1. Brand traffic:
• Definition: Visitors who come to your site through searches containing the name of your company, product, or service.
• Examples:
• “Bofu Marketing Agency”
• “Shopify by Bofu”
• Importance:
• Measures your brand awareness and loyalty.
• Indicates the effectiveness of your branding campaigns.
2. Unbranded traffic:
• Definition: Visitors who come to your site through generic searches without mentioning your brand.
• Examples:
• “Montreal marketing agency”
• “SEO service for eCommerce”
• Importance:
• Reflects your ability to attract new customers.
• Shows your positioning for keywords related to your industry.
How to observe and optimize these two types of traffic?
1. Brand traffic analysis:
• Key indicators:
• Volume of searches containing your brand.
• Click-through rate (CTR) on branded searches.
• Direct traffic (visitors entering your URL directly).
• Tools: Google Search Console, Google Analytics 4.
• Optimization:
• Strengthen your reputation through branding campaigns.
• Protect your brand traffic with SEA campaigns targeted to your company name to prevent competitors from positioning themselves on it.
2. Analysis of unbranded traffic:
• Key indicators:
• Ranking for generic keywords.
• Volume of organic traffic from searches without mention of your brand.
• Tools: SEMrush, Ahrefs, Google Trends.
• Optimization:
• Target transactional and informational keywords related to your industry.
• Create content that meets users’ search intentions (blogs, guides, FAQs).
Impact of seasonality on branded and non-branded traffic
1. Brand traffic:
• Observation :
• Increases during advertising campaigns or periods of high activity (launches, events).
• May decrease during off-peak periods unless the brand has strong lasting awareness.
• Action :
• Maintain an active presence (advertising, social networks) to remain visible even out of season.
2. Unbranded traffic:
• Observation :
• Fluctuates based on seasonal search trends in your industry.
• Example: An SEO agency will see a spike in searches at the beginning of the year, a time when businesses are setting their marketing goals.
• Action :
• Adapt your content and campaigns to the seasons (e.g.: articles on “SEO strategies for Black Friday” before Q4).
• Use Google Trends to identify seasonal variations in relevant keywords.
Why is it essential to distinguish between these two types of traffic?
• Brand traffic: Reflects the health of your reputation and the effectiveness of your loyalty campaigns.
• Non-branded traffic: Measures your ability to attract new customers and compete on generic searches.
• Seasonality: Understanding seasonal variations allows you to anticipate user needs and maximize your marketing efforts at opportune times.
By analyzing these two types of traffic and taking into account seasonal trends, you can develop a balanced and effective SEO strategy.