Gorillas, Meerkats & Michael Jackson: Are You Creating Brand Buzz?

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A month or so ago Google rolled out a new update to their search engine algorithm in the UK called Vince, or better known as ‘the Google Brand Update’.

The jist of it is that SEOs feel that big brands are now being favoured more in organic search listings and that smaller brands are having a hard time. But blaming Google for handpicking brands to be boosted in the SERPs (search engine results pages) is false and taking the easy way out.

Generating Brand Buzz

Up until now SEOs have used link building techniques to increase the authority of websites in search engines. But the knock-on effect of Vince is that those who previously used the easy route of mass link building through spamming and paid links will find those techniques no longer produce results. This means that only good quality links are considered – those that are usually created by people naturally linking to the site because they want to.

One reason why SEOs may think that big brands are being favoured is that people naturally talk about them online and in doing so, link to them. Smaller brands on the other hand are less likely to have that buzz generated about them naturally, and therefore now struggle to gain inbound links and authority to compete with the bigger brands.

SEOs should therefore work to generate a buzz about the brand in other ways. This means that they must become better SEOs through considering the whole (on- and offline) marketing mix for their clients rather than concentrating purely on standalone SEO or quick wins.

1. Trending Topics

One way to generate a buzz would be to publish articles or blog posts that centre around a spiking topic in the news. In order to find out which topics are trending take a look at Google Insights for Search or Google Trends. Here’s an example of Google Insights for Search illustrating how searches relating to ‘Michael Jackson’ peaked a couple of weeks ago:

Targeting trending keywords has two benefits: content based upon the topic may see a boost in SERPs and also there are higher volumes of searches for those terms which would result in more traffic to your site.

2. Creating the Buzz Yourself

If publishing content around an existing buzz topic is not possible or relevant to the site in question, the buzz can be created around the brand itself (or product/offer). This is where a combination of offline channels such as TV advertising and online display advertising or YouTube videos can be used to create a viral marketing campaign that captures interest and sparks online searches.

The key is to be creative. The best way to generate a buzz is to engage your target audience and give them something that will entertain, inform or significantly help them in some way. In the UK, take the Cadbury’s gorilla (chocolate) or Compare the Meerkat (price comparison) as completely off-the-wall examples of creative viral campaigns. These have also done extremely well in universal search thanks to placing their TV ads on YouTube, and the buzz has even spread to social networks like Facebook where there are groups dedicated to the campaigns (The Cadbury’s Gorilla has over 120,000 fans and Compare the Meerkat has nearly half a million fans).

The Lesson

Forget SEO as a standalone product; that approach simply doesn’t cut it anymore. Integrate SEO with other marketing channels and watch your campaigns take off.

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