Are Brand Mentions Important to Google’s Algorithm?

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Online referrals to your brand, company, or product are as brand mentions. These references are present under product reviews, blog entries, social media posts, and news stories.

Brand mentions may impact your brand’s reputation; therefore, it’s critical to monitor them and handle any negative comments as soon as possible.

What Exactly Is A Brand Mention?

A brand mention occurs when one website references other. As per the SEO community, when a website cites another website’s domain name or URL, Google will recognize it and count it as a link.

brand mentions

Brand mentions are known as inferred links. Most of this was written about ten years ago, following the publication of a Google patent mentioning “implied linkages.”

There has never been a comprehensive examination of why the concept of “brand mentions” has nothing to do with this patent, but we’ll present a condensed version later in this post.

See Also: Let people recognize your brand with link building

Do Brand Mentions Affect Ranking?

The person who ask the query had interest in brand mentions for rating. The individual raising the question has an excellent reason to do so because the concept of “brand mentions” has never thoroughly examined.

The unlinked URL concept developed into the idea that if a website contains another site’s brand name, Google will treat that as a link as well. It is what brand mentions are.

do brand mentions affect rankings

Even though there was no evidence of this until 2012 when Google issued a patent titled Ranking Search Results.

The patent was a few pages lengthy, and buried deep inside it was a reference of an “implied link” used as a form of connection, which differed from an “express link,” which owns the characteristics as a regular hyperlink.

The word “implied linkages” appears just a few times in this text.

See Also: How Redirecting URLs Can Impact SEO?

The Patent Discusses The Following Things:

The following are the two most critical factors addressed in the patent:

  1. The author notes that they use independent connections to a website as part of the rating process. The site they link it to can call as a “target resource.”
  2. He also claims to be prioritizing search results by employing search queries that include a reference to a website, which they refer to as a “target resource.”

The patent explicitly indicates that the second type of link is a search query that includes a brand name, commonly referred to as Branded Search Queries in the SEO industry.

When the patent refers to a “group of resources,” it refers to a collection of web pages.

A resource is anything like a web page or a website. This collection of resources is a compilation of web pages or websites.

A reference query can also call as a brand search query in the SEO world.

branded search queries

A branded search query is a Google search that includes a term and the brand name, domain of a website, or it could be a URL, which the patent identifies as reference queries.

The algorithm disclosed in the patent treats the “reference queries” (branded search queries) as links.

The method creates a “modification factor” that alters (re-ranks) the search results based on the added data.

The patent filters out some hyperlinks too solely to employ independent links and to use branded search queries as another sort of link, known as an inferred link.

Brand Mentions Do Not Influence SEO

According to John Mueller, Brand mentions are not a search engine optimization consideration.

Given that the “brand mentions” concept is based on a single line of a patent that has been taken out of context, I hope the SEO community will abandon the notion that “brand mentions” are an SEO element. – John Mueller

brand mentions and seo ranking

Mueller stated that brand mentions could be beneficial in increasing user awareness of a website. And he believes that’s an excellent approach to look at brand mentions to spread the word about a website.

Brand mentions, on the other hand, are not an SEO element.

Conclusion 

Concluding on the patent’s mention of “reference inquiries.”

It’s beneficial to keep in mind that just because something appears in a patent or a research paper doesn’t mean it’s in use by Google, and Google may or may not be utilizing it. Another factor to consider is an older patent, and Google’s search algorithm is constantly evolving. And brand mentions are not at all an SEO element.

See Also: Why Backlinks Are Still Important For SEO

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