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Branding,
Sloganizing and Search Engine Marketing |
by:
Ralph
Tegtmeier |
The
descriptions search engines offer when 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 first characters of
the page's
body text; the number of characters displayed
is
limited, with some engines picking up a
maximum of
150 characters, other offering slightly
more;
c) the displayed page's keywords meta tag
- while this
meta tag's content will not be excerpted
for the
displayed text's description proper, it
is one of
several factors determining 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, different 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 misconception amongst
web
marketeers regarding search engine positioning
mechanics, namely that web page meta tags
and titles
are to be employed as instruments of branding.
However, if true at all, this would typically
apply
exclusively to a web site's main or index
page.
One of the metaphors commonly 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 also
be noted
that this should always relate to the specific
page
displayed: anything else may legitimately
be deemed
diversionary tactics, meaning that the page
could be
penalized for "spamming". (Yes, the respective
search
engines' definition of "spam" varies widely
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 actually click on the
link and
visit the site.
Hence, a page's description as displayed
in search
results is more 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, while seemingly making
sense
from the corporate image point of view,
actually
constitutes a severe and unnecessary 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 slogan
which made
you famous all over your home 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, ranging from farmers
pickup
trucks to vintage American autos, foreign
luxury and
sports cars, etc.
Your web site has some 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 Chevvy Beauties"
- "As good as new - Oldsmobile special offers"
- "Luxury finally made affordable - the
Porsche
Paradise"
- "Agro Cars - the Pickup Center"
etc.
Now if you insist on putting your "Used
Cars
Galore: The Fairest - The Squarest - The
Best!(TM)"
slogan in every page's description tag,
all you will
be able to rely on to pull visitors to your
site is
your page title. But while it may appear
to you that
the slogan is a nice marketing reinforcement
of the
page title "Agro Cars - the Pickup Center",
fact is
that you might as well qualify the title
message with
a specific description which is a lot more
to the
point in relation to the title - and to
the surfer's
original request.
Hence, you might wish to describe your Agro
Cars page
in a more focused manner, e.g.:
-----------------------------------------------------
"California's largest selection of second
hand
agricultural pickup trucks - excellent condition,
and
no-questions asked 30 days full refund guarantee!"
-----------------------------------------------------
(150 chars.), or similar.
This will usually be a far stronger incitement
to
visit your page if the web surfer is actually
a
serious buyer-to-be. It will also help pre-qualify
your web site traffic by eliminating visitors
not
resident in California or perhaps not interested
in
buying a pickup in another state than their
own.
And there are even more 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
along 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 contorted, it's highly probable
you won't be
able to think of every possibility in advance.)
Thus, while you may be targeting the keywords
or
search phrases "used cars", "second hand
cars" and
"pickups", the example above may also 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 about branding 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 actually want to sell
products
and services online or, at the very least,
draw
buyers to your brick-and-mortar sales rooms?
In that
case you should proceed as suggested above,
leveraging
the possibilities offered by keeping your
page tags
flexible and focused.
But even if branding (without actually targeting
online sales) is all you care about, your
web site
will still require some enticement to motivate
people
to visit it.
You might offer some regular sports or betting
results, feature some online games, organize
a
sweepstake, etc. These, too, will require
focused and
well described web pages, else no one will
come and
check them out. (Nobody will visit CocaCola's
web site
merely for the heck of it or to imbibe their
online
promo, unless they offer some entertainment
and a prize
of sorts to do so.)
So there are some generic limits to conventional
branding on the web, and you will be well
advised to
heed them. Search engines aren't the best
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 branding considerably
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 made to your specific
requirements, we suggest you check out our
strategic
partners at California 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 make 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 best investment in your search
engine
focused online marketing.
Users will appreciate it if your search
engine
rankings prove to be relevant, informative
and
truthful. Just like you, they don't like
wasting
their time on confusing, misleading or nondescript
search results.
And lots of studies have shown that search
engine
optimization is actually 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): Many of our clients are
still
profiting today from search engine positioning
work we
did for them 10+ months ago - no banner
ad campaign can
beat that, not in absolute terms and certainly
not for
that sort of money.
Search engines:
"Play them right, and they will feed you.
Play them wrong, and they will eat you."
About the Author
Ralph Tegtmeier is the co-founder and
principal of
fantomaster.com Ltd. (UK) and fantomaster.com
GmbH
(Belgium), a company specializing in webmasters
software development, industrial-strength
cloaking and
search engine positioning services. You
can contact him at
mailto:fneditor@fantomaster.com |
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