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Slate.com seems to think so in this interesting article. They touch upon some of the old snake oil perspectives of SEO that need to stay in the past. Certainly there were/are people/firms that are not highly ethical, but SEO better or worse than a financial planner. Some really want to help, some just want your money.
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This week, 1-800-Contacts sued LensWorld for allegedly purchasing branded terms in order to show LensWorld PPC ads when users are searching 1-800-Contacts. (MediaPost reports.) The key here is one company buying the branded terms of another company.
This is not the first lawsuit of its type. The question is around if it is infringement of any sort. Currently, engines allow advertisers to buy competitive brand terms if the competitors name is not used in the actual ad copy. Complaints to engines over this are handled on a case-by-case basis.
The main problem I see with a competitor buying the branded terms of another competitor is that it drives up the cost for that brand name. Simply, you could end up paying a high pay-per-click rate for your own name if your competitor purchased your brand name as well. (Many people I know in the industry follow an unwritten rule not to buy competitor brand names, often for fear of retribution on their own
brand name.)
This is a problem that is very hard to solve, and sadly, will probably have to be sorted out in the court room. Is it Google or Yahoo’s job to protect intellectual property? I say no, but engines constantly find themselves in the middle of this issue.
Honestly, it’s not much different than two advertisers appearing on the same page of a magazine. It is up the professionals that create the ad to distinguish it among the competitors.
Besides, every company should rank highly in organic listings for their own branded terms. If a company can not stand out on a search results page for their own branded terms, they have much larger issues than a competitors bid price.
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Ross Dunn has a great write up in which he intelligently questions Google’s acquisition of SEO firm Performics as part of the DoubleClick deal.
The fact of the matter is a leading search engine like Google who claims to highly value its "don’t be evil" mantra will rapidly lose any remaining credibility if it continues to operate a SEO/SEM company.
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Search is the most powerful way to drive traffic to sites, outshining email, banners, and other forms of online advertising. Search is also effective at driving foot traffic to brick & mortar stores. Many people conduct research online—starting at a search engine—for a product they would rather buy, or end up buying, in-store. But there is more to connecting the two beyond just providing your street address to
online customers.
I developed a process that I call the Search-to-Store Experience. It is a process that enables a consumers that enters the buying funnel at a search engines to easily complete the process in a brick and mortar store. (The issue of tracking that process from start-to-finish via metrics to determine ROI is also important. Maybe I’ll discuss that side in later posts.)
The focus of the Search-to-Store Experience is to connect the two channels more seamlessly and in a way that feels natural to a searcher. It is most valuable to the consumer that begins by conducting a search then switches channels to complete the sale in store. The entire process has to feel like a natural progression to the consumer.
Here are some tips in creating your own Search-to-Store Experience.
Make Usual connections between channels.
Investing in a SEM campaign to help sell blue widgets? Then have a blue widget display near the front entrance of the store. When the person that started with an online search walks in, they make the instant "there it is" connection. They’ll put the blue widget right in their basket.
Contextualize messaging.
As the consumer moves along the search channel (from search, to PPC ad or organic listing, to a landing page) the messaging needs to mature with that progression. Don’t repeat the same thing at each step, but rather go a level deeper. Reinforce, but open the messaging to more detail or product features. The landing page not only needs to have a picture of the product but a full description, the stores that are near them, and
a printable coupon to redeem in store.
Uniform branding.
Brand messaging can easily change as it is applied in different marketing channels. Messaging in print ads need to match messaging on a web site. But importantly, messaging carried out in a search engine, either via PPC ad copy or meta descriptions in organic listings, needs to also match your brand messaging. The continuity of brand messaging is key is the different channels feeling unified to the consumer.
Connect other business areas.
If other areas of your business are connected, regardless of channel, a consumer will use the channel most convenient for them at the time. Using different doorways to your brand will feel natural. And if the
branding is uniform, the consumer won’t feel lost. Allowing online purchased to be returned in-store, loyalty programs and promotions to be redeemed in-store, online or over the phone. This makes any channel
switches your consumers make feel like a comfortable part of doing business with your brand.
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Over the weekend I went to one of my favorite stores – Woodcraft. I was working on a small woodworking project and was stuck. I ran into Woodcraft, ready to buy a new tool to help me finish my task. I started talking to the manager of the store, told him my minor issue and told him I thought I could fix it by buying another tool. Instead of agreeing with me and pointing me in the direction of the tool I was eager to have the excuse to buy, the manager told me how to fix my problem with tools I already have. I ended up walking out of the store not buying a thing—and feeling empowered that I could get on with my project.
From a business perspective, I found it interesting how quickly the store manager actually steered me away from a purchase I was ready to make. While he didn’t make the sale, right then, he earned
my trust by arming me with the information I needed. Trust that will undoubtedly pay off in many more sales down the road.
It’s important for retailers to realize that not all searchers want to buy something—or buy something now. Some searchers are looking for information, so for them, a positive search experience does not end in an immediate sale. Retailers can use search marketing to help build trust in the brand.
A brand can build this trust by creating pages on its site that provide valuable information, like showing consumers how to use their products, offer new ideas, troubleshoot, etc—and, of course, optimizing these pages so that they are accessible to searchers.
Just like I’m going to return to Woodcraft again and again, consumers who trust your brand will return. Using search to build trust eventually builds sales.
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During iCitizen, Resource President Kelly Mooney provided a glimpse into Open Branding –
an innovative concept about how brands can embrace and benefit from the user-generated content model the Web has become.
Beginning to open a brand does not always mean investing in a tactic that feels fringe. It can be a challenge to convince a brand to invest in a viral video where ROI can be hard to determine. Many brands are also still trying to figure out if and how YouTube and Flickr should be part of their marketing strategies. But search is now a proven marketing initiative with easily trackable ROI and it’s a very effective first step to opening a brand.
Search has grown into the first step of every Web experience, becoming the filter by which people manage their Web experiences. According to comScore, Almost 60% of Web users use a search engine every day. Consumers have become accustomed to finding and making brand introductions in search engines.
A recent Nielsen BuzzMetrics study demonstrated that more than 25 percent of search results on Google for the world’s 20 largest brands are links to consumer generated content. Search marketing and open branding go hand-in-hand.
At the end of September 2006, I launched an SEM campaign for MI Homes on the Google and Yahoo networks. The main purpose of this was to increase exposure to their brand in 13 different markets. With an industry average SEM click-through-rate of 1%, the MI Homes campaign experienced double that under the guidance of my search team.
Creating this accessibility benefited their brand, not just from increased conversions, but for the ever important mind share. A 2004 Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and Nielsen/NetRatings study found that there is an effective brand lift from SEM campaigns. Consumers responded, as was evident by the high click through rate.
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