Search
Related Links




 

 

Informative Articles

How a Multi-Faceted Approach to Site Promotion Can Secure Your Search Engine Positions
In my last article on site promotion, I talked about why using one site promotion technique is a short-term solution. Now I'm going to illustrate why site promotion is multi-faceted, and show an example of how these techniques can build on one...

Optimizing Your Website's Design For Search Engines
It is a well known fact that big search engines like Google are paying the most attention to the links that point back to your website. However, that does not mean that your website design does not matter. You should take a break from looking for...

Search Engine Friendly Shopping Cart Software
Web stores are usually much harder to optimize then regular websites. The main reason for that is that most websites are custom while web stores use ready script. That's because web store script, let's call it shopping cart software from now on, has...

Search Engine Optimization: Site Structure and Popularity
In the Global Internet era the industry presence is undoubtedly related to the company online presence. Where is the scope of the online presence limitations and does it refer only to the search engine optimization aspect or it broadens into...

Tips from Chicago Search Engine Strategies – Part 2
Tips from Chicago Search Engine Strategies – Part 2 By Tanya Martin The next session that I enjoyed was Shopping Search Tatics at Search Engine Strategies. Chris Bowler, Media Director and Search Practice Lead at Itraffic.com, Laura Thieme,...

 
Branding Versus Search Engine Optimization

Branding versus search engine optimization is a marketing dilemma that larger companies will need to come to grips with on the Internet. Often companies will need to decide whether to promote their own brand name as their main keyword phrase or optimize for a more generic keyword phrase.
For instance, one search engine report states that 1.3 million visitors per month search for the term "Best Buy." This same report states that the term "electronics" is searched for by 1.1 visitors per month. The obvious choice in this scenario is for Best Buy to optimize for their own brand name first and the word "electronics" second.

But take a competitor such as Fry's Electronics. Approximately 95,000 visitors search for the term "Fry's" every month, far short of those who search for "electronics". Does this mean Fry's Electronics (a partner with Outpost.com) should optimize for "electronics" first and Fry's (and/or Outpost.com) second?

Currently, a search on Google for "electronics" will show that Best Buy does not show up in the first two pages. Fry's (Outpost.com) is on the second page. But let's take a further look to see who is in the number 1 position: Sony.

Sony, with 450,000 searches per month for the word "sony", has managed to grab the number one spot for its brand name and the generic name


"electronics". A search of the Sony homepage source code will reveal that this page is optimized for both words, "Sony" and "electronics." By optimizing for both words Sony has nabbed a lot of traffic neglected by Best Buy and perhaps even exceeds Best Buys traffic in doing this.

Another issue in branding is trademark infringement. Courts have upheld that websites using another company's branded name in its metatags is engaging in trademark infringement. For instance, a site about cats would be infringing if it put the name Best Buy in its metatags in hopes of gaining traffic from this trademarked word. Large companies have to protect themselves from others stealing traffic that is rightfully theirs. These companies cannot however protect a generic term such as "electronics" as that is fair game for all electronics companies.

So, in order to create the largest return on investment, large companies need to optimize their websites both for their own brand names and for the generic, high-traffic keywords and keyword phrases relevant to their sites. Otherwise, they are letting tons of online business just slip away.

http://www.seoresource.net

About the Author
Kevin Kantola is the CEO of Search Engine Optimization Resource (seoresource.net) and has written many online and offline articles over the past 20 years.