What Google considers to be a branded keyword?

[SirMax]

We can set our own keywords as branded in SeoMoz campaign, but Google would not necessarily see them like branded. After reading the Blog post at http://www.seomoz.org/blog/how-wpmuorg-recovered-from-the-penguin-update

I had a question: Are there known rules (or at least guesses) what Google considers a branded keyword/anchor text?

I guess the first one would be your website domain. So bluewidget.com for example would be a branded keyword for bluewidget.com website. How about Blue Widget or Blue Widget Company?

[Cyrus-Shepard]

We're really talking about 2 separate definitions of "brand"

1. Within SEOmoz or Google Analytics, a branded keyword is simply one that relates to your company name or website, This makes it easier to segment who is searching specifically for you, and who is finding you through more broad, generic terms.

SEOs see different value in branded and non-branded search. For example, the type of visitor on this site who searched for "SEOmoz" is likely very different than the type of visitor who arrived her after searching for "SEO tools"

Also, you tend to rank very well for your own brand, so branded keyword volume can be an indication of your overall marketing efforts.

2. But to Google, brand means something slightly different. A "brand" in Google's eye means a thing. If enough people search for your website, or product, you become an entity.

Bill Slawski explains it better than I ever could:

http://www.seobythesea.com/2012/01/named-entity-detection-in-queries/

and if patent talk isn't your thing, Rand makes it a little more accessible in this Whiteboard Friday:

http://www.seomoz.org/blog/search-engines-and-brand-entities-whiteboard-friday

Hope this helps. Best of luck with your SEO!

[GIGS20]

In most cases branded keywords consist brand name, so in your case both Blue Widget and Blue Widget Company are branded keywords/phrases, unless these are patented names of some other company.

[ZacharyRussell]

Hello,

I may be able to help you with this. If you think this down as simple advertizing, what do you think of as a brand? Wal-Mart?, Coca-Cola? GE?, those are all branded keywords. Now this doesn't always work for just the company name, think of the iPhone, the iPhone is a branded keyword that apple has. xBox with Microsoft, and PlayStation with Sony are another two branded keywords outside of the company name.

When you think of it in that perspective, Blue Widget and Blue Widget Company are both branded keywords, but if BlueWidget.com sold a patented widget (royal blue sprocket?)

As far as anchor text goes, don't go overboard with keywords within them, make them natural. For example, if you listed your patented widget, don't make the anchor text "Royal Blue Sprocket by bluewidget.com" this could be flagged as keyword stuffed anchor tag, and you could be penalized for it. If your pushing the brand, just put the name of the widget "royal blue sprocket"

I hope this helps