In search marketing, relevancy is king of conversions. You want users to land on relevant pages that are optimized for the keyword or keyword phrase that took them there – whether it be an organic or paid listing. This makes the user happy because they find exactly what they’re looking for and it makes the advertiser happy because it leads to more conversions. Everyone’s just happy, happy, happy.
But what about branding in the search engines? Is there such a thing? Of course there is. And although it cannot be as easily measured, it is critical in shaping the users opinion about your site. If you’ve read The Brand Gap (which I highly recommend), you’ll know that a brand has nothing to do with what we think it is or want it to be. A brand is what the consumer (or in this case the user) thinks of your product or service or site. So what do users think of your site when they find it in the search engines? Do they click on your link and find irrelevant information? Do they always see your name pop up when searching? Does this make your site more trust-worthy?
These are the questions we need to keep in mind when performing any type of search marketing campaign. You can increase your brand presence by making sure you’re visible for industry searches and by placing the name of your site in the title or body copy of your listing.
A few weeks ago, Google CEO Eric Schmidt argued that internet is becoming a “cesspool” of irrelevancy and that brands will win out in the end. Aaron Wall of seobook.com reiterated Google’s stance on the value of brands in search engines in a recent article. Unfortunately, it’s not very easy to track how effective branding in the search engines can be. Users who visit an e-commerce site might research online, but make the purchase at the physical store. Companies may visit a B2B site, but decide to make a purchase months later – making it hard to track that user in analytic programs.
Remember that relevancy should always be your top concern, but it’s important to consider that you need to be competitive for some keywords for positioning purposes and not necessarily because they increase your conversions or click-though rates. Make sure that you are still using targeted keywords and taking users to pages that fill their needs. If relevancy is king, then branding is queen.
