Branded and non-branded keywords

If you're now entering the sea of SEO, you may be interested in learning how to promote your brand name as much as possible. Promoting your brand through branded keyword SEO is a classic way to do this. Sometimes it is, but when it comes to SEO, there's a lot more to consider. We know that keywords are used to drive traffic to your site from search engines, but it's important to remember that this "traffic" isn't some universal group of people, but is down to individual users who perform individual search queries. This means that a one-size-fits-all approach is certainly not appropriate when it comes to keyword targeting.

Keyword types

There are different types of keywords that perform different functions, so to make sure you're visible to as many users as possible, you'll need to consider how each type works for your website.

Commercial - directly related to brands
Information - answering questions
Navigation - for specific pages or sites
Transactional - intent to purchase or perform an action

Commercial, navigational, and to some extent transactional keywords fit well with branded keywords, as many users are likely to already know your brand and intend to search for things directly related to you. This means they are likely to use your brand name within their search.

Informational keywords are related to unbranded keywords and here you will find that there are a large number of potential customers who may not know specifically about you, but are in the market for the products or services you offer.

Защо са важни брандираните ключови думи?

Branded keywords have a clear purpose - they allow searchers to find you easily because they know who you are and what you offer (or what things you offer). You may notice that ads for different brands than what was searched for appear on search engine results pages (SERPs). This is because they are selling the same products and trying to attract some of the users as they have a very clear search intent. For example, you search for the name of a hotel as you're looking for somewhere to holiday for the weekend, but you also see adverts for other hotels.

Putting aside ads when considering increasing organic traffic, using branded keywords in your website text will reinforce who you are and allow users to find you directly online. These users likely have a strong intent to make a purchase, so using branded keywords gives you the best chance of making sure they find you and not a competitor. Examples of branded keywords:

Jeans New Look
Black T-shirt Asos
Blouse from Next

Branded keywords should be used in meta descriptions and page titles, as well as in the body text of the website. Don't overuse them, and anything keyword related, because keyword overload is highly undesirable.

Why are unbranded keywords important?

The main thing to remember when it comes to unbranded keywords is that you're reaching a huge number of consumers who are searching for products or queries related to your business, but aren't necessarily familiar with your specific brand or know if you sell that item. So the goal here is to use unbranded, relevant keywords to drive them to your website.

Non-brand keywords are extremely important to your organic search efforts, as they have the ability to increase your website's overall visibility in the SERPs. Unbranded keywords can encompass hundreds of relevant terms that, when used correctly and effectively, attract the high-quality traffic searched for. So what do we mean by unbranded keywords?

If you're a company that sells cleaning products, you'll be looking to include relevant (relevancy is key here), high-volume search terms to relevant pages on your site. For example, the term "carpet cleaner" has X number of average monthly searches, so as a start you'd want to ensure it's being used on relevant product pages. You can use tools such as Google Keyword Planner to find out the search volume of keywords, or if you want to really dig deeper, conducting a comprehensive keyword research is extremely useful to see what opportunities there are for your website.

Using unbranded keywords can also work well for customers at the top of the funnel. Answering search queries with pure informational intent builds trust and brand awareness, so you may capture some of those users as they move down the funnel toward conversion. For example, a cleaning website with a blog might want to answer queries like "how do I clean a floor of floorboards?" or "how do I remove grease stains from a sofa?". You can use this content to add links to relevant products and create content that really helps users.

No matter what content you opt for, make sure you do your research on which keywords are most relevant to the text and make sure you target terms with a decent search volume. Don't over complicate your content, write for the user, not the search engines. This last point is particularly important as Google's latest useful content update is focused on 'people-first' content and ensuring websites are creating high quality, relevant content that responds effectively to user queries.

Contact us today to speak with one of our experts and learn more about how we can help your business use SEO to drive more traffic and gain more customers!

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