Why Branded Search Matters More Than You Think – Don’t Overlook This Strategy!

When it comes to growing your business through SEO, most strategies emphasize optimizing for keywords that don’t include your brand name. This is how you draw in new, unfamiliar visitors, and is important for your success.

But what about those who are already looking specifically for your business?

Optimizing for these branded searches is just as important and can play a unique role in your growth strategy. Here are the topics we’ll cover to effectively manage both types of searches:

Branded Search vs. Non-Branded Search: Key Differences

A branded search includes your company’s name, product names, or other identifiers unique to your business.

Some examples of branded search include:

Brand Name Searches:

• “Target store hours”
• “Target return policy”
• “how to apply at Target”

Purpose: These searches use the brand name directly, often from customers or job seekers looking for specific information about the brand’s offerings or policies.

Product-Specific Searches:

• “iPhone 16 release date”
• “iPhone 16 camera quality”
• “iPhone 16 price comparison”

Purpose: These searches are centered around a specific product from the brand. Customers may be interested in details like features, price comparisons, or reviews before making a purchase.

Service-Based Searches:

• “Uber Eats delivery times”
• “Uber Eats restaurant options”
• “how to contact Uber Eats customer service”

Purpose: These keywords highlight the brand’s services. People looking up these terms are often seeking specific details, availability, or support related to the service.

Trademarked Name Searches:

• “Kleenex Tissues”
• “Kleenex Perfect Fit Facial Tissue”
• “Kleenex Ultra Soft”

Purpose: Using a trademarked brand or product name, these searches often target well-known brands where customers are looking for trusted or recognized products.

In contrast, non-branded searches are broader and focus on terms related to your industry or services without mentioning your brand directly. Both types can impact your online visibility and reach, each serving different purposes in your marketing funnel.

Benefits of Non-Branded Search Optimization

Optimizing for non-branded keywords helps attract new visitors who might not yet know about your brand but are looking for what you offer.

This opens up opportunities to reach a wider audience who may become future customers.

For instance, a blog post covering industry tips or a checklist can rank for general search terms, bringing in visitors interested in your services who may not have encountered your brand before.

Non-branded search looks like these:

“Best running shoes for beginners”

• Purpose: This search is aimed at finding general information and recommendations without specifying a particular brand, making it a top-of-funnel query for running shoe companies.

“How to start a vegetable garden”

• Purpose: This type of search is educational, intended for learning about gardening. It could attract users to gardening supply stores or blogs that offer tips, guides, and relevant products.

“Affordable wedding photographers near me”

• Purpose: This is a local intent search where users are looking for affordable options in wedding photography, but they are open to multiple brands or service providers in their area.

The Benefits of Optimizing for Branded Search

Branded searches connect you with people who already know your business and want more details.

They may be looking for specific information, like customer reviews, comparisons, or product details. Optimizing for branded search lets you capture traffic from those closest to making a purchase, existing customers looking for resources, and even press or enthusiasts interested in your brand.

In branded search, you’re catering to:

• Potential buyers – These users may be comparing your brand to competitors. Optimize for queries like “[Your Brand] vs. Competitor” to address concerns and guide their decision.
• Current customers – Keep your existing clients informed with dedicated pages for FAQs, product updates, or tutorials.
• Press or brand fans – Being the top source for branded information strengthens your credibility and positions your brand as an authority.

Branded Search Optimization Tips

Let’s break down the steps to improve your brand’s presence in search results.

1. Identify Branded Keywords to Target

Start by creating two lists of branded keywords:

• Keywords you already rank for
• Keywords you don’t rank for yet

Using a tool like Google Search Console or an SEO platform, look up your branded terms and check their performance in each region relevant to your business. Track both your strong performers and opportunities to expand your reach.

Keywords You Currently Rank For

To find branded keywords you rank for, enter your domain into an SEO tool and filter the results for brand-related terms. Export the list for easy reference, then analyze where you might want to rank higher or target with new content.

My favorite tool for doing a brand search audit is Google Search Console, but there is one important rule you need to remember when doing so:

Do not overlook misspellings, your brand name with and without spaces, and other typos when taking branded search into account.

If you think people search for your brand name exactly and you forget that people can’t spell or make errors in search, you won’t get the full picture of how branded search is performing for you!

That’s not to say you need to write your content for these errors, but I do want you to have a good idea of how your brand is doing overall.

Here’s an example of just a small sample of a client’s total queries vs exact match brand name without spaces vs brand name with spaces. Let’s assume this client’s business name is ClientName.

So total queries is how many queries ClientName showed up in search over the last 3 months.

Exact Match Brand Name without spaces meant people searched “ClientName”.

Branded with spaces means searchers typed “Client Name”.

If we relied on exact match for “ClientName” only, we’d never know that nearly 3k searches were done with spaces and it could skew our idea of how well our branded search is performing as well.

To get your data from Search Console, follow these steps:

1. Visit https://search.google.com/search-console/ and select your domain.
2. Click “Performance” in the left sidebar menu.
3. Click “+ Add Filter”.
4. Select “Query” from the drop down.
5. Select “Queries containing” in the drop down.
6. Type your branded keyword(s).
7. Hit the Apply button.
8. Export your list to either a Google Sheet or Excel Spreadsheet.

After your export, don’t forget to redo the filter for the other variety of ways people might search for your branded terms to get a more complete picture.

Not sure what ways your brand might show up in search? One sneaky way to get this info is to:

Visit Performance (#2 above), click Page, click your homepage, then click the query tab.

Your final list doesn’t need to be perfect, but it’s good to get an idea of the variety of branded terms where your pages are already showing up in search.

Keywords You Don’t Rank For Yet

To uncover branded keywords you’re missing, compile all potential branded terms, including variations, and check which you currently don’t rank for.

Finding Keywords with an SEO Tool

If you have an SEO tool like Ahrefs, type part of your brand name into the keyword explorer. I’ll use Hot Wheelz, here in Jacksonville, for my example.

In this case, I’m using “hot wheelz” and “hotwheelz” as the main keywords which gave me 167 keywords. After excluding obviously irrelevant terms, I ended up with 43 keywords I could compare against the list they rank for.

Once you’ve narrowed down your list, export it.

You’ll combine your two spreadsheets. One tab for currently ranking keywords, the other tab is the list of possible alternatives.

From here, you’ll create an array formula in the sheet with general branded search terms to find out if they already exist on the Branded – Ranking tab. Mine looks like this:

You’ll end up with a spreadsheet that looks like this sample:

Next, you’ll want to go through your list and select the branded terms that you are not ranking for.

Another way to find branded search terms is to go straight to Google Search!

Begin typing your brand name in the search bar, which will drop down several search recommendations like these:

My favorites to consider when auditing your brand search are:

• brand name + hours
• brand name + reviews
• brand name + promo code
• brand name + locations
• brand name + menu
• brand name + careers

2. Prioritize Branded Keywords to Target

Next, prioritize your branded keywords by categorizing them:

• Underperforming keywords – Improve rankings for these to boost visibility.
• Keywords with mismatched intent – Adjust content to align with search intent if visitors aren’t finding what they expect.
• New high-value keywords – Identify any branded keywords with significant search volume that you aren’t currently ranking for.

Underperforming Keywords

Focus on branded keywords where you don’t rank at the top. Review these terms to decide if improving your position is feasible, then prioritize them based on their search volume and competitiveness.

Mismatched Intent

For branded keywords that bring in traffic but don’t fully meet user intent, revise the content on those pages. For example, if users are looking for product specs and your page doesn’t deliver, updating it can improve engagement and satisfaction.

Valuable New Keywords

Review the keywords you aren’t yet ranking for. Sort these by search volume to find high-priority terms, and determine whether to create new pages or enhance existing ones to capture this traffic.

3. Optimize Content or Create New Pages

Based on your analysis, decide where to optimize existing content and where to add new resources.

For underperforming and mismatched keywords, update current content to better align with search intent.

For new terms, consider whether new pages or sections might be the best fit.

4. Add Internal Links

Internal linking helps both users and search engines find relevant content on your site. Include links in your main navigation, footer, and high-traffic pages. When mentioning branded terms, link to your most relevant pages to guide users and support your SEO strategy.

Final Thoughts on Branded Search

Branded search optimization can reinforce your brand’s position and ensure potential customers, press, and fans find accurate, useful information. It’s a powerful way to keep your audience informed and engaged while maximizing your online presence. Remember, SEO is a long-term strategy, so give changes time to show results.

Ready to take control of your branded search performance but not sure how? Reach out to find out how Full Throttle SEO can help you!