You enter your brand name into Google and all you find are company profiles on social media? Or maybe you are looking for services that you offer, but the search engine only shows the offer pages of competing companies? This is a sign that just creating a website is not enough. What can you do to get traffic from Google Search and gain new audiences? One of the activities that should be included in your SEO strategy is positioning for brand phrases, i.e. phrases containing the name of your company.
Brand searches – what is it?
Brand searches are terms entered by users in the search engine that contain the names of a specific brand or company, as well as a product. They usually come from users who have had contact with your business before, e.g. on social media. If you are actively running a company profile on Facebook and have a lot of fans, perhaps those fans will search for you in Google by entering your company name. Examples of brand phrases include:
– Paraphrasing-Tool.Online SEO agency,
– positioning of es.Paraphrase.Online websites,
– adidas women’s sports shoes, size 37,
– Apple hardware, Android applications.
Currently, users are looking for services on the Internet, and the Google search engine is one of the main sources of these searches and potential visits to your website. Therefore, you can be sure that when users search for your products, sooner or later they will enter the name of your brand or the brand of your product in the search window. It is worth preparing for this, taking into account brand phrases in the positioning strategy.
SEO for brand phrases – why should it be important for your company?
Wondering why your website is not on Google? One of the reasons may be the lack of SEO activities, incl. those targeting their own brand. Why is it worth investing in the positioning of brand phrases? Because it will allow you to:
– improve Google visibility for phrases that generate a high CTR (click-through rate),
– effectively track the competition, which may also conduct promotional activities for keywords related to your brand (not necessarily in organic search results, perhaps in Google Ads),
– find possible problems with the reputation and image of your brand online,
– discover gaps in your content.
How do I find popular brand keywords?
The lack of a page in Google results from the lack of positioning, especially for brand phrases. But how do you find brand phrases that are popular and worth promoting? You can use specialized SEO tools to search for them, but in practice they are not necessary. You can find other effective methods below.
Google – Similar searches and Google suggestions
It’s best to start your search for brand phrases by entering your brand name in the Google search engine. This will tell us other brand phrases that are worth positioning for. You will find them:
– in Google suggestions when entering the brand name,
– below the organic results, in the “Related Searches” section,
– in the FAQ section, which may contain user questions about your brand.
Google suggests suggested phrases because users have searched for them before. This means that it is worth positioning on them, even if we do not have precise data on the number of searches.
Google Search Console
Your Google Search Console account can also be a valuable source of information about brand phrases. Filter the data visible in the query tab, available in the Effectiveness report. Check if there are phrases with the brand name among the phrases through which users reach your website.
Google Keyword Planner
If you want to find branded phrases that are not yet displayed, use the free Google Keyword Planner tool. All you need to do is enter a phrase that interests you, which describes, for example, a product or service that you offer, and then on the right side you will see that the results should include keywords containing the brand name.
Specialized SEO tools – Semstorm, Ahrefs, Senuto, SurferSEO
Special SEO tools are also used to search for key phrases. They are paid, but they provide a wide catalog of brand phrases, as well as information on the estimated monthly number of searches for each of them. All tools work similarly – after entering a brand password, you will receive a list of similar phrases along with basic information about the phrase.
How to appear on Google? SEO for brand phrases step by step
There are a number of optimization measures that won’t take much time, but will allow you to find yourself in organic search results. They are effective for general phrases, long tail phrases, and brand phrases, so it is worth combining SEO for all these keywords to achieve the best results. Below we will discuss actions that will help you dominate the search results on phrases related to your brand.
1. Determine your current position – conduct an SEO visibility audit and take into account brand phrases
Before you start positioning, check what position you are currently in on various phrases related to the offer or product, including brand phrases. Just because Google doesn’t list your page in the top10 doesn’t mean it isn’t in the search engine at all. Perhaps it is in lower positions. To check visibility, use the Senuto tool. Enter your domain name – in the “Positions” tab you will find all the phrases for which you are visible, along with their exact position. Export the data to a file and search it for phrases containing your brand name. If there are not many of them or they are in low positions, then you should keep going. Also check if other websites do not rank first for your brand phrase. This is not a good situation for you because you are losing potential customers. This is a sign that you should start positioning and include SEO activities on brand phrases.
2. Divide your brand keywords into categories
After selecting brand key phrases, it is worth dividing them into categories according to:
– your goals,
– stage of the shopping path where the user is located.
This way, you will be able to match the type of content to the type of key phrases. You should create different content for the user who is just looking for information about a product or service, and another for the one who is determined to choose a specific product.
3. Add a brand phrase in title and H1
The title, i.e. the SEO title of a given subpage, is one of the most important elements that affects positioning. If you want to use it in brand SEO, add your brand name in it. You can do this at the end of the title. In this way, you will inform the robots that you want to position yourself on the company name and you will improve your positions in organic search results. You should also include your brand name in the H1 header, which is the page title that is visible on your website and intended for users. The brand name should be placed primarily on the home page, but also on other subpages of the website, which will strengthen the SEO effects on brand keywords.
4. Invest in local SEO
Local SEO is one of the effective ways to quickly build better visibility in organic search results. It includes a number of activities aimed at acquiring a customer located near our company or looking for specific services in the area. The scope of local SEO includes a number of optimization activities, including.
– creating a Google My Business showcase and positioning it in such a way that it appears in the so-called Local pack, i.e. three popular companies located nearby,
– website optimization in terms of positioning requirements,
– content creation taking into account local phrases,
– getting links from local sites.
Since the phrases focus on a specific location and are less competitive, the results come faster. Positioning for local phrases can be combined with SEO for brand phrases – then you will simultaneously improve your positions for various keywords. To do this, use both your company name and location in your content. You can also:
– add branded keywords to landing pages and description in Google My Business,
– encourage customers to express their opinions about your products or services in the GMF business card, on the website or industry portals.
5. Create content with brand phrases
The effects of positioning depend on many factors, but the key element of the SEO strategy is the preparation of valuable content. In the case of positioning on brand phrases, the content should contain the name of your brand in the appropriate density. You can put it:
– on the home page,
– in the FAQ section,
– on offer pages,
– on product pages,
– in blog posts where you will present stories of cooperation with clients, your experiences, insights, tips and advice.
To put a lot of brand phrases on your website, you can:
– create a new subpage,
– optimize existing subpages in terms of branded keywords,
– expand existing content.
Of course, not all content on the website will be optimized for brand phrases – it is worth creating a variety of content, but some of them include phrases with the name of your brand, e.g. in the FAQ section, on the home page or in the “About us” content presenting your story and achievements.
6. Optimize the website for structured data
Structured data is additional elements that are specially marked and placed in the code of your website. They allow Google robots to display detailed information about the page directly in organic search results. These are, for example:
– exact location,
– links to subpages on the website,
– contact form,
– FAQ section,
– internal search engine.
If the algorithms display these additional elements in response to a branded term, your website will take up more space in search results than others. This is how your score will stand out – research shows that rich snippet pages generate more clicks and therefore achieve a higher CTR.
7. Build a link profile – publish content on valuable websites
The website’s link profile, i.e. the number and quality of links that refer to it, also affects the positioning effects. How to use this element in a brand positioning strategy? Above all:
– undertake editorial cooperation with pages that are thematically related and have a high position in Google,
– create content that will be published on partners’ websites along with a link to your website,
– make sure that the name of your brand is the anchor (the content of the link).
Increase your visibility on brad phrases – what else can you do?
We have already presented the basic steps that can help if your page is not on Google. However, you can do a bit more and extend your scope to other elements of internet marketing, which we’ll cover below. They are not mandatory, but they can have a positive impact on brand SEO.
9. Optimize images and videos for brand phrases
Graphics and video materials can improve your brand SEO, provided that they are properly optimized. For this purpose:
– complete the alternative description of the image and add a brand phrase in it – this way you will make it easier for Google robots to read the content of the image and inform them that your brand name is important to you in the context of positioning,
– record a video from the company’s life, product videos, case studies, Q&A films, as well as webinars and training – this is how you build your image of an expert and naturally promote the brand name,
– supplement the video on the YouTube platform with a title and description, containing key phrases, including the brand phrase, as well as tags,
– add a transcript of the video that you embedded directly on the website. For example, if this is an author interview you have conducted, underline it by including your company name in the body of the text.
10. Maintain profiles in social media
Activity in social media does not directly affect brand SEO, but it can:
– increase your visibility in organic search results for the brand phrase,
– facilitate the acquisition of external links.
If you run a company profile on Facebook, Instagram or Linkedin, you increase the chance that you will dominate the search results on your brand phrases. Probably the organic results will then display not only subpages from your website, but also links to social media. This will minimize the presence of third-party brands for slogans about your business.
11. Invest in Google Ads for brand phrases
Google Ads and organic results do not affect each other, but it is worth combining both advertising channels, especially in the case of brand phrases. Why? Because:
– if you do not invest in advertising targeted at branded keywords, you can be sure that your competitors will do it,
– the combination of SEO and Google Ads gives your website a chance to display your website in at least two places in the first position in the search results,
– in this way you minimize the number of competitors for your brand phrases,
– You direct users to precise landing pages that contain only interesting and necessary information, and these pages generate higher chances of conversion.
12. Monitor the effects of brand SEO
Not having a page on Google can only be a temporary stage, provided that you invest in bad positioning. However, remember to regularly check the effects of actions and verify that:
– visibility grows,
– the number of clicks and website traffic increases,
– the number of conversions is growing, so does increased traffic translate into sales.
You can do this through tools such as Google Search Console (impressions, clicks, CTR and conversions), Google Analytics (traffic), and Senuto (visibility).
Summary
Why is the page not on Google? – this is one of the questions that many entrepreneurs who have their own websites may ask themselves. Usually the answer is simple and involves no investment in SEO. If you want Google robots to notice your website, use our tips and start positioning for brand phrases. Remember, however, that it should only be part of your SEO activities, not the basis of it. Combine SEO for brand phrases with local SEO and with long tail phrase positioning – then you will see the best results and build visibility on Google.