Search engine optimization is often thought of as having a singular purpose - driving traffic to a website - but in the modern communications landscape, SEO goes far beyond traffic building. Enquiro, a research firm commissioned by Google to study the brand effect of search, produced a report that shows just how influential search can be.
Also consider a Nielsen Net//Ratings study released in April 2009 on how trustworthy various forms of advertising or marketing were, in which “recommendations from people known” and “consumer opinions posted online” ranked as #1 and #2 respectively, with #4 being “editorial content posted online”. Ouch. It turns out that sometimes the best search results for a brand may not be that brand’s website at all.
And even if a brand website is ranking well, having lots of other touchpoints out there doesn’t hurt, and can help you defend the valuable first-page results against off-message content. Ensuring that your brand is well placed in the search ecosystem is mission-critical. The goal is for your brand to be easily discoverable, whether it be through your website, positive press, blog, or social media content.
Read more on this topic here.
* This post originally ran as a guest blogger entry on PR Week Insider week of Oct 5, 2009.