Brands 'should plan for SEO early'

14th August 2008

Brands should consider optimising their websites for search engines at an early stage to capitalise on an emerging search trend in the UK, it has been advised.

Britons are overwhelmingly searching for brand names rather than generic keywords, according to research carried out by Experian and Hitwise, UTalkMarketing reports.

The study showed that Facebook was the most popular search term in May, with the rest of the top ten dominated by brand names such as Argos, Amazon, Bebo and eBay.

To this end, marketers would be well advised to look at search engine optimisation sooner rather than later, study co-author Lynn Brunner said.

She explained: "[The report] reveals just how important the internet has become as the 'unifier' of the direct and brand marketing disciplines and that brands need to include search engine optimisation much earlier in the planning process than many do currently."

Robin Goad of Hitwise also noted on his blog that just three of the top ten brands searched for in May obtain a large proportion of their click-throughs from paid search.