Marketing is about exposure and being in the client’s mind when the need arises. That is why marketing gurus talk about “Brand Awareness” which is the knowledge a consumer/prospect/client has of a brand’s existence. This is specially important for products or services that have a high cost and require a long sales process. Examples of these are Real Estate, Cars, Mortgage Brokers. This also helps with services or products that are not a regular need, that are only needed in particular situations. Examples of these are some Translation Services, Lawyers and other situational services.
What’s this got to do with Search Engines and on top?
I was talking with a potential client about internet marketing services for his company. His company provides one of the services mentioned above and definitively can benefit from “brand awareness”. He wanted to know how being online and having internet marketing get him clients. My explanation is simple:
By creating Brand Awareness and having a permanent presence where most consumers are spending their spare time, can definitively help bring those clients when the need for his services arise. Lawyers in particular know this. That is why they invest in newspapers, radio ads, television ads, charities, having their firm’s name on the building their offices are located in and yes, a presence online. Specially now, being available online creates brand awareness. People who don’t necessarily need you now, can come in contact with your brand and when they need you, if your branding is good, they will remember your brand and call.
The question is, can I be on top and would it benefit me? Yes.
To be on top of search engines, there’s a couple of basic principles. When SEOs (Search Engine Optimization guys) look at a website, this is what we do:
- Review of your site content or structure
- Verify the code and the actual text
- Technical aspects of website development. For example:
- Hosting, redirects, error pages, use of JavaScript, Flash animations, etc.
- Content development (content is king)
- Management of online business development campaigns
- Keyword research
- Quality of Incoming or inbound links
Additional to all those factors, it is even better if your SEO company is also an internet marketing agency that understands customer demographics and psychographics and focus on conversion (getting a visitor to take an action on your site).