Thumbnail: What is a Brand SERP and why is it so very important to your business?

Whatever business you are in, your Brand SERP is fundamentally important, phenomenally useful, and incredibly interesting. If you aren’t convinced about any of those, don’t know why you should care, or don’t know what a Brand SERP is, then this video is a must-watch.

Jason Barnard gives you a 5-minute tour of his world of Brand SERPs.

He’ll probably convince you that your Brand SERP is WAY more important and interesting than you could possibly imagine.

Apparently, it is

1) Your new business card (maybe even your new homepage)

2) An honest appraisal of the quality of your content strategy

3) An open window into your digital ecosystem

[00:00:00] The Brand SERP Guy (Jason Barnard): Hi there. I’m Jason Barnard. I’m here to tell you all about Brand SERPs, the one thing you’ve never thought about but you should have done.

What Is a Brand SERP, Who Searches for Your Brand Name, and What Should You Be Doing With It?

[00:00:13] The Brand SERP Guy (Jason Barnard): What is a Brand SERP? It’s the result that Google shows when somebody searches your exact match brand name. Who searches for your brand name? Clients, prospects, journalists, potential hires, investors maybe, all the people who are fundamentally important to your business. And that’s what makes them so important, but I’m going to show they’re also quite exciting and interesting too.

[00:00:34] The Brand SERP Guy (Jason Barnard): So, what should you be doing? First of all, you should be tracking that Brand SERP. You should make sure that you are number one, that on the right, you have a Knowledge Panel, that underneath that first result that’s your page, your homepage, you get those Rich Sitelinks, underneath that, few social accounts, underneath that, a couple of articles, maybe a review site. You certainly shouldn’t be seeing anything negative or inaccurate about your brand, because people searching your brand name will see that too.

[00:01:01] The Brand SERP Guy (Jason Barnard): That’s why I say to anybody who listen, Google is your new business card. The local search guys like Mike Blumenthal say, it’s your new homepage, whichever. Pretty much everybody you do business with will search your brand name at some point in their journey. So it’s phenomenally important that it looks accurate, positive, and convincing.

What Can You Do as Marketers to Ensure That What People See on Your Brand SERP Is Positive, Accurate, and Convincing?

[00:01:23] The Brand SERP Guy (Jason Barnard): Now what can we do as marketers to ensure that that’s the case, to ensure that what these people see, what these incredibly important people see is positive, accurate, and convincing? I would guess it’s more than you think. Obviously, you’re going to rank number one for your own brand term. That’s great. Underneath that, you really should have those Rich Sitelinks. Underneath that, as I said, few social accounts. They’re probably not optimised. You can probably make them look better, read better. Underneath that, maybe a review site or two. Push those reviews.

[00:01:58] The Brand SERP Guy (Jason Barnard): Do you have any Rich Elements, SERP features? Do you have video boxes? Do you have Twitter boxes? If not, then your video strategy or your Twitter strategy isn’t up to scratch. And that’s another great thing about Brand SERPs. It gives you an insight into how, let’s say, relevant and valuable your content strategy is to your audience. It’s Google’s reflection of what it thinks that content is worth to your audience, because what it shows on your Brand SERP is what it feels is relevant and valuable to your audience.

[00:02:28] The Brand SERP Guy (Jason Barnard): And if it’s not showing video boxes but you are investing in video, that means you are investing in the wrong places, or at least you’re not communicating to Google that those videos are being engaged with and are important and are relevant to your audience. So it’s a really great way to understand not only your content strategy, how successful it is, how valuable it is, how well targeted it is in terms of your audience, but also your digital ecosystem.

[00:02:57] The Brand SERP Guy (Jason Barnard): You can look beyond page one and have a look further down and see what forums are ranking, what people are saying about you. What Google’s pushing up towards the top is the stuff that it thinks is most important about your brand. So it’s an easy, quick, and cheap way to look into Google’s view of the world’s view of you. And it’s probably the best view you’re going to get.

Search Your Brand Name, Look in Search Console, and Be Very Critical of Yourself Because People Trust Google

[00:03:21] The Brand SERP Guy (Jason Barnard): So, obviously, first thing you’re going to do after watching this video is go and search your brand name. I advise you to do that and be very critical of yourself, critical of every single element, every word. You can control pretty much every word, starting with your homepage, meta titles, obviously.

[00:03:38] The Brand SERP Guy (Jason Barnard): But then beyond that, also go and look in search console. How many people are actually seeing this every day? If you isolate your homepage and your brand name in search console, you’ll see the number of people searching your exact match brand name every day, every month, every week, whatever it might be. And it might be a surprise to you quite how many do, because your users, your clients, your existing clients are navigating to your site, and your prospects are navigating to your site and researching you at the same time.

[00:04:09] The Brand SERP Guy (Jason Barnard): So in the first case, your clients, they’re seeing this multiple times per day, potentially. That’s really great if it’s a great Brand SERP. If it’s a bad Brand SERP or if there’s something negative or your competitors are on there were still, you could well lose that client over time. And for a prospect, seeing that great entry into your site, it’s your business card but perhaps even your homepage. That great entry just before your site that says Google likes me, Google thinks I’m great, Google’s willing to show all these wonderful things about my brand.

[00:04:41] The Brand SERP Guy (Jason Barnard): People trust Google. If Google says you’re great or if Google looks like it thinks you’re great because it’s showing these great elements, great titles, great descriptions, Rich Elements, like videos and Twitter boxes and perhaps a Knowledge Panel over there on the right, then people think Google trusts and likes you. And that’s a really good thing for them to have in their head just before they go through to your site to potentially convert.

Brand SERPs are the most important and interesting thing in digital marketing today.

jason barnard (the brand serp guy)

[00:05:04] The Brand SERP Guy (Jason Barnard): So, there you go. I’m Jason Barnard and I’m The Brand SERP Guy. So, I obviously think that Brand SERPs are the most important and interesting thing in digital marketing today. I hope you think they’re a little bit more important and perhaps a little bit more interesting than you thought they were five minutes ago. Thank you very much for listening, and I’ll see you soon.

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