When people find your website using a search engine they will search for your company name or they will search for something that you do. Hopefully your website is on or near page one for:

A branded search – a search for your company name or brand names

An un-branded search – a search for something that you do or make

Branded search

If people are searching for you company name, then they must have heard of your company in order to make that search. A branded search is the electronic equivalent of word or mouth. An increasing number of monthly searches for your company name indicates that your PR activity is effective or you have just attended an expensive trade show.

Un-branded search

People searching for new service providers or products will use search engines. Most companies understand that they need to optimise their website to get onto page one for certain search terms in order to generate sales enquiries. If you have never engaged in a website search engine optimisation programme you will almost certainly be missing out on significant levels of new business enquiries.

The usual objective of carrying out an un-branded search campaign is to increasing the quantity and quality. The pitfalls we come across most when developing an un-branded search campaign are:

  • Optimising for the wrong search terms even if they seem like a good idea at the timePoor quality content.
  • Insufficient quantity of content.
  • Plain wrong content, not talking about what you do or what you make.
  • A poor website structure that is un-able to support an effective campaign.
  • Poor execution

Summary

An effective digital marketing strategy should include consideration and measurement of branded and un-branded search traffic. Optimisation activity should be carried out regularly, content should be relevant and of sufficient quantity and added regularly.

Strategy and performance should be reviewed regularly, at least every 6 months.