| Recent
SES Articles |
SES
2006: Pimp That Site!
Most sites could benefit from a little nip and tuck, and when that can increase
their search engine visibility from nil to above-the-fold in the SERPs, the impact
on a site can be dramatic.
SES
2006: SE Algos: Can You Please Them All?
Search engine specialists use to spend inordinate amounts of time creating pages
that ranked well at just one search engine due to algorithmic weighting of known
and very specific ranking factors.
SES
2006: Optimizing Your Feed
This is a continuation of an earlier offering about blog and RSS feed optimization.
Because the information is dense, we thought it best to present it with another
spray of bullets. Managing editor Mike McDonald is one heck of a note-taker.
SES
2006: Google, Yahoo & MSN Research Labs
The Research Laboratories session at SES San Jose 2006 brought representatives
from the top 3 engines to talk about how projects emerge from their labs to become
actual search tools.
SES
2006: Search Engines, Friend Or Foe
The best thing about search engines is how they make it easy to find relevant
content out of millions of web sites; that may be the worst thing about them too.
SES
2006: SERP Sharp-Shooting
Earlier we reported that presence was an essential part of the online shopping
process. It's not so much about the clicks as it is about branding. Our man about
San Jose, Doug Caverly, continues this theme, reporting from the Search Behavior
track at the Search Engine Strategies Conference. Further eye-tracking studies
shows that position is everything.
SES
2006: Blog/Feed SEO: Watch Out For Bullets
The information flooding out of the Blog and Feed Search SEO session at SES San
Jose was so rapid and powerful it knocked all of Mike McDonald's hair off. Because
the information is so plentiful, we'll cut the right to the bald and shiny of
Mike's notes.
SES
2006: A Case Of Duplicate Content
Site publishers worry about being penalized for having duplicate content; the
panel at SES 2006 in San Jose took on that topic in a session today.
|
|
|
|
08.10.06
SES 2006: Branding And Search
 By Lee
Odden
The Branding and Search session started out with Barbara Coll moderating and the
following cast of characters: Ron Belanger from Yahoo! Search Marketing, Jonathan
Mendez from OTTO Digital, Chris Copeland from Outrider Search Marketing, Mike
Margolin from Targeted Marketing, RPA and Jenny Howell American Honda Motor Co.
who did not speak, but was the topic of Mark Margolins presentation.
Just before this session started I ran into a prominent search marketer and we
talked about some of the common questions related to search and branding.
How do you sell clients on search marketing for branding purposes? Also, how do
you best measure it? These questions and more were answered by the panel.
First up is Ron Belanger of Yahoo and his presentation, Nurturing your brand with search marketing. Ron posed the question, What is search and branding? and went to the dictionary for a definition. What he found was hardly appropriate (as was intended) for defining brand in terms of what brand means to search marketing. So he used a series of quotes from prominent individuals in the advertising world to help define brand:
Jeremy Bullmore - Customers build an image of a brand as birds
build nests. From the scraps and straws they chance upon.
Its not just the advertising message, its every interaction that defines a brand.
David Ogilvy - Any damn fool can put on a deal, but it takes
genius, faith and perseverence to create a brand.
Nittin Shah - Branding is not something where the entire investment
happens overnight and profits can be reaped the very next day. Its a continuous
process and the returns also come in a similar fashion.
When you talk about top brands, youre talking about emotions. How we define brand is how we feel about those companies.
Ron then checked Yahoo Answers to find out about some of the top rated brands: Starbucks, Apple and Yahoo.
The value of search as a branding mechanism is not the medium. In fact, if a search marketer is doing their job, theyre getting the visitor off the search results as fast as possible. The branding does not happen within the 70 characters of text in the ad, it takes place on the site.
Measurement - clicks, time spent on site.
Another quote:
David Verklin, CEO Carat Americas - Its hard to overstate the
importance that search plays in marketing and advertising campaigns. Search will
become ubiquitous. Search is becoming the behavior of choice. Our job as advertisers
is to put our clients products in the path of search behavior.
Search often leads consumers to new brands and websites. Top ranking postitions in search often convey perceptions of leadership.
Every intereaction with a brand reinforces that brand. This is not limited to search for products, it can also occur with search for support and for other post purchase search situations.
Use appropriate measurement models.
Read
the Full Article
About the Author:
Lee Odden is President and Founder of TopRank
Online Marketing, specializing in organic SEO, blog marketing and online public
relations. He's been cited as a search marketing expert by publications including
U.S. News & World Report and The Economist and has implemented successful
search marketing programs with top BtoB companies of all sizes.
|
