After one of my recent free weekly branding trainings in my Facebook, group, The Brand Building Entrepreneur, a member asked me this thought-provoking question:

How do you name your products & services to include SEO but still be on brand?

Great question.  This article is my answer.

SEO 101 

I did a little SEO research - as I am a branding, messaging & marketing expert, and don’t claim to know everything about SEO.  

Let’s set the table - SEO 101: with Search Engine Optimization, you’re strategically using keywords people are most commonly using to search (for what you offer) and inserting them onto your website in both a backend and organic way in your copy & messaging in order to rank higher on Google’s search engine.  

The ultimate goal?  More of your best fit customers can find you easily, your website traffic increases, and because you’ve done such a great job branding your business & marketing what you do on your website, you convert more customers.

BRANDING YOUR HOMEPAGE & BOOSTING SEO

Stick with me as this is all going to make sense soon.

Neil Patel has a great article, “How To Create An SEO Friendly Homepage,” that covers specific tips for your homepage.  

He talks about the fact that there are lots of businesses with brand names that are keyword-based names (think names like “money mindset,” “gut health,” or “comfortable bras”) and if you choose a brand name that happens to be the same, it’s very hard to rank on search, because you’re competing with a lot of other businesses.

Same goes for naming your products and services.  Don’t try to come up with one main keyword as your product/service name that you want to try to rank for…it will be an uphill battle.

One of the points Neil makes to boost SEO on your homepage is to clearly explain what your company does and to naturally weave in keywords.

That not only fully aligns with my recommended brand strategy of crafting and using a clear positioning statement, but we’re going to get to how you can use this same idea to brand your products and services in an SEO friendly way.

Business 2 Community includes this great example of how you might do this:

“Make use of the natural opportunities to insert your keywords.  For example, a home builder’s website could swap out the term ‘new communities’ for a more powerful term that shows up in more search results, like ‘new home development communities in Toronto’…”

On your website homepage, visitors need to immediately know what you offer, if it’s meant for them, and how you’re different from your competition.  That brand clarity along with inserting keywords people are searching, can boost your SEO and help you brand your business well.

Your brand positioning statement is:

WHAT YOU DO for WHO YOU SERVE

Examples: 

Business Coach for Online Entrepreneurs

Squarespace Web Design for Female Startups

Nutritionist for Menopausal Women

(And if you’re location based, adding that in there is recommended & easy, too)…

Examples:

Southern California Wedding Photographer for Boho Brides

Charcuterie Boards for Manhattan-Based Events

Pilates Classes for Working Women in Los Angeles

As a brand strategist, I recommend you include your positioning statement above the fold on your website homepage.  As we’ve seen, this can also be your very clear, search-friendly statement.

QUICK NOTE

Grab my free resource “Top 7 Must-Have Branding Elements for Your Website Homepage” to know what else besides your positioning statement to include on your homepage to help brand your business.

NAMING YOUR PRODUCTS & SERVICES 

Let’s get to the question at hand now that we’ve got some context.

When we’re talking about naming your products and services, we’re talking about naming your 1:1 signature done-for-you service, your online course, your coaching program, your digital products (or actual products), or even your mastermind.  The list can be endless.

Based on what we’ve talked about, my recommendation is to not try to rank in search for the name of your product/service.  You’re going to run into a lot of competition that way.

What you want to do is choose a name that uniquely reflects the UVP of your offer, something that connects with your audience (or that your audience has said and you can use their words to brand your offer), or that showcases a direct benefit or result your clients or customers receive by engaging with your offer.

Instead, focus on adding keywords in an organic and conversational way to the POSITIONING of your offer.

Example:

If I tried to name my online branding course something that comes up most in Search - it would be something like Brand Strategy Academy, or Brand Strategy Development Online Course.

That’s going to have tons of competition and won’t actually help me boost my SEO.  At the same time, it’s a bit too generic to standout and position my digital course in a unique way that’s aligned with my overall brand.

Instead, I chose to name my course BRANDPOLISH ACADEMY.  Why?  Because when I was in the process of naming my course, I had at least 5 clients approach me and say some form of this - “Please, can you help me polish my brand?”

In order to ensure my digital course is positioned clearly, and my audience knows exactly what they’re getting, I could naturally include some SEO keywords in my offer positioning that could read something like this:

Brand strategy development for entrepreneurs seeking a step-by-step solution to create a clear and cohesive brand with messaging that attracts ideal clients.

PRO-TIP - PLEASE NOTE:

I must bring up the fact that simply because you’ve come up with a name for your product/service and you’re able to position it in an SEO friendly way, doesn’t mean your job is done.  Naming is a big deal, and you’ll want to seek out the advice of a trademark attorney to ensure the names you’re choosing are available and aren’t already trademarked to someone else.  So, you’ll have a bit of legal homework to do here, too.  

Don’t skip this step!  It can save you a lot of headaches later as you don’t want to establish and brand your product/service, have it resonating with clients & ranking in search, and THEN have to change it for legal reasons.

2 MORE WAYS TO BRAND YOUR OFFERS WITH SEO IN MIND

In addition to clearly positioning your product/service that aligns with your brand strategy AND includes some keywords for SEO purposes, there are a couple other SEO  strategies I want to mention that also help you present your uniquely branded offers:

1 - FAQs

When you answer the most commonly asked questions about your topic / area of expertise, you’re helping set the expectations of what’s included in your offer, AND you can strategically include some of those top questions you found in your SEO research that people are most commonly typing into the search bar.

2 - Social Proof

People are always searching for recommendations and reviews, wanting social proof to know if a product or service is worth their time, money and energy.  By including social proof on your product/service page (or sales page) of your website, you’re including an SEO friendly strategy to help boost your offer…and boost your standout brand.  This can come in the form of client testimonials, validation from industry peers, or even some kind of celeb or influencer endorsement.

In summary, if you can craft an SEO friendly product or service name that’s also unique to your brand and attention-grabbing to your audience, wonderful.  I think you’d be a Brand/SEO Unicorn.

In lieu of reaching unicorn status, brand your product/service in a way that magnetizes your ideal clients, and use your offer positioning to include keywords, your FAQs to answer some of those top searched questions about what you offer, and your client testimonials as social proof that elevates both your SEO and your brand.

Need more help developing your standout brand strategy?

Book a brand clarity call and let’s talk about how I can help you.