The most underrated SEO factor

As mentioned, there are many intangibles within SEO, including branding. Both share many similarities. They:

It seems unclear and intangible to many. It requires a long-term vision. Have a path to success. It will become some of your strongest assets.

And they can reinforce each other:

Increased SEO visibility along the customer journey increases brand visibility. A stronger brand can contribute to SEO.

That said, there are many well-known SEO factors, some of which have commonalities with branding:

EEA-TAuthority (Authority, the A of the EEAT) Reliability (Trust, the T of the EEAT) Search Intents

EAT

One of the most important concepts within the guidelines is the EEAT concept (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness and Trust). The SQRG mentions the abbreviation EEAT 126 times.

Trust and authority, in particular, have a lot in common with branding and will therefore be discussed.

trust

According to the guidelines, trust is the most important factor because unreliable pages have a low EEAT, regardless of how Experienced, Expert or Authorized they appear. The example given in the guidelines is a financial scam. It is not completely reliable even if the content is authorized or the scammer is an expert at running scams.

The Trust assessment is done by looking carefully at the information on the company’s own website and everything else that can be found on the Internet about the website and the authors. Examples are your About Us section, media sentiment, and public complaints and comments.

The SQR appears to use a mix of qualitative and quantitative data. Search volumes are a quantitative expression of interest (brand). A website labeled as “Trusted” will not necessarily enjoy high brand awareness. But the chances that a strong and well-known brand will be considered trustworthy by people are much greater than a brand that has just entered the market and enjoys the same perception.

So, theoretically, when there is a relatively large search for a specific brand, this could be a sign of trust for Google’s algorithm.

Google tries to present the most relevant answers (search results) to each query. To Google (and probably most people), the more of an authority you are in your industry, the more likely you are to be a relevant answer.

Google can measure your authority level based on numerous factors, including content quality, link profile, mentions, and other data.

If brand interest can be linked to trust, brand interest in a specific niche is a quantitative expression of authority in that niche.

The guidelines consist of four chapters, one of which is understanding users and the intent behind their search terms. On page 87 of the SQRG, Google clearly explains that search intent can change over time.

Search intent can change quickly and search results adapt just as quickly. A perfect example is the search intent of countries and cities during COVID. The intent behind very specific search terms like “Barcelona Vacations” and “Spain Vacations” could change quickly whenever there was a flurry of COVID. When a country received a negative travel advisory or the destination hit the news due to a spike in infections, search results would switch from travel websites to government pages almost immediately, and switch back just as quickly when things returned to normal.

An example of changing search behavior is the search market for health insurance in the Netherlands. In the Netherlands, health insurance is mandatory and you can only change healthcare providers around November and December.

Between January and September, the primary search intent for “health insurance” is more focused on general health insurance information. Because people have to make a choice in Q4 whether to switch health insurance or not, you see the search intent change to “Compare Health Insurance” in Q4.

This has a clear impact on search results. In the example below, you can see the fluctuations of a Dutch health insurer “CZ” and a healthcare comparator “Zorgkiezer” in the generic term “Health Insurance”

We see ‘Zorgkiezer’ start at position nine during the start of Q4 and climb to position two in the last few days that people can trade, then drop.

So we know that:

Google Ads search volumes are measured and made available by Google itself. Google search results are created by the most advanced machine learning algorithms, of which RankBrain has been an active algorithm since 2015 (more than eight years) and aims to specifically understand our search intentions. A change in search intent has a direct impact on search results. The algorithms are powered by more than 16,000 people, specifically briefed to check whether the website behind a search result is trustworthy and has enough authority.

When a brand becomes more and more popular in a niche, the search intent within that niche can change so much (because users want to buy a product in a specific category on the website) that Google’s algorithms will consider the website more relevant within that niche.

The spike in demand between the low and high seasons is extreme in this market, so we probably see more impact here than in other industries.

To map the change in search behavior in the outdoor furniture industry, we compared brand interest towards Van der Garde against 15 competitors and the unbranded search market. The benchmark refers to the development of the average monthly search query between February and May (high season) compared to October and January (low season).

We have distinguished between outdoor furniture specialists who sell nothing but outdoor furniture and companies that do not necessarily have outdoor furniture as their main business.

Outdoor furniture specialists (main company)
Vander Garde

Garden furniture store

Country garden furniture

AVH Exterior

Garden furniture Buitenhof

Kees Smit Home Furnishings Chains Hardware Stores Gardening Chains

For chain furniture stores, DIY stores, and garden chains, we only used keyword combinations between search terms related to the brand and outdoor furniture (Karwei outdoor furniture, Karwei 300cm parasol, etc.).

We have used all the inquiries with the outdoor furniture specialists because the whole brand has an outdoor furniture search intent.

By definition, specialists should have more experience and authority within their industry than many of the much larger national chains with a broader focus.

Also, they often have much lower budgets than larger companies. As a result, they see a much more significant increase in search demand for outdoor furniture than “real” outdoor furniture specialists and the unbranded search market itself.

Therefore, given our theory, search intent is shifting more towards these companies in this period.

Example A

Outdoor furniture specialist Van der Garde annually drops its ‘tuinset’ (outdoor furniture set) towards the high season and rises towards the off season. At the same time, the Praxis hardware store does the opposite. Their search demand increases by more than 665% heading into peak season, while Van der Garde’s increase is “only” 200%. It is not inconceivable that:

Google concludes that people searching for “tuinset” are more likely to visit Praxis than Van der Garde. Van der Garde therefore gradually drops from the top three to position 12, while praxis rises from position seven to the top three. This returns to “normal” when the difference in brand interest diminishes.

Example B

Again, when outdoor furniture specialist Tuinmeubelshop and home furniture chain Jysk are compared, demand for the ‘only’ specialist brand is up 300% while Jysks is up 717%. What is more extreme is that in the query “loungeset”. Jysk never had a top 10 finish in the offseason in the last two years. But during the peak season, when the demand for the brand is at its peak, they even touch the top three.

conclusion

Can Branded Searches Influence SEO Results? Absolutely. It makes sense, and our data proves it. Does this mean businesses should shift their SEO budget to branding? Definitely not. Branding affects SEO, but it’s still a smaller factor than an SEO-optimized website.