| Proof in the picture:
Positive brands win
As regular Sparks readers know, your brand is an emotional
connection with your customer.
What happens when you neglect your brand relationship? Your target
market remains closed to your message. Research conducted by University
of Louisville scientist Dr Harry Whitaker shows that, when presented
with a logo for a company the consumer had a negative impression
of, the consumer's emotions overrode the brain's logic processing
centers. In other words, the consumer "tuned out" the
brand message because they had a negative emotion associated with
the brand.
The opposite is also true. Consumers with positive brand associations
exhibit greater activity in the information-processing centers of
the brain. This means they are open to messages from the company
because of that positive emotion.
See the
research here (click on Beyond "What Happened"
to "Why").
Strengthen your brand by creating a more positive experience for
your customers. The better they feel about you, the closer they'll
be listening!
Top 3 myths of search engine rankings
Concerned about how your website ranks in search engines (SEs)?
Unfortunately, many marketers (and even web developers) have mistaken
views of what will help sites rank higher. Here are the top three:
• "Use keywords in meta tags."
Meta tags are HTML code that is invisible to viewers but readable
by SEs. In the early days of the Web, SEs used meta tags to help
them index a site. Thanks to unscrupulous coders who used misleading
keywords to manipulate SEs, most engines don't even read meta tags
any more.
• "List your site on as many search engines
as possible." This old chestnut has never had an impact
on rankings. Over 90% of SE traffic is controlled by the top 3 engines:
Google, MSN.com, and Yahoo. Getting included in a search engine
that only three people use isn't going to help your site's ranking.
Focus on the top SEs and any directories related to your business
for best results.
• "'Stuff' keywords on the home page."
This tactic has long been frowned on by SEs. Keyword stuffing happens
when a coder "stuffs" the same words in every conceivable
nook and cranny on a page. Some developers even create blocks of
keywords colored the same as the background so they're invisible
to the eye but still readable by SEs. If your site uses this method,
it can be permanently banned from the major SEs.
The best way to improve your rankings is to provide valuable content.
See our Sparks archive for more on the
topic!
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