Can you rank for copyrighted/trademarked words that became generic terms?
-
Hi,
As everyone knows, lots of generic terms we use everyday (depends from one country to another obviously) are trademark terms and technically protected.
Some examples here and there.So my question is ... are we free to rank (or try to at least!) for some of these keywords?
Some of these keywords vastly outranked their original generic terms and there is little to no value trying to get traffic from the latter.More specifically what about the keywords such as spin, spinning etc.?
Thanks!
G -
That helps a lot indeed!
Thank you so much for your reply. I'll get on with this asap -
Hi there, interesting question!
So in terms of whether you are allowed to try to rank for brand name/trademarked keywords the answer is yes, absolutely. Google makes decisions about which sites it thinks are most relevant for a search and you don't have any responsibility to shy away from that attempt.
In terms of whether it's possible for you to rank for those keywords, that's actually kind of related to the point above. Google decides what should rank based on best user experience. If Google has really strong evidence that whenever someone searches a particular term they are looking for a specific brand it'll be very hard for you to break into that. However, as you've mentioned, there comes a time when a term becomes generic enough that users aren't necessarily searching for the brand, that's when you'll have more and more chance with pages using the term as a generic term. You can fairly quickly check by just Googling the terms and seeing what comes up. For example, when I search "spinning" the fourth text result is "Boom Cycle" - sounds like it doesn't just have to be a brand called "Spinning" for that term. If on the other hand you Google Apple - it's pretty clear Google thinks there's only one topic that's relevant as a result.
If it's a term you think your users will be searching for, create some content for it. If it's a stretch to think you'll rank, create something good but not terribly time consuming and go from there. If it looks like the only content showing up is about this brand, consider creating a post about the differences between that and what you offer, as a way to seem a bit more relevant for Google.
Hope that helps
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
I want to update the Key words in my title tag. But i'm afraid of what might happen:(
Hello everyone, My Insurance agency ranks high in searches, but the key words in our Title Tag aren't very well optimized at all. It's too long, in the wrong order, there's duplicate's and the Key words aren't even in there?! So, I want to update the home page, as well as all the other pages that are having the same problem. I'm hoping that because we've been ranked in the top 3 for over 3 years and I blog 3-4 times a month, and all my Off-page seo is on point, I shouldn't see to much of a drop? I'm changing my title from this: General liability, Commercial building, Workers Comp, Truck, Auto Insurance in Dallas, Texas - - Thumann Agency **To this: **Business & Home Insurance Dallas, Texas | Thumann Agency. Please share you thoughts with me, good idea or not? Many thanks in advance! )
Keyword Research | | MissThumann0 -
Rankings going up, traffic decreasing
Hi there, I have been burned 3 times with shonky/bad SEO experts so was nervous about paying another company, so I am trying to learn SEO myself. My rankings are going up, but my traffic is at an all time low. This doesn't really make sense to me. Can anyone help me? Thanks, Astrid
Keyword Research | | Lilala_Kids0 -
My home page doesn't rank for its brand keyword
I'm wondering why my website www.travelnasia.com home page URL does not rank in the top 50 for the brand keyword "travelnasia". Does this indicate a problem? A page linking to my site ranks at No 1. A domain listing for my site ranks No 2. A SiteJabber review of my site ranks No 3. My own privacy page ranks #4 and my Contact Us page ranks No 5. My home page is nowhere to be seen in the top 50. It does rank #1 for the qualified domain "travelnasia.com", just not for the unqualified domain. I just don't know what to make of that. My competitors all seem to rank #1 for their brands, so I'm not sure why I don't at least rank in the top 50 for mine.
Keyword Research | | Gavin.Atkinson0 -
How do I determine international search volume for a search term, beyond google?
I am trying to determine which countries I should be entering into next with my product based on search volume and competition. The issue is that not every country has google as their primary engine, ie. China. How would I go about figuring out volume / competition globally across all engines?
Keyword Research | | jaychristopher0 -
What's the best way to find ranking keywords and phrases?
What's the best way to find ranking keywords and phrases? I have tried Google Keyword Tool but it just doesn't do the job for me (or I'm using it wrong). My main focus is people who are looking for energy saving tricks, but I'm not sure if this is the right keyword / keyphrase. The goal of this question is not to get other people to do the research for me, but rather to find the right tools and usage of those tools for the job.
Keyword Research | | nickhoe0 -
Where can I find lists of high probability of winning keywords
Keyword research can take a lot of time. Suppose you are not sure of what keywords you want to rank for but just want to see a list of phrases that have 500-5000 searches a day, low cost and low competition because you are looking for phrases that interest you for which it will be easier to rank close to #1 in google. Besides AdWords Keyword Tool, are there sites that specialize in this?
Keyword Research | | Darden0 -
Title Tag & Ranking Improvement....
Hi I have a dilema that I could do with some help with please. I am working on a site and its home page is ranking on the second page of google position 2 (12) for a term such as [Portrait Photographer London] The title tag I am using for this homepage is "Portrait Photographer | Clients Brand Name" ( which does NOT include the word "photography / photographer") The reason why I used this term for the home page is eventually I would like to rank in the top 3 (I'm ambitious) for [Portrait Photographer] so I left out the location on the home page as I have an about us page where I have the title tag "Portrait Photographer London | Clients Brand Name" this is currently ranking on page 3 position 3 (33) for a term such as [London Portrait Photographer] I'm wondering if including the location would help move my client up any? So it would be: "Portrait Photographer London | Clients Brand Name" and the keyword I want move up for is [Portrait Photographer London] Hope this makes sense
Keyword Research | | RankStealer0