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Rand Fishkin’s Post

Cofounder of SparkToro & Snackbar Studio. Author of Lost & Founder. Feminist. I love underdogs, cooking, & helping people do better marketing

1d

Two big studies recently released showing the % of Google's searches that are for brands vs. generic terms. 1) SparkToro & Datos analysis of what ~130K US devices searched for on Google in the last 21 months 2) Ahrefs analysis of 150M keywords in their US dataset of SERPs Different methodologies, but similar results... And yet, I'm gonna say that for most marketers, founders, and creators, what YOU care about is how it applies to your industry/field 👇

47 Comments

Transcript

Tim Soulo from Ahrefs put out this study recently on LinkedIn that 36.9% of all Google US searches are branded. So what they did is actually quite different from what Spark Toro did with Datos. This data set is 150 million keywords that a trust monitors. It's going to be generally more commercially focused, but but what's fascinating is look at the 36.9% and now compare that against the numbers that we had in our study. Potatoes which suggested that 31.27% of keywords are branded but 44% of searches are for brands. So essentially this 31.27% of keywords is representing 44% of all the searches, meaning that the the branded keywords get more search volume on average than the generic keywords. And I asked him in his post hey is this all keywords or all searches and he said it's all keywords. Not search volume now. I'm gonna say I think these are really interesting and at a macro level they're, they're fascinating. But what you care about is not necessarily the big number, right? You don't care about overall in Google, how much is for brands, how much is for generic. What you care about is in your space, how much is for generic, how much is for brand. And so if you could, what you'd ideally want to do is let's say you're in the CRM space, you would want to take all the generic terms around CRM tool, CRM SaaS. CRM software, CRM for dentists. You know, whatever it is. And compare that against all the searches for all the brands that are popular in that space. You can see that in CRM, you know, all the brands are much bigger than the generic CRM tool. Or if I put CRM software in here, same story. So look. I think what everyone should care about is in our space, is there opportunity, more opportunity to capture demand through unbranded generic terms? And does that mean we should be investing in, you know, content marketing and SEO or is brand building the only way to go? And what we need to do is compete with the big brands in our space. And I think at the macro level, what this study and what Tim study from HF is suggesting are the same thing that most people probably should be strongly considering investing in brand. Rather than just trying to rank for generic keywords. But you need to figure it out for your space.

How Great Marketing Gets Done // Integrity Is Everything

1d

💯Rand. Also, in some industries, the best place to rank for non-branded keywords isn’t Google anymore—it may be Amazon, Wayfair, Houzz, TikTok, etc.. Not every company will grow through brand awareness/brand searches, but one thing is clear: the era of simple SEO (optimizing for Google) is coming to an end, SOON.

Digital Marketing Expert | SEO, PPC, Social | Wordpress Developer

1d

It's fascinating yet somewhat confusing. I am assuming all those Branded searches must be lying in navigational or commerical/trasactional space, but at the same time we are also seeing YOY increase increase in MSV data against overall keyword sets (Information to trasactional space), resptive to each industry, so it's very challending to consume Branded dominance against overall searches. What you think?

Maurizio La Cava

Maurizio La Cava

CEO & Co-Founder

1d

Does this lead us to invest in Digital PR more than in SEO?

Oliver Kuttruff

Oliver Kuttruff

Search Experience @ YOYABA 🦄 | Organic Growth for B2B SaaS Scale-Ups | Thinking beyond SEO, from first to last interaction across all relevant channels until buyers become business opportunities 💸

1d

Looks like it’s time to stop keyword research and start a karaoke campaign where everyone just sings our brand name 😆

Founder | Bright Trail Customer Development

8h

Rand enjoyed the piece, (have for years) had dinner and then decided, maybe it's time I checked out the SparkToro tool. Guess what I did next? Googled SparkToro, not audience research tools.

FranchiseWire is franchising’s Go-To Resource for the Latest Industry News - Helping Franchise brands and suppliers gain positive exposure and sell more franchises through content marketing and story telling.

1d

So brands should optimize content that includes both their brand name and their brand category.

AI usecases for marketing teams | AI Expert | Content Marketing | AI Artist | I explore AI prompts, tools, and frameworks to deliver stellar marketing. My DMs are always open.

1d

This is incredible insight. Thanks Rand Fishkin. Wouldn't another lesson from this be: shouldn't you try to attack the SEO of the leading names? ("Hubspot alternatives" etc.)

Marketer at Zoho Corporation

2h

Rand Fishkin Comparing the keyword "CRM software" with brand terms like "Hubspot" or "Pipedrive" is inaccurate because most users searching for brand terms are existing customers trying to log in. Naturally, the search volume for brand terms is higher than that of core keywords.

Author, keynote speaker, podcast host. I help websites increase revenue up to 7.5X. Certified Behavioral Science Professional (Cialdini, CXL, OII, Mindworx). MS Integrated Marketing. CMO at Shopper Approved

17h

I could not agree more Rand Fishkin…I have been saying for years that many marketers, and specifically digital marketers, have obsessed over keywords in SEO and PPC at the expense of building brand awareness, credibility, and preference which then drives brand search. There is decades of TOMA (top of mind awareness) research across all industry categories that proves that the top 3 brand names in unaided recall surveys are also the top 3 brands in revenue and market share. I backed this up with my own research that tracked the top performing brands who continued to advertise through depressions and recessions since 1932. Now consider this: if people are searching for your brand online specifically, your cost per click on those ads, and your organic search efforts and costs are a tiny fraction of the cost and effort trying to compete for highly competitive generic keywords. Spend your money on building a brand and not on competing for generic keywords. And your brand driven traffic will also convert at 3-5x the rate as generic keyword traffic. Why? Because they already feel that they know and trust you.

AttorneySync grows law firms with data. Grateful for family, team, clients, coffee, whiskey, and Michigan football. Co-Host Lunch Hour Legal Marketing. Detroit sports. Memento mori. 🗽 + ☕️ 9th & 10th Amendments.

19h

Client: We’re not hiring you for brand, we’re hiring for SEO. Us: Reviews, engagement, and links come from brand. Client: Just give us SEO!!! Us: 😔

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