Are Brand Mentions Important to Google’s Algorithm?

Google’s John Mueller was asked if “unattached brand signals” matter in the Google algorithm. It was clear from John’s response that maybe “brand mention” isn’t a real thing in the Google algorithm, but he also said there could be value to site visitors who encounter it.

Little brand

There is an old notion in the SEO community that Google uses references to a website as a form of association.

One version of the idea is that if someone posts a URL like this, https://www.example.com But without making it a link, Google will probably consider it as a link. This is the idea of ​​a non-linking URL, where the post URL can be used as a link by Google.

The idea of ​​a non-linking URL later evolved into the idea that if a website mentions the brand name of another site, Google will also count it as a link. This is the idea of ​​”brand mention”.

But there wasn’t any evidence of this until around 2012 when Google published a patent called Sort search results.

The patent was several pages long and buried deep in the middle was a mention of an “implicit link” used as a type of link, which was different from the “quick link” described as a traditional hyperlink.

The phrase “implicit links” only appears a few times in this one paragraph.

John Mueller of Google discusses unrelated brand mentions

The two main ranking factors are discussed in the patent

To understand what the authors meant with the implicit association You have to scroll up the page to return to a section titled “Background” where the authors explain what the patent actually is.

These are the two most important factors discussed in the patent:

• The authors explain that they use independent Links to a website as part of the rating process. They call the site linking to a “targeted resource”.
• The authors also say they rank search results using search queries that contain a reference to a website, which again they call a “target resource.”

The patent unambiguously states that this second type of link is a search query using a brand name, which is what the search engine optimization (SEO) industry calls Branded search queries.

Where the patent refers to:set of resources,” refers to a group of web pages.

A resource is a web page or website.

A resource group is a collection of web pages or websites.

once again:

When the patent refers to “resources“It’s talking about web pages or websites.

The patent states:

A query can be classified as referring to a specific resource if the query contains a term that the system recognizes as referring to a specific resource.

For example, a term referring to a resource may be all or part of the resource identifier, for example, the URL, of the resource.

For example, “example.com” might be a term that is recognized as referring to the homepage of that domain, for example, a resource whose URL is “http://www.example.com”.

Thus, search queries including the term “example.com” can be classified as pointing to that home page.

As another example, if the system has data indicating that the terms “example sf” and “esf” are commonly used by users to refer to a resource whose URL is “http://www.sf.example.com”, then Queries containing the terms “example sf” or “esf” eg the queries “example sf news” and “esf restaurant reviews” can be counted as referral queries to the group that includes the resource whose URL is “http //www.sf.example.com”. “

The above explanation defines what the authors call “referential queries”.

A referral query is what the SEO community refers to as Branded search queries.

A trademark-related search query is a search someone makes on Google using a keyword plus a brand name, a website domain, or even a URL, which is exactly what the patent defines as referrer queries.

What the algorithm described in the patent does with “reference queries” (branded search queries) is use them like links.

The algorithm generates what is called an “adjustment factor” which modifies (reorders) the search results according to this additional data.

Additional data are:

1. Re-count incoming links using only “standalone” links (links that are not linked to the site being ranked.)

2. Referral queries (branded search queries) are used as a type of association.

Here’s what the patent says:

“The system generates an adjustment factor for the resource collection from the number of independent links and the number of referral queries…”

What the patent does is filter out some hyperlinks in order to use only standalone links and also to use branded search queries as another type of link, which can be defined as implicit linking.

How was the idea for the brand born?

Some in the SEO community have taken a single paragraph out of context in order to build their own “brand signals” idea.

The paragraph begins by talking about using independent links to rank search results, just as described in the background section of the patent.

The system determines the number of independent links for the group (step 302).

A resource group link is an inbound link to a resource in the group, that is, a link that has a resource in the group as its target. “

The above statement exactly matches what the entire patent, Independent Links, is talking about.

The next section is the one about the “implicit links” that have confounded the search industry for the past 10 years.

Two things to note in order to understand what is written more easily:

1. “source source” is the source of the link, the page being linked to.
2. The “target resource” is what is being linked to (and categorized).

This is what the patent says:

Group links can include explicit links, implicit links, or both.

A quick link, for example, a hyperlink, is a link embedded in a source resource that the user can follow to navigate to the target resource.

An implicit link is a reference to a target resource, for example, a quote from the target resource, which is included in the source code but is not a hyperlink to the target resource.

Thus, a resource in the collection can be the target of an implicit link without the user being able to navigate to the resource by following the implicit link.

The key to what an “implicit association” is is found in the first mention of the phrase, implicit association.

Here it is again, with my focus:

The implicit link is a file Reference to a target resource…”

It is clear that the use of wordsReferenceis the second part of what the patent is talking about, Reference inquiries.

The patent talks about reference queries (also known as branded search queries) from start to finish.

In retrospect, it would have been a mistake for some in the SEO industry to build an entire theory about brand signals from a single paragraph removed from the context of an entire patent.

Obviously, “implicit links” are not related to trademark references.

But this is basic information about how Brand Signals spread.

John Mueller on Unrelated Brand Signals and the Google Algorithm

Question about unrelated brand mentions

The question about trade signals had a lot of background information to unpack. So thanks for continuing to do so knowing that it’s helpful to understand the question and John Mueller’s answer.

This is the question that was asked:

“I see in some articles that people are talking about mentioning an unrelated brand.

I want to know your opinion on this situation.

Do you think it is also important to the algorithm, to refer to an unrelated brand? “

Are brand mentions important to the Google algorithm?

Concept “Little brandIt seems unclear to John Mueller.

So, Mueller asked a follow-up question:

“How do you mean” brand reference? “

The questioner explained what he meant:

“It’s like another website and article about my brand on the website, but it doesn’t relate to me.”

John Mueller replied:

“I don’t know.

I think that’s kind of tricky because we don’t really know what the context is there.

I mean, I don’t think it’s a bad thing, just for the users.

Because if they can find your website through that mention, that’s always a good thing.

But I don’t suppose there is like some… I don’t know… SEO factor that is trying to figure out where someone mentions your website name. “

Brand mentions are not an SEO factor

John Mueller emphasized that brand mentions are not a search engine optimization factor.

Given that the premise of the “brand mention” idea is based on a single paragraph of a patent taken out of context, I hope the SEO community will put aside the notion that “brand mention” is an SEO factor.

Mueller said brand signals can be useful for helping users learn about a website. And I agree that this is a good way to think of brand mention as a way to spread the word about a website.

But brand mention is not an SEO factor.

Just because it’s patented doesn’t mean it’s in use

A final note about the patent mentions “reference inquiries”.

It is important to understand that something is not necessarily used by Google just because it appears in a patent or research paper.

Google may or may not use it. Another consideration is that this is an old patent and Google’s search algorithm is constantly changing.

quotes

Read the patent from 2012

Sort search results

See John Mueller’s answer from Google about brand mentions

Watch at 12:01 min Mark: