Brand name as keyword for a brand.com site. How to make it appear in search?

Question

I am working on a website for a client, and even though the site ranks extremely well for various different keywords (which is good), if I search for the site's name the homepage does not appear even on the second page on Google. I have to add the .com so it will appear.

But, for big brands like Best Buy, Nike and millions of others it is enough to just search for the brand itself and the first or second suggestion on Google is the brand's homepage.

How can I raise my brand's authority in Google so it will appear in Google on the first page when some searches for it?

I have tried changing the breadcrumbs so instead of "HOME" it is now the brandname, linked to the homepage. I thought that it will help with internal linking if the anchor text is the brand's name instead of the word "HOME".

Any ideas please?

Answer 1

It sounds like you are already doing everything on-site that you need to do:

• Have the brand name as the domain name
• Use the brand name on your pages

To increase your authority to appear in the search results for your brand name, you need links. Only getting relevant, quality, inbound links to the site will get your site to rank for its own brand name. It helps if those links use your brand name as the anchor text. Start with any other sites that you own and link to them from there. Create a Facebook page, a Twitter account with the same brand name and link back to the site from there. Ask friends and family to link from their pages.

Eventually Google will rank your site for its brand name. Google is very good at doing so. It may take up to a year for that to happen consistently. Eventually you will even get "site links" in the Google search results where Google displays many sub-pages on the site as well. That may take another year or two. See: What are the most important things I need to do to encourage Google Sitelinks?