iPullRank reposted this
"The best way to rank for auto insurance is spending 20 years investing billions of dollars into advertising." Rob Ousbey "You used to be able to ‘SEO’ your way to any rankings. But now, SEO is about what people want. And people want brands." Marie Haynes "Google has a brand bias because people have a brand bias." AJ Kohn The role of Brand in Organic Search is frustrating. Big brands can get away with lower-quality content purely by being recognizable. We don't have access to Google's data, but if search data consistently reveals that people click on brands they recognize, it makes sense that Google rewards that with rankings. Google and searchers have a symbiotic relationship. Google shapes search behavior and people shape Google. We had a fantastic discussion yesterday. We touched on a variety of topics including: • Brand in the context of SEO • What role does Google’s data play in user satisfaction? Content quality vs. Brand • How different are the algorithms in 2024 compared to insights from the DOJ Antitrust trial which started in 2020? • Remember Hidden Gems? Our subjective assessments of quality • Why Reddit and Quora are winning visibility for opinion content • What does the future of search look like in the context of AI search engines? • What do we think will happen with Google in the context of the Antitrust trial? If you can tell from the questions, outside of Brand, the theme of the conversation was context. Shout out to Marie, AJ, and Rob for the fun discussion. We need more of these panels. What's your take on brand dominance in Organic Search? Would you prefer a results page built purely on the merits of Google's standard of 'quality' content?