Google, as well all know, loves to play innocent and quietly test new formatting for its search results, Places pages, maps, etc – as those relying heavily on search gulp in horror.
The latest “test”, first seen a few weeks ago but now starting to be more widespread, concerns how searches for brand names are returning multiples links for a website in a new sub-category at the top of page one.
For example, a search for European cross-channel ferry operator “sea france” is now producing the following result (in some areas – in the UK in this example):
The main website is the top result (after the paid-for ad), with a further eight links to key pages such as booking and offers, contact.
Similar results are shown with a query for “thomas cook” (but this time including a search box for the site, but only six links):
And rival “thomson” (minus the search box):
Or “princess cruises” (this time with 12 additional links):
Why is this important?
Well, with real estate at a premium on page one of search results, big brands will find themselves with a nice position and plenty of links, while anyone optimising with relevant content will either find themselves pushed far down the page (below the fold, in old newspaper talk) or relegated to the dreaded page two or worse.
One of the only ways to get visibility in search against a big brand name will be to bid more on Adwords for handy placement on the right-hand side.
Now, say you’re an online travel agency, content site or metasearch engine winning a reasonable amount of traffic from a prime position on brand name search results – well, you may find that a bit of a challenge if and when the roll-out continues.
It appears, as some are suggesting, Google is continuing its push to favour brands in search results, a process first hinted at in March 2009.
This all begs some pretty fundamental questions: what is a brand, how big do you have to be before Google gives you a nice big block of links such as above, what is the search giant’s methodology for choosing the links?
Mark Hodson of search marketing company Travel SEO says:
“There has been some speculation on the signals that Google is using to define a brand. It’s possible that search volume is a factor, which certainly makes sense.
“It is also likely that having lots of links to your site with your brand name as anchor text is going to be a good signal (ironically, the opposite of what many SEOs are trying to achieve).”
Hi Kevin,
I dare to differ…
http://www.wouterblok.com/big-it-up-for-the-brand-nice-google-serp-test
Intermediaries very much alive and kicking.
Cheers,
Wouter.
@wouter – err, of course you’re going to feature well (one hopes) against your own brand name!
What about intermediaries optimising against brand names of products they supply?
Ho-hum.
@Kevin As far as they haven’t been pushed down yet by reputation management of the brands already. I focused too much on the question which brands get this real estate, sorry about that.
@Wouter – think you’re missing Kevin’s point. The example on your blog shows you searching for your OWN BRAND, not hotels available on your site.
Your experiment actually proves the validity of Kevin’s piece perfectly.
Not sure that was your intention… whoops!
@John Jep, there’s no undo here…As mentioned above, I read ‘goodbye to intermediaries’ and skipped the rest to check if we got this exposure ourselfs. A whoops indeed. For companies heavily relying on brand hijacking this is bad news for sure.
Excellent, this is especially interesting for mobile users.
The only task that intermediaries should fulfill is leading me to a perfect solution that fits my needs out of many and not to pollute the search results if I already know what I want.
Nothing but the same old, same old tactics by Google.
Recognize any industry with attractive returns and come up with a strategy to eliminate, or acquire, all other intermediaries. No different to advertising, news, finance, maps, video, etc.
Google’s only satisfied with world domination in every market it competes in. It’s the nature / ethos of Larry and Sergei (mostly Larry), losing or coming second is not an option. Only interested in supporting innovation if it suits their needs (eg Android).
I do have to admit, from a more objective perspective, it does provide a more thorough / better user experience if you’re searching for a specific brand… even if it does have a more sinister and stealthy ulterior motive! Uh oh, there I go being incredibly bias and subjective again.
@John +1 for your outspokenness. All intermediaries? Google might be strongest in the pull segment for searchers, but what made them search? Probably not yet the Google offer.
When you’re an intermediary that’s got it’s act together in building customer loyalty you’ll be one step ahead in reaching that customer with a triggering deal or just by being top of mind, right?
Here’s an example where they lost to the intermediaries. http://google-au.blogspot.com/2011/01/retiring-real-estate-on-google-maps.html
Cheers Wouter. +1 for your humility and +101 for your business. Easy To Book is awesome and a pioneer in proper UI and UX for travel. Kudos.
this is great news, and a smart development by Google, sending people to deeper pages of a brand website.
but when will Google help hotels to protect their brand and not allow OTA to advertise through PPC keyword bidding on the hotel name …
If you check any other large consumer brand like Coca Cola, Google, Delta, Adidas, Amazon, Hilton, Marriott this seems well arranged …
@Patrick
Partially agree. Google left it to the advertisers themselves to protect their brandname. I seems to me that big brands have big lawyers to help guard them from brand hijacking. Therefore Googel created a competitive disadvantage.
Btw, Adidas, Delta show many Adwords advertisers in NL. I know your opinion on this, but consumers can actually have great experiences buying Adidas on Zappos and booking Delta on Cheaptickets.
Thanks Kevin. For Inghams.co.uk (ski, lakes & mountains holidays) we get a nice load of links and a search box. Happy with that
Most the other Inghams links on the first page are other legitimate Inghams-named brands (lawyers, property services, accountants, chickens in Australia…) but interestingly one of our major intermediaries, igluski, does make it to #2.
Would be interesting to know what puts them above e.g. Inghams Law. Presumably their position has to relate to the volume of brand search traffic and the click responses / bounces / conversions, because they are a successful agent for us – but then so are others who do not show up until page 3.
Vicky
Hi Kevin
We are a small cycling holiday biz based in France. We get similar results to the big companies with a load of links but no search box.
But what is good for us is if you put “Lot Cycling” in and not the full “Lot Cycling Holidays” we get the same result. So our strongest keywords work well for us.
We have trouble competing with other keywords and are often on the second page. So lots of Google Ads!
The further down the page we go the more we spend on ads – so surely it must be a ploy by Google for more revenue!