Strategies for Using Branded Keywords and Their Optimization

Using keywords strategically in an article can improve page performance in the SERP. In this case, a branded keyword is one type of keyword that has the potential to lift your brand name. Therefore, implementing the right SEO strategy by using relevant keywords can help generate profits for the business.

Before learning how to optimize branded keywords, it's a good idea to know what they are, the difference between them and non-branded keywords, their role in SEO, and how to find them. For that, understand the complete information below.

What is a Branded Keyword?

Branded keywords are search queries related to your company's brand name, product, or service. Keep in mind that a branded keyword refers to a query that is specific to your company. That is, keywords with brands from other companies are not representing particular brands.

For instance, the keyword "cmlabs seo services" is considered a branded keyword by the cmlabs company but not by other SEO service companies.

Users who search with these keywords are considered potential customers. It means that these users have a high level of interest in your company.

This type of keyword can help you measure brand popularity and reputation. That's why you need to maximize its use in order to grow brand awareness and potential consumers.

Branded vs Non-branded Keyword

After knowing the meaning and examples of branded keywords, it's a good idea to first recognize the difference between them and non-branded keywords. This type of keyword is also related to products or services, but there is no specific brand name or product or service name related to your company.

For example, the keyword "seo services" is included in the non-branded keyword type for cmlabs companies because it is relevant to the company's services and there is no brand name in the keyword.

Users who search for non-branded keywords are users who are interested in a product or service but are not focused on just one brand. You can use non-branded keywords to reach a wider audience.

What types of keywords produce the best results for business? Both branded and non-branded keywords are profitable to target. This is because the two keywords have different search intent and stages of the buying process.

Even so, you can compare the advantages of each keyword based on the following factors:

• Visibility: A non-branded keyword usually has a larger search volume than a branded keyword. It makes them suitable to increase website visibility, build a brand, and increase the number of visitors.
• Competition: Naturally, a brand specified keyword has less competition because it only focuses on one brand.
• Conversions: Usually, people who search using a specific keyword for a brand are potential customers who have an interest in buying your brand, so the conversion rate is higher. However, it should be noted that brand awareness and related product quality should also be good enough so that SEO can support the business performance more optimally in the process.

The Importance of a Branded Keyword in SEO

Before discussing branded keyword optimization strategies further, you may need to know some of the advantages that will be useful for SEO strategies. Some of the advantages that will affect your business are:

Increase Visibility on Search Pages

If your company is already popular and well-known by many people, of course there will be many people searching for your brand name on Google. Make sure that these people can find your website in the SERPs and not a competitor's website. 

Increasing Number of Conversions

Users looking for a branded keyword are people who are ready to buy a brand's product or service. By targeting this type of keyword, you can increase the number of potential customers who visit your website so that the conversion rate can go up as well.

Manage Brand Reputation

A branded keyword is not only targeted by your website but also by other websites. For example, websites that usually use such keywords are blog review and recommendation websites. It could be that the website gives positive or negative reviews. You certainly have no control over the way the public perceives your brand.

The thing you can do to control your brand's reputation in search results is to target those specific keywords and achieve a high position. Thus, the audience can get information directly from your website.

Simplify Competitive Analysis

You can use specific keywords belonging to your company and competing companies to do comparisons and competitive analysis. You can compare the number of searches and the level of visibility of each company.

Helps Understand Consumer Sentiment

Public sentiment is an important metric in a company's branding strategy. One of the benefits of particular keywords of brands is knowing how many articles discuss your brand, how your brand's reputation is perceived by the audience, and how consumers compare your brand to competing brands.

How to Find Branded Keywords

To be able to optimize specific keywords for brands well, know what keywords your audience uses to search for your brand. The way to do branded keyword research is:

Do Tracking Through Google

 Google provides a variety of tools that can help you do keyword research, such as Google Trends, Google Suggestions, Google Autocomplete, and Related Searches. Especially for branded keyword research, you can take advantage of Google Alerts.

Google Alerts can inform you when another website or online discussion mentions a brand name. These tools can help you look for keywords much more efficiently than if you looked for them one by one.

Also use Google Search Console (GSC) and Google Analytics (GA) to find out what brand specified keywords your audience is using and how they are performing.

Keyword Checking via Twitter

Not only through search engines, you can also take advantage of social media such as Twitter to do branded keyword research. Twitter has an advanced search feature that allows you to search multiple queries at one time. Searches can also be made with certain rules, such as:

• Exact phrase tweet search.
• Search for tweets containing all the selected words.
• Search for tweets containing one of the selected words.
• Search for tweets that do not contain all the selected words.
• Search tweets containing all hashtags.

Check Related Searches

As previously mentioned, you can use Related Searches, which are at the bottom of the search results page on Google. When searching for a brand name, you'll find keyword suggestions that your audience is likely to use associated with that brand. You can use the list of query recommendations as target keywords.

Query Report Analysis

You need to know how the targeted keywords on the website are performing through Google Analytics. The steps for analyzing specific keywords of particular brands are as follows: 

1. Launch Google Analytics.
2. If you are using version 4 of Google Analytics, select Reports > Acquisition > Acquisition Overview. Then, go to the Google organic search queries section.
3. If you are using the Universal Analytics version, select the Acquisition > Search Console > Queries menu. Make sure the GA account is connected to the GSC account.
4. Filter the query so that only brand specified keywords appear.
5. Pay attention to the number of keywords that your website has managed to get and how they are performing. 

Tips to Optimize Branded Keywords

After determining the target branded keyword that will be used, now is the time for you to optimize it. Some tips that you can apply when targeting this type of keyword are as follows:

Create Articles for Each Branded Keyword

Make sure that you already have content for each of your company's branded keywords. Because if you don't have content on one or several keywords, your audience won't be able to find your website and will instead find other websites instead.

If this happens, you will lose traffic opportunities and potential customers because they have been taken by competitors who rank for those keywords. 

Use Sitelink

Sitelinks are a group of links or sub-pages from the same domain and are collected in one group on the search results page. The existence of sitelinks can make the appearance of a website on the SERP much more attractive and wider, so that the possibility of the audience clicking on the website will be much higher.

Sitelinks are suitable for use on homepages that target brand specified keywords because you can display various website menus in the SERP. You can also direct your audience to directly visit certain menus on the website.

Add Schema Tag on Review Page

Schema markup is a code that is added to the HTML of website pages to make it easier for search engines to understand the contents of the content and provide informative results to users in the SERP.

Pages that are added to schema markup will have a "rich snippet," which is additional information in search results, so that your website will have a unique appearance. One type of rich snippet is ratings and reviews.

You can use this type of rich snippet on website pages that target keywords to convince your audience about your company.

Insert Branded Keywords in Social Media Posts

Currently, Google's algorithm is increasingly showing content from social media in search results. You can take advantage of this algorithm change and use it to increase the visibility of your company's social media accounts in search results. The trick is to use a branded keyword in the content you create on social media.

Knowledge Panel Optimization

When looking for a brand, names of famous people, locations, or other general information, you are likely to come across knowledge panels. You can use the knowledge panel to display your company information.

Some content that you can enter includes brand name, address, company profile, photos, and so on. To be able to create a knowledge panel, you can register your company on Google My Business.

Thus, a complete explanation of the meaning, benefits, and examples of a branded keyword, the difference with non-branded keywords, as well as how to find and optimize it. Use SEO services to help you build your brand and increase sales on your website.