Brand listings included within the search results

Many feel that these types of search results only serve to benefit those who are already well established and make it harder for small businesses.

This brand refinement means that if you performed a search for “kayaks” for example, brand names relating to the search term are displayed in a single line above the natural search results and below the sponsored links section, as shown in this screenshot:

For a while now we have known that when it comes to Search Engine Optimisation, Google favours brands. Their reasoning behind this is that they want to be able to point users to those brands within a particular industry which others find popular and useful. They therefore feel that by not including these results they would not be doing their job properly. Google have now gone one step further in their efforts and introduced a brand refinement to the search results.

Gemma Neesham
Project Manager

I have not seen this in the UK results yet, but it seems it will only be a matter of time. If Google keeps heading in the same direction, it seems companies are going to have to concentrate more and more on their branding in order to have a good online presence.

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