Google’s John Mueller was asked whether “brand mentions” help search engine optimization and ranking. John Mueller explained in detail how Google does not use brand mentions.
What is a brand mention?
Brand mentions are when one website mentions another website. There is an idea in the SEO community that when a website mentions the domain name or URL of another website, Google will see it and treat it as a link.
Brand mentions are also called implied links. Ten years ago, a Google patent mentioned “Implied link“Surfaced.
There has never been a comprehensive comment on why the idea of ”brand mention” has nothing to do with this patent, but I will provide a shortened version later in this article.
John Mueller discusses brand mentions
Does brand mention help rankings?
The person asking the question wants to know about brand mentions for ranking. The person who asked this question had a good reason to ask this question, because the concept of “brand mention” has never been explicitly reviewed.
advertise
Keep reading below
That person asked this question:
“Does brand mentions without links help SEO rankings?”
Google does not use brand mentions
Google’s John Mueller replied that Google will not use “brand mentions” for any link-related purposes.
Mueller explained:
“From my perspective, I don’t think we will use these for PageRank or understanding website link graphs at all.
Just mentioning it briefly is sometimes difficult to figure out anyway. “
The tricky part is interesting.
He didn’t elaborate on why this is tricky, until at the back of the video he said that it is difficult to understand the subjective background of one website referring to another website.
Brand mentions help increase visibility
Mueller went on to say that brand mentions might help promote a website, which is about building awareness.
Mueller continued:
“But it can make people aware of your brand. From this perspective, you may have some kind of influence indirectly, because they search for your brand, and then… Obviously, if they’re searching for your brand, then Hope they find you immediately, and then they can visit your website.
If they like what they see there, they can also leave and recommend it to others. “
advertise
Keep reading below
“Brand mentions” are problematic
Later at the 58th minute, another person returned to this topic and asked Google how to deal with spam sites that negatively mention a brand.
The person stated that the link can be rejected, but the “brand mention” cannot be rejected.
Mueller agreed and said this is one of the reasons that makes brand mentions difficult to use for ranking purposes.
John Mueller explained:
“It’s really hard to understand the almost subjective context mentioned.
Is it positive or negative?
Is this a satirical positive mention or a satirical negative mention? how do you know?
All of this, plus there are a lot of spam sites, sometimes they just rotate content, sometimes they are malicious to the content they create…
All of this, I think, it is difficult to say that we can use it like a link.
…I think this is too confusing to be used as a clear signal. “
Where does “brand mention” come from
The concept of “brand mention” has been popular for more than a decade.
There are no research papers or patents to support it. “Brand mention” is actually an idea someone invented out of thin air.
However, the idea of ”brand mention” became popular in 2012, when a patent emerged that seemed to confirm the idea of brand mention.
This has a long story, so I just want to condense it.
A patent in 2012 was misunderstood in many different ways because most people at the time, including myself, did not read the entire patent from beginning to end.
The patent itself is about ranking web pages.
The structure of most Google patents consists of introductory paragraphs that discuss the content of the patent, followed by an in-depth description of the details.
The introductory paragraph explaining its content states:
“Methods, systems and equipment for ranking search results, including computer programs.”
advertise
Keep reading below
Almost no one reads the beginning of the patent.
Everyone focused on one paragraph in the middle of the patent (page 9 of 16).
In that paragraph there is mentioned a name called “Implied link. “
This word”Imply“It is mentioned only four times in the entire patent, and all four times are included in this paragraph.
Therefore, when this patent was discovered, the SEO industry focused on that paragraph as evidence of Google’s use of the brand.
In order to understand what an “implicit link” is, you have to scroll all the way back to the opening paragraph. The Google patent author describes something called “Reference query“This is not a link, but it is still used for ranking purposes like a link.
What is a reference query?
A reference query is a search query that contains a reference to a URL or domain name.
The patent states:
“The reference query for a specific resource group can be a previously submitted search query that has been categorized as referring to resources in a specific resource group.”
advertise
Keep reading below
The patent provides a more specific explanation elsewhere:
“If the query contains terms that the system recognizes as referencing a specific resource, the query can be classified as referencing a specific resource.
…Search queries that include the word “example.com” can be classified as referencing that homepage. “
The patent abstract at the beginning of the document states that it is about establishing which links to the website are independent, and calculating reference queries, and using this information to create a “modification factor” for ranking web pages.
“…Determine the corresponding count of the reference query for each of the multiple resource groups; determine its own group-specific modification factor for each of the multiple resource groups, where the group-specific modification factor of each group is based on the count of independent links And the count of reference queries for this group;”
The entire patent largely depends on these two very important factors, the number of independent inbound links and the number of reference queries. Phrase citation query and citation query were used 39 times in patents.
advertise
Keep reading below
As mentioned above, the reference query is used for ranking purposes like a link, but it is not a link.
The patent states:
“Implicit links are references to target resources…”
Obviously, in this patent, when referring to an implicit link, it refers to a reference query. As explained above, this only refers to when people search using keywords and website domain names.
The idea mentioned by the brand is wrong
Due to the misunderstanding of the patent, the whole idea of ”brand mention” became part of the SEO belief system.
But now you have the facts and you know why the “brand mention” is not true.
Plus John Mueller confirmed this.
“Brand mentions” are completely random things that someone in the SEO community invented out of thin air.
Citation
Ranking search results patents
Watch John Mueller discuss “Brand Mention” at 44:10 minutes, the second part of Brand Mention starts at 58:12 minutes
