Having Trouble Ranking .us for branded Keyword

[orangeoctop.us]

Hi Mozers,

First time poster here.

I run the website http://OrangeOctop.us/, it provides winning tips for FIFA, NBA 2K, NHL.

The domain authority is 22 but I am unable to rank for the term OrangeOctopus. I know there are dozens of factors that should be assessed when looking at competition in Google (such as backlinks, domain age/relevance, social). However, I feel like you guys might have some suggestions for being able to rank for OrangeOctopus.

Thank you!

Joey

[jesse-landry]

Below the mail subscription it says "Become a fan of Octop.us" take out the period. I know that's the website but if you want to brand your name you'll need to trust that people can figure out how to get there.

I see what you did here with your domain name and it's clever but you put yourself in a tight spot and it's going to be difficult to brand your site. As you are already noticing..

Try to fit it in more places. Like under something that says "Tips" maybe it can read "Tips from the Orange Octopus" or somewhere can say "Questions? Ask the Orange Octopus."

Make that Octopus the entity like Moz made Roger Bot their's.

Interesting that moz gave you an A for that keyword.. I'm surprised. But even still there should be a few pointers in there if you read through the report.

Maybe somewhere with the social links you can work it in.. or even as alt text for the social image buttons. At the least make the alt and title text read "Follow Orange Octopus on Twitter" etc

If you can get less images and more text.. what I mean by that is instead of text embedded in the images, try to get the text to overlay and weave in your branded keywords there. For a Fifa 14 goalie tips article you could say over the top of the image "Orange Octopus Plays Keeper: Learn How to Defend the Goal."

Just a few ideas. Take what I'm saying here and run with it!

[orangeoctop.us]

Hi Jesse,

This is awesome, thank you! I really appreciate your thought out response.

Yup, I have an account with Moz Pro and the on-page grader gave the homepage an A for the keyword OrangeOctopus. Your new ideas will hopefully bring the site closer to ranking.

Attached is a mock-up for the new homepage....Do you have any suggestions for where to add the keyword?

Thank you!

Joey

ibaP5FkrTCjjAN.jpg

[jesse-landry]

on-page optimization tips:

• add title tags to images
• make your logo's file name titled orangeoctopus.jpg instead of "logo.jpg"
• try to incorporate your name into your index page more. Find a place for a stylized H1 tag. Doesn't have to be big and title-like to use the tag... CSS is your friend. Or anything really there isn't one single iteration of the word orange or octopus on your homepage. What makes you think google would think it has anything to do with your page? It's not in your domain or anywhere on that page..
• wait this is a wordpress site. use yoast, not semper fi.
• what's this? http://i.minus.com/i8ATM78PvY6es.png that doesn't tell me anything or contain any kewords... what's with that url? why is that offsite and in a giant weird footer?
• do you have a pro account here at moz? it will give you tons of ideas on how to optimize your page on-site for this keyword. that's a big part of what the moz tools do.
• links will help. stop putting your videos on youtube. embed them onto your site with a tool like wistia.

Hope these quick tips help. Not meaning to come off cross. Just typing out thoughts as I look through your page.