The Power of a Digital Presence: How Diverse Publisher Coverage Impacts Brand Discoverability New research highlights the correlation between +186% increased website clicks from Google for brands managing their information across an extended network.
For years, securing a top position in Google's search results has been a pivotal aspect of any effective SEO strategy. Given that less than 1% of users venture beyond the first page of results, it's crucial for brands to establish a prominent online presence. Traditionally, this involved concentrating on a keyword strategy tailored specifically for Google and maintaining brand information across a select few major publishers like Google, Apple, Facebook, and Bing. However, the dynamics of search are shifting alongside evolving customer behaviors, which now favor precise and quick responses. Search engines are enhancing their algorithms with AI-driven technologies and are now pulling data from a broader array of sources. To excel in organic search today, brands need to enhance their visibility to Google by maintaining a robust digital presence that spans a wide network of publishers, thereby increasing their relevance and accuracy.
The question then arises: how extensive should a brand's publisher network be? It turns out that the scope needs to be broader than many might expect. Recent research by Welocal indicates that brands that confine their information management to only a few major publishers experience poorer overall web performance on Google. The study, which analyzed over 620,000 locations managed within the Welocal platform, discovered that brands appearing across more than 75% of publishers in the Welocal network saw a significant +186% boost in clicks to their websites from Google compared to those featured on fewer publishers.
What this means is that as search technology progresses, the accuracy and consistency of data across a vast network of publishers will remain critical for enhancing brand discoverability and converting customers. How brands prepare now can prevent missed opportunities in the future. Brands are advised to take immediate action to optimize their performance on Google, expand their SEO strategies to accommodate AI-driven technologies such as Search Generative Experience (SGE) and ChatGPT, and increase their digital footprint to boost discoverability in a fragmented search landscape.
Analysis of global data across more than 620,000 locations and various major industries (including healthcare, financial services, retail, restaurants, and hospitality) underscored the value of a broad digital presence beyond the major publishers like Google and Bing. The primary insight is that brands with correct and consistent information widely disseminated across their market's most publishers are more successful than those focusing narrowly on a few large ones. Consistently accurate data across a diverse network of publishers directly correlates with increased clicks from Google, yielding superior results for brands.
In detail, the research found:
Locations syncing with less than 50% of the network had the lowest Google website traffic, serving as the baseline for average percentage increases in Google website clicks for other groups.
Locations syncing between 50%-75% of the network experienced a substantial increase in Google website clicks, averaging +95% more than the first group.
Locations with more than 75% network synchronization achieved even more impressive results, with an average increase of +186% in Google website clicks.
This data remains consistent across different industries, with notable highlights for enterprise brands synchronized across more than 75% of the publisher network:
Food: An average 65% increase in Google website clicks
Healthcare: An average 50% increase in Google website clicks
Retail: An average 44% increase in Google website clicks
Financial Services: An average 91% increase in Google website clicks
Why does consistent information across a large publisher network correlate to more Google website clicks? Prominent search engines assess how brand information is uniformly displayed across numerous publishers to help determine their rankings and recommendations. Displaying consistent information across various channels that search engines and AI tools use to gather data boosts confidence in that information. If a brand's data is scarce or inconsistent online, these systems cannot verify the correctness of the brand information. They aim to provide their users with accurate responses, so brands with more data points are given priority.
When queried about why a consistent digital presence across more publishers results in more Google website clicks, Google's Gemini confirmed our findings. This outcome suggests that the notion that brands only need to manage their information across a few major publishers is not accurate.
In conclusion, as search engines evolve their algorithms and AI-driven experiences become more prevalent, along with the emergence of social media platforms as unconventional search channels, the digital landscape is rapidly changing. Customers are seeking answers from a wide array of sources, and those answers are increasingly found by search and AI tools from diverse locations. Therefore, a brand's capability to enhance discoverability and engage with customers heavily depends on the strength and accuracy of their digital presence beyond major platforms.
Successful brands can remove the uncertainty of future developments by investing in a scalable solution to distribute their information widely. Brands with greater than 75% coverage across the Welocal network are already achieving markedly better results compared to those with limited publisher reach. To increase traffic via Google today and prepare for the future of search, brands should begin with a listings solution that ensures consistent synchronization across the largest number of third-party publishers.
With Welocal leading the way in information management, brands are ideally positioned to stay ahead of digital shifts and capitalize on emerging opportunities without missing out.
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