Many of Britain's businesses are hopelessy unaware of what is being said about their company products and services online. Yet the dangers of remaining in the dark are all so clear.
In the Web 2.0 era, negative digital publicity on social networking sites, news forums, user groups and blogs can have a greater ability to disseminate across a wider audience and sink a company’s reputation.
The results can be particularly damaging when you take search into the equation. Just look in Google for ‘Land Rover’ and see what’s at position two, as a result of some bad coverage by a particularly dissatisfied blogger.
The same applies to a search in Google for ‘Ribena’. An article regarding the lack of vitamin C content in the juice drink has affected Ribena’s search positions and therefore Ribena’s online brand reputation.
Although the threat is real for large blue chip companies, online brand management is just as critical for small businesses and start-ups. With 74% of online customers researching products and services online before buying, 77% of people using the top 5 natural results and 71% of people saying search engines are their most trusted source of information; any business cannot afford to ignore the search dynamic. (Source: Henley Centre / AOL).
You need to ensure you are found in the search engines for your company name, brand name(s) and the keywords that relate to your products and services. Search engine optimisation is not rocket science. Here are a few tips for implementing an SEO strategy:
DO:
§ Make sites spiderable. Watch out for over use of Java / Flash which are impenetrable to search.
§ Optimise content for key words. Between 4 – 6% word density. No more
§ SEO during site design and build. Don’t leave it until site launch.
§ Make content lively and regularly updated.
§ Implement tools like RSS
DON’T:
§ Shy away from digital PR. Analogue PR is only half of a PRs job.
§ Spam / bomb or farm links. Search engines can spot it a mile off.
§ View SEO in isolation to other marketing / PR activities. All must sing off the same hymn sheet.
§ Relegate SEO to your IT team. SEO takes in the whole organisation from marketing to customer services
§ Go it alone. You need advice from the experts.
Lucy Allen is managing director of Netrank Ltd providers of ethical search engine optimisation services and online brand reputation services. To access Netrank’s most recent white paper – The Future of Search please visit: www.netrank.co.uk/whitepaper
