Ooba: There’s a lot to be said for branded search

Conventional wisdom states that generic search terms are bigger than branded search. The South African search situation suggests the contrary.

As one of the sorry bastards who’d bidded banked on the wrong keywords being ascendant, or optimising for secondary generic phrases that are both impossibly contested and disappointing in terms of traffic delivery, I will say but the following: Do proper keyword research before you start wasting your time.

Branded search trumps generic search for bonds in SA

Case in point is ooba bond originators, aka the former Mortgage SA. Although Google Webmaster Tools is not 100% accurate in its reporting, the difference in search volumes associated with the following keyword phrases tells me everything I need to know:

SEARCH PHRASE & IMPRESSIONS

ooba     1,000
home loans     260
ooba bond originators     260
ooba bond calculator     170
ooba properties     91
home loan     73
types of bonds     73
homeloans     58

“ooba = bonds”

If you’ve been optimising for home loans, you’ll understand my pain. The brand name and brand/generic phrase combinations deliver the lion’s share of traffic, and given the extent to which their site is optimised, out-ranking them on branded terms is near impossible. They invested the money in brand-building, and the public at large now associates them with bonds. It’s like Coke for soft drink or Google for online search.

It makes me rather bitter.

I haven’t investigated the situation for home loans yet, but I have my suspicions who’ll be winning in that space…