One SEO professional was concerned about their site dropping from #1 all the way out of the top 100. This occurred after years of perfect ranking for their particular brand name.
It just so happens that their brand name is the same as a biblical story. This ended up being a confusing brand name.
They competed with Wikipedia on occasion, but now they are simply gone from the top results. They are still able to advertise somewhat, but they are concerned about getting their previous ranking back.
John explained that if they have a brand name that is confusing, and might actually sound like something else, then it is very hard for Google to understand when someone is searching for that term – if they actually mean that specific website, or if they are searching for some other content.
If Google can’t recognize that people searching for something are actually meaning something very specific with a particular term, then things can actually be pretty hit or miss regarding whether Google will start showing a particular website.
He expounded by saying that he does see this as a very common practice. People will create a brand that will be focused around their keywords – such as “best car insurance.”
But, John said, just because the company is called Best Car Insurance does not mean that Google is going to show your website as the number one result for people who are actually searching for that term.
This happens at approximately the 28:03 mark in the video.
John Mueller Hangout Transcript
John (Submitted Question) 28:03
What would be an explanation for sudden drop in ranking from one out of the top 100, after years of perfect ranking for our brand name. Our brand name is the same as a biblical story, so we did compete with Wikipedia sometimes, and now we’re just gone. We can still advertise, of course, so it isn’t quite unfair.
John (Answer) 28:23
I don’t know it’s, it’s hard to say without knowing the website. I don’t know if you’re here, Or if you can drop me a link, I’m happy to double check. I think the general, tricky problem is, if you have a brand that is essentially something that people commonly use for something else, then it makes it very hard for us to understand when someone is searching for that term, if they mean your website, or if they mean the other thing.
And if we can recognize that people mean something very specific with that term, then we’ll try to show that very visibly in the search results. Which also means if we can recognize that people are searching for this biblical story with that name, then we’ll try to focus on that biblical story. And if there’s also a website that is kind of like unrelated to that biblical story, then it can be quite hit and miss whether we actually start showing that website. And this is something where with biblical stories, it’s, I don’t know, probably depends a bit on what exactly you’re seeing there.
But I see this very common, very often where people will take essentially the keywords that they’re trying to rank for and say this is my brand, like, best car insurance is my company name now, and just because your company is called best car insurance doesn’t mean we will show your website as a number one for someone searching for best car insurance. Because usually we can tell that well, people have in the past, at least, used this term to search for something different. And just because your website is called that, doesn’t mean it will rank number one for that term.
