Your brand value forms the basis of your customer’s belief in your company. What it does, how it does it and often why it does it too. It is about what you stand for as a company. A strong brand means you have authority and respectability. You can usually charge a little bit more with a strong brand and build your business on stronger foundations. A brand allows you to differentiate your business from all others alongside you. To really reach the top of the tree you need to create a brand and to create a brand you also need to be able to protect that brand.
Why brand protection matters
Google gives value to ‘implied links’
Google thinks beyond just clickable links. Any reference to your brand that doesn’t even have a specific hyperlink to your site can help your Google ranking. As we explained recently a brand mention or implied citation is enough to give your site some Google juice
Brand dilution is damaging
If you’ve spent time building up a brand that people trust and recognise, failing to stop others jumping in and benefiting from that shows weak business sense to customers. It also risks people associating poor practices adopted by those cashing in on your success, with your company directly. If it isn’t you, don’t give others a chance to think it is.
How to protect your brand
Set your brand goals
To understand what it is you are protecting your need to understand why you are even thinking brand and what that means to your company. Our own Nick Leech’s article here explains a bit more about setting your brand goals on a shoestring.
Secure your domain portfolio
The new set of gTLDs has further highlighted the importance of brand protection. As well as the generic domain names you should also be thinking about the descriptive domains that relate to your business both now and in future expansion. Securing these domain names isn’t as expensive as you think and certainly not as expensive as lengthy court cases and sleepless nights when somebody else moves in on your brand, so secure your brand now, by searching which domain name extensions haven’t been taken.
Branding is as much about tomorrow as it is about today, so if you want to create a business with longevity, or a business with value beyond just your own input, building a brand is important which makes protecting that brand even more important.
