When you think of your website’s SEO, you probably think of keywords, images, backlinks, and/or page performance. Have you ever thought of your brand name as a primary part of your SEO strategy?
Using your brand name for SEO is a creative technique you can employ.
The only bad news is that it works best in the initial stage of starting your business – before you’ve gotten off the ground.
How Does Your Brand Name Impact Your Ranking?
As a new business owner, you are naturally tempted to come up with a unique name. Unfortunately, names that are too unique also have a downside: they are not memorable.
In an industry that is saturated with competition, a made-up word or a fancy-sounding name may be overlooked.
One can argue that the biggest businesses like Facebook and Instagram have unique names, but most companies like this form when there is little competition and become impossible to overshadow after they’re popular.
The other end of the spectrum is choosing a name that is too simple.
For example, a quick Google search for ‘plagiarism checker’ returns websites called ‘Plagiarism Checker’, ‘Check Plagiarism’, and ‘Plagiarism Detector’. If you were to use one and return a few days later, you wouldn’t remember which one you used.
The solution is the sweet spot in the middle.
You want a name that is:
- Easy to remember
- Stands out from the competition
- Contains your primary keyword
If you are starting a clothing brand, for example, the ideal name for SEO would contain a primary keyword like ‘clothes’, ‘dresses’, or ‘apparel’, followed by another word that makes it unique.
One tool you can use to generate a business name is Shopify’s Business Name Generator.
Once you shortlist names, carry out an extensive search on each.
What you are looking for is the level of competition for your keyword.
Use tools like the Google Ads Keyword Tool or Semrush to find out the search volume for your term.
Your ideal brand name should have a high search volume and moderate competition.
What If You Already Have a Brand Name?
Fortunately, a Google search for ‘women’s dresses’ shows many businesses that don’t have ‘dress’ in their brand name but still rank competitively because they have the keyword in their page titles.
It may not be possible to change your brand name, but you can create internal pages with titles and headings containing the keyword you want to rank for.
When correctly done, optimized page titles have the potential to rank high.
With ever-increasing online competition, your brand name is an untapped reserve for leads.
Optimize it with your keywords and keep an eye on the results.
