Earlier this month Google introduced Domain Stacking in its search results. By Domain Stacking or Brand Stacking we mean that when you search for a particular brand then many search results on the first page are from one particular domain , depending on the brand popularity and authority of that domain.
For e.g if we search for Apple or SEOmoz or Hersheys you will get an idea that the first 7-8 searches are related to a particular brand or domain name.
The main question which arises in this case is :
When we all want quality search results and we want search results having a varied mix then why has Google adopted this algorithmic change ?
Google has not said much about this on its blog or any other media but this should be highly linked with the online reputation management of a brand. When people search for your domain and if the first 7 – 8 results are from your domain then they get to know about your brand through your website.
Though all brands are not getting the same stacked results , the brands which are highly popular and have a domain authority with good back links surely stand a chance to rank for the first few searches on page 1.
It is quite obvious that once you get to know about a company and you are interested in its services or products you would like to conduct a brand research and know more about it. For that the social media sites will surely have the buzz around the brand available on their conversation pages but those again are opinions and preferences reflected in their tweets and like button counts but if the potential customer wants to know more about the company then he will surely want to know what the brand has to say.
Hence, the social media and this kind of domain stacking searches give the all round information to the user and the user can take an individual intelligent decision. As in the long run the user is responsible for his decision – the social media offers suggestions and opinions, the brand site offers facts , figures and information related to their products and the user puts two and two together and comes to a confident decision.
Your brand name is also one of the priority keywords for SEO . If you have the brand name in the domain name itself then it is surely a plus point and the inbound links from the authority domains have an added advantage.
It is too early to say how this change in the Google algorithm is going to impact the correlation between social media and online reputation management but, it is essential to start working on getting a listing of at least 7-8 search results from your domain itself for your brand search query , as this will determine your brand popularity and authority on the web in the long run.
As an average user today comes to know about your brand through social media or search engines . Whether the visitor hears about your brand via the social buzz and then goes to the search engines to find and reach your website or whether he reaches your website first through the search engines and then goes on the social media sites or real time search results to catch upon what others say about your brand does not matter. Having a presence on the search engines and the social media is very important and essential for a online visibility, influence and reach.
