A branded search is a search engine entry that includes the actual name of the business that the user is trying to find. Compare that to a non-branded search, one that takes a category approach to finding a business. "Joe’s plumbing" is a branded search. Plumbers near me is a non-branded search.
Branded searches are the gold standard of organic traffic. When a user does a branded search, the odds are that the user will end up on your business’s web site or social platform.
Problem is that branded search volumes is small compared to the non-branded searches. But for a website, It's always interesting and important to compare the percentage of each. Does most of a site's organic traffic come from branded or non-branded searches? The answer holds lots of clues about what digital marketing moves should happen next.
What's the right balance? Certainly, it can vary depending upon a business's category, offline advertising, years in business, strength of website and many others. But we will say that somewhere between 60-40 (either way) is probably healthy.
One way to determine the search balance is through a digital media audit. This kind of data analysis can measure and compare a website’s organic traffic from branded searches versus non-branded searches. It's one part of a digital media audit that our company can build for you.
