What do search engines consider brand signals?
-
After being hit by the Penguin stick, like good content marketers we are trying to focus on improving brand signals for our site. But I keep coming up against what exactly brand signals are.
I can understand that if you are called 'Ziggle' and someone links to you with that in anchor text or mentions that name, that would be a brand signal. But we're on a generic domain (descriptive of the produt type), so what would constitute brand signals in our case?
-
I'd forgotten about that post, nice one, and it usefully widens the scope of brand signals.
-
I was about to edit my original post to include it, but check out this Feb 2011 article from Rand - he writes specifically about brand signals in some detail.
Lately, I've noticed some big multinationals using search phrases in TV campaigns instead of URLs. I assumed it was largely an SEO play to strengthen brand signals, although some of it could be to do with cutting costs (of creating satellite sites for a promo, maintaining hundreds of random promo-specific domains, etc).
-
That's an interesting idea riplash, I had thought before that a search for our domain with or without the .com might be considered a brand signal - that is, rather than the search being 'keyword1 keyword2' the search is performed as 'keyword1keyword2'. It seems that if that is the case, encouraging search in offline could feed into that.
-
Another key brand signal in my mind (and if it's not, it should be) is people searching for your brand name, or brand name + anchor, in Google to find you, for example SEOmoz must get a lot of traffic every day for people searching "SEOmoz", "SEOmoz rank tracker", etc.
This is obviously more difficult for Google to determine if your brand is also an exact match anchor phrase.
One way to strengthen the signal is to use a search phrase instead of a URL in your real world/print marketing. This could sometimes take a little SEO groundwork to do, but for example, if you are Electric Fan Services Ltd and you have a promo for Honeywell fans, instead of using the URL on your print marketing, add a footer saying something like, "Google 'electric fan services honeywell promo' to discover the deals".
-
Great example in the Electric Fan Services thanks Adam, it applies directly to our situation. We have Keyword Ltd in the footer (as that is actually our registered company name). The trick now will be to see how we can get Keyword Ltd in anchor text. I smell some guest posts approaching.
-
'Would you say then that a link with 'Keywords' as the anchor pointing at http://www.keywords.com would be considered a brand signal?'
Not unless the brand/company name is 'Keywords' also. Even then I would be tempted to use any identifying business extension such as Inc, Ltd etc. So as an example,
Business is called 'Electric Fan Services' website is 'http://www.electricfanservices.com' and main keyword phrase is 'electric fan services' I would make sure the majority of anchors are either 'Electric Fan Services' or 'http://www.electricfanservices.com'. If the business was actually 'Electric Fan Services Ltd.' I would probably adjust the anchor text term accordingly.
Adam.
-
Got it, thanks for taking the time to explain that Ben.
-
That would be my assumption. I'm sure there is some value placed on the links you place from your Facebook page timeline as well but not as much. I would consider this type of stuff to be "signals" not direct brand ranking factors that Google would see. Signals are the first step though and seem to be having a big impact on my client's brand recognition.
-
Thanks for clarifying that Ben. Tell me, how would Google know which Facebook page to associate with your site - I am guessing simply the one that you link to from the site?
-
As far as I can tell, social is a big part of the authentication process and filter of Google for Brand signals. If you establish solid (not spam) social accounts with your brand identity then, yes, I am saying that will help with branding.
A good way to test is by searching your "brand" in google and see what shows up.
-
Thanks Adam. That's interesting - so a link with http://www.keywords.com as the link text is considered a brand signal. That makes sense.
Would you say then that a link with 'Keywords' as the anchor pointing at http://www.keywords.com would be considered a brand signal? This is where it gets fuzzy for me. Clearly, a generic description phrase cannot be claimed as a brand trademark in legal terms, but I'm not sure if the delineation is as stark in the view of the engines.
In our case, our brand is effectively Keywords(.com) which is great if we end up getting the 'Hoover' effect, but not so great if it prevents us from creating a brand strong enough for Google. And of course, as branding decisions go, it was a bad one. Damn you Google and your former preference for exact matches. Damn me and my former preference for easy wins.
One signal we saw on this was that we used to get sitelinks for our generic phrase - in other words, Google considered us the brand for that phrase. That stopped probably 2 years ago and hasn't reappeared since. We still rank 1 for the phrase of course, but that is not as good as being considered a strong brand in our market.
-
Thanks Ben. Are you're saying that social signals to a page on the site would be considered a brand signal?
-
Let's say your brand is 'Ziggle' and your website is http://www.keywords.com then you could simply use 'Ziggle' or 'Ziggle Inc.' or 'http://www.keywords.com' or 'www.keywords.com' as your brand anchors.
Your website, even though it has keywords in it, is still regarded as a brand signal albeit not as strong a signal as just 'Ziggle'. Of course if you just used the commercial keywords as your anchor without the web address, then this is not good.
Ultimately, the point of the Penguin update is over-optimization, that is a very unnatural looking link profile. Therefore you have to ask what anchors to your site would look natural? It is of course absolutely natural to have anchors that contain your entire web address (http://www.keywords.com) even though it has keywords in the domain. Again, it does not look natural when anchors have been over-optimized with keyword rich commercial terms.
Personally, I try to avoid using exact match domains wherever possible.
Hope this helps.
Adam.
-
Social networks, citation sites, and local directories would probably be a good place to start. Since I began a social campaign for one of my (non)brands I've seen a big improvementsin rankings for branded results.
It is really interesting to see you pose your question this way. We have been seeing all the big dogs say that the exact match TLD is going to matter less and less over the coming years. I wonder if this is an indirect attack on that form of SERP manipulation. (note: I'm not saying you were trying to manipulate anything but that is the general use of generic TLDs)
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
-
SEO for Facebook's search bar?
Hey everyone! Had a quick question for ya'. Does anyone know if there are currently SEO tactics that are in place to help a company's Facebook page rank in their search bar? For example: When I search "Idaho Auctions" into the facebook search bar, there's a multitude of results - ranging from groups, to events, to businesses. How do these get ranked above each other?
Branding | | TaylorRHawkins1 -
New Product. New Brand. Gmail/Authorship Questions. Need Advice.
I'm in the process of developing a new product and brand name and would like to create all the social media accounts (FB, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc), including G+ and want it to have it's own Gmail ID like ABCXYZ@gmail.com, so I can set up all accounts using this Gmail ID and if needed down the road, have someone else help manage the accounts so they have that login and my my main Gmail login. My question is, does Google frown upon setting up new Gmail IDs under the same name "Patrick McCoy" as I have my name tied to my personal Gmail account and my company's Gmail account "whiteboardcreations@gmail" both with G+ pages and URLs of /+PatrickMcCoy1 and /+PatrickMcCoy2 respectively. I'd like to have Authorship associated with the new product website and also want the new product to have it's own G+ Business Page to post updates, info, etc., which is why I'm getting a little confused on how I'd do it the right way, What would you do or does it really matter... can my new Gmail account of ABCXYZ@gmail just be /+PatrickMcCoy3 which is associated to my new product/brand name? Thank you and look forward to the feedback!
Branding | | WhiteboardCreations0 -
Google+ Vanity Urls: Brand vs Keyword
We have recently been assigned a Google+ vanity URL for our Google page. By default, Google has assigned to us our top performing non-branded keyword. (Probably roughly twice the highly targeted search volume of our brand) My question is: Should I go with my BRAND NAME as my Google+ vanity url, or should I go with my TOP KEYWORD as my Google+ vanity url?
Branding | | Czarto0 -
Should I create a Google + account for the brand for Rel=Author
Hi, What I meant is should I use the above mentioned account as rel=author for category pages etc? It seems to me improper to use my account (with my picture) in a category page and to show my face in the SERPS for searches like "Toshiba Laptops". On the other hand, if in the SERPS it will show our Logo it might increase CTR... Any thoughts? Thanks
Branding | | BeytzNet0 -
How to encourage Google to recognize us as a "brand" in the Organic SERPS
You've probably seen that for some searches (most commonly for specific product types) that Google offers something like the following in the SERPS: Related searches for widgets: | Stores: | Widgetland Widgetworld Widgetbarn Amazon |
Branding | | PathMarketing
| Brands: | Widgetdog Superwidgets Widgey | I'm working with a reputable brand of widgets - they're not just a supplier or a retailer, but a company that designs and builds its own. Does anyone know how Google decides which brands are worthy of being recognized in these related searches, and how I can encourage them to recognize our brand similarly? So far I've done the following: Knowem.com brand protection Add products to Amazon Sell our products on eBay List our products on Google Shopping In other words, do what a popular brand would do - appear in many channels, with a large and diverse footprint. Does anyone have any experience with this sort of thing, and how to help a brand get recognized as a brand?5 -
Need to create more profile pages for my brand, any suggestions for strong sites that will rank high? Done the obvious ones like Twitter, FB and Linkedin
I am looking for sites that will rank high in SERP's for my brand name, any suggestion would be great. I am not looking for links from these sites.
Branding | | PottyScotty0 -
Is Google having trouble determining between two of my brand sites
I have a couple brand sites that our company uses and a couple of weeks ago one started to suddenly show up in the #1 position while searching for the other site via its brand. If I search for "collegexpress" our other site careersandcolleges.com is in the #1 possition. If I search for "collegexpress.com" it shows carrersandcolleges.com's title and description but links to www.collegexpress.com Could I have something messed up or is google confused with our two sites? In the past I am told that CollegeXpress referred to the careersandcolleges.com page but that has been there for many many years and this SERP change only started to show the first week in march of this year. I looked and there are a handfull of anchor text links from external sites using some form of the "CollegeXpress" brand linking to www.careersandcolleges.com but not that many, and they are not new. If I do a search the other way for "careersandcolleges" I see it correctly return is own site #1 but www.collegexpress.com is shown to me as #3. I checked and we dont have any redirects or mod rewrites between the two sites. They are on two different IPs Any help that can point me in the right direction would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.
Branding | | GeorgeLaRochelle0 -
What are the best ways to improve/trigger "Brand Signals"?
Google considers some companies "brands" or stronger "brands" than other sites. What are the best ways to show Google you are an actual brand, not a fly by night eCom?
Branding | | zachc_coffeeforless.com0