If you’ve tried Coca-Cola, you’ve astir apt had a Diet Coke.

If you usage Google arsenic your preferred hunt engine, chances are you person a Gmail account.

What’s the nexus betwixt the two? Both are high-profile companies with high-profile sub-brands.

Think of a sub-brand arsenic a country successful a location and the location arsenic your brand. Successful sub-branding means targeting the close assemblage with the close product.

If sub-brands are portion of your company’s marque architecture, a well-defined sub-brand SEO strategy helps support the lines clear.

Brands similar Coca-Cola and Google bash this well, making it wide however their sub-brands are related to but antithetic from the genitor brand. From an SEO perspective, this makes for an perfect keyword strategy.

I privation to assistance you bash the aforesaid with your marque architecture.

These 5 rules volition assistance support your sub-brand SEO keyword strategy existent to your marque representation portion allowing your sub-brands to uniquely basal out.

Why Do Businesses Create Sub-Brands?

To sub-brand oregon not to sub-brand?

That is the question.

As you physique your business’ brand, it’s tempting—and often strategic—to widen your footprint implicit time.

Companies crossed each industries person portfolios with aggregate brands. Sometimes they make these brands themselves. Sometimes they get them.

There are a batch of bully reasons to make a sub-brand. Here are a few:

To Target Specific Audiences

In immoderate cases, a concern mightiness privation to separate betwixt its flagship marque and sub-brands that target much circumstantial audiences.

Take the car marque Toyota and its luxury sub-brand Lexus, for example. The brands run independently nether the Toyota umbrella, but they marketplace to antithetic people audiences. Having abstracted brands allows them to link with each connected a deeper level.

To Tap Into New Markets

Sub-brands are an accidental to scope caller audiences. Appealing to a caller niche allows the genitor marque to:

1. Build a stronger enslaved with their existent lawsuit base
2. Attract caller customers
3. Expand into a new, profitable gross stream

Another attack mightiness beryllium for merchandise expansion. Companies tin usage sub-brands to trial a merchandise connected the marketplace nether a antithetic marque name.

Who tin accidental wherever they mightiness extremity up?

To Uniquely Market Different Products

Whatever the motivations, sub-brands should enactment existent to the genitor brand’s ngo arsenic they develop.

Each merchandise has its ain personality, feel, and acceptable of features adjacent though they are each abstracted items nether the aforesaid umbrella company. This besides means each sub-brand needs a abstracted fund for selling and promotion.

So, of course, your sub-brand SEO keyword strategy needs to beryllium crisp to enactment it.

Influencing hunt engines volition instrumentality time, but it pays disconnected erstwhile the conversions your strategy drives amusement up successful assemblage and revenue.

#1: Think About the Audiences for Your Main and Sub-Brands

Look astatine the request of your assemblage and prospective audience. How are you going to conscionable their needs with a sub-brand?

To reply this question, you indispensable find their hunt intent. Use keyword probe to formulate this strategy.

Your contented needs to supply them with the accusation they need. From your branding to your content, you privation to spark a unsocial narration with your people audience.

As I’ve said successful the past, brand-loyal people privation to find a marque to beryllium loyal to.

The company’s concern goals should service arsenic the cornerstone of the prime to expand. How you spell astir your sub-brand SEO strategies is unsocial to your desired outcome.

For example, I stake you didn’t cognize Converse was a sub-brand of Nike.

Well, if you’re connected Converse’s selling team, utilizing “running shoe” arsenic the sub-brand’s SEO keyword would beryllium “off brand.” A much fitting keyword for the strategy would beryllium “high apical sneakers.”

So, portion Converse is simply a sub-brand of Nike, their keyword strategy sets them isolated from the genitor institution to spot self-sustaining conversions.

You’ll announcement erstwhile the close operation of keywords serves the institution and sub-brand’s goals.

How volition you cognize you deed that saccharine spot?

Your assemblage volition archer you.

Insights from your contented show metrics and ROI volition uncover a wealthiness of resources. Then, you tin prolong those wins by pursuing that aforesaid strategy, adjusting arsenic needed.

#2: Keep an Eye connected Your Competition

You’ll request to support an oculus retired for the contention arsenic you expand. A beardown consciousness of your assemblage and competitors volition assistance differentiate your sub-brand.

Say you privation to measurement into a marketplace and situation the manufacture norms.

Think of immoderate of your favourite genitor companies. Now, deliberation of immoderate of their spin-off ideas that person been successful.

Who did you deliberation of?

I thought of Apple.

For instance, Apple offers a assortment of tech products. These products carnivore the Apple logo and enactment the genitor company.

Apple is not a merchandise successful and of itself, but each sub-brand leverages Apple’s marque worth and appeals to assorted marketplace niches.

When Apple archetypal started, they wanted to beryllium perceived arsenic the alternate to the mainstream. Sub-brands assistance transportation retired this plan. Think astir however users proudly state their loyalty to Apple products: “No PCs for me; I americium a Mac guy.” “I don’t person an MP3 player; I person an iPod.” “It’s not a Blackberry; it’s an iPhone.”

Sub-brands let Apple to basal retired from the contention successful wholly antithetic markets. Google’s algorithm favors domain diversity, meaning that you’re not apt to spot a ton of pages from the aforesaid domain successful a fixed SERP. This means that erstwhile talking sub-brands, you privation to usage arsenic galore domains arsenic possible.

While the erstwhile examples leveraged Apple’s marque equity, the institution has besides had occurrence with sub-brands that basal alone.

A multi-domain SEO strategy, not to beryllium confused with subdomain, helps them marketplace Shazam arsenic a sub-brand nether the Apple brand. While branded arsenic an idiosyncratic product, Shazam is acceptable up arsenic a abstracted domain that drives postulation backmost to Apple’s domain. It feeds successful users done Apple Music.

While it’s not a go-to SEO method similar keyword optimization, a multiple-domain SEO strategy is an out-of-the-box play that doubles your accidental to fertile for aggregate domains.

With sub-brand SEO, you tin instrumentality a multiple-domain strategy without devaluing the marque by strengthening its attack to their assemblage and against competitors.

#3: Avoid Keyword Cannibalization astatine All Costs

Before you marque your mode down sub-brand SEO street, don’t instrumentality a incorrect crook with your contented owed to keyword cannibalization.

If much than 1 of your pages popular up for the aforesaid hunt query, you’re competing against yourself. Because they people the aforesaid keywords, your pages devour into each other’s show (hint: wherefore we telephone it cannibalization).

Keyword cannibalization problems don’t travel with a “one-size-fits-all” solution. There are unsocial approaches to code antithetic cannibalization issues.

Those approaches include:

• Merging Page Topics: Try to merge pages with akin topics that are getting successful the mode of however the leafage is competing among others.

• Page Re-optimization: Taking different stab astatine the taxable by re-optimizing pages helps acceptable wide intentions for the page.

• Redirect lesser-performing content: Once you find which of the cannibalizing pages is the strongest, region different pages and breached links you nary longer need. From here, you tin execute regular contented audits. You’ll privation to marque your topics travel archetypal and person your keywords enactment for them.

Fix cannibalization issues and you’ll propulsion successful your audience, further establishing marque authorization successful your industry.

#4 Be Realistic About Keyword Difficulty

Estimating keyword difficulty reveals however hard it volition beryllium to fertile archetypal connected Google. As you brainstorm the “keyword bank” you privation to usage for your sub-brand, retrieve it needs to beryllium realistic and profitable.

The trouble of a keyword is determined by variables similar domain authority, leafage authority, and contented quality. So, usage these points to usher you toward the ones that acceptable your sub-brand best.

Say your sub-brand is simply a canine dainty enlargement from your main canine nutrient line:

An SEO instrumentality similar Ubersuggest tells you which keywords are astir hard to fertile for. An casual keyword trouble people lands betwixt 0 and 29. From the database above, you tin spot they each fertile implicit 30, meaning the contention is tough. This study besides gives you a consciousness of the keywords your contention is targeting.

Another adjuvant item is idiosyncratic hunt intent. Before stepping into a peculiar market, this helps spot however your imaginable assemblage mightiness payment from utilizing your sub-brand arsenic their solution.

Sub-brand SEO optimization is similar a marathon and whitethorn not scope its afloat imaginable overnight.

However, targeting a word with a precocious keyword trouble similar “dog treats” is inactive worthwhile. If the ROI is bully capable and the imaginable conversion complaint is acceptable, spell for it!

Even if a keyword has a debased trouble rating, is it truly worthy targeting if the ROI shows that determination is small accidental of making wealth from it and that it is not often searched for?

#5: Think About Brand Architecture astatine All Times

You are placing your institution successful information if you don’t support a sub-brand successful measurement with its genitor company. You’re not taking afloat vantage of the genitor brand’s equity if you instrumentality a sub-brand’s strategy successful isolation.

This could perchance wounded the genitor brand’s credibility. We saw this erstwhile Old Navy overtook the Gap arsenic a sub-brand by strategizing successful isolation.

A important constituent of the marque architecture “home” is the strategy it takes to physique retired a country (a sub-brand). Remember the location illustration I explained to you earlier? With a sub-brand, you person to deliberation astir the layout and however it fits wrong the genitor company, oregon “home.”

Examine the marque strategy of your genitor institution portion keeping successful caput the imaginable of aboriginal sub-brands. How tin you grow to connection much solutions to your audience? What caller markets bash you privation to conquer?

FAQs

What is simply a sub-brand?

What does a sub-brand mean?

Conclusion

The thought of sub-branding is not new.

Through sub-branding and marque extensions, iconic companies person discovered however to summation marque designation and “go global” implicit the years.

Maintaining your parent brand’s imaginativeness for the aboriginal is easier if you representation retired however the sub-brand’s maturation volition impact it, and vice versa.

Your marque is lone arsenic beardown arsenic your brand architecture. So, beryllium strategical astir however you physique retired your “home”—from genitor institution to sub-brand(s).

Sub-brand SEO helps you beryllium deliberate with however you physique retired this idea.

The much in-tune you are with your semipermanent goals, the easier it is to fig retired your archetypal absorption for a caller merchandise line.

Keep your intentions wide astatine each times, making definite that each caller entity has a stand-alone property and functions wrong the larger model of your genitor company.

Are you considering launching a sub-brand? Do you request to reappraisal your marque architecture truthful your SEO efforts enactment successful your favor? Get successful interaction with my squad and we volition assistance you brainstorm your options.