A fly on the wall. It’s one of the evocative images I use to explain how digital technology has affected the way brands get built. Digital technology allows marketers to listen in on the millions of conversations that take place online everyday relative to what people think and feel about brands. More than this, it allows them to watch how consumers actually behave, specifically when it comes to their buying habits. Today marketers can observe in real time what people are searching for, their buying process, the way they compare and contrast products and services, and the sites they favor and return to again and again for input and advice. The ability to not just digitally listen, but digitally watch consumers in action, has significantly sharpened the quality of the insights that brand organizations use in generating business and branding strategies. Search functionality is, without a doubt, one of the digital dynamics that has been responsible for the seismic shift in the way companies build and manage brands. It has greatly magnified the important role that customer insight plays in brand management.
Among the first people I spoke to in preparation for writing BrandDigital was Jason Dowdell, a pioneer in search engine optimization and its increasingly significant impact on marketing strategy. Founder of Marketing Shift, Jason has been researching and implementing search marketing campaigns and building Web-based applications geared toward search engine optimization since 1997. Given the warp speed with which changes take place in this field, it seemed appropriate that I begin my interview with Jason by asking him what has changed in search engine optimization over the last few years.
JD: Everything is getting smaller. Simple demographics are almost irrelevant to branding strategy. It’s not enough to know about a consumer’s geographic area, income or even gender. With search tools, marketers today have the ability to gain a one-to-one understanding of a consumer’s unique desires.
AA: Is this the result of the fact that the way people search for a product or service is becoming more and more sophisticated?
JD: That along with the finely tuned search engine applications chocked full of human-centric algorithms. A search engine can more deftly pick up someone’s search patterns. Search engines now possess the ability to target users uniquely like never before (e.g. Google’s user search history). They’re creating micro-economies, tightly defined markets, to which brands must respond. Search results are becoming more and more specific and this gives a marketer a huge opportunity to talk to people about exactly what they’re looking for, if the marketer’s content is properly optimized.
AA: I’m aware that among the primary activities of a search engine, be it Google or Yahoo or Ask.com is that it “spiders” the Internet looking for words or phrases related to a search request. The job of the brand organization or marketer is to make sure these words or phrases are picked up and understood by the search engine the way the organization wants them to be understood. What general advice would you give a marketer as search tools become more highly developed?
JD: I’d say start with the ABC’s of SEO – SEO being search engine optimization. It’s critical to pay heed to your ABC’s at the beginning of a project, not as a rescue mission or as an afterthought.
“A” stands for architecture. This means exactly what it sounds like – the way a site is put together. The url structure, the coding language used, site speed, the web and application server used (the list goes on). The site architecture is the single biggest barrier to getting the search engines to find the content that you ultimately want your users to find. Poor site architecture often times results in a site that is poorly indexed and ranked in Google.
The “B” stands for backlinks. These are links to your site from other sites. The goal of every backlink optimization campaign is to attract relevant links from related web sites. Relevant backlinks are links a user finds valuable and additive from sites other than yours to your site. A good example of a solid backlink is when a high profile blogger links to your web site from a blog post about the industry in which you operate. The link from their blog adds value to their user and might likely result in that visitor converting into a customer for you.
The “C” stands for content. Obviously, you want your site to include useful news, stories, and information that will separate your site from a competitor’s and prompt people to think of it as a credible source. Good content isn’t content that is stuffed full of all the same keywords as your competitors, far from it. Good content is rich and engages your audience and contains unique words and is a great place to emphasize your brand rather than promote generic keywords like most over-optimized sites.
AA: It sounds so obvious but, like most other people, I’ve gotten search results that demonstrated how little the site owner knew about connecting my input with the answers provided.
JD: And that’s what makes SEO so critical to branding success. As you begin to think about SEO you have to ask yourself, “If I were a search engine, what would I be looking for in response to a user’s query? If you think this way your ABC’s will generate fresh, relevant content that conveys your brand’s promise in the way you want it to be received. Your objective is to leverage your industry knowhow in the best way possible, and the best way possible is in your site’s content. Use your content to promote your key competitive advantages and turn what is normally boring sales speak into an interesting industry insight that builds your brand’s reputation, one page at a time.
AA: SEO is the driving force behind finding the right answers on the Internet. It seems it’s leveled the playing field.
JD: Absolutely. The digital marketplace has made the playing field flatter than Florida. SEO is such an amazing business-building opportunity you’ll find Fortune 500 companies listed next to the smallest guy on the block on the same search results page. The one with the best content and the most compelling value proposition will win the viewer’s interest. It’s not about money, it’s about how you optimize your web site so your audience will find you in their time of need.
» Vivek Shah - Group President, Digital, Time Inc. News Group (Jan. 27, 2009)
» David Kirkpatrick - Senior Editor, Internet and Technology at Fortune Magazine (Jan. 21, 2009)
» Bob Pearson - Vice President of communities and conversations for Dell (#2) (Nov. 18, 2008)
» Tim Mapes - Senior Vice President of Marketing at Delta Air Lines (Nov. 4, 2008)
» Barbara Basney - Director of global advertising for Xerox (Oct. 30, 2008)
» Bob Pearson - Vice President of communities and conversations for Dell (#1) (Oct. 13, 2008)
» Robert Greenberg - Vice President of Corporate Brand Marketing for Panasonic (Sept. 26, 2008)
» Ed Faruolo - Vice President of Brand Development and Advertising at Lincoln Financial Group (Aug. 14, 2008)
» Roy Bostock - Chairman of the Board of Yahoo, Inc. (Aug. 13, 2008)
» Gary Briggs - former SVP, Chief Marketing Officer, eBay North America (July 17, 2008)