Don't Let What Happened to Fonzworth Bentley Happen to your Brand - Part 2 - By: Kathryn Dawson

In part one of this article I went through the top four Google search results for celebrity/hip-hop artist 'Fonzworth Bently' without learning too much about the man other than the fact he needs to hire a professional to handle his online brand. I've skipped the image results (many pictures of the dapper Fonzworth caught on a variety of red carpets) and YouTube video results as there isn't much FB could do to influence those, at least not directly and immediately. Instead I'm focussing on the top Google search web page results. So far the hunt for Fonzworth Bentley's brand identity has been futile but now we come to...

RESULT #5 - Bentley

No, no - this isn't a site for luxury cars, though the uninformative title and non-existent meta-description do little to disguise that fact. No my friends, it appears that more than halfway down the Google results page ('below the fold', in newspaper parlance) we have stumbled across the official Fonzworth Bentley home page.

Now you may ask how I know this. Well, I relied on my years of web design and criticism experience to deduce this, for you see, despite the more complex and obviously professional design nowhere on the page does it say 'This is the Official Website of The Hip-Hop Artist, TV Host, Style Guru (what have you) Fonzworth Bentley,' or anything to that effect. Perhaps this is intentional, a kind of 'in the know' secrecy like you find with and after-hours club or an exclusive boutique only open to Amex Black Card holders, but I judging from the complete lack of online marketing savvy I've seen so far I'm more inclined to think of it as a plain old screw-up.

What is intentionally members-only is, ironically, the rest of the site. No doubt it's simple to 'sign up' as prompted but denying absolutely everything (including an explanation of what the hell the site is about) to only those willing to join is the kind of bonehead marketing not seen since the days before the Blair Witch Project. There are eight sub-directories off the home page (and under Blogs there are an additional eight subjects which you can, assumedly, read FB waxing philosophical about anything from fashion to living a greener lifestyle) and every single page prompts you to 'Sign In' or 'Sign Up'. You can't access the 'follow me on Facebook' link without logging in. I was going to send FB an email decrying this absurd, and completely defeatist marketing farce but you can't even access the contact page without first becoming a member.

LESSONS - Where to start?

Sure, it's not easy to get to the top of Google's results, if you're selling real estate in Miami or you're a wedding planner in London, but if your brand is Fonzworth Bentley? It's not like there are lots of Fonzworths out there competing with you. Step one - get a domain name that reinforces your brand. Somebody grabbed up fonzworthbentley.com? How about fonzworth-bentley.com? Certainly better for your Google searches than say some long, easily misspelled domain name that doesn't reflect on your brand at all, like say, I don't know, cooloutrageous.com?

A proper title and meta-description tag makes up for a multitude of sins. If I have to explain how and why you are in over your head already.

You want an exclusive, private site for members only? Great. The thing is, it shouldn't show up on a Google search at all then should it? It's akin to a big neon sign that says "Secret Hideout".

No, if your goal is to have a website for marketing your brand, then it should be a marketing site. The cheapest form of seo is to have a site with as much information as possible about your brand that can be seen by everyone, not just members. The Google search spiders do not sign up for fan clubs.

While it is important to be as loquacious as possible, and update your pages frequently I'm pretty sure not even Leonardo da Vinci, were he alive today, would require separate blogs for each of his interests. (Separate blogs for both science and technology, FB really?) By spreading yourself too thin, you risk appearing to Google as either flighty or spammy, neither of which does wonders for your page rank.

Oh, and if you ever find yourself convinced that it's a good idea to have a audio roll-over that is not only triggered when you mouse over the header at the top of the page, but goes off every time the mouse leaves the top of the browser window even if you've scrolled to the bottom of the page, please bang your head repeatedly into your keyboard (or BlackBerry) until you come to your senses.

IN CONCLUSION

The greatest transgression I find here is that out of all the mistakes, (be they obvious or simply uninformed) the most inexcusable error is that someone working for Fonzworth Bentley, (or dare I say, the man himself) did not notice and fix any of this. Who doesn't Google their own name nowadays? Especially people as dedicated to the concept of upward celeb-mobility as it appears Fonzworth is?

I know none of these criticisms paint Fonzworth's online brand in a flattering light, which might cause some to think I'm just 'hatin' on the guy. However to contradict that impression I need only to quote Fonzworth himself from his Seattle Times interview (one of the links on his Wikipedia page that actually does work,) "...once you get your swagger tight, the haters will come."

Too true, Mr. Bentley, but that's not the case here, because online, your swagger isn't tight at all.

About the Author

Kathryn Dawson writes articles about Strategic Internet Marketing, a leading seo company in the UK offering results driven cost effective ppc advertising services as well as manual directory submission services to help any websites increase page ranks.

Article Directory Source: http://www.articlerich.com/profile/Kathryn--Dawson/78883

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