How to Optimize for Your Branded Search with Christoph Trappe @CTrappe #vcbuzz

What people are searching for your brand online, you should always be ranking #1, right?

It is no brainer but in reality it is tougher than it sounds.

When it comes to branded search, there are basically two problems businesses are facing:

No one is searching for your brand
Too many people are searching for your brand (so you have to be dealing with too many search queries to be able to monitor)

Let’s discuss both of these problems.

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About Christoph Trappe @CTrappe

Christoph Trappe @CTrappe is an U.S.-based digital branding strategist. Most everything here can be applied to social media, blogging, websites and e-newsletters – among other digital channels.

Follow Christoph’s blog on story development, distribution and audience engagement here: authenticstorytelling.net

Christoph Trappe @CTrappe also maintains a travel blog which is very inspiring.

Questions we discussed

Q1 How did you become a digital marketer? Please share your career story!

I started as a journalist and really learned how to connect with audiences. How to make a difference by telling and sharing stories that mattered. I then took those skills through video production and into marketing which I’ve done for the second half of my career.

My marketing career has spanned several verticals – healthcare, SaaS, tech, nonprofits, publishing, etc. I’m a big fan of the Create Once, Publish Everywhere Model and always look for ways to get content to perform better.

I published my third book earlier this year as well.

I’m currently a big fan of live-streaming, podcasting and tying that into the overall omninchannel marketing strategy.

Q2 What should a brand do if no one is searching for them? How to boost your branded search?

Write content around topics that people are searching for. Don’t overdream and go for huge keywords but target the ones your audience is searching for.

Partner with others to get out there. Be a guest on podcasts! Podcasts are now indexed as well so there can be an SEO impact. Many hosts also create landing pages for episodes.

Quote industry experts in your content. Usually what they will do is share that content as well. That’s one way to get your company out there.

You can also consider running ad campaigns and bid on competitor names so your ad will show up when people search for them. Not really a search strategy, but until folks know you they can’t search for you.

And (this should come earlier) have a brand name that can actually be remembered. Some cutesy names out there or acronyms are really hard to remember for folks.

Q3 What if we are dealing with the opposite problem: What should big brands do to monitor their branded search?

See where people are going on your site when they search for your brand. #vcbuzz Optimize those pages for further conversion. Also, not all branded search is truly branded search. Just typing in your URL on some devices can count as a Google search.

I don’t think there’s a thing as too much searching honestly. An exception could be if they mistake your brand for another totally unrelated brand.

Be aware that once a brand gets bigger competitors might bid on your name in their ad campaigns.

Q4 In both of these cases, should businesses target their branded keyword on paid search?

It depends. 🙂 Don’t you hate that answer. #vcbuzz If you are running ad campaigns to your website, Google Ads may by default show your ad for your branded search as well. Simply go into the negative keywords to turn that off. Something to be aware of.

For larger brands, they likely will have to run paid campaigns for their brand name as competitors are likely doing the same. Especially now with Google pushing organic results farther down the page.

For newer brands, it’s probably not necessary to bid on your brand name yet. If nobody else is running campaigns for your brand name it’s probably also okay not to – especially if you show up No. 1 organically.

Q5 What are your favorite brand building tools?

First off, use this cool business name generator to find a cool brand name which won’t have too many competitors in the organic search!

I currently actively use: @neilpatel’s Ubersuggest (SEO) @buffer (social) @freshsalesapp (email) @Mailchimp (email) @canva (design) @SwitcherStudio (live streams) @WordPress @anchor (podcast editing and distribution)

An ever evolving list… @neilpatel @buffer @freshsalesapp @Mailchimp @canva @SwitcherStudio @WordPress @anchor Google Analytics, Search Console, Ads, etc. of course as well.