# Which Should a SaaS Team Prioritize, Branded vs Non-Branded Keywords? > A clear verdict on branded vs non-branded keywords for B2B SaaS: where to put new effort, what to protect, and how to report the two separately. Source: https://comppound.com/blog/branded-vs-non-branded-keywords-for-saas (published 2026-10-30) On branded vs non-branded keywords, a B2B SaaS team should put most new SEO effort into non-branded terms, protect branded terms with a small amount of steady upkeep, and always report the two separately. Branded queries contain your company or product name, while non-branded queries describe a problem or a category without naming you. The two do different jobs, and lumping them together is how a company convinces itself that SEO is working when all it has done is get better known. Say you run a 25-person SaaS selling expense management software, under the invented name Tallyline, to mid-sized construction firms. "Tallyline login" and "Tallyline pricing" are branded. "Expense software for construction companies" is not. Someone typing the first already knows you exist. Someone typing the second might end up choosing any of your competitors. ## What each type actually does for you Branded search captures demand you already created some other way: a sales conversation, a podcast, a colleague's recommendation, a conference booth. It tends to convert well because the searcher has already decided you are worth a look. SEO should get little credit for that, since the name got into their head through something else. Non-branded search reaches people who have a problem but have not chosen a vendor, including people who have never heard of you. It is the only one of the two that SEO can actually grow by itself. It is also where competitors are, so it is slower and harder, and each visit is likely to convert less often than a branded one. Comparing the two on conversion rate alone will always make branded look better, which is a misleading conclusion to draw. The honest comparison is about whether the sale would have happened anyway. Branded queries also include a middle group that deserves attention: "Tallyline vs Expensify", "Tallyline alternatives", "Tallyline reviews", "Tallyline QuickBooks integration". These people know your name and are still deciding. They are close to a decision, and if you have no good page, someone else's comparison post will shape what they think. ## Why you still need to look after branded terms Branded searches need less work, but they do need some. Start by searching your own name and reading the page as a prospect would. You should own the first result, and your pricing, login, security and integration pages should be easy to reach. Third-party review sites and competitors may well appear lower down, and a competitor may be bidding on your name in ads. Whether to bid on your own name in response is a paid decision that depends on how crowded that results page is, so test it rather than assuming either way. Next, look at what those pages say. A buyer searching "Tallyline pricing" who lands on a page with no pricing information may go and read a review site's outdated numbers instead. Accurate, specific pages for pricing, security, integrations and comparisons are the bulk of the upkeep, and most of them will also help your sales team. Then look at the answers people get from AI tools, because brand questions land there too. Ask the main assistants what your product does, who it is for and how it compares, and note what is wrong. Our guide to [fixing AI search misinformation about a SaaS product](/blog/fix-ai-search-brand-misinformation-about-your-saas-product) covers what to do with what you find, though no one can directly control what these systems say. ## How to split the two in reporting Search Console now does most of this for you. Google's [branded queries filter](https://developers.google.com/search/blog/2025/11/search-console-branded-filter) splits the Performance report into branded and non-branded views, and it is AI-assisted rather than simple keyword matching, so it can catch typos, other languages and queries that refer to a unique product of yours without naming the company. Google notes that classification can occasionally be wrong, that it is an analysis tool with no effect on ranking, and that at launch it was limited to top-level properties with enough query volume. If you do not see it, a regex filter on your brand name and its common misspellings is a reasonable fallback. Once split, watch the two lines for different things. Non-branded clicks and non-branded conversions show whether your SEO is reaching new people. Branded clicks are closer to a measure of awareness, and they respond to everything else your company does, including sales, ads and PR. Our list of [SEO KPIs for SaaS reporting](/blog/seo-kpis-for-saas-what-to-report-on-organic-and-ai-search) goes further on what to put in front of a board. The split also protects you from false alarms. Suppose the Tallyline team sees total organic traffic rising after a trade show. Without the split, that looks like an SEO win. With it, the rise may turn out to be entirely name searches, and non-branded traffic may be flat. The reverse happens too: a slow month for branded searches can hide real progress in the category. ## How to divide the effort For most growing SaaS companies, the working answer is to spend the large majority of new content effort on non-branded topics, especially the ones close to buying. Buyer-focused topics such as "best expense software for construction" or "how to track job costs across crews" are the place to begin, and our guide to [buyer-intent keywords for SaaS](/blog/buyer-intent-keywords-for-saas-how-to-find-them) shows how to find them. Reserve early-funnel explainers for areas where you can say something useful. Branded work is mostly a checklist you run through every quarter, with occasional bursts. New product launched? It needs a page. New competitor rising? It may need a comparison page, and [how to write an alternatives page that ranks and converts](/blog/how-to-write-a-saas-alternatives-page-that-ranks-and-converts) walks through one. Sales hearing the same objection from prospects? Give it a clear answer on the site. There is one exception worth stating. If almost nobody searches for your category yet, because you are defining a new one, non-branded demand may be tiny and most of your useful search will be branded or adjacent problem language. In that case, put effort into problem-level terms rather than category names, and accept that brand-building channels will do more of the early work. ## What AI search changes about the split AI answers blur the boundary, and it is worth thinking through how. Someone can ask an assistant a non-branded question like "what expense tool suits a construction firm with field crews" and get your name in the reply, then search for you by name later. In your reports, that visit shows up as branded, even though the discovery happened in a non-branded conversation. Google also reports [traffic from AI Overviews and AI Mode](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/ai-features) inside the Web search type, so Search Console will not split that out for you. A slowly rising branded line can therefore be a sign that something is working further upstream, including mentions in AI answers, but it does not prove that. Ask a "how did you hear about us" question on your demo form and read the replies, and read [how AI Overviews affect branded organic traffic](/blog/ai-generated-search-overviews-impact-branded-organic-traffic) for the other side of the same coin. Be skeptical of anyone who gives you a precise figure for this effect, since the attribution mostly does not exist. ## How to check your split is healthy Run a short review once a quarter. Ask whether non-branded clicks are growing over a comparable period, whether those visits lead to product page views and demos, and whether your name searches still bring people to accurate pages. If branded is growing and non-branded is flat, your marketing may be working but SEO probably is not. If non-branded is growing and demos are flat, you are probably ranking for the wrong topics, and [your keyword map](/blog/keyword-mapping-for-saas-sites-with-template) is the place to look. If you want a program built around non-branded demand with the branded pages kept accurate along the way, [see what our SEO and GEO system includes](/system). ## Frequently asked questions ### Do branded keywords count as SEO success? Only partly. Ranking for your own name matters, but those searchers already knew you. Report branded traffic separately so that growth in awareness is not mistaken for growth from SEO. ### Can I see branded and non-branded queries in Search Console? Yes, for eligible sites. Google's branded queries filter splits the Performance report using an AI-assisted classifier. If your property does not have it, use a regex filter on your name and common misspellings. ### Should a SaaS company bid on its own brand name? It depends on the results page. If competitors bid on your name or your listing is pushed down, it may help. Test it, and check whether you keep the clicks when ads are paused. ### Are comparison keywords like "my product vs competitor" branded? Yes, since they contain a brand name, though they behave like commercial queries. These searchers are still deciding, so they are worth a dedicated page even if you would otherwise spend little on branded work. ## About Comppound Comppound runs SEO and AI search for B2B SaaS companies: a person sets the plan and reviews samples and every high-risk page, and AI speeds up production. - [Check a page free](https://comppound.com/tools/seo-checker): Check one of your pages before you change anything else - [See pricing](https://comppound.com/pricing): Want the content written, reviewed and published for you?