Branded keywords are the terms (and phrases) that are directly related to a company/enterprise or its services/products.
Most enterprises rank quite well for these terms and phrases but not everyone. Let's take a closer look at SEO for branded keywords.
It's actually quite common for brands to monitor social media and organic searches for references to their specific brand name but they should also be researching the other terms consumers use in association with their brand name (as well as that of their competitors).
Doing so can help brands understand what aspects of their service or sections of a website are confusing or unclear to customers, enables them an opportunity to plan a content strategy to emphasize certain features or capabilities of the site or its products/services, and of course, identify weak points. It can also be helpful to monitor where competitors might be falling short as well.
Perhaps the most important element of an SEO initiative is to choose the right keyword research tool. There is, of course, no shortage of these solutions but one of the easiest ways to identify the low-hanging fruit is to simply use the auto-suggest features of the search engines and even niche search engines (e.g. YouTube and Amazon).
Once SEOs have a good idea of the keywords consumers are using, they can turn their attention to more task-oriented development. The keywords can be used to inspire SEOs to develop new on-site content such as an FAQ section, take advantage of gaps in competitors' service or product coverage.