Brand search: the traffic you earn everywhere else

Somebody typing your product's name has already decided to look at you. Somebody typing "how to invoice a client" has decided to read something.

• A branded search is a person completing an intention formed elsewhere.
• A non-brand search is a person forming one, and most of them will form it around somebody else.
• Branded queries are usually low competition, because nobody else is trying to rank for your name.
• They are also the first queries a new product ever wins, often within days of a launch.

No page on your site creates a search for your name. Things that happen off it do.

This is why launches and listings belong in an SEO plan even though neither is a page. They are what puts the name in circulation.

1. 1

   Open the Performance report

   Search results, last 28 days, with the query dimension shown.

2. 2

   Filter queries containing your name

   Use a custom filter with a regular expression if your name has spellings people get wrong. That set is your brand traffic.

3. 3

   Invert the filter

   The same regular expression, excluded, gives non-brand traffic. Save both views and read them separately from now on.

4. 4

   Compare 28 days to the 28 before

   Brand clicks rising means something happened off the site. Non-brand clicks rising means the pages are working.

5. 5

   Read the brand queries themselves

   They tell you what people want from you, and they are the most honest customer research you will get for free.

The query table omits rare and anonymised queries, so brand totals from the table will be lower than the totals at the top. Use it for shape, not for accounting.

Winning position one for your name is not enough. The first screen for your brand is a set of queries, and each needs a page.

The last four rows are where most products lose money. Someone searching "yourproduct alternatives" is deciding whether to leave, and if you have no page there, a competitor's affiliate list is the only answer they find.

A generic name is a slow tax. If your product is called a common word, the results for it belong to someone bigger, and no amount of on-page work changes that quickly.

• Target the name plus a qualifier: "yourproduct app", "yourproduct invoicing". Put that form in the home page title and h1.
• Make the About page unambiguous: the company, the people, the founding, the location. That is what Google reads to tell entities apart.
• Get mentions that pair the name with the category, because that pairing is what teaches the association.
• Rank for the unbranded problems in the meantime. Those queries have no incumbent holding your name.

1. Ship the five pages above, so the demand you already have lands somewhere useful.
2. Get listed where your buyers browse: the directories, the review sites, the category lists.
3. Launch properly, on one site at a time, with something people can try.
4. Say yes to podcasts and interviews. A founder's voice produces name searches that a company page never will.
5. Answer questions in the communities your buyers read, honestly and for months.
6. Publish something worth citing: a study, a free tool, a strong explanation. Citations carry the name.
7. Only then consider paid search on your own name, and only if someone is bidding on it.

• Brand impressions and clicks, as their own line, weekly.
• The count of distinct brand queries, which grows as people ask more specific things about you.
• The share of signups whose first landing page was the home page or the pricing page: that is brand demand arriving.
• The mentions you can find by searching your name in quotes, counted once a month.

When a launch or a podcast lands, mark the date. The brand line in Search Console will show you exactly what it was worth, which is the only honest way to decide whether to do that again.