Nobody outside of Google truly knows how its algorithm works. In fact, Danny Sullivan has been quoted as saying Google’s engineers don’t even understand exactly how some of the more complex components of the algorithm work, in reference to RankBrain (something John Mueller later denied).
Either way, there’s plenty of debate within the SEO community over certain factors being rankings signals or not.
In the off-page SEO niche, branded searches and direct traffic are two of the most debated factors
Some of the biggest names in the industry whatsapp number database swear by these as important ranking signals while others insist they’re simply not viable.
- Branded searches describe sessions where users type your brand name into Google or another search engine.
- Direct traffic involves users typing one of your URLs into a browser address bar.
The argument for branded searches and direct traffic being ranking signals suggests Google looks at these signals as an endorsement from visitors or a measurement of demand.
Last year Miranda Miller published an excellent write-up on
Search Engine Journal, exploring both As important as ever in off-page SEO sides of the debate on direct traffic being a ranking signal. She concludes that direct traffic is definitely not a ranking signal, describing it as “noisy, easy to manipulate, and difficult to collect and verify.”
As addressed in the article, much of the confusion comes from correlative studies that associate websites receiving high volumes of branded searches and direct traffic with higher search rankings. The problem is, this correlation doesn’t prove that either branded searches or direct traffic are ranking signals – or that they have any direct impact on search rankings at all.
We see this correlation in our own analysis all the time, where the top-ranking websites generate high volumes of branded searches and/or direct traffic.
In fact, companies with a strong brand image may generate the majority of their traffic from branded searches and/or direct traffic – and these are the kind of brands you would expect to rank in the top positions.
Again, this doesn’t prove branded traffic is a ranking signal
Because we expect the top-ranking zn business directory brands to be well-known. Building brand awareness is one of the primary goals in SEO and the higher you rank for competitive keywords, the more traffic you would expect to generate from branded searches and, potentially, direct traffic.
Whether branded searches and direct traffic are ranking signals is debatable (they’re probably not) but let’s keep in mind that ranking factors aren’t the only things that matter in SEO. Featured snippets aren’t a ranking factor but they can generate large amounts of traffic and they’re certainly worth optimising for.
The same is true for branded searches and direct traffic. Even if they’re not ranking signals, they’re incredibly valuable for driving traffic and effective measurements of brand awareness – so they deserve a place in your off-page SEO strategy.
