Two Word Company Name (Combined to One) & SEO

[ketanmv]

Hi All,

I'm dealing with a company that has a two word name like "GreatCompany". They rank #1 for that but not for "Great Company". The phrase is not super competitive, but obviously they are not writing the company name with two words anywhere on their site. Has anyone had to deal with something like this? Thinking about creative solutions but I'm fairly sure we're going to need to use the name both ways to have an effect here (or use PPC to augment) but I don't really love the idea of doing that... will feel very odd and inconsistent for visitors.

Thanks!

[JarnoNijzing]

Hi Ketan,

first let's see if this is correct:

The name of the company consists of 2 separate words combines to one word? Okay. Let's go from there. The problem is that ranking for the 2 words separate from each other has an hole other meaning then when they are combined. Vacuumcleaner is a machine that uses a vacuum to clean but when you search for vacuum cleaner that does not have to mean that you meant a vacuumcleaner. You are searching for something that cleans using a vacuum. (really hopes this makes sense )

You should definitely use the name of the company (combined) since that is the name of the company. You could employ a couple of the words seperatly but I would focus mainly on the combined version. You are trying to brand them right? So it is important that people begin to know the company by it's right name.

Personally I would use that seperate version of the words maybe 3/4 times depending on the page length but focus mainly on the words together. Hopes this helps you a bit.

kind regards

Jarno

[ketanmv]

Agreed Jardo, thanks. It's one of things that if a friend told you about the product, you might very well type it using two separate words even though the brand name has it combined. Fairly unfortunate... perhaps an issue dating back to when they chose the name. They really want to rank for both but I've already told them I see that being quite tricky given it's not their brand name. We can insert it a couple times with the two words, but my worry is that it might come off as kind of wonky!

[Horizon]

Hi Ketan,

One of our brands is "FrenchEntrée" and we rank for all permutations in Google - French Entree, FrenchEntree, French Entrée, etc even though we never separate the two words. 'French entree' is a term widely used and means a starter (of a meal) so it certainly can be done. I think the reason that we rank for both is because of the general keyword usage of the word "French" around the site, and also because of the domain reputation we have built up. If either of the two words individually in your client's name is considered a relevant keyword, then I think you're more than entitled to use it in places, on it's own.

What will also help over time will be the back links from other sites. Some with write "Great Company", some "GreatCompany" and some "Other anchor text, from GreatCompany". This co-occurance will hopefully build up value for both versions of the brand name in search.

I would suggest that you never de-value the brand by putting a space between the words - stick to the brand's real name and only ever use this. This will be best from a user's point of view, and eventually the search engines will catch up.

Good luck.

Matt