What branded and unbranded keywords mean
Branded keywords include your brand name or variations of it. Examples:
"SnowSEO pricing"
"SnowSEO vs Ahrefs"
"How to use SnowSEO"
These are searches from people who already know your brand. They usually convert well but do not grow your audience.
Unbranded keywords do not mention your brand. Examples:
"Best SEO tools for small businesses"
"How to improve Google rankings"
"AI visibility monitoring"
These are discovery searches. People who find you here did not know about you before. This is where growth happens.
How SnowSEO classifies your keywords
SnowSEO checks each tracked keyword against your brand aliases in Brand Settings.
How to set your aliases
Go to Brand Settings → About
Add your brand name and common variations
For example: "SnowSEO", "Snow SEO", "snowseo.com"
You can also add abbreviations or common misspellings
When a tracked keyword matches any of your aliases, SnowSEO marks it as Branded. Everything else is Unbranded.
Manual override
Sometimes SnowSEO gets it wrong. A competitor might have a similar name, or a keyword might contain a word that looks like your brand but is not.
You can manually override the classification. Open the keyword details and toggle whether it should be branded or unbranded. This updates your filters and reports immediately.
Why this distinction matters
Your branded and unbranded rankings tell different stories.
If branded keywords are dropping
This usually means a technical problem, not a content problem
Check for broken pages, site outages, or Google penalties
Your audience still knows you, they just cannot find you
If unbranded keywords are dropping
This means competitors are outranking you or your content is decaying
Check the SERP snapshot to see who jumped above you
Update or expand your content to reclaim positions
Healthy ratio
A strong site has both. If 90% of your tracked keywords are branded, you are only capturing existing demand. You need more unbranded keywords to grow. If 90% are unbranded, you might be missing easy wins from people already searching for you.
What SERP snapshots show
When you click a keyword in Rank Tracking, you see a panel with the actual search results from the latest crawl.
What you see
The top 10 to 20 results for that keyword in your target country
Which position your site holds
Which competitors appear
Whether the results include featured snippets, ads, or AI Overviews
How the results have changed over time
Why this matters
Your position number alone does not tell the full story. If position 1 is a featured snippet and position 2 is an ad, your position 3 might get almost no clicks even though it looks good on paper.
The SERP snapshot shows you the real competitive landscape so you know what you are actually fighting against.
How to read the position history chart
The chart shows your ranking position for that keyword over time.
How to use the date range picker
1 week - Good for spotting sudden drops after a site change or algorithm update
1 month - Good for seeing the impact of content updates
3 months - Good for spotting seasonal trends or gradual decay
6 months or 1 year - Good for understanding long-term trajectory
What the dots mean
Each dot is one day's position
A flat line means stable rankings
A steep drop means something changed
A gradual climb means your content is gaining authority
When the chart shows gaps
If there is no data for certain days, it means the keyword was not tracked yet or the crawler could not retrieve results for that day. This is normal for brand new keywords or during maintenance windows.