It all depends on what you’re searching for, right? If you already know the name of the business, it makes sense to flick to the appropriate ‘white’ page. But if you only know the name of the service ‘yellow’ is the way to go.

This same rule is applied to Google everyday by millions of users across the world, often without a second thought. One might search for ‘4 wheel drive cars’ or ‘Subaru Legacy’. ‘Backcountry packs’ or ‘DaKine’. Maybe even… ‘Web Design’ or ‘Tactic Group’.

So which approach is typically you? Yellow or white?

Today I came across this post by Seth Godin entitled ‘How to make money with SEO’ – sent to me by my esteemed colleague Doug (thanks for that mate and sorry to steal your thunder). The title did nothing for me so my initial impression was not one of shock and awe, but the first couple of paragraphs certainly got my interest:

There are two ways to use SEO to help your organization. One is reliable and effective, the other is a glorious crap shoot that usually fails but is wonderful when it works. I’ll start with the second.

The most common way to use search engine optimization is to find a keyword (like “plumbing”) and do whatever you can to ‘own’ that word on Google. This is Google as the Yellow Pages (with free ads).

The Yellow Pages are terrific for plumbers, because if you need a plumber, that’s where you’re going to look. Buy the biggest ad, be the first listing, you get calls. Google is a revelation because it’s a super Yellow Pages and it’s free! The problem: how to be the first listing, because being the 40th listing is fairly worthless.

Well the obvious answer to that is paying for a sponsored listing. But for this scenario let’s ignore that. So what’s the alternative so the Yellow Pages?

The other way to use SEO is a bit more organic. (Let’s call it the White Pages approach). It involves owning a keyword that you already own. Do a search on ShoeMoney in Google and you’ll find 340,000 matches. Wanna guess who’s first? ShoeMoney. Why is this surprising? After all, he invented the word and he owns the domain.

Someone hears about Jeremy’s site from a friend or from a blog or from some other source. They want to visit his site and they type it into Google. He told me that he gets five times as much traffic from this search term as any other on Google.

The power of this technique is that with determination and patience, you will certainly win. It requires inventing a trademark and then building a business or service or organization around this trademark that people actually talk about. You want to be able to say to someone, “just type ____ into Google.”

This is the simplest description of the two main SEO strategies I’ve ever come across – hence the post here on Tactical Thinking. But let’s draw some parallels in our own industry…

Type ‘Snowboards’ into Google and you’ll get 5,450,000 results. Quite a lot really. Now type in ‘Lib Tech’. You’ll see Lib Technologies comes up first, but where were they in the ‘Snowboards’ search? Half way down page 6!

Years of persistence and brand building (plus the help of a particular superstar snowboarder) has put the Lib Tech name near the top of recognised brands in the snowboard marketplace. But I ask you this: What would have happened to them if they had just jammed a web site full with key words like ’snowboards’ and hope they might reach the top?

Of course, this is somewhat of a moot point as Lib Tech were around before web sites and have been building their brand for years. But you can see the parallels and hopefully this helps you understand the importance of building a brand over time rather than just getting heavy with SEO and Google Adwords.

Take the time to read the rest of Seth’s post. He finishes it off with a nice and simple step-by-step guide for following his ‘White Pages’ approach.

In this short film from TED, Polish designer/art-director, Jacek Utko, presents a case-study on how good design boosted the the flagging circulation of several eastern European newspapers. His story goes beyond graphic design.

While Jacek is talking about design in a very visual medium, I love his sentiments on going beyond visual design, changing the look of the newspapers and transforming the experience. The business and financial gains he shows are astounding!

Via 37Signals.

I’ve just started reading the copywriting guide ‘Words That Work’ by the political consultant and speechwriter, Dr. Frank Luntz. As you’d expect from a book on this topic, the main theme is masterfully condensed into the strapline “It’s not what you say, it’s what people hear”.

I was barely three pages in when I read a passage that really caught my attention:

“The key to successful communication is to take the imaginative leap of stuffing yourself right into your listener’s shoes to know what they are thinking and feeling in the deepest recesses of their mind and heart. How that person perceives you is even more real, at least in a practical sense, than how you perceive yourself.”

Even though the words above are about speechwriting the advice is just as valid for crafting web content. Further than that, it applies well to other aspects of what we do as web designers and publishers.

Know your users and give them what they want

As the man says, there’s no substitute for knowing and understanding your audience. Research them, their needs and their habits. And when you’re done, research some more. This will help you ‘stuff yourself right into their shoes’.

If your offerings are relevant, your web content is clear and says what customers want to hear, you’ve a good chance that they’ll find you. Once they get there, if your site is intuitive and creates a satisfying experience – you’ll keep customers happy and keep them coming back.

In the age of the Experience Economy user research is vital to making that happen.

Your brand is what your customers think of you

In the last sentence quoted above Luntz claims the way others perceive you is more real than how you perceive yourself. The explosion of social media, online product reviews and digital word of mouth have made this ring true in the world of branding.

Companies are realising that they can’t fully control their brands online – but they can participate in the conversations that shape them.

I hope this riff on user-experience and branding has given you a few ideas, but I wouldn’t like to throw up this call-to-arms without suggesting how to act on it. Well, where to start?

Social media to the rescue

Your customers are out there on Twitter, Facebook, Friendfeed etc. and they are talking to each other. Whether or not they are talking about you, they are certainly talking about offerings just like yours.

The opportunity is there to spectate, to learn about your customers and what they think is important. If you’re not already then start monitoring social media discussions for:

• What they are saying about you
• What they are saying about your competitors
• What they are saying about the products and services they buy

There is also great potential to participate in these discussions – talking with your customers rather than talking at them:

• Getting meaningful customer feedback
• Discovering new product ideas or developments
• Managing your reputation and encouraging customers to engage with your brand

That’s barely brushing the surface, but hopefully enough to whet your appetite. We’ll be covering these topics in more detail in the coming months. So look out for more on social media here in the future.

Yesterday, I spotted this post from Darren Rowse (producing the goods again and again) reviewing a new reputation management tool called Trackur. Here’s a snippet of what Darren has to say about it:

“Trackur is an online reputation monitoring tool that has been developed for companies and individuals wanting to take a serious look at what is being said about them in the blogosphere. I can also see the possibilities for using this tool for higher end bloggers who want to track what’s being written about them and/or their niche topic.”

Whilst this may well be too heavy for many of our readers, I think you may find it interesting that such tools even exist. A much lighter alternative is Google Alerts – worth a look if you’re concerned with what’s being said about you across the all-mighty vortex of the World Wide Web.

I addressed the concern by discussing constructive feedback and by pointing out that complaints or negative comments made by customers are not always a bad thing. On the plus side, they provide the business with an opportunity to respond publicly and they often bring up concerns that the management may not have been previously aware of. David Alston, a guest on Lee Odden’s Top Rank Online Marketing blog summed up the social media complaint responding benefits (wow, that’s a mouthful) very nicely in his last post Top 10 Reasons for Monitoring Brands in Social Media.

“A complaint is an opportunity to demonstrate problem-solving abilities. A posted complaint may also draw out other comments from people with the same concern, which provides an opportunity to reach out to them as well. And who knows, impressing customers with great customer service may generate some positive posts about how you resolved the problems.”

David goes on to describe the intricacies of brand monitoring with sections on Competitors, Influencers and Auditing, among others. Whilst this is all relevant for larger corporations, our readers here at Tactical Thinking may find this a little excessive – but interesting none-the-less.

Actively acknowledging mistakes

What I’d like to draw your attention to in this post is how many ultra-savvy web professionals utilise social media to actively point out their problems to their audience. Unusual? Maybe. But silly – definitely not!

Darren Rowse from Pro Blogger recently wrote a post titled Apologies to Newsletter Subscribers [and What to Do When You Stuff Up On Your Blog]. To any logical mind, pointing out that you’ve made a big mistake seems almost ludicrous. But that’s the beauty of social media.

In the past, actively acknowledging your mistake and responding publicly was reserved for major catastrophes only. These days, through the use of blogs and other web 2.0 platforms, one can turn the smallest of problems into a subtle marketing tool. As Darren demonstrates with the three steps in his post (acknowledge the mistake, respond personally, then look for positives), it’s quite simple to do.

Ultimately, we’re all human and humans make mistakes. Recognising and admitting these mistakes is the hard part. Solving them should be much easier. By doing this on a social media platform you’re giving your business a more humanistic approach. It’s just as easy as saying: “Hey, sorry about that. Here’s why it happened and how it’ll be avoided in the future.”