One of the most basic results in an analytics report is search traffic. Yet many small businesses overlook a deeper review that can reveal keyword segments on which customers act to arrive to a target page. One useful pair of keyword segments is called branded and non-branded. These groups are important to determining the quality of your search online.
Branded keyword search is a set of keywords that represent your brand name in a search result. To determine branded keywords, consider what terms are associated with your business. Those terms can include people, such as a popular site contributors, services, products, and even nicknames.
For example, a restaurant owner, Sabrina Johnson, owns Sunset Diner and launches a site. Branded terms can include Sunset Diner, its popular breakfast platter, and maybe the owner if Sabrina is a well known personality.
If Destiny's Child had a new album to promote on a website, Beyonce would certainly be a branded keyword term.
Branded keywords that appear in a search report imply that an audience segment is aware of who you are. Makes sense – otherwise how would website vistors know what word to type? The data represents the mindshare of the searching visitor - he or she recalled the name well enough to type it in the browser. So visitors who arrive to your site through a branded search term are typically highly interested in your offering.
There are some other keep-in-minds that can help your business manage its branding online (and off) through branded search:
- Metrics that complement a branded search are Average time on site (or page) and pages viewed for engagement. Combined with overall visits, these metrics can imply the health of your brand, your products, and services from a traffic source. For example, a referring site with a low volume of branded search-related visits yet also a higher average time on site and pageviews compared to other sites would be a good focus for further brand marketing – it is sending an audience that is interested in your brand.
- Consider the location where your offline marketing takes place. Your appearances can trigger interest in your product or service, and thus create arrivals of visitors who use a branded search keyword. Matching a trend of visits from branded keywords to the geolocation map is a great way to deduce visitor interest due to an offline effort, such as fliers or an expo mention.
- Complimenting branded keyword with a paid search campaign may be worthwhile if brand awareness is the core of an online strategy. Cost per click (CPC) is low in many cases, since less people are likely bidding on your brand. A branded keyword paid search strategy gives more appearance in a search engine result, potentially enticing visitors to click and arrive to the landing page. This is effective if the brand in question is not highly used by many affiliates and partners. For example, Google Analytics would be a branded keyword for Google, but other services may use that term. Such use creating some competition and potentially increase CPC.
- Focusing on building branded search-related traffic compliments the efforts for a start up or a new small business. These organizations are working to establish themselves, so monitoring trends related to branded search confirms how well a new organization is building its reputation.
- A focus on building non-branded terms is an acquisition effort. The strategy is meant to attract visitors who have never heard of a business or organization. These visitors are typically searching using broad general terms, such as breakfast or dinner for the Sunset Diner example.
- Finally branded term trends and direct referral traffic have complimentary purposes – both reflect visitor awareness of a business, so monitoring both can be beneficial for building a branding strategy.
