We do A LOT of looking at traffic numbers for clients. More specifically, we look at the potential traffic that ranking for certain keywords, keyword phrases, and questions might generate.

Here’s a pattern we’ve noticed over the past few years: There is a lot of search activity around names.

I mean, a lot.

People are searching for company names. Brand names. Competitor names. Celebrity names.

The fact that there are so many searches including names means a lot for how you do your marketing.

Why? Because it means that a lot of prospects are probably *coming to Google and other search engines already knowing your name.*

Wait, so where are they learning it from, if they already know it enough to type into a search engine? It could be anything: Word of mouth. Radio ads. Hell, they might have learned it from another Google search they did yesterday.

So if you care about SEO:

1. Don’t ignore all that branded traffic, but
2. Also pay attention to all the other ways your name is getting out there, and finally
3. Use this knowledge to inform your content strategy

(And not to give away the punchline, but #3 is the most important here, if you’re just skimming.)

The One Hand: Don’t Ignore All that Branded Traffic

The fact that people search names often should be great news if search is a part of your marketing mix. If someone is searching for your company by name, they already know that you exist, and probably want to make a connection—or at the very least, read a review. They are probably pretty far down the marketing funnel already.

The same is true if they are searching for one of your product names. Either they intend to buy, or are deep into the decision process. They are pretty far along the funnel, too.

And owning your own name—whether company, brand, or product—should be easy, right? You should be the one in the #1 spot in Google for those names, and doing so is much more straightforward than for other, broader keywords.

The Other Hand: Where Else Have They Heard of You?

This news cuts both ways, however. Part of the point of search is to introduce your company or your brand to new people. If people are already searching your name, they’ve already had an introduction…and it might not have been an introduction you were able to control.

Indeed, a lot of search volume for your company name might indicate that there are other marketing channels that you need to pay attention to, as those are where first impressions are being formed. Are people reading reviews on third party sites? Or worse, on competitor sites? Are they hearing things word of mouth? Through paid ads? And how much of that do you control?

Your Real Homework Beings: Letting Name Searches Inform Strategy

Here, though, is the real take-away: Whether people search for your name(s), and how that translates (or doesn’t translate) into actual traffic or leads says a lot about what your marketing approach needs to be.

So here’s something practical you can do to start thinking along these lines: Fire up your favorite keyword tool (we like to use Serpstat) and see what kind of keyword searches/traffic are predicted for your company name, product names, etc.

If there’s no one searching for your name, you have an AWARENESS problem. Your name is not getting out there enough. So people don’t even know you are something worth Googling. (If that’s you, start thinking: How do you remedy that?)

If your company name (brand name, product name, etc.) is getting searched, you either need some SEO help or you have an ENGAGEMENT problem—-that is, people are searching for you (and, hopefully, looking at your content) but then saying “yeah, no, not for me right now.” More times than not, we find it’s the latter (i.e. it’s not a technical SEO issue).

The awareness problems and the engagement problem are two entirely different beasts. They require two different approaches, and thus are two entirely different kinds of investments.

I’ve seen a lot of marketing dollars get wasted because a client assumed they had one problem, when really they had the other.