Names, Trademarks & SEO
At Senokian we work with clients from the initial specification, build and testing of their website through to ongoing maintenance and promotion.
Brand and promotion is as key to many projects as the system itself - for example Senokian are at the top on Google for Data Centre Audits and the Data Centre Work we undertake with clients in this area. Several of our clients work very hard on this too - Adrian at Mercian Labels (The Premier Supplier Of Short Run Custom Printed Self Adhesive Labels For UK Businesses) is an expert at Search Engine promotion and services and does a fantastic job on their site.
However branding can go above and beyond these things - Senokian have recently had our trademark submission for Senokian & Senokian Internet accepted in the areas we operate to try to stop people cashing in on what we do. The design agency that worked on our new brand have issues with their name (and consequently their brand) - Hum Interactive have a problem that a company in NZ have started up called Hum Interactive using the same name and in the same space, now if you google for Hum Interactive you can see that both companies appear - this has caused confusion for some existing clients and heaven knows what it does for new ones. The fact that Hum Interactive (the original) at about the sametime nuked their website and replaced it with a holding image haven’t helped matters.
Now I am not a trademark lawyer and cannot help with those sort of issues, however I can offer some simple advice on helping to maintain a healthy website:
- Work on your content
- Work on your search engineering
- Use text, not images for content
- Speak to Senokian to see how we can help!
Adrian Steele said the following at February 4th, 2008 at 7:58 pm :
Thanks for the mention Jake. I cannt really describe myself as an expert, but as we are so dependent on SEO for our business model, we try to keep on top of our game in this respect.
I agree wholeheatedly with your post, branding really can make or break your business. If you give the wrong impression, or fail to protect your IP you will suffer loss of business, it really is that simple.
We are currently going through our own “identity crisis” as Mercian Labels evolves and grows, and our online identity and brand is crucial to us.
Online marketing is only one part of the marketing mix, and depending on your marketing strategy it varies wildly in importance. For us its crucial in some segments, for others its not at all important.
If you are not expert, or at least competent, in this respect, then get help. Ask business link, a marketing agency or a knowledgable IT company (like Senokian!) to get your website brand right is my advice. I’ve got it right with 1 website in a big way, and are in the process of fixing a broken brand with another. With the benefit of hindsight, I wish I’d have got it right first time around and paid for some good advice!