Posts tagged Branded
Mobile Users Want Branded Apps that Are Useful, Not Just Marketing
Nov 10th
Branded mobile apps – that is apps from companies like Starbucks, eBay or Nike – are now a standard fixture in mobile app stores, but a new survey that user interface design and app development agency EffectiveUI commissioned from Harris Interactive found that 38% of users today are not satisfied with these branded apps. That alone would be bad, but these users are also quite vocal about their experiences and 69% of respondents said that a bad experience with a branded mobile app resulted in a negative perception of the brand as a whole.
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Users Want Useful Apps – Not Marketing
EffectiveUI’s Advice for Brands:
- Focus on the customer need, as well as the business need.
- Design for the right device: uncover which devices your customers use most.
- Make sure your feature set fits the mobile experience: Too often, companies try to put the same features in their mobile device as their website.
The problem here is that brands often approach app development without even considering their customers’ needs. Most users, for example, are not interested in apps that are just marketing vehicles for a brand and will leave negative reviews when they encounter such an app. Given the nature of mobile app usage, customers expect to get some value out of the app that is related to the brand and its products.
As Anthony Franco, EffectiveUI’s co-founder and president, told us yesterday, a lot of companies still think of apps as “microsites” and don’t consider that mobile apps have to offer more than just great visuals and good copy. That doesn’t mean that users don’t want good design, too, though. The majority of respondents (57%) noted that apps should be well designed and 74% said that they want apps to be easy to use (leaving us to wonder if there are users out there who want apps that are badly designed and hard to use…). Even more importantly, though, 73% of those surveyed by Harris Interactive think that mobile apps should be easier to use than the brand’s website.
View full post on ReadWriteWeb
How To Grab More Rankings With Google’s Branded Search Results
Sep 9th
It’s been 10+ days since Google added ‘domain stacking’ or ‘brand stacking’ to their algorithm. In case you don’t know what brand stacking is: Go to Google. Do a search for ESPN basketball. I see six results from espn.go.com. Use a proxy to search for ‘Trek bikes’, and you’ll see six results from www.trekbikes.com.
Note: I [...]
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View full post on Search Engine Land: News About Search Engines & Search Marketing
Branded vs Keyword-Rich Domain Names
Jul 27th
Whenever I am working with a client that is looking to start a new business and website, I am almost always asked the question…should I purchase a domain name with keywords in it for SEO? Unfortunately there is not a clear cut answer to that question. Lets examine the different strategies behind purchasing a branded URL or keyword-rich URL.
Branded Domain
Personally, a brand is one of the most important aspects of a business or personal identity. Your brand is the foundation for everything you do. Your brand name and identity will be on your website, print material, business cards, letterhead, invoices, etc… This is ultimately what people will recognize and associate you with, so when you have the opportunity to purchase the URL that matches your brand name, I 99% of the time say to go with that. Of course there are exceptions to that, which I will explain below.
Some key reasons why you should choose a branded domain for your business URL:
- Its easy to remember
- Short and memorable
- Another way to put your brand in front of your customers
- Maintains brand consistency
- Looks cleaner and less spammy (compared to keyword-rich url)
- More professional
- Tend to attract more loyal visitors/readers
Typically if you are looking to create a long-term brand, it is a safe bet to choose a branded domain. Just take a look at the top 100 blogs on Technorati, almost all are branded domains. It is proven that by having short and clean URLs that match your business name that people are going to trust you more than someone with the domain real-estate-agent-tampa.com
On the flip side of things, lets see when having a keyword-rich domain can be helpful.
Keyword-Rich Domain
Now there are some situations when I would recommend using a keyword-rich domain name.
If you are trying to brand yourself as an industry expert. A good example would be something like “The Plumbing Expert” or “The Product Launch Coach ” where you are trying to position your personal brand as a memorial name or tag line. In that case it could be beneficial because you are branding yourself or company, while using the main keyword/phrase at the same time.
For marketers who are setting up targeted landing pages where they are trying to capture traffic from a specific keyword/phrase. I have used this method a number of times, where I purchase a keyword-rich domain, optimize it for a specific phrase, and then route the user to the main domain once they land on the landing page.
For affiliate marketers it does make a lot of sense. The search engines do place some emphasis on having keywords in the domain, so from an organic standpoint it can increase your rankings (especially if the domain matches the search query). If you are trying to promote a product and drive people to your affiliate site, you are not necessarily worried about building a brand, since you are marketing another businesses product(s).
I would love to hear what other marketers and business owners think about this topic. Do you agree with this post? Why or why not?
Check out the SEO Tools guide at Search Engine Journal.
Branded vs Keyword-Rich Domain Names
View full post on Search Engine Journal
Create a Branded Social-Sharing Bar with Apture
Jun 17th
Last week I had some great time speaking to Apture representative who encouraged me to go ahead and give their tool a try at SEOSmarty.com. Before I share my experience with you, go ahead and see the service in action at my site (scroll a bit and notice a well-branded bar above the screen allowing you to share the page):
The Apture bar allows the user to do the following:
- Share the page on Twitter and Facebook (these also work as count buttons instantly showing how many times the page has already been shared so far);
- Share the page via email;
- Search the web for anything you want without ever leaving the page:
- The search will open in a tiny pop-up;
- The search results will open in new tabs
Note: one of the latest service update was introducing “Multiple Site Search” – which allows you to let users searvh within your network of sites – cool!
I shared the tool with a few friends and all of them loved it: the bar really looked both engaging and clutter-free!
The script was pre-made for me, so to get the full understanding of the process I decided to go ahead and create the bar for my other site, Sexy Social Media.
Here’s what the process looks like:
1. Go to this page to create your Apture bar first. What you will need to provide at that page is the following:
- Your site URL;
- Your email address;
- The logo you want to use on the bar;
- The base color and the color effect (shaded bar or pure color):
The page will allow you to instantly preview your bar:
2. After hitting “Get My Bar” you instantly get the code to add before closing /body tag in your page code:
3. You should also activate your Apture account (by clicking a link in the email) to unlock some further features:
- Customize the bar entrance point
- Set your Twitter name to use in the generated Tweet;
- Setup your Amazon affiliate ID to make money from Apture
- Get Stats weekly about how your readers are using your Apture Search Bar.
The stats looks impressive by the way. Here’s what I received after a few days of running the bar:
4. Learn additional tutorial to make the most of the great service:
- How to make a logo compatible with the bar
- How to color match the bar to your site
- How to store the amazon affiliate code in Apture so you can make money from products purchased in the bar
- Video guide on searching
Check out the SEO Tools guide at Search Engine Journal.
Create a Branded Social-Sharing Bar with Apture
View full post on Search Engine Journal
