Articles

What to do before you invest in SEO

Posted by Jim

To me, there seems to be a mindset that all you need to do to get a top ranking on the search engines is throw some money at an SEO (Search Engine Optimization) service.  They’ll install some software and put some code on your site and things will be great. Probably not true, but that’s my impression.

There are many professional SEO services who can provide an excellent return on your investment – but before proceeding with an SEO campaign, I would recommend having the following solidly in place.

1) Create a beautiful and compelling web site

What’s the use of a #1 ranking generating tons of traffic if everyone bails after one second on your site? Actually, you can’t get a #1 ranking without a compelling site as visitor time on site is a key factor in determining rankings.

2) Content, Content, Content

Relevant content that’s useful to your audience will keep them coming back to your site for more. The primary benefit of this is that it keeps your audience engaged with your company. As it turns outs, search engines like fresh content and audience engagement. If you don’t have time to devote to this, or hate writing, I would hire someone to generate this content for you BEFORE you invest in SEO services.

3) Be organized

Make sure your site is clearly organized so visitors can easily find their way to what interests them most. Again, this feeds audience engagement, but guess what? If you organize your site this way, you will also create logical points of entry and distinct topical sections and pages that make it easy to build an effective SEO campaign.

See the pattern? Put first things first.

In all of the above examples, serving your audience first also sets you up for success on the search engines. If you don’t have these in place, a reliable SEO is going to have you invest in these as a part of their service anyway – if they don’t you’re wasting your money.

 

Brand and Brand Identity – working definitions

Posted by Jim

Ever been in a conversation whare you though you were discussing the same thing, only to realize that you’re actually thinking about different things? I often get that sense when I’m discussing brand and brand identity with clients. For myself, I have very simple definitions for both that help me to think clearly about what I’m doing.

Brand = Reputation

Your brand is your reputation in the hearts and minds of your audience: customers, employees – everyone who interacts with your business. When we look at brand this way, we realize that everything we do impacts our brand. Defining your desired reputation and aligning your business activities toward building that reputation is often called branding or brand building.

Brand Identity = Visual Representation

Human beings are visual creatures – of the 5 senses we rely primarily on our sight for perceiving the world, forming opinions and making decisions. Brand identity is such an important aspect building brands, that it is often confused with the brand itself.

Brand Identity is the visual representation of a company’s desired reputation. Translating what your company provides, represents, and values in a way that is quickly and accurately perceived by your target audience is what effective brand identity is all about.

Simple, huh?

These are my working definitions that help me to quickly get to the essence of the work I do. Brand specialists have thoroughly analyzed the dynamics of branding and if you need a more thorough explanation, just google ‘brand’ and read on.