MARKETING
What Is Branded Search & How to Increase It
Similarly, Moz has made a name in the SEO space as a thought leader by creating comprehensive SEO resources and engaging the audience with educational content that makes SEO strategies accessible and implementable.
The result?
By nurturing a community and consistently delivering top-notch content, Moz cemented its authority in the SEO space and witnessed remarkable growth in its customer base.
2. Make branded backlinks work for you
As part of your well-rounded SEO plan, you should invest more effort in obtaining high-quality backlinks.
Backlinks serve as trust signals for search engines like Google, indicating that your site is a credible source of information. When a high-authority website links to your content, Google sees it as an endorsement and might rank your site higher in search results.
While obtaining branded anchor backlinks (backlinks that contain your brand name in the anchor text) is crucial, ensuring these links come from credible sources is equally important.
Associating with websites known for link-selling can damage your website’s reputation. You can try out tools like Linktegrity and Moz’s Spam Score to check if a site is known or suspected of engaging in link-selling and to decrease spammy links pointing to your site.
For most link-building campaigns at Jolly SEO, we implement two services:
1. Journalist outreach: One of the core services we focus on:
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Pitching stories or content to journalists.
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Earning high-quality backlinks from reputable publications using Connectively (formerly HARO), ProfNet, Featured, and Help A B2B Writer.
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Boosting the client’s Domain Authority
2. Whitehat link building: Backlinks should be earned, not bought. In doing so, we rightfully obtain branded anchor text backlinks. With the right effort, this strategy proves exceptionally effective.
Over the past year, the Jolly SEO team has sent over 75,000 tailored email pitches. We’ve reached out to publishers who recognize and value the Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness (E-E-A-T) of the content we create. As a result, our clients have achieved increases in organic traffic ranging from 250% to 1,200%.
3. Put more effort into brand marketing
To attract more people to your site and have them recognize your brand, it’s essential to utilize all your marketing methods.
Since people engage with various types of media, it’s crucial to promote your brand across platforms where your audience is active.
“Branded search is the byproduct of word of mouth, so the real opportunity is increasing all of those touch-points that digital attribution software doesn’t catch,” emphasizes Brendan Hufford, from Growth Sprint.
Regarding investment in brand marketing, he adds, “Talk to customers to find out where your audience hangs out online and show up there. Sponsor their favorite podcast. Run ads before their favorite YouTube videos. Be active in their favorite subreddits.”
Ben Goodey, the founder of Goodey Marketing agrees and adds, “The best way to increase branded search is to invest in brand marketing.”
“For brands with a budget,” Ben continues, “that might mean national advertising campaigns. For most of us, that means investing heavily in quality organic content on social media, podcast appearance, and content marketing.“
Your audience engages with various types of media, so you should use different methods to boost your branded search traffic. Why?
When your brand is visible across various platforms like the SERP, forums, social media, and podcasts, people will likely search for your company on Google to learn more about your offer.
Brendan suggests the following tactics to bring your brand in front of the target audience:
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Talk to customers to find out where your audience hangs out online
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Show up on those platforms to connect with them
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Sponsor their favorite podcasts
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Run ads on their favorite YouTube channels
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Be active in their favorite subreddits.
4. Capture demand to spark brand interest
Driving branded search and creating branded keywords is like generating demand for your product.
When people are already aware of a brand, they are more likely to search for it directly. The real advantage is broadening the brand’s reach and penetrating a larger market.
To capitalize on this opportunity, you need to create new demand.
Usman Akram, Head of SEO growth strategy at Flying Cat Marketing, shares, “Branded search can only be amplified with activities that create new demand. SEO can be used for this if you approach it with a demand creation mindset.”
“For example, if I offer a plugin for ChatGPT, nobody knows about my plugin, but everyone knows about ChatGPT. I’d be creating content around topics such as: Can ChatGPT do X, Can ChatGPT do Y, etc. This will help me gather an audience looking for their own solution, and then I can present my plugin as an add-on, thus creating demand for my product and increasing branded search,” adds Akram.
Following Usman’s unique stance on demand creation with SEO, here are three ways to capture search demand.
1. Nurture customer relationships
When businesses use strategies like personalized messages, loyalty rewards, and providing great customer service, they build lasting connections with their customers.
These loyal customers often interact more with the brand, tell others about it, and keep coming back, which leads to steady business growth.
2. Leverage social media for demand capture
Using social media as part of your strategy to attract customers can increase your visibility and bring in important leads.
By interacting with people on social media, posting content they find interesting, and joining in conversations, you can grab their attention, make your brand more known, and get more people to visit your website.
3. Innovate new products and running experiments
Innovating, launching new products or services, and teaching the market about what makes them special can help you generate new demand that will be easy to capture as you’re the category creator here.
But keep in mind that gaining authority and boosting branded searches takes time. The results of your SEO efforts will only show after you’ve put in a good amount of time and work on marketing your brand.
While we’re on the topic of branded organic search, it’s worth noting that in tough competition, your rivals might bid on your brand name to rank higher than you.
