, it also combines programming with business knowledge, to obtain the desired results and objectives that define success for a website. An excellent search engine optimization marketing strategy considers how search algorithms work and what people search for, and builds a bridge of relevance to a company’s website. A well executed optimization effort includes reviewing a site’s relevance, appealing presentation to users, a site structure the is easy to use, as well as problem identification that could prevent search engine indexing programs from fully indexing a site. Search engine optimization marketing can also target different kinds of search, including image search, local search, and industry-specific vertical search engines.

Before you start optimizing your website, you should understand that the top rankings with every single major search engine and directory can be obtained but results change frequently from competition and a dynamic marketplace. It is the very nature of these influences that requires constant monitoring and ongoing development to keep you ahead of your competition.

“It is not the job of Search Engine Optimization to make a pig fly. It is the job of the SEO to genetically re-engineer the web site so that it becomes an eagle.”

How to make your website meaningful to your visitors

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Keeping your website fresh and relevant to your visitors means more business for you. Check out these simple guidelines to help you make your website copy better.

1. Entice visitors. With an enticing headline on every page, make sure that the information is useful for your visitors. Will your content add value or offer a unique selling proposition? If not, consider using a website copywriter to strengthen your business message.

2. Hold your visitors’ attention. A good goal is to keep the visitor on your website for at least a few minutes so that they can read three or four of your main website pages. Informative and enticing website copy needs to be written to appeal to your target audience. Copy needs to be interesting, compelling and persuasive and you need strong calls to action on your website pages so that your visitors can easily contact you.

3. Keep them coming back. The majority of website visitors will compare your service and products to your competitors or take some time to consider their purchase before making a decision. Not all of your visitors will take action the first time they visit your website. Make sure that your website has enough compelling, informative and interesting content to make visitors return.

What is your website’s “Call to Action?

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Maximizing the effectiveness of your website means that your website must draw visitors in and keep visitors on the website long enough to understand what you can offer. Your website must also ask your visitors to take specific action. If you feel that your current website is under-performing, take a closer look to see if you have a clear Call to Action that you want your visitors to take.

Perhaps you want your web visitors to download a specific form or PDF file. Maybe you want your visitors to read a certain page about your business on your website. Or, more importantly you may want them to engage in communication by contacting you. Since this is most often the desired action for many websites, let’s look at this more closely.

Your website has around three seconds to catch your visitors’ attention or they’re likely to click away. Take a close look at your website – do you feel your headlines will compel your visitors to take the action that you want them to? If the answer to this question is “No”, then it’s time to clarify your website’s “Call to Action” to reach its full potential.

First look to the monthly metrics to identify the strengths and weakness of your website. Your website metrics can mark areas for improvement and show if your call to action message is getting through to your visitors.

What does SEO really do for you?

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SEO is the process of configuring a website so that it has a chance to show up in a search result for a particular keyword phrase. It is your way of telling search engines what you think your site is about. Each search engine has a slightly different formula for how they determine the results of a webpage.

Why is SEO Important?
One word sums it up – competition. As many as 20 billion web pages are being indexed at any given time. To stand out from the crowd, it is absolutely critical to make sure you are using every tool to make sure your customers can find you when they are looking for your products and services.

So why don’t more people do SEO?
SEO is a PROCESS, not a one-time event. It is detail oriented, time consuming and requires regular ongoing efforts in order to maintain results. SEO is one piece of a complete overall online marketing strategy.

Simple guidelines that you can control for best long-term SEO results:

  • Good site structure – The bottom line is that if you can’t easily navigate a site without problems chances are the search engines can’t either and you have no chance of ranking for your key phrase.
  • Good meta-data – Simply geek-speak for the code behind the scenes that search engines use to understand the web page.
  • Good relevant content– Visitors understand that good relevant content is really what they are looking for when they searched with a keyword phrase.  Websites appear higher in the search results generally have regular updates or blogs versus sites with older, stale content on them.