Wake up big brands. You are NOT leveraging one of your greatest assets when it comes to making yourselves more visible on search engines! Having started my SEO career working with companies like Barnes & Noble, Mercedes Benz, WWF, De Beers, and the like, I often found myself going up head-to-head with web site managers and brand police that shot down every small tweak to help our client rank well. Brand managers need to understand something has changed a bit and a recent Iprospect study indicates what that “something” is:

36% of search engine users believe that the companies whose websites are returned at the top of the search results are the top brands in their field. This represents a modest increase over the 2002 figure of 33% but still reinforces the increasing importance search can have on brand lift.

Big brands like Nike, New Balance, BMW, Infiniti, Lexus, A Diamond is Forever, Tiffany, Lunesta, Ambien, and others typically miss out on positioning their brand at the top of search results because someone in charge of the brand doesn’t understand search and the unrealized potential or opportunity cost of not ranking well. They want to keep the integrity of their flashy site at the expense of ranking highly, which as we see above only helps them position themselves as leaders in their space.

The reason why I mention not leveraging their greatest assets at the onset of this post is quite simply because most of these brands have owned their domains FOREVER (on the web forever is usually about 10 years). Many of these big brands have tens of thousands of links pointing to their web sites, which would significantly push them into contention for top spots on search engines for terms like running shoes, luxury cars, luxury convertibles, diamonds, or engagement rings. If you spoke with the marketing managers or CEOs of these companies and illustrated how often these terms are typed in on search engines every month, then combined that with the understanding that ranking highly for unbranded terms helps build how their brands are perceived by customers, do you think that they would say who cares? I don’t think so.

Remember above we stated that 36% of search engine users associate high rankings with being a top brand.

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Thinking about starting a search engine optimization campaign but not sure if it’s worth it? Or perhaps you’re on a marketing team and you know that search engine marketing should be a part of your company’s strategy, but you need a way to demonstrate to your CEO that you’ll gain more in sales to offset the cost of the campaign. We have developed a search engine marketing ROI calculator to help.

All you need are seven data points:
• the lifetime value of one customer
• your search engine optimization campaign budget
• the length of your SEO campaign
• the aggregated monthly estimated search volume of all your keywords
• the click through rate you expect based on rankings you obtain
• the conversion rate of customers that click through to your site that you are able to convert to leads (or sales if you are an online retailer)
• the percentage of leads that you usually convert to sales (which is 100% if you are an online retailer)

Not sure about what some of these metrics might be for your company? Try doing some research online. We’re linked to the tools you’ll need. The release of the AOL user search data led to some great research on click through rate by rank position. Websites like www.shop.org and index.fireclick.com can help you determine what might be an average conversion rate.

Play with the tool. Start out conservative – can you return a favorable ROI? What happens if you get more aggressive with your campaign or your estimates? What would happen if you focused on increasing conversions by 25%? How would that impact your revenues? Have fun; let us know your thoughts and feedback!

Google has launched a new product called Google Checkout. It allows for consumers to make purchases in participating stores across the web with only one login and password: their google account.

Why consumers like it:
They have less chance of getting spam & unwanted newsletters. A consumer’s personal information is spread out less across internet shops, and in that they feel safer. It’s much easier to enter in information one time for numerous checkouts. Besides, Google is name brand they trust.

Why you as a store owner should participate:
If you’re enrolled in Adwords and you spend $1, Google will credit you $10 in transaction fees. It’s a no-brainer. Who wouldn’t want to invest money that would otherwise be spent in transaction fees to Visa, AMEX, etc. especially when considering it’s multiplier?

We don’t need many more reasons to participate because consumers like it! This means more sales for you. The only factors in need of consideration are cost and feasibility.

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