Search Engine Marketing and Branding
Branding as part of search engine marketing came to light in 2001. The NPD Group studied the effectiveness of the three types of ads that appeared on search engines, namely, SERP (Search Engine Results Page) listings, banner ads, and tile ads. The findings pointed to SERP listings as the most popularly clicked and read ads, Banner and tile ads were not as popular. Thus, SERP listings led to greater brand awareness in comparison to the other two.
Another study was conducted in 2004, where Interactive Advertising Bureau and Nielsen/Net Ratings explored the branding attributes such as - unaided brand awareness, aided ad awareness, and brand image associations - based on SERP exposure and related ad placement. It was found that SERP branding was far superior to related ad branding and was more effective when the brand held the top spot in SERPs.
Branding today is the keyword that defines the customers’ relationship with a company. The experiences that the customers have and the manner in which they perceive the company is a part of the brand. If the brand stands out, customers will remain loyal and contribute to profitability. According to SEMPO (Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization), a majority of companies aim at increased brand awareness and conduct most of their activity around this perception.
Search engine optimization and search engine marketing was thus far limited to driving traffic to websites for generating leads and online and offline conversions. It has now dawned on the SEM experts that their efforts have led to branding of websites and their products. Though the finding has been accidental, its importance can no more be ignored. Internet branding is gradually merging with corporate branding in the sense that it is helping in no small way the overall branding of the company.
The indexing process of your website includes its title, description, and content based on which a link is created in the SERP. The brief description serves as an ad to the viewer. A meaningful description works as a strong attention-grabber that makes the viewer click on the link to land on your web page. To strengthen your brand, it is imperative to provide informative content that leads to conversion. So, your branding strategy should include a strong and compelling message on the SERP, and content and information on the landing page that will lead to conversion.