How Do I Optimise for Branded Organic Search Traffic?
Try typing the name of your brand into Google. What does it throw up? Clearly, you’ll want your business to appear as near the top of the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) as possible. However, organic search these days incorporates a wide range of things: local search results, video and news among others.
What does branded search actually mean?
As the name suggests, a branded search is when you punch the name of a specific brand name into a search engine. Someone may be performing a search like this for any number of reasons, for example, to check out a potential new employer.
Potential issues
Obviously, if it’s your brand, you want the searcher to be genuinely interested in what you offer, whether they’re a current or prospective customer. One thing you may not realise is that you can miss traffic if searchers aren’t spelling the name of your brand accurately. One way to overcome this is to add the most common misspellings to a branded Pay-per-Click (PPC) campaign.
You also need to be especially aware of possible issues if your company name is very similar to that of another business, or if there is possible confusion in terms of your name and what you do, or what the right version of your name is.
Possible solutions
Clearly, you need to be sure you are using your own name consistently yourself. Standards surrounding your name should be built into all your guidelines on voice, tone and branding. Use Google Search Console to get a Search Terms report and assess how effective your efforts have been.
Optimise all areas of the SERPS
Admittedly, not all brands can appear in first organic position for all parts of the SERPs. For example, if you are an online-only organisation, with no geographic address, you won’t be able to show up on the Google My Business local search results. Equally, you won’t show up in News if you haven’t had any recent mentions on any news-based websites. Different sections of the SERPs call for different techniques:
Organic search results
Don’t forget to have targeted branded keywords within your home page and its title tag, and in the latter for other pages.
Organic local search results
You’ll need to confirm your physical location before you can add details such as opening hours in Google My Business.
Organic video results
If your YouTube channel’s name includes your brand and it’s a top-performing video, it can appear in the video results when someone looks for it. As well as in the video title, your brand name should also appear in the description.
Organic image results
Don’t forget these, either. Label images with your brand name for optimisation purposes and embed branded images like logos within your content – for example with a team photo.
Organic snippets results
Google now takes how, who, when, where, why, and what answers directly from websites and places them in the SERPs, generating more opportunities for brands to appear in them.
You can optimise for this by doing some keyword research in Google’s keyword tool using your own name, combined with results from an Answer the Public search around the brand.
Organic news results
Over the last couple of years, it has become easier to appear in these results pages. Follow SEO best practice for optimal results.
Organic jobs results
When anyone browses Google for openings at your organisation, you’ll need optimisation to ensure any roles appear prominently to help you attract the best talent.
How we can help
Front Page Advantage has extensive experience of optimising for organic branded search for many different clients. We have a clear understanding of what needs to be done to push your name up the SERPs so you get noticed every time someone searches for you by name.
We could help you, too. Get in touch today to find out how.