Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google, famously called the web a cesspool last year – and he called brands the solution.
Following that some significant shifts occurred in Google rankings. Aaron Wall provided great coverage and details on the update.
Google is interested to clean up the web as long as it’s profitable for them to do so. Be that as it may, aligning your company and website with Google’s agenda is the best way to ensure you’re not caught in the turd filter.
The answer is building a brand for your own company.
But wait, weren’t you doing that already?
What constitutes a “brand?” We know Pepsi and Skittles are brands – and the Bellagio too. They’re brands because they’re recognizable and we associate them automatically with what they do.
- Pepsi = tasty cola soft drink
- Skittles = colorful candy
- Bellagio = upscale Las Vegas hotel & casino
Brands exist in the minds of the consumer. They are little more than a set of perceptions or references to qualities we believe a product, service or company holds.
How would a search engine measure brands?
It’s not likely that Google now has their search engineers manually associating recognizable names with a given keyword or topic. That’s not how they roll. Google relies on signals that can be scaled and automatically tracked – values they can incorporate into their ranking algorithm to generate results sorted the way they think they ought to be.
A few signals that Google might use measure the “brand” quality algorithmically:
- Brand mentions in social networks and blogs
- Brand mentions adjacent to service/product keywords (for example, occurrences like “Atkins Diet” or “Aetna Health Insurance”)
- Searches for brand names
- Searches for brand names with service/product keywords
- Domain trust/authority (rather than raw link juice or PageRank, this would examine how many links a website has from trusted “seed” websites)
A few signals that Google might have discounted in algorithms to better deliver brand-oriented results:
- Keyword density
- Keyword in anchor text
- Exact match domains
- Keyword in title
- Sheer link juice or PageRank
The point
Start thinking about what constitutes a brand, and how that might be measured. Remember that Google has access to an unparalelled amount of user data – not just search usage. If it’s profitable for them to start using these signals in their ranking algorithm you’d better believe they are already.
What do you think?
I’d like to hear your thoughts on this issue. How do you think Google might measure a “brand?” Have you seen shifts that indicate one factor or another is being more heavily weighted?