We've noticed a key component missing from many web strategies we look at every day is effective online brand positioning. The missing link! It is a crucial part of any web strategy and should be the first thing you identify before you go online. This post will be talking about how to effectively take your brand position into the online world.

How do I transfer my brand position online?

Firstly, you need to assess whether your current off-line brand strategy can be transferred online. You may ask why would it be different? Often your online competitors are completely different to your off-line competitors. You should be positioning your brand using unique attributes that your competitors are yet to discover. This is what will differentiate you online.

How to identify your online brand position?

• Conduct a thorough competitive analysis of your online environment. For example if you are Aussie Outback Tours you need to find out who your online competitors are and how you are going to compete.

• To structure this analysis you need to identify your competitors for each of your top ranking keywords that you have optimised your website for. Using Aussie Outback Tours as our example this is where you would type your keywords into Google and analyse what businesses are appearing ahead of you in the search results.
• Remember your online competitors may be different to your offline competitors. This means if Aussie Outback Tours are located in close physical proximity to Uluru Tours they are considered an offline competitor. Aussie Outback Tours need to assess whether Uluru Tours will be an online competitor. If Uluru Tours optimise their website for different keywords they will not appear in the same search results as Aussie Outback Tours and therefore are not a competitor in the online environment for Aussie Outback Tours.

• Assess how well optimised each competitor's website is for each keyword to establish whether you will be able to compete on this keyword with these competitors. Aussie Outback Tours will then need to look at why their competitors are appearing ahead of them in search results for various keywords.

For example if Ayers Rock Tours is always appearing ahead of Aussie Outback Toursin search engine results for the keyword term 'bushwalking Australia', Aussie Outback Tours need to asses why this is and identify ways you get ahead of their competition.

But how do you assess a competitors SEO strength?

There are many ways to assess how optimised your competitor's website is. What we find works really well here at UntangleMyWeb.com is the SEO Book toolbar. It is straight to the point and easy to use. Download the SEO Toolbar from http://tools.seobook.com/seo-toolbar/ which is a plugin to the Firefox Browser. This toolbar will tell you:

• Each competitor's number of inbound links
• The age of their site
• Their website's page rank

Important Note: The higher the number of relevant inbound links, the higher the PageRank and the older the website, the more value and relevancy search engines will assign to a website.

How to identify the right keywords?

Now comes the tricky part. You are not always able to compete on every keyword. This happens when the competition is too strong for a particular keyword or phrase. It is then a skill in itself to recognise when you can't compete and reassess your choice of keywords. Select a more niche keyword where you know it's within your capabilities to compete effectively and dominate your competition in search.

For example, if you enter one of your competitive keywords into Google and websites with 3,000 inbound links appear ahead of you because you currently only have 250 inbound links;you need to reassess your choice of keywords. You will not achieve a page one organic ranking for that keyword if your competitors have thousands more relevant inbound links. This strongly suggests their overall optimisation is better than yours. It is important to identify keywords that you can compete on to achieve page one organic listings. To do so you can use the Google AdWords keyword tool. It is free. Also make sure you check your Google Analytics keyword report if you have that set-up for your website and any AdWord campaign you may have been running. This information can fast track your keyword research.

Tip - If you don't have Google Analytics installed, drop everything and get onto it, it's free and fast to install!

Time for a GAP analysis

Once you have identified your keywords you can compete on and as a result compiled a list of competitors for each of your keywords (excel is your friend) look at what your competitors are not doing. This will tell you how you should position your brand to online searchers. Identify 2 qualities that your business has to offer consumers that your competitors don't. For example Aussie Outback Tours might choose to position themselves as providing a 'True outback experience' and as providing 'Educational Tours'. This may mean their accommodation is camping and swag style and they only have extremely experienced operators who are well versed in Australian history and culture. You want to position your business in the minds of your consumers as offering these 2 qualities. This is what differentiates you from competitors.

A visual map will help you

Plot your brand position on a perceptual map in comparison to your competitors. Do you want to position yourself in the minds of your consumers as providing quality products and services and as a company that values a strong sense of community? Or is your point of difference being 'green focused' and all your processes are refined to have minimal impact on the environment? Choose your points of difference and place them on the graph axes below, then place your competitors' based on the same qualities. Be sure to place your brand position on the perceptual map as currently what's being portrayed to your online customers; not where you would like to be. You will get a realistic visual snapshot of where you are, which will enable you to identify where you want to be and create website content that will get you there.

Next time you're stuck in traffic think about:

• How do you want customers to perceive your business?
• Have you got an established 'brand position',
• Where would you place yourself on a perceptual map in relation to your competitors and
• What attributes would you use to position yourself?
• Is your current brand position going to differentiate you from your online competition?

It is important to have a strong understanding of your brand position as this is what shapes your website content. Your brand position will provide you with the tools to create website content that turns clicks into conversions.

One for the road

True or False? You don't know who your competitors are until you've done your keyword research. Stay tuned for the next step, which is how to write optimised copy that illustrates your brand position.

Cheers, Alexandra at UntangleMyWeb.com