COMMENTS
Interesting. I publish quite a few articles relating to Google but don't always use the branded name in the article titles. I'll start monitoring articles with brand names in them. Cheers
I always wonder about the rubbernecking factor in this. Like when there is an accident on the highway and people slow down to see it. Do the page views translate into leads and sales or just more eyeballs? I guess that more eyeballs eventually should lead to more sales, but do I need to stuff a lot of brand names into my article titles to get the eyeballs? As your research showed, more views of the brand names are not really driving interest and conversation. I think it's the rubbernecker syndrome; I came, I saw, I left. I still believe that interesting content regardless of title will drive the leads and sales.
It makes sense posts w/ big brand names get more attention, since there's so much noise, it's the most immediate filter. I guess there articles are more successful the same reason their brand is - familiarity - eliminated learning curve.
Clearly the brands will have a positive impact on the readership and activity relating to an article. Thanks Hubspot for measuring the activity!
I am curious to understand if you have any such information about competitors? For example, if you're RC Cola and your blog publishes something about Coca Cola, does the same spike occur? Are there any negative implications of doing this in a blog?
@Ronarden I completely agree there is some of that going on - natural curiosity might draw in the unqualified visitor. However overall trends we have noticed from our blog, more traffic = more leads.
I'm not suggesting one should stuff brand names where it is not relevant. But a title with a brand name in it that is the talk of town will draw in more eyeballs! Just some data behind the common sense!
This is a very interesting study! It is funny as I do subscribe to your blog, and when I saw YOUR title I was drawn to it! Generally if there is a post that looks interesting, but I may not have time to look right away, I file it and get back to it when I can. This one however I was drawn to open right away - it's almost as if when we see large brands like this which have become so ingrained in our minds - we automatically want to know what’s going on! I will definitely use this concept going forward, and track my results as well! Great topic and great post!
Two of my most popular blog articles use "people" brands in the titles: George Clooney and Scott Brown (the new Mass senator). I posted my Scott Brown article called "Why Scott Brown Really Won (and how to leverage the lesson)" the day after the Mass. special election. The Clooney post was called "Apples, Peaches, and George Clooney Naked." This post discussed the use of the serial comma, and that sentence was my example. (I'm a marketing copywriter.) I think it was the combo of the naked Clooney part that invited a lot of clicks...but both posts also got the most comments, too (and no complaints, either).
I think the key is that the title needs to deliver on the "promise" of what said title is suggesting. As Prashant said in his comment above, stuffing the title with brand names is NOT the answer...the title has to be relevant to the post.
@JackieHotton @Michelle Thanks! I agree.
@RobynBradley Very interesting observation - personal brands are as prominent as product/company brands. I wonder if we would see the same result if we had a relevent article about Chris Brogan or Brittney Spears. Thanks for sharing!
@MikeThomas Nice angle. Not sure if companies will blog much about their competitors but if we can get our hands on such data this will be the first place we will share it.
I found the study extremely interesting. Especially the second one - in looking at inbound links and comments in relation to the number of page views.
@ Robyn Bradley. I really liked your point that just because brand names and the term Google bring in more hits to a site or blog, "title stuffing" is certainly not the answer to driving more traffic to your site. Initially it may show as beneficial, but you will only develop disloyalty by serving your viewers with dishonest and unrelated posts.
Bottom line: Only use brand names when your post actually relates to those brand names. That will create positive feedback and promote more healthy traffic to your site or blog.
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Very interesting! I agree that naturally our eyes zip to what we already know. We also tend to pay attention to those recognized as "thought leaders" and big brands could fall into that category. Though I am always annoyed when I click on a blog with an intriguing title and it was a bait-and-switch!
I do agree the brand name makes a difference in titles. In fact, one more thing I have observed is, if you have keywords like "Save, increase, important, hot, etc", it increases the chances of people clicking and to generate more page views
What is interesting about brand names bringing traffic, is that in novels editors are told to remove all brand names because of fear of copyright issues.
Any fears?
@MaryE. Not really. Do newspapers fear covering stories on brands? A lot of what we are talking about is public forum and news so no major worries about copyright.
@kumar Super insight! It seems we have stumbled upon a meta theme involving big brands, personal brands and top keywords! thanks for the input!
That's interesting...
Will be worth monitoring!
Thanks