Maybe you've heard it...maybe you've said it... "Oh, our brand is big enough, we don't need to worry about search engine optimization." Yeah...you're wrong. Matt Bailey thinks you're wrong too. Today, he takes a look at the need to balance brand building with realistic search optimization and helps remind people why it doesn't matter if they are the top company in their industry, they STILL cannot afford to make organic search play second fiddle to brand.

Matt says:

You have to be pretty arrogant to think that branding is the primary goal of a website, and that searchers will respond to that. Unless you are a major household name, people rarely search for you unless they already know you or have information about you. Even then, no business has cornered the search market on actual concepts. Just because people know your business name does not mean that they are searching for you.

He's absolutely, 100% right.

I'm often struck by the attitude of businesses that STILL claim that they are big enough and well known enough that they don't have to worry about organic search optimization. I've run into it at agencies quite a few times, usually from Fortune 500 companies, but occasionally from well-known (i.e. expensively marketed) local businesses.

I ask these companies...who is the market leader when it comes to cola? Who is the market leader when it comes to fast food?

The obvious answers? Coke and McDonalds.

Next I point out that Coke and McDonalds are clearly the most well known companies in their industries, so surely they don't need to spend money on advertising any more, right?

I get blank looks.

You see, Coke and McDonalds have maintained their position as the number one companies in their verticals BECAUSE they continue to work on getting their name and products in front of potential customers. They didn't one day decide that they were "the winner" and could stop working on their marketing. If they did, Pepsi and Wendy's would demolish them.

It's the same in the organic search world. Sure, you're Sony and you are the most popular maker of digital cameras in the world. More than 23,000 people type "Sony digital camera" into search engines each day looking to learn more about your product.

But guess what? More than 10 times that many people type "digital camera" into search engines looking to learn more about you and your competitors.

Let's say that you've decided that you are important enough that you can ignore those generic terms. Let's say Canon and Kodak aren't quite so confident and DO spend time focusing on those terms.

Who do you think is going to make more sales in the long run?

I can remember my brother, somewhere around the age of 11 or 12 noticing that he was now taller than my mother.

"Hey! I'm bigger than you!" he said.

"You're NEVER bigger than your mother," she replied.

Mom always was smart that way. I imagine if I dragged her to a marketing meeting, she'd give that same stern look to those branding executives and would say "Your brand is NEVER bigger than your product!"