Comments on: Branding Won’t Replace SEO It Will Enhance It

By: Miracle studios -- web design company

Miracle studios -- web design company — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 09:09:46 +0000

Yes you are right Roger……

By: Search Engine Optimization Journal

Search Engine Optimization Journal — Mon, 12 May 2008 19:24:26 +0000

SEO is the foundation of all web marketing efforts, but must be part of an overall website marketing strategy of other sources of visitors. Bottom line is that this article is truly right on the money! Search Engine Optimization Journal's last blog post..Search Engine Optimization And The 80/20 Rule - Um, Rules

By: Eva White

Eva White — Mon, 12 May 2008 03:44:26 +0000

I agree. SEO and the Brand both contribute to the success of the business. Eva White's last blog post..Rising Hemlines.. Rising Stocks

By: Web Developer

Web Developer — Sun, 11 May 2008 17:41:01 +0000

SEO brings business, Branding helps convert the visitor. Both work together to build a better business.

By: SEO Firm Owner

SEO Firm Owner — Sun, 11 May 2008 03:00:47 +0000

The main thing I know is that SEO is low-cost ---> high cost and you can still be successful. Branding is high-cost only, if you don't do top notch branding your investment is basically worthless. SEO Firm Owner's last blog post..Welcome to our SEO services website

By: Jayson

Jayson — Sat, 10 May 2008 17:47:55 +0000

Nice point – there is no opportunity to brand without an audience and if a new company doesn’t have the money for a large ad campaign, public relations campaign or some other channel (like an already busy website) then they really don’t have an opportunity to brand anything w/o organic search engine placement. By the way, organic search engine placement is an incredible way to brand a company – IMO.

Not sure we’re talking about the chicken and egg problem as it’s common sense that without an audience, the only person you’re reaching is your company, friends and family (for as long as they’ll listen). It’s that simple – you just can’t build an online brand without an audience. SEO is, and always will be, a great way to reach more people.

In this branding before traffic hypothesis, there is no customer and therefore no branding opportunity.

By: Greg Howlett

Greg Howlett — Sat, 10 May 2008 16:53:24 +0000

We may be debating the classic “which comes first–chicken or egg?” problem.

I maintain that in a competitive industry, if you lead with typical SEO, you are almost certainly going to fail. If for example, someone thinks they can come into my industry with a new line of supplements and drive much SEO traffic from the start, they are delusional (or they are listening to some delusional SEO “expert”).

Now I understand that if you are going to take a branding approach, the first sales still have to come from somewhere. I have not really addressed that issue except to say that they are not going to come from SEO in 2008. If this was 2004, yes, but not 2008.

Perhaps, I can address in another article the idea of how to prime the pump for the initial business without depending on SEO.

By: Dave Snyder

Dave Snyder — Sat, 10 May 2008 16:06:03 +0000

Love the back and forth on the blog. I tend to agree with Roderick. I see the importance of branding, but the beauty of the web has been, and will continue to be the ability of non-branded sites to rise from the dust. Whether this happens through social media or SEO is probably the real argument, but in my opinion there will always need to be SEO as long there is search, we have adapted as SEO pros as the technology has adapted, this will continue to be true. Dave Snyder's last blog post..The Triangle is a Hot Bed for Social Media