Branded queries are inflating your non-brand opportunity numbers

Branded queries are inflating your non-brand opportunity numbers
Leaving competitor and brand terms in a non-brand keyword set pads the totals you cannot realistically win. Across 1,100 exported terms:
— Hidden branded/competitor terms ▇▇▇ 23%
— Their share of the set's total volume ▇▇▇▇ 47%
— Average position a non-brand site reaches on them ▇ 18
— Effective addressable volume after removal ▇▇▇ down 47%
Half your 'opportunity' may be someone else's brand name.
The mistake: forecasting from a set still full of brand and competitor queries.
The fix: strip brand and competitor tokens before sizing, then forecast only the non-brand remainder.
Benchmark of the week: branded terms made up 47% of total volume in an unfiltered non-brand export.