Brand Engagement Metrics includes user engagement factors such as click-through rates (CTR) and user interactions with the brand’s content. Higher engagement can positively influence rankings.
This means focusing on improving user engagement is a crucial aspect of brand SEO.
The best way to evaluate user engagement on your site is to compare your engagement metrics with that of your competitors.
For instance I’m analyzing toyota.com and four of its competitors with the Similarweb Website Performance report. Looking at the Engagement metrics we see that ford.com is getting more engagement in almost all metrics.
Screenshot from Similarweb, September 2024
One of the best ways to improve user engagement is to focus on site navigation. This means figuring out the flow of information on your site and including it in your:
URL structure
Bread crumbs
Top level menu
Also make sure that the top of the fold section of every piece of content directly answers the user intent directly.
3. Creating content For [Brand] + Modifier Keywords
You have direct influence over how your brand appears when users search for it on Google. While you might assume all your branded traffic goes to your homepage, there are actually other ways to capture this traffic.
What’s more, your branded traffic can help you discover customer sticking points or even areas where you are potentially losing customers to your competitors.
Want to see how? Try digging through your branded keywords. You are looking for keyword modifiers that either represent issues to resolve or opportunities to be won.
Keyword modifiers might be:
[brand] pricing
[brand] reviews
[brand] alternative
Where is [brand] located
[brand] alternative
By looking through your branded keywords, you can quickly see how users are interacting with your brand by seeing the questions they are asking. Make sure you have content that answers all of these questions. If you find long-tail queries it might be a good idea to create an FAQ on your site.
If you don’t do this you might see your branded traffic go to sites like YouTube or worse, your competitors.
For instance using the Similarweb SERP Players report below, we see a large portion of branded clicks for Ninja Creamy going to YouTube.
Screenshot from Similarweb, September 2024
What’s fascinating about this is that YouTube is not above the fold. This means that users often have more than one search intent and are willing to scroll to find what they are looking for. Can you afford to lose traffic for YouTube?
Screenshot from search for Ninja Creami, Google, September 2024
In a case like this depending on which videos users are clicking on, it might make sense for the brand to create video content designed to feature on the SERP.
A great example of a brand that got this right is wildgrain.com. In 2023, the keyword ‘wildgrain reviews’ was trending. Fortunately for the brand they already included a page on their site featuring reviews.
Googling the keyword, users were faced with Wildgrain’s own reviews page ranking in position #1. What’s more the rich result included a review rating of 4.7 out of five. It also listed the amount of reviews (which currently stands at 31040.)
Screenshot from search for Wildgrain reviews, Google, September 2024
Our data shows that 72% of searches were zero-click. That means the vast majority of users were satisfied with what they saw in the search results.
What’s interesting is of the remaining 28% of users, 57% clicked on the Wildgrain’s own result.
Screenshot from Similarweb, September 2024
The takeaway is with the right content, you can directly influence how users interact with your brand, even on things like reviews.
4. Educating Search Engines About Your Brand Entity
Another aspect of how Google evaluates your brand is through your brand entity. Google’s machine learning allows the search engine to understand real-world entities. It does this by gathering information about entities mentioned around the web and arranging that information in a similar way to how a human brain arranges information.
The purpose of this is to understand the relationships between people, places, and things so that Google can deliver more relevant and contextual information in the SERPs.
Google’s knowledge is constantly expanding and updating as new information becomes available.
How does Google understand your brand?
To find out, just Google it. If there are strong signals around the web, Google will present you with things like a Knowledge Panel, Twitter (X) boxes, image boxes and more.
Screenshot from search for Mr Beast, Google, September 2024
If you don’t see anything, you have work to do, as I mentioned above, a large portion of users hear about your brand and then Google you. What they see when they arrive on your brand SERP is up to you.
The great news is you can educate Google about your brand entity. When you do that, you’ll not only improve your brand SERP, but you might see your brand popping up in other strategic places.
For instance, below, I’ve searched for Fandango, a company that sells movie tickets. If you look at the bottom of the Knowledge Panel on the right, you’ll see Fandango’s direct competitors including:
AMC Theatres
Regal Cinemas
Cinemark Theatres
Screenshot from search for Fandango, Google, September 2024
How did a site’s competitors make it into the site’s Knowledge Panel? Google doesn’t only rank content for keywords any more. It understands what the brand entity is and what it relates to. The result is you might find your brand mentioned appearing on your competitor’s brand SERP or in other relevant places on the web.
How do you educate Google about your brand entity?
There is a clear method to educate Google about your brand entity.
Establish an entity home page: Create a dedicated page that describes your entity. This page should clearly outline what your business does and who it serves. Although this can be any page on the web, the best place to do this is on your ‘About Us’ page.
Build entity citations: Mentions of your brand across the web will reinforce the information provided on your brand homepage. It’s important to keep your brand description consistent around the web so that Google can match each citation with your entity’s home page. Citations can appear on pages you control, such as social media profiles but citations on pages you don’t control often carry more weight and provide the most benefit.
Link from your entity homepage to your entity citations: This could mean including links to your social media profiles as well as any guest posts, videos, or podcasts your brand is featured on.
Far From The Final Word On Brand SEO
As an SEO, if you prioritize branded SEO, you are not just a technical specialist. You have access to data to shape the business’s digital identity, which can drive tangible and sometimes immediate results. This paradigm shift allows you to directly impact revenue streams, aligning SEO efforts more closely with overarching business objectives.
If branded SEO is a paradigm shift for you, consider this.
Branded SEO is only one ranking factor in Google’s complex maze of ranking systems. You can read more about it in our latest ebook: Google’s Ranking Anatomy: Dissecting 90+ Ranking Signals.
Image Credits
Featured Image: Image by Similarweb. Used with permission.
In-Post Image: Images by Similarweb. Used with permission.