Dana DiTomaso is the founder and president of Kick Point, a Canadian-based digital marketing agency. She is well known for her ingenious and innovative presentations on tracking and analytics, as well as other growth marketing strategies. She's presented at SMX, Local Search Summit, and Engage, and we're thrilled to welcome her back to this year’s MozCon Virtual where she’ll discuss modern web development that puts SEO first. Check out what she has to share ahead of this year’s show!
Question: 2020 was quite the year, what were you up to this past year? Any surprises or favorite projects you worked on?
Dana: Like many people I actually ended up moving! I now live on Vancouver Island and I can practically see the USA from my house — not that I’ve been able to visit. I also completed my first course, hopefully of many, for LinkedIn Learning on the topic of technical SEO. My next course is already in progress and will be covering how to transition from Google Analytics Universal to GA4, and that should be out in the fall.
At Kick Point, we grew over the past year and we're now a team of 12! Like a lot of agencies, we did see some good come out of an otherwise pretty awful time for many, we’re very fortunate.
Q: What is the biggest shift you’ve seen in the SEO industry over the past year? How does that impact your work at Kick Point, if at all?
D: The biggest change this year was the rollout of Core Web Vitals, which as I write this, is only just happening now. I am extremely curious to see how it impacts SEO over the remainder of 2021. I don’t want to say too much more in case it ages badly!
Q: Last year, you discussed how to use a discovery process to turn red flags to green lights. Will we see any of the same themes come through in your presentation this year? How so?
D: Absolutely! This year is really a companion piece to last year. Last year I covered discovery for marketing projects, and this year I'm covering discovery for website projects. These discovery processes have made such incredible changes at Kick Point in terms of how we work with new clients — it's really been amazing. I hope that people who listen to my talk are able to take away some of the lessons that we've learned and apply them to their own processes.
Q: In your MozCon talk, you’ll be discussing how to build a website with a search-first mindset. What inspired you to discuss this topic at MozCon 2021?
D: I think it's a topic that isn't covered enough. We unfortunately often still see a real divide between the developer and SEO worlds and I'm hoping that we can work towards bridging that. Particularly with the advent of Core Web Vitals, these two teams need to work together more than ever before.
Additionally, this talk is based on a lot of our own learnings in terms of better ways to run website projects. Since we have adopted this process, website projects are just more fun — less stress, on time, on budget, all those things that we all want in a website project but seem impossible to achieve. I’m not saying this will magically fix everything but it’ll definitely put you on a happier path.
Q: What are some of the challenges SEOs face in the web development process?
D: Being taken seriously! I've been working in this field for 21 years now and I can't even tell you the number of times that I've been on a call with a developer or development team discussing SEO recommendations and just being completely dismissed — that these recommendations aren’t necessary, that we're wrong, or that the developer knows better. And it's an incredibly frustrating place to be in. I’m sure other SEOs reading this have had similar experiences.
Q: Why is it important for SEO to be at the forefront when it comes to website development? How has the relationship changed over the years?
D: Because it's so much easier and cheaper to get SEO recommendations added in at the beginning instead of trying to shove things in later after the site is done. I think that developers are more aware of SEO now but there is still a lot of mistrust. I think it’s important to set the tone that you aren’t there to throw the developer under the bus — they aren’t an SEO expert, and shouldn’t be expected to learn all this specific SEO stuff. Showing that you’re there to help right from the start can really help that relationship thrive.
Q: What’s your #1 tip for ensuring that SEO gets a seat at the table in a website rebrand?
D: You need to start with education. Either the leadership team that you're working with doesn't understand the power of SEO or they may have a really outdated understanding of what SEO is and what it can do. Tom Critchlow has an excellent article that he recently published on how to convince executives to care about SEO and I’d say that is required reading.
Q: What are the key takeaways you want the audience to walk away with?
D: I want people to understand that there is a space between waterfall and agile when it comes to website development processes. I hope that people will enjoy our blueprint process and it’ll help them make better website plans. Finally, I’m really excited to show off the keyword research presentation idea that I got from Rebekah Baggs and Chris Corak — it’s so good!
Q: Who in the MozCon lineup are you most excited to watch this year? Anything else you are looking forward to?
D: The talks by Dr. Pete, Areej AbuAli, and Britney Muller all look great! And of course I’ll be watching Brie Anderson’s talk since GA4 is very close to my heart. I’m also really looking forward to hopefully having an in-person MozCon next year! There is really nothing that can replace the experience of speaking to a live audience.
A big thank you to Dana for her time! To learn more about Dana’s upcoming presentation, see details on our other speakers, and to purchase your ticket, make sure you click the link below!
Dana DiTomaso is the founder and president of Kick Point, a Canadian-based digital marketing agency. She is well known for her ingenious and innovative presentations on tracking and analytics, as well as other growth marketing strategies. She's presented at SMX, Local Search Summit, and Engage, and we're thrilled to welcome her back to this year’s MozCon Virtual where she’ll discuss modern web development that puts SEO first. Check out what she has to share ahead of this year’s show!
Question: 2020 was quite the year, what were you up to this past year? Any surprises or favorite projects you worked on?
Dana: Like many people I actually ended up moving! I now live on Vancouver Island and I can practically see the USA from my house — not that I’ve been able to visit. I also completed my first course, hopefully of many, for LinkedIn Learning on the topic of technical SEO. My next course is already in progress and will be covering how to transition from Google Analytics Universal to GA4, and that should be out in the fall.
At Kick Point, we grew over the past year and we're now a team of 12! Like a lot of agencies, we did see some good come out of an otherwise pretty awful time for many, we’re very fortunate.
Q: What is the biggest shift you’ve seen in the SEO industry over the past year? How does that impact your work at Kick Point, if at all?
D: The biggest change this year was the rollout of Core Web Vitals, which as I write this, is only just happening now. I am extremely curious to see how it impacts SEO over the remainder of 2021. I don’t want to say too much more in case it ages badly!
Q: Last year, you discussed how to use a discovery process to turn red flags to green lights. Will we see any of the same themes come through in your presentation this year? How so?
D: Absolutely! This year is really a companion piece to last year. Last year I covered discovery for marketing projects, and this year I'm covering discovery for website projects. These discovery processes have made such incredible changes at Kick Point in terms of how we work with new clients — it's really been amazing. I hope that people who listen to my talk are able to take away some of the lessons that we've learned and apply them to their own processes.
Q: In your MozCon talk, you’ll be discussing how to build a website with a search-first mindset. What inspired you to discuss this topic at MozCon 2021?
D: I think it's a topic that isn't covered enough. We unfortunately often still see a real divide between the developer and SEO worlds and I'm hoping that we can work towards bridging that. Particularly with the advent of Core Web Vitals, these two teams need to work together more than ever before.
Additionally, this talk is based on a lot of our own learnings in terms of better ways to run website projects. Since we have adopted this process, website projects are just more fun — less stress, on time, on budget, all those things that we all want in a website project but seem impossible to achieve. I’m not saying this will magically fix everything but it’ll definitely put you on a happier path.
Q: What are some of the challenges SEOs face in the web development process?
D: Being taken seriously! I've been working in this field for 21 years now and I can't even tell you the number of times that I've been on a call with a developer or development team discussing SEO recommendations and just being completely dismissed — that these recommendations aren’t necessary, that we're wrong, or that the developer knows better. And it's an incredibly frustrating place to be in. I’m sure other SEOs reading this have had similar experiences.
Q: Why is it important for SEO to be at the forefront when it comes to website development? How has the relationship changed over the years?
D: Because it's so much easier and cheaper to get SEO recommendations added in at the beginning instead of trying to shove things in later after the site is done. I think that developers are more aware of SEO now but there is still a lot of mistrust. I think it’s important to set the tone that you aren’t there to throw the developer under the bus — they aren’t an SEO expert, and shouldn’t be expected to learn all this specific SEO stuff. Showing that you’re there to help right from the start can really help that relationship thrive.
Q: What’s your #1 tip for ensuring that SEO gets a seat at the table in a website rebrand?
D: You need to start with education. Either the leadership team that you're working with doesn't understand the power of SEO or they may have a really outdated understanding of what SEO is and what it can do. Tom Critchlow has an excellent article that he recently published on how to convince executives to care about SEO and I’d say that is required reading.
Q: What are the key takeaways you want the audience to walk away with?
D: I want people to understand that there is a space between waterfall and agile when it comes to website development processes. I hope that people will enjoy our blueprint process and it’ll help them make better website plans. Finally, I’m really excited to show off the keyword research presentation idea that I got from Rebekah Baggs and Chris Corak — it’s so good!
Q: Who in the MozCon lineup are you most excited to watch this year? Anything else you are looking forward to?
D: The talks by Dr. Pete, Areej AbuAli, and Britney Muller all look great! And of course I’ll be watching Brie Anderson’s talk since GA4 is very close to my heart. I’m also really looking forward to hopefully having an in-person MozCon next year! There is really nothing that can replace the experience of speaking to a live audience.
A big thank you to Dana for her time! To learn more about Dana’s upcoming presentation, see details on our other speakers, and to purchase your ticket, make sure you click the link below!
Have you googled yourself or your company recently?
I bet you have, but this doesn’t mean you have a branded search optimization strategy.
Brand-driven search is so much more than URLs you see ranking for your brand name. It’s an ongoing process that will result in higher conversions and more predictable buying journeys.
Let’s start from the beginning.
What is branded search?
A branded (also referred to as brand-driven) search query is one that contains your brand or product name. Branded search includes search queries that include personal, brand-driven words, like your CEO or writers’ names.
Why should your branded search be your marketing priority?
There seems to be an obvious answer to this question. After all, great SEO starts with your brand, so branded SEO research should be any company’s priority. Yet, it’s quite unbelievable how many brands completely ignore search queries.
Branded search is crucial for several important reasons:
Brand-driven search is usually high-intent: People who type your brand name in the search box want to either go straight to your site or research you before making a purchase.
Branded search queries show which issues your current or future customers may be experiencing with your site or product.
Brand-driven search is important to analyze in order to understand the online sentiment around your (and competing) brand.
Finally (and obviously), any of those branded SERPs may influence buying decisions, which make them part of your sales funnel.
Like a branded hashtag, your branded SERPs don’t belong to you, and you can’t really control what people see there, unless you spend some time and effort optimizing for your own branded search.
How to research your branded search queries
Start with your immediate branded Google suggestions
What do people see when they just start typing your brand name into the search box?
Brand-driven Google suggestions should be your top priority for two important reasons:
Google suggestions show what people search most as far as your brand is concerned. They’ve historically relied on the search frequency data, so the more people search for a particular phrase, the higher that phrase shows up in Google suggestions.
Google suggestions may (and likely will) influence lots of your customers’ buying decisions. Think about someone typing your brand name in their mobile device address bar (in an effort to go directly to your site) and seeing “brand name alternatives” as a suggestion. What’s the chance that person will get curious enough to click that suggestion and discover your competitors? According to the recent study, Google searchers use one of Google’s suggestions 23% of the time. That’s almost a quarter of your customers who already know you enough to search for your name. Suddenly, you’re competing for the attention of someone who had been going directly to your site:
"This isn't even a search box. This is Safari's URL bar. Safari uses Google's top suggestions, which may steer your current or future customers to competitors."
Basically, this means that branded Google suggestions may influence your buyers’ decisions even when they aren’t really searching for anything.
I’m sure you’re wondering: Is there any way to change what Google shows when people are typing your brand name?
Unfortunately, no.
There’s no long-term way to somehow influence Google suggestions. Of course, you could try and hire an army of searchers to type some other combinations with your brand name to convince Google to include in those results. But even if it works, Google will remove that suggestion soon after you stop paying your army.
Another way to influence your branded suggestions is to go viral with some new product, report, or news. A quickly-rising search term is often included in those suggestions.
Yet, as soon as people stop searching for that query, the result will also be replaced with a different one.
That being said, chances are, you’ll need to deal with branded Google suggestion results as they are.
Types of branded Google suggestions
It’s amazing how often brands absolutely neglect their branded search suggestions. In fact, these as-you-type results may tell you a lot about your brand’s perception as well as your buyers’ journeys:
In our example, the brand’s domain ranks #1 only for four queries. All other branded suggestions are controlled by third-party domains:
Use keyword research tools
Your brand name is your most important keyword. You want people to search more for your brand as that helps you evaluate your marketing efforts and measure brand awareness. But you also want to make sure that your branded search results push those searchers further down your sales funnel instead of scaring them away for good.
It will pull a large variety of your branded search queries.
It will show you the search volume for each query containing your brand name.
It offers a few cool filters allowing you to play with your lists. For example, you can filter your search queries to questions or group them by lexical similarity.
Keep an eye on branded questions
Questions often get additional visibility in organic search because they often trigger featured snippets. Additionally, Google has a separate section for questions within search result pages called “People Also Ask”.
I like using questions as subheads of whatever content I’m working on. When phrased as questions, subheadings seem to draw readers in deeper into the page.
The three useful sources of branded keyword inspiration include:
1. Moz Keyword Explorer
Moz Keyword Explorer offers you an easy way to filter keyword lists by questions:
2. Google’s “People Also Ask”
Simply searching Google can give you some question inspiration. Keep an eye on those “People Also Ask” boxes and keep a record of questions that need your attention there. It’s also your goal to rank your answer for each one of those:
For larger brands with hundreds of branded search queries and questions, it would be easier to use tools like IMN’s Content Optimization tool that collects People Also Ask results for your most important queries (Disclaimer: This is the company I work for).
If you feel like playing some more, People Also Ask boxes may also give you some idea as to what Google considers relevant, as Google will show different follow-up questions based on a brand-driven question you click:
3. Text Optimizer
Finally, my go-to tool for just about any SEO task, Text Optimizer offers a separate section for questions that helps you better understand searching patterns of your audience:
Take note of these questions to include into your content marketing plan.
Group your keywords
Like with any keyword lists, yours will have several variants of one and the same idea, worded a little differently. This will be especially true for larger brands in broad niches that are searched a lot.
This is where Moz’s Keyword Explorer will turn helpful again. Take a look at your Google suggestion results and use keyword modifiers from there to group your list by a common word:
[These are essentially keyword phrases to use within a single article.]
You can also use Moz’s keyword grouping feature to discover more groups to focus on:
Finally, for every keyword you choose to work with, you can also run a SERP analysis to see high-ranking results as well as Google’s search elements:
How to optimize for your branded search
Identify where you currently stand
I’m an SEO, and any of my digital marketing strategies starts with ranking analysis. For this, Moz comes with a powerful rank tracking solution.
The tool I’m currently using is called SE Ranking, because I like how they save a cached snapshot of each monitored SERP every day. For branded search monitoring where I try and rank more than my own website for each query (more on that below), this close-up view of each SERP (and all saved records) is exactly what I need:
Group your branded search query groups by intent and further action
Above I mentioned that I group branded keywords by a common modifier or close semantic meaning, so my plan of action involves those groups rather than an individual query.
This makes the work much more doable because I usually have to deal with no more than 20 branded keyword groups instead of hundreds of individual search queries.
When making my plan, I always note:
Search intent
Further action, which largely relies on where my site currently ranks for each one
Your possible action item for each of identified branded keyword groups may be:
As you may know, I love using spreadsheets for just about anything because they make data so easy to organize, and can even be turned into a schedule, if need be.
I break [cost] and [price] into different groups because the search volume is so high for both, they each deserve an individual marketing plan.
Go above and beyond
When it comes to branded search, the more of each SERP you control, the better your odds are at winning those brand-aware searchers.
Besides, branded SERPs (just like any other SERP out there) are more than organic links. They often include videos, images, “People Also Ask” results, and more. It’s worth noting all those additional search elements in your spreadsheet as well:
So optimizing your own site for each of these keyword groups may not be enough. To incur your brand’s visibility throughout branded SERPs, you may need to:
Maintain more long-form, content-based channels, including Medium and LinkedIn, etc.
Set up mini sites targeting some of your most popular branded queries (including coupons, reviews, etc.). Namify is a great tool to come up with cool domain names to register:
It’s a good idea to note additional assets to be created in your spreadsheet as well:
On top of that, it’s always a good idea to optimize for Google’s rich snippets to let your brand-owned search snippets stand out in search. Consider adding one of the following schema markup types to your brand-oriented content assets:
FAQ schema for just about any page that answers more than two questions (this is where your question research will turn useful)
HowTo for instructions
Video schema if you have a video embedded
You also do want other departments of your company to be aware of some or many of those branded search queries. For example, navigational search queries may be a signal of some serious usability issues to be fixed, and some product-related queries may help you identify some product flaws to work on:
Interlink and monitor
Obviously, you still need links to rank all of your assets on top of branded SERPs, so it’s important to interlink your assets effectively, especially if you’re using more than your website to optimize for branded search.
Use your website power to link to your third-party assets. This is the easiest to do. You can use your About page as well as your blog to send links to your other columns and channels to rank those higher.
Don’t forget to link from video descriptions back to your site.
Link all your channels together listing all your additional columns and accounts wherever possible..
Having to deal with so many channels and assets can be exhausting, but it is doable if you set up your monitoring routine right:
Again, use a position monitoring platform to keep an eye on your positions.
Use tools like LinkChecker to keep an eye on all the links and make sure you haven’t lost any.
Keep an eye on your branded search traffic. Google Search Console is a free and easy way to do that. All you need is to limit your queries to your brand name and then compare that to the previous period to see if you are on the right track:
If Google is not the only search engine you’re interested in (for example, if you target Russian and Chinese markets), you can use Finteza, which gives aggregate traffic data from all search engines:
Conclusion
Branding comes with many benefits, including higher conversions and revenue. But it also comes with one challenge not many brands are prepared for: a fast-growing branded search. As more and more people are researching your brand online, you need to keep improving your branded search optimization strategy.
As such, optimizing for your branded search is an on-going effort (since we all hope your brand will keep growing), but hopefully the steps above will help clearly define and implement it.
Have you googled yourself or your company recently?
I bet you have, but this doesn’t mean you have a branded search optimization strategy.
Brand-driven search is so much more than URLs you see ranking for your brand name. It’s an ongoing process that will result in higher conversions and more predictable buying journeys.
Let’s start from the beginning.
What is branded search?
A branded (also referred to as brand-driven) search query is one that contains your brand or product name. Branded search includes search queries that include personal, brand-driven words, like your CEO or writers’ names.
Why should your branded search be your marketing priority?
There seems to be an obvious answer to this question. After all, great SEO starts with your brand, so branded SEO research should be any company’s priority. Yet, it’s quite unbelievable how many brands completely ignore search queries.
Branded search is crucial for several important reasons:
Brand-driven search is usually high-intent: People who type your brand name in the search box want to either go straight to your site or research you before making a purchase.
Branded search queries show which issues your current or future customers may be experiencing with your site or product.
Brand-driven search is important to analyze in order to understand the online sentiment around your (and competing) brand.
Finally (and obviously), any of those branded SERPs may influence buying decisions, which make them part of your sales funnel.
Like a branded hashtag, your branded SERPs don’t belong to you, and you can’t really control what people see there, unless you spend some time and effort optimizing for your own branded search.
How to research your branded search queries
Start with your immediate branded Google suggestions
What do people see when they just start typing your brand name into the search box?
Brand-driven Google suggestions should be your top priority for two important reasons:
Google suggestions show what people search most as far as your brand is concerned. They’ve historically relied on the search frequency data, so the more people search for a particular phrase, the higher that phrase shows up in Google suggestions.
Google suggestions may (and likely will) influence lots of your customers’ buying decisions. Think about someone typing your brand name in their mobile device address bar (in an effort to go directly to your site) and seeing “brand name alternatives” as a suggestion. What’s the chance that person will get curious enough to click that suggestion and discover your competitors? According to the recent study, Google searchers use one of Google’s suggestions 23% of the time. That’s almost a quarter of your customers who already know you enough to search for your name. Suddenly, you’re competing for the attention of someone who had been going directly to your site:
"This isn't even a search box. This is Safari's URL bar. Safari uses Google's top suggestions, which may steer your current or future customers to competitors."
Basically, this means that branded Google suggestions may influence your buyers’ decisions even when they aren’t really searching for anything.
I’m sure you’re wondering: Is there any way to change what Google shows when people are typing your brand name?
Unfortunately, no.
There’s no long-term way to somehow influence Google suggestions. Of course, you could try and hire an army of searchers to type some other combinations with your brand name to convince Google to include in those results. But even if it works, Google will remove that suggestion soon after you stop paying your army.
Another way to influence your branded suggestions is to go viral with some new product, report, or news. A quickly-rising search term is often included in those suggestions.
Yet, as soon as people stop searching for that query, the result will also be replaced with a different one.
That being said, chances are, you’ll need to deal with branded Google suggestion results as they are.
Types of branded Google suggestions
It’s amazing how often brands absolutely neglect their branded search suggestions. In fact, these as-you-type results may tell you a lot about your brand’s perception as well as your buyers’ journeys:
In our example, the brand’s domain ranks #1 only for four queries. All other branded suggestions are controlled by third-party domains:
Use keyword research tools
Your brand name is your most important keyword. You want people to search more for your brand as that helps you evaluate your marketing efforts and measure brand awareness. But you also want to make sure that your branded search results push those searchers further down your sales funnel instead of scaring them away for good.
It will pull a large variety of your branded search queries.
It will show you the search volume for each query containing your brand name.
It offers a few cool filters allowing you to play with your lists. For example, you can filter your search queries to questions or group them by lexical similarity.
Keep an eye on branded questions
Questions often get additional visibility in organic search because they often trigger featured snippets. Additionally, Google has a separate section for questions within search result pages called “People Also Ask”.
I like using questions as subheads of whatever content I’m working on. When phrased as questions, subheadings seem to draw readers in deeper into the page.
The three useful sources of branded keyword inspiration include:
1. Moz Keyword Explorer
Moz Keyword Explorer offers you an easy way to filter keyword lists by questions:
2. Google’s “People Also Ask”
Simply searching Google can give you some question inspiration. Keep an eye on those “People Also Ask” boxes and keep a record of questions that need your attention there. It’s also your goal to rank your answer for each one of those:
For larger brands with hundreds of branded search queries and questions, it would be easier to use tools like IMN’s Content Optimization tool that collects People Also Ask results for your most important queries (Disclaimer: This is the company I work for).
If you feel like playing some more, People Also Ask boxes may also give you some idea as to what Google considers relevant, as Google will show different follow-up questions based on a brand-driven question you click:
3. Text Optimizer
Finally, my go-to tool for just about any SEO task, Text Optimizer offers a separate section for questions that helps you better understand searching patterns of your audience:
Take note of these questions to include into your content marketing plan.
Group your keywords
Like with any keyword lists, yours will have several variants of one and the same idea, worded a little differently. This will be especially true for larger brands in broad niches that are searched a lot.
This is where Moz’s Keyword Explorer will turn helpful again. Take a look at your Google suggestion results and use keyword modifiers from there to group your list by a common word:
[These are essentially keyword phrases to use within a single article.]
You can also use Moz’s keyword grouping feature to discover more groups to focus on:
Finally, for every keyword you choose to work with, you can also run a SERP analysis to see high-ranking results as well as Google’s search elements:
How to optimize for your branded search
Identify where you currently stand
I’m an SEO, and any of my digital marketing strategies starts with ranking analysis. For this, Moz comes with a powerful rank tracking solution.
The tool I’m currently using is called SE Ranking, because I like how they save a cached snapshot of each monitored SERP every day. For branded search monitoring where I try and rank more than my own website for each query (more on that below), this close-up view of each SERP (and all saved records) is exactly what I need:
Group your branded search query groups by intent and further action
Above I mentioned that I group branded keywords by a common modifier or close semantic meaning, so my plan of action involves those groups rather than an individual query.
This makes the work much more doable because I usually have to deal with no more than 20 branded keyword groups instead of hundreds of individual search queries.
When making my plan, I always note:
Search intent
Further action, which largely relies on where my site currently ranks for each one
Your possible action item for each of identified branded keyword groups may be:
As you may know, I love using spreadsheets for just about anything because they make data so easy to organize, and can even be turned into a schedule, if need be.
I break [cost] and [price] into different groups because the search volume is so high for both, they each deserve an individual marketing plan.
Go above and beyond
When it comes to branded search, the more of each SERP you control, the better your odds are at winning those brand-aware searchers.
Besides, branded SERPs (just like any other SERP out there) are more than organic links. They often include videos, images, “People Also Ask” results, and more. It’s worth noting all those additional search elements in your spreadsheet as well:
So optimizing your own site for each of these keyword groups may not be enough. To incur your brand’s visibility throughout branded SERPs, you may need to:
Maintain more long-form, content-based channels, including Medium and LinkedIn, etc.
Set up mini sites targeting some of your most popular branded queries (including coupons, reviews, etc.). Namify is a great tool to come up with cool domain names to register:
It’s a good idea to note additional assets to be created in your spreadsheet as well:
On top of that, it’s always a good idea to optimize for Google’s rich snippets to let your brand-owned search snippets stand out in search. Consider adding one of the following schema markup types to your brand-oriented content assets:
FAQ schema for just about any page that answers more than two questions (this is where your question research will turn useful)
HowTo for instructions
Video schema if you have a video embedded
You also do want other departments of your company to be aware of some or many of those branded search queries. For example, navigational search queries may be a signal of some serious usability issues to be fixed, and some product-related queries may help you identify some product flaws to work on:
Interlink and monitor
Obviously, you still need links to rank all of your assets on top of branded SERPs, so it’s important to interlink your assets effectively, especially if you’re using more than your website to optimize for branded search.
Use your website power to link to your third-party assets. This is the easiest to do. You can use your About page as well as your blog to send links to your other columns and channels to rank those higher.
Don’t forget to link from video descriptions back to your site.
Link all your channels together listing all your additional columns and accounts wherever possible..
Having to deal with so many channels and assets can be exhausting, but it is doable if you set up your monitoring routine right:
Again, use a position monitoring platform to keep an eye on your positions.
Use tools like LinkChecker to keep an eye on all the links and make sure you haven’t lost any.
Keep an eye on your branded search traffic. Google Search Console is a free and easy way to do that. All you need is to limit your queries to your brand name and then compare that to the previous period to see if you are on the right track:
If Google is not the only search engine you’re interested in (for example, if you target Russian and Chinese markets), you can use Finteza, which gives aggregate traffic data from all search engines:
Conclusion
Branding comes with many benefits, including higher conversions and revenue. But it also comes with one challenge not many brands are prepared for: a fast-growing branded search. As more and more people are researching your brand online, you need to keep improving your branded search optimization strategy.
As such, optimizing for your branded search is an on-going effort (since we all hope your brand will keep growing), but hopefully the steps above will help clearly define and implement it.
There are so many ways to remember you, endless facets to who you were and your impact on SEO. Where do I even begin?
You were the funniest guy in the room. You would gear up for a joke with that wry smile and sparkle in your eye, and we always knew what was coming. Your sense of humor was keen and clever and ever-present.
I remember being ill and jetlagged on the way to put on a mini-MozCon for a valued, strategic client — you made the 2.5-hour winter car ride pass by in a breeze with your entertaining and hilarious stories. You could make charming conversation about anything and with anyone. Listening and laughing with delight to your stories about growing up as an identical twin, current events, memories from past MozCons, and ideas about what we could build at Moz next, you transformed my tired and cranky mood into happy and creative energy. Your spirit and laughter was infectious.
You were brilliant. Our longtime friend, links API power user, and collaborator on the blog, it was only a matter of time before you became a full-fledged Mozzer. When we officially welcomed you to Moz in 2015, it was like coming home. From the start, you showed up eager and ready to innovate. Over the years you were relentless in your quest for better data, holding tech giants and the SEO industry accountable. You've left an indelible mark on Moz: our link index and keyword corpus bear witness to your passion for reliable, quality data and meaningful metrics. Keyword Explorer wouldn't be here without you. Your work on the new Domain Authority score was transformative. And your commitment to the SEO community, to relaying complex ideas clearly and with conviction, were second to none. You were always there when we needed you.
You were bold and courageous. You stuck up for your beliefs and staunchly defended them, be they professional or political. You were a loyal and steadfast advocate, always willing to wade into the fray for your friends and colleagues, the best kind of friend to have. I learned a lot from watching you debate and explain with flair, class, and compassion in all the SEO corners of the internet. Conversations that I didn’t have the stomach for, you would enter into with a smile, guided by the flame of your convictions.
I loved your devotion to your family and how you treasured time with them above all else. You would think deeply about whether you were being the best dad, husband, brother you could be. The same curiosity and drive for greatness that you applied to work, you also applied to your personal relationships. You wanted to be good at loving your family because you believed they deserved that from you. I felt it when you brought them to MozCon and you talked about watching your daughters grow and learn. You were always asking yourself, “How could I be a better dad in this moment?” Your passion for service and making the world better was driven, in part, because you wanted a better world for your girls.
There's so much we still wish we could say to you. There are words left unsaid, projects unfinished, ideas unrealized. But beyond all else, I just want to say thank you, Russ, for the incredible impact you've had: on Moz and Mozzers, on the SEO community, on everything and everyone you touched. On me.
To the SEO community, I invite you to revisit the vast legacy Russ gifted us with his blog posts, Whiteboard Fridays, and MozCon presentations, linked below. Remember him for all he gave us. We're lucky to have these memories of a brilliant soul gone too soon.
A memorial site has been set up in his honor at rememberingrussjones.com. There you can read more about Russ and his great loves in life, share a memory, and make a donation to a fund for his family.
Our grief is deep. Our love is deeper. Today, I'll be raising a glass (Scotch, neat) and I ask you to join me in this toast: To Russ, who pushed for excellence, who always strove to make life a little easier for others, and who always had a sparkle in his eyes and a joke at the ready. Goodbye, my friend.
There are so many ways to remember you, endless facets to who you were and your impact on SEO. Where do I even begin?
You were the funniest guy in the room. You would gear up for a joke with that wry smile and sparkle in your eye, and we always knew what was coming. Your sense of humor was keen and clever and ever-present.
I remember being ill and jetlagged on the way to put on a mini-MozCon for a valued, strategic client — you made the 2.5-hour winter car ride pass by in a breeze with your entertaining and hilarious stories. You could make charming conversation about anything and with anyone. Listening and laughing with delight to your stories about growing up as an identical twin, current events, memories from past MozCons, and ideas about what we could build at Moz next, you transformed my tired and cranky mood into happy and creative energy. Your spirit and laughter was infectious.
You were brilliant. Our longtime friend, links API power user, and collaborator on the blog, it was only a matter of time before you became a full-fledged Mozzer. When we officially welcomed you to Moz in 2015, it was like coming home. From the start, you showed up eager and ready to innovate. Over the years you were relentless in your quest for better data, holding tech giants and the SEO industry accountable. You've left an indelible mark on Moz: our link index and keyword corpus bear witness to your passion for reliable, quality data and meaningful metrics. Keyword Explorer wouldn't be here without you. Your work on the new Domain Authority score was transformative. And your commitment to the SEO community, to relaying complex ideas clearly and with conviction, were second to none. You were always there when we needed you.
You were bold and courageous. You stuck up for your beliefs and staunchly defended them, be they professional or political. You were a loyal and steadfast advocate, always willing to wade into the fray for your friends and colleagues, the best kind of friend to have. I learned a lot from watching you debate and explain with flair, class, and compassion in all the SEO corners of the internet. Conversations that I didn’t have the stomach for, you would enter into with a smile, guided by the flame of your convictions.
I loved your devotion to your family and how you treasured time with them above all else. You would think deeply about whether you were being the best dad, husband, brother you could be. The same curiosity and drive for greatness that you applied to work, you also applied to your personal relationships. You wanted to be good at loving your family because you believed they deserved that from you. I felt it when you brought them to MozCon and you talked about watching your daughters grow and learn. You were always asking yourself, “How could I be a better dad in this moment?” Your passion for service and making the world better was driven, in part, because you wanted a better world for your girls.
There's so much we still wish we could say to you. There are words left unsaid, projects unfinished, ideas unrealized. But beyond all else, I just want to say thank you, Russ, for the incredible impact you've had: on Moz and Mozzers, on the SEO community, on everything and everyone you touched. On me.
To the SEO community, I invite you to revisit the vast legacy Russ gifted us with his blog posts, Whiteboard Fridays, and MozCon presentations, linked below. Remember him for all he gave us. We're lucky to have these memories of a brilliant soul gone too soon.
A memorial site has been set up in his honor at rememberingrussjones.com. There you can read more about Russ and his great loves in life, share a memory, and make a donation to a fund for his family.
Our grief is deep. Our love is deeper. Today, I'll be raising a glass (Scotch, neat) and I ask you to join me in this toast: To Russ, who pushed for excellence, who always strove to make life a little easier for others, and who always had a sparkle in his eyes and a joke at the ready. Goodbye, my friend.
Local SEO expert Joy Hawkins joins us for a special edition of Whiteboard Friday, giving you a sneak peek at her MozCon Virtual 2021 presentation: To Post or Not to Post: What We Learned From Analyzing Over 1,000 Google Posts.
Don’t forget to grab your ticket to see Joy and our other incredible speakers, July 12-14!
Click on the whiteboard image above to open a larger version in a new tab!
Video Transcription
Hi, Moz fans. It's Joy Hawkins, and today I'm going to be giving you a preview of the presentation I'm going to be doing later this year at MozCon. It's all about Google My Business posts.
So if you are unfamiliar with posts, there are currently four different types of Google My Business posts. There are what we call the update posts, which is kind of your typical post that has an image and some text. There are what we call offer posts, event posts, and then last year Google actually released a new one called COVID posts. Now typically all these posts share some similarities, but they're all a little different.
1. COVID Posts perform well
One of the things that we looked at in the study, that I'm going to be going over at MozCon, is which type performs better.
So specifically we wanted to know: Do they get more clicks? Do they get more conversions? We identified that two of the types definitely outperform the other two. So I'm not going to reveal both. But I'll tell you that one of the two was the COVID post type. The reason for this I believe is that, unlike the other three types of posts, COVID posts get their own special spot in the knowledge panel.
So I've done my best to highlight this here. On the left here, you'll see that at the bottom there's usually the post carousel, and it's underneath reviews, questions and answers, and products. So it's kind of like shoved down in the search results. Now COVID posts on the other hand, which are featured over here on the right, they show up right at the top, right underneath the business information.
So they're very visible, and it's a really good place to get a quick message across. The only downside, of course, is that they don't have photos. So keep that in mind when you're figuring out which type to use.
2. Average CTR = 0.5%
Now the second thing that we discovered was that the average click-through rate on all the posts in our study was half a percent, so 0.5%, which means that you need about 200 views on a post before you're going to get a click.
Now don't let that discourage you. Keep in mind that that is only tracking clicks that happen on the actual post. So, in reality, people could be calling you more, they could be clicking on your website more, lots of other things. So there are still a lot of reasons why you would want to consider doing Google Posts.
3. GMB does not equal GA
The third thing on my list here is keep in mind, when you are tracking the results from posts, that what you see inside Google My Business Insights is not going to match what you see inside Google Analytics.
Now in this industry, often we use what are called UTM codes, which help you track things better in Google Analytics. If you're unfamiliar with how those work or how to use them with Google Posts, I'm going to link to an article down below that will explain all of that. But the main thing that you've got to remember is that these numbers won't match. So don't expect them to match. If you do, you're going to be very frustrated. Don't go down that rabbit trail. Just remember that they are tracked differently and you're going to get different numbers. So pick one and stick with it.
4. Justifications = 60 days
The fourth thing is in regards to justifications. Now if you're unfamiliar with that term, you're like, "What are justifications," Miriam Ellis recently did a blog post here on Moz about this topic, and she explained it really well. So I'm not going to do what she did and explain it. Check out her article, and that will give you all the information you need.
But just in case you're not familiar and you really don't know what I'm talking about, I did my best — I'm not an artist — to draw it over here. So let's say, for example, you're on Google and you do a search for local SEO, and my agency, Sterling Sky, shows up in the search results.
If we had a post recently that mentioned local SEO, Google might grab that little snippet, the words essentially and stick it right there in the local pack results. This is what we call a justification. So they're really cool, and it's a great way to get more words and more messaging in front of your possible consumers. Now the thing to keep in mind here is that post justifications only look at posts that were done from the last 60 days.
So your older posts won't be looked at. So you've got to have a post strategy that is pretty frequent.
5. Seasonal Posts = one of the worst
The fifth thing was that we wanted to look at content types. So people often ask me, "Joy, what should I post about? Like what am I supposed to put in the content in Google Posts?" It comes up a lot as a question.
So we, with our study, basically organized all the different posts we looked at into different categories. Then what I'm going to show at MozCon is the winners and the losers. So one from the losers, that did not perform well, were posts about seasonal topics. Now that shocked me to be completely honest. But what I'm talking about here is let's say you have a dermatologist and it's coming close to Christmas.
So you use like Christmassy wording and Christmas emojis and like Christmas stuff to try and make the post kind of be more relevant. These did not perform well. So it kind of surprised me, but that was one from our losers list.
6. Use emojis!
One from our winners list was emojis, point number six. So emojis are great. Some of you may be excited by this. Some of you might roll your eyes.
If you love emojis, this is one of the strategies that we saw that actually helped performance on Google Posts. So make sure you use emojis if you are trying to get people's attention. Posts with them outperformed posts without them.
7. Update Posts = 6 months
Finally, the last tip I'm going to share with you today is in regards to the update posts. Now if you're not familiar with the term "update posts," I kind of made it up because there was no name for the traditional post inside Google My Business.
So it sent updates, so we just called it that. But this was the type of post that, if you remember when Google first launched this feature, you would do a post and it would last for seven days, and after seven days, it would get deleted from your knowledge panel. So it was essentially invisible, which was a little annoying because you don't want to have to go and post every seven days. Because you can't schedule a post natively inside Google My Business, it was a bit of a headache to try and keep up with this as a business owner.
So the good news is that several months ago Google changed this, and now these posts actually stay on your knowledge panel for a long time. But I wanted to know exactly how long they stayed on there, so I tracked some and came to the conclusion that they stay on your knowledge panel for six months. So essentially what that means is if you made one update post, never posted again, it would stay there for six months and then it would disappear, which is a lot better than seven days.
So keep these tips in mind when you are coming up with your post strategy. Obviously to get a lot more, feel free to check out my talk at MozCon upcoming later this year. Some of the things that I'll be talking about there — there's a lot that I didn't cover — I'll be addressing if posts impact ranking, which is probably the number one question that I get asked, and I'll also be going through a lot more of the winning and losing strategies that we found from the study.
Thanks for listening, and if you have any questions, feel free to leave them in the comments.
