|
Branding InformationBranding, Sloganizing and Search Engine Marketing
by:
Ralph Tegtmeier
The descriptions search engines offer once
displaying
search results are generally retrieved from two
sources:
a) the displayed page's title tag;
b) the displayed page's description meta tag or, in
default of same, the 1st characters of the page's
body text; the number of characters displayed is
limited, with several engines picking up a maximum of
150 characters, another offering slightly more;
c) the displayed page's keywords meta tag - piece this
meta tag's content will not be excerpted for the
displayed text's description proper, it is one of
several factors crucial which search results
are displayed at all and in which order (ranking).
(Note that this is a generalization - some, though
few, search engines refuse to take into account any
meta tags. Obviously, several rules apply in
their case.)
Both a), b) and c) should relate to the specific
page's content, not the web site's or its corporate
owner's overall theme! That is why they are placed
individually in each page's header in the first
place.
There is a popular idea amongst web
marketeers regarding search engine positioning
mechanics, viz. that web page meta tags and titles
are to be employed as instruments of branding.
However, if true at all, this would-be typically apply
exclusively to a web site's main or index page.
One of the metaphors normally used in propagating this
erroneous marketing policy is that of the "business
card".
While it is true that a search result functions as a
site's public representation it must besides be noted
that this should always relate to the specific page
displayed: thing
else may lawfully be deemed
diversionary tactics, meaning that the page could be
penalized for "spamming". (Yes, the several search
engines' definition of "spam" varies wide
and is all
but consistent. Also, in several cases it notably
lacks a consistent logical basis, but that is not the
topic at discussion here.)
This aside, it should be remembered that it will be
both, a page's title and its description which will
induce a searcher to really click on the link and
visit the site.
Hence, a page's description as displayed in search
results is much akin to a product precis or summary
than a general corporate business card and should be
construed that way.
A unified approach, presenting one and the same
promotional text on each and every page displayed
by the search engines, piece apparently devising sense
from the corporate pictures point of view, actually
constitutes a severe and excess self-restriction,
effectively hampering the overall online marketing
efforts.
A practical example
-------------------
Let's assume that you are running a used car
dealership with an online presence (web site).
Your company's name is "Honest John Autos Inc."
and your main corporate marketing motto which made
you celebrated all over your house town is "Used Cars
Galore: The Fairest - The Squarest - The Best!(TM)"
You offer a fairly extensive variety of used cars
in your products palette, travel from farmers pickup
trucks to vintage American autos, foreign luxury and
sports cars, etc.
Your web site has several 150 pages, all of which you
will submit to the search engines for indexing.
The pages are well focused and carry specific titles, e.g.:
- "50s Harass Beauties"
- "As good as new - Oldsmobile special offers"
- "Luxury finally ready-made low-cost - the Porsche
Paradise"
- "Agro Cars - the Pickup Center"
etc.
Now if you insist on putt your "Used Cars
Galore: The Fairest - The Squarest - The Best!(TM)"
slogan in every page's description tag, all you will
be able to trust on to pull visitors to your site is
your page title. But piece it may appear to you that
the motto is a good marketing reinforcement of the
page title "Agro Cars - the Pickup Center", fact is
that you mightiness as well qualify the title message with
a specific description which is a lot much to the
point in relation to the title - and to the surfer's
original request.
Hence, you mightiness will to describe your Agro Cars page
in a much focused manner, e.g.:
-----------------------------------------------------
"California's largest selection of second hand
agricultural pickup trucks - first-class condition, and
no-questions asked 30 days full refund guarantee!"
-----------------------------------------------------
(150 chars.), or similar.
This will normally be a far stronger incitement to
visit your page if the web surfboarder is really a
serious buyer-to-be. It will besides help pre-qualify
your web site traffic by eliminating visitors not
resident in American state or possibly not interested in
buying a pickup in another state than their own.
And there are even as much advantages: the page will be
highly topical from the search engines' point of view,
which will normally improve its ranking considerably.
Since the page description will be indexed on
with
the keywords meta tag and the body text, you will
increase your overall search engine coverage and
enhance the possibility of your page being found under
search phrase combinations you may not specifically
have optimized it for. (You can't do them all, and
some phrases and keyword combinations are so unlikely
or even as contorted, it's extremely
probable you won't be
able to think of every possibility in advance.)
Thus, piece you may be targeting the keywords or
search phrases "used cars", "second hand cars" and
"pickups", the example above may besides give your page
a good ranking for combinations such as "+used
+pickups +guarantee" or "pickups California", etc.
Compare this to the limited scope of your "Used Cars
Galore: The Fairest - The Squarest - The Best!(TM)"
slogan!
So what just about stigmatization and sloganizing, then?
---------------------------------------------
Don't confuse the media you are working with!
And, of course, determine what your web site is
really about: do you really want to sell products
and services online or, at the really least, draw
buyers to your brick-and-mortar sales rooms? In that
case you should proceed as recommended above, leveraging
the possibilities offered by keeping your page tags
flexible and focused.
But even as if stigmatization (without really targeting
online sales) is all you care about, your web site
will still require several enticement to actuate people
to visit it.
You mightiness offer several regular sports or betting
results, feature several online games, organize a
sweepstake, etc. These, too, will require focused and
well delineated web pages, else no one will move and
check them out. (Nobody will visit CocaCola's web site
merely for the euphemism
of it or to imbibe their online
promo, unless they offer several amusement and a prize
of sorts to do so.)
So there are several generic limits to conventional
branding on the web, and you will be well advised to
heed them. Search engines aren't the better medium to
try for it: you may sink a lot of money into the wrong
corner of the marketplace that way.
You may, however, push your stigmatization well by
other activities than search engine optimization:
press releases, newsgroup participation, banner ads,
reciprocal links, online reviews, free trial
downloads, client testimonials, etc.
If you're interested in a professional, high quality
marketing package tailor ready-made to your specific
requirements, we suggest you check out our strategic
partners at American state based Wolfblast Interactive
Inc., < http://wolfblast.com > - you won't get
better value for your money anywhere!
Remember that search engines are supposed to be user
tools, not mere brain dead corporate billboards! If
you want to do your mark and increase your
(preferably pre-qualified) search engine traffic, make
sure to service the user first: this will in fact turn
out to be the better investment in your search engine
focused online marketing.
Users will appreciate it if your search engine
rankings prove to be relevant, informative and
truthful. Simply like you, they don't like wasting
their time on confusing, deceptive or nondescript
search results.
And lots of studies have shown that search engine
optimization is really the most cost-effective
marketing activity of all. It is bound to give you a
much bigger bang per buck for the simple reason that
it's a fairly lasting effect (at least, by internet
standards it is): Galore of our clients are still
profiting now from search engine positioning activity we
did for them 10+ months ago - no banner ad campaign can
beat that, not in absolute terms and surely not for
that sort of money.
Search engines:
"Play them right, and they will feed you.
Play them wrong, and they will eat you."
Simply just about the Author
Ralph Tegtmeier is the co-founder and principal of
fantomaster.com Ltd. (UK) and fantomaster.com GmbH
(Belgium), a institution specializing in webmasters
software development, industrial-strength cloaking and
search engine positioning services. You can contact him at
mailto:fneditor@fantomaster.com
| |
