This article has been contributed by Gaurav Sharma.

As a marketer, the end goal of any strategy is to increase your sales and revenue.

But what’s the best way to do that? When it comes to your website, you generally need to boost traffic to your site. But we all know that’s easier said than done – unless you want to increase branded traffic. If that’s the case, this is everything you need to know to get the job done.

We’ve got 8 easy ways to increase branded traffic, with useful detailed steps. Some you may already be doing, some might be new, and one might be something you’ve always thought wasn’t worth your time or money (hint: number 5).

But why is branded traffic so important?

What is Branded Traffic?

A whopping 81% of shoppers research a product online before buying it. These customers generally use a brand search or branded term in Google.

Branded terms are typically keywords that contain your brand name or product names.

It is clear that when people search for information using branded terms, they know what they are looking for and are more likely to make a buying decision.

Even better, branded search volume contributes significantly to your SERP ranking too.

So, what does it take to build the brand awareness that will lead to more branded searches and traffic?

 

How To Boost Branded Traffic in 8 Simple Steps

Ways to Boost Your Branded Traffic

1. Find Branded Keywords

Branded keywords are all about you. Leveraging them is essential if you want to boost your branded traffic.

A study by Advanced Web Ranking clearly shows that branded keywords have a far better click-through rate than non-branded keywords.

Image source: Advanced Web Ranking

There are 4 types of branded keywords that users generally search for.

Navigational Keywords

Navigational keywords are those that people use to find a brand, service, or location.

When people search for a brand name or product like Microsoft Office or Starbucks, they already know the brand and could be searching either for their website or an offline store.

ROPO Queries (Research Online, Purchase Offline)

Users search for ROPO queries when they have an intention of making a purchase offline.

For example, when someone searches for a keyword like “7Eleven NYC review” it indicates that the user is interested in that particular offline store. However, they’re searching for it online.

Competitor Branded Keywords

When users compare your product or services with that of your competitors, they use competitor-branded keywords. Nike vs VFC is a typical example.

Purchase Intent Keywords

Google says that 53% of shoppers do online research to make the best buying decisions. Keywords like “buy Grammarly Premium” clearly show that the user has a high intent of making a purchase.

You can do a comprehensive search on Google Keyword Planner or any of your favorite keyword research tools to find the keywords that are specific to your brand.

Image source: Google Keyword Planner

You can then organize them according to the above-mentioned types of branded keywords and strategically incorporate them into your marketing efforts to boost branded traffic.

2. Create Helpful Content

It’s essential that you create content that is both informative and rich in branding. This fundamental SEO pillar is imperative to boost your branded traffic.

That’s why, according to HubSpot, 82% of marketers agree that they actively invest in content marketing.

And guess what?

You can start adding branded keywords to your content to help it rank higher in the search results for those keywords. This, in turn, would help you boost your branded traffic.

The best part?

While your website content, FAQs, and blog are an essential part of a good content strategy, do not limit yourself to them. Think out of the box and explore multiple other options like images and videos.

In fact, the HubSpot report also says that video is the #1 type of media dominating content marketing strategy.

Image source: HubSpot

So, it helps to create branded videos and distribute them on various platforms.

And you don’t even need to stop at videos. You could also go about hosting a podcast that informs users about your brand and products.

3. Leverage Local SEO

Your community of audience and potential buyers is predominantly local and so should your SEO strategy be to boost your branded traffic.

Google Trends confirms that the number of searches for the term “near me” have grown phenomenally in the past few years.

Image source: Google Trends

What does that mean?

It means that local SEO has become one of the most predominant digital marketing trends that may change the marketing landscape forever.

To boost your local branded traffic you need to craft a dedicated local SEO strategy to appeal to your demographic.

Here’s what your local SEO strategy must include:

• Manage your local citations: All the relevant information about your business including NAP (name, address, and phone number), working hours, photos, and so on needs to be consistent across all directories and search platforms.
• Mobile-first website: Build a mobile-first website because a majority of users are searching for information on the go using their mobile devices.
• Get your Google My Business (GMB) listing: A GMB listing is a must for local SEO. You must make the listing as informative as possible by adding location, images, name, and phone number.
• Online reviews and ratings: Maintaining a positive online reputation for your local business is beneficial to boost your branded traffic and can help establish brand credibility. Regularly ask your customers to write a review and recommend your brand to their connections. When you get a negative review, address the issue quickly.
• Rank for rich results: You can use a schema markup tool to add structured data to your website. This move will help you drive even more branded traffic as you’ll get listed in rich results as well.
• Offline promotions: Being a brick-and-mortar business, you need to utilize all possible opportunities for offline promotion. Be present at local expos, conferences, sponsor an event, or contribute to a charitable cause. Be visible to your prospects.

4. Acquire Branded Backlinks

Branded backlinks are a definitive strategy to boost branded traffic to your website. Links from other credible websites act as votes of confidence for your website. This, in turn, enhances your online authority.

Although there is no secret recipe to acquire quality backlinks, here are some best practices you should take note of.

• Resource link building is one of the easiest, yet most effective techniques.
• Get links from client websites with whom you have already worked or are presently working with.
• Find broken links and create resources that can replace them to get more backlinks.
• Invest in blogger outreach. See Step 7 for how to work with influencers to get backlinks from popular sites that are relevant to your niche.
• Find unlinked mentions on the web and request for a backlink.
• Update your information on business directories to get a backlink.

These and many other tactics can help you generate backlinks from authoritative websites and boost your branded traffic naturally.

5. Use PPC Ads

Why pay for ads that compete against your organic – free – SERP results? Excellent question!

Because, like it or not, sometimes your own website won’t rank at the top of search results for branded keywords. This is especially the case if you’re just starting out or if your brand name is a somewhat generic term.

By using PPC ads, your site will show up when people search using those keywords, meaning you will drive branded traffic even if your organic results are not yet successful.

Ad copy is critical to any PPC campaign and to boost your branded traffic, you must highlight your brand name, product names, and other details in this copy.

Image source: Google

And guess what?

You can sweeten things up for searchers too.

By featuring your promotions, top deals, and offers on top of the search results, PPC ads can instantly make the buyers aware of what you have to offer to them.

This, in turn, can help you quickly drive more branded traffic to your website.

6. Do Guest Posting

Guest posting is, by far, one of the most trusted digital marketing strategies that can help you boost your branded traffic. It involves contributing high-quality content to relevant and popular websites in your industry.

When you publish informative and highly valuable content on other websites, you are showcasing your expertise on the subject matter.

At the same time, you are exposing your brand to a larger audience base of those websites. In these guest posts, you can strategically place your branded keywords and even link to your website using them as anchors. This helps you grow your branded traffic in a targeted manner.

What’s more, guest posts play a pivotal role in improving your search ranking.

How, you ask?

When you get backlinks from prominent websites, Google considers them as a validation of your credibility. And even when you do not get backlinks, having organic brand mentions on reputable websites will work in your favor to boost your SEO and traffic.

7. Work with Influencers

When your marketing objective is to boost your branded traffic and build a credible brand presence, influencer marketing is just the strategy you need.

A survey conducted by Linqia says that marketers realizing the potential of influencer marketing are investing more in this technique.

Influencer marketing is an exciting world. Social media influencers have a loyal community of followers who ardently trust and follow the advice of the influencers.

This is the kind of audience base you are reaching out to when you collaborate with influencers on Instagram and other social media channels.

When the influencers share content related to your brand and its products, they essentially help build brand awareness. And when they direct their audience to your website, that’s nothing short of branded traffic.

L’oreal Paris collaborated with singer and influencer Thabsie to promote their latest product. Within a day, the post received nearly 30k likes.

Image source: Instagram

When adopted effectively, influencer marketing can help you:

• Instantly reach your target audience
• Build brand trust and credibility with testimonial videos
• Drive brand focused conversations
• Trigger quality engagement
• Boost your branded traffic from multiple social media channels

8. Create an Omnichannel Marketing Strategy

An omnichannel presence is no longer an option for brands if they want to stay on the top of their game.

Your potential customers are searching for products of their choice on eCommerce platforms, search engines, and social media platforms.

What’s more, many people go ahead and make a purchase online even when they are at the gate of your retail store.

So, it’s crucial that you’re present on every channel where your customers are.

This is where an omnichannel marketing strategy comes into the picture.

You can begin by understanding your potential target audiences, their pain points, and then craft an omnichannel experience to cater to their needs.

The idea is to boost your brand awareness across multiple channels, which, in turn, can help increase your branded searches.

Let’s take Sephora, for example. It has mastered omnichannel marketing by creating an integrated and seamless brand experience both at retail stores and online.

The brand’s mobile app helps customers shop online, track their orders, scan items at a store, and keep themselves updated about beauty trends and tips. The online store also gives a retail store-like shopping experience.

Image source: ContactPigeon

Conclusion

Branded searches have a major role to play in helping you grow your business.

Each of the digital marketing strategies that we’ve discussed above, be it local SEO, influencer marketing, guest posting, PPC ads, or influencer marketing, contribute in their own way to generate more branded traffic for your website.

You could also leverage an advanced SEO checklist to ensure that you’ve got everything in place to boost your branded traffic.

Do you have any questions about the tactics mentioned above? Ask them in the comments.

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About the author: Gaurav Sharma is the founder and CEO of Attrock, a results-driven digital marketing company. He has grown an agency from 5-figure to 7-figure revenue in just two years and increased leads by 10X. He also contributes to top publications like HuffPost, Adweek, Business 2 Community, TechCrunch, and more.

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