SEO Denver

SEO Consultants Denver post for October 19.

SEO and the Art of Branding

It is of course quite important to structure your internet presence around meaningful and descriptive keywords, title tags and text composition to get the best placement for your business page.  While these are certainly necessary in getting your page well positioned to attract readers, there is a more fundamental concept at work that should be a guide to your comprehensive Search Engine Marketing ( SEM ) strategy.

Volumes of business text have been written on these points, but for those of you just starting out, here are a few quick tips.  But first, a bit of background.

‘Branding’ is the assignment of unique characteristics – usually determined by the business operator – that the company wishes to be associated with the company name.  Common branding phrases like “quality provider” or “Pittsburgh’s Choice for  ___________”  are used to associate quality, location and consumer acceptance with the company name.

When developing a Search Engine Marketing ( SEM ) plan, careful thought must be given to creating an attractive branding strategy.   In short, spend time considering why your product or service is unique to your niche.  Why are you the best?  What makes you superior?  Then build your branding and SEM strategy to promote these characteristics. 

As we are  bit limited for time and space, here are a few key checkpoints for developing your brand:

• price (are you the highest or lowest provider?)
• value (if you are not the low-cost provider, why should a customer purchase from you?)
• geography (where is your product available – is this unique?  Can customers procure your product or service conveniently froma competitor in your geographic area?
• promotion (are there any unique sales or promotional programs customers can take advantage of?)
• product features (what are the actual differences that make your product or service better?)

Companies that struggle – especially in difficult times – usually offer products or services that have little competitive advantage over others in these checkpoint areas.  Make sure that you have a compelling set of reasons people should buy from you that include price, value, pricing and point-of-acquisition advantages. 

The Branding Statement

Once you have a set of reasons your product or service should be preferred in your area, you have  already created a quick branding framework.  Something like “Florida’s low price auto dealer” might emerge for a car dealership in Florida that competes primarily on price.   Once you have a branding statement, you can easily incorporate that statement into your keyword strategy.

Branding Keywords

It is always a good idea for established businesses to research their customer base to determine why people buy from that provider.  Research frequently turns up unknown advantages and would include things like “you are easier to drive to” or “your product doesn’t break.” After talking with your customers, you may rework your original branding statement prior to establishing your keyword strategy.

For newer businesses, here are a few questions for starters: What words do you want your customers to use to describe the superior product delivery or service features that you provide?  Are there any unique geographic service features?  Are you the only one in your area providing a certain product or service?

Establishing a brand identity for your company – even a local small business – is hugely important in the world of driving traffic to your business site.  People are searching not only for products, but for product and service ‘Features.’  the Branding exercise helps you configure your value proposition as well as the product and service features into a workable and valuable keyword strategy. 

People don’t necessarily search for “Car Dealers in Florida.” They are more likely to search for things like “Low Cost Car Dealers in Florida” or better yet “inexpensive cars in Fort Meyers.”  The key then is to configure your keyword strategy to fit into a type of search that:

1. your reader is likely to search for and (more importantly)
2. accurately describes your product/service feature set.

Once you have a set of keywords and keyword phrases that accurately describes your products and services, you are ready to get started on beginning or updating your site based on these new brand-features.

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