Keywords are one of the most important things in the world of digital marketing. The keywords themselves help you with ranking in search engines, thus helping customers find you, but they also provide you with a large cache of data that you can use to gain insight into your customers to help your business improve and grow. There is one type of keyword, however, that frequently gets overlooked — branded keywords.

Branded keywords have exceptionally high click-through rates, too; at least 50 percent of people who search with a branded keyword will click on the top-ranking page, which should be the brand. If someone is searching for you with a branded keyword, they are already aware of your brand on at least some level, so you already have a good shot at getting a conversion.

Monitoring branded keywords should be a bigger priority than it is, but it is often ignored because you should be the top-ranking sites for your brand name. But what if someone else is ranking higher than you for your branded keywords? You will not know if you are not monitoring those keywords. Here, we will discuss the benefits of tracking those keywords.

What are branded keywords?

Branded keywords are keywords that are directly linked to your brand, services, and products. They are discoverable through search engines and social media. For example, “Seattle Digital Marketing” can be considered a branded keyword because it is our brand’s name.

There is a difference between branded keywords, @mentions, and #hashtags. Using “Seattle Digital Marketing” in a tweet is the branded keyword, #SeattleDigitalMarketing is the #hashtag, and @seattledigitalmarketing is the @mention.

Branded keywords can also be the names of specific products or a line of products. “Frappuccino” is a good example of the branded keyword product line, whereas “Vanilla Bean Frappuccino” is the specific product name branded keyword.

Why you should track branded keywords

Tracking mentions and hashtags is easy and has specific social media triggers for you to know when they are used. On the other hand, branded keywords are not triggered unless they are used in a post that includes hashtags or mentions of some kind. You should keep an eye on your branded keywords because not everyone who makes posts about your brand on social media is going to tag you or use a branded hashtag.

They might have forgotten to tag you, misspelled your brand name, or accidentally tagged the wrong brand; they might be venting. Your brand could come up in a conversation on social media that does not tag you, but by tracking those keywords, you may get to see the organic thoughts of your target audience. By not keeping an eye on your branded keywords, you might be missing out on these posts. If they misspelled the name of your brand or product, tracking common typos for your brand and products can also be helpful, so you still get to see these posts.

You can also use branded keywords to see what people are saying about your competition, and potentially discover top competitors you were unaware of. This can give you insights that can be used to guide your marketing strategy and potentially your company overall.  

Which branded keywords should I track?

To determine which keywords to track, start with Googling your company name, but instead of hitting “enter” to search, look at the autocomplete suggestions. After looking at those suggestions, add the letter “a” to the query and see what Google suggests, then try it with “b” and so on through the alphabet. Google is suggesting these things because people have searched for them. You can also use keywordtool.io to search; its results are all of the autocomplete suggestions that Google has for your business name, saving you some time.

Using Google autocomplete like this essentially shows you what your target audience wants from you, and it might show you some gaps in your content. For example, suppose you do not offer a specific product or service, but you see it in the autocomplete results, and it is something related to your niche. In that case, you can consider adding it to your offerings.

The related searches at the end of the page of Google results can also help you determine what branded keywords to look for.

How to track branded keywords

Since branded keywords will not show up in your notifications, tracking them can take a little bit of effort, but it is still doable. The two easiest ways to track these keywords are through Google and Twitter.

Tracking with Google

Google offers some tools that can help you track your branded keywords. With Google Alerts, you can set up notifications to tell you when your brand is mentioned in online discussions or blogs. This is much easier than Googling your brand name to look for uses of branded keywords.

The other way is by using Google Analytics to see how many branded search queries lead customers to your website.

Tracking with Twitter

To track your branded keywords through Twitter, you can use the advanced search feature the platform offers. The advanced search allows you to look up multiple keywords and get exact matches for them. Searching for multiple keywords at once will save you a considerable amount of time.

Twitter is really the only way to search for branded keywords through social media. While you can on Facebook and LinkedIn, it is slow and frustrating. Instagram only allows you to search for hashtags, so it is impossible to look up keywords alone on that platform.

Conclusion

Tracking your branded keywords offers you a more comprehensive view of your reputation and customer interactions. They are an essential part of your online data that is often overlooked in favor of hashtags and mentions, and with it, you get the most out of your digital marketing strategy. Seattle Digital Marketing is here to help, and we can help you determine what branded keywords to watch out for. Contact Seattle Digital Marketing today to get started!