Matthew Widdop
Matty is a Digital SEO Executive at Intelligency, helping our clients to improve their digital performance. Matty is currently studying for his Level 3 Multi-Channel Marketer apprenticeship and has completed a Sport Journalism Degree at the University of Huddersfield.
Bias towards big brands by search engines has been a constant headache for smaller sites trying to grow their audience ever since the very beginning of SEO. Even in the earlier days of SEO, larger sites would dominate the SERP. As Roger Monti writes,
“During the early years of Google’s algorithm, it was obvious that sites with a lot of PageRank ranked for virtually anything they wanted. For example, I remember a web design company that built a lot of websites, creating a network of backlinks, raising their PageRank to a remarkable level normally seen only in big corporate sites like IBM. As a consequence, they ranked for the two-word keyword phrase, Web Design and virtually every other variant like Web Design + [any state in the USA].”
Google’s latest algorithm still seems to be favouring these big sites and this article will discuss what the factors are affecting this and how users can tackle these issues of big site bias.
Does Bias exist in Search?
Even though not explicitly stated by Google, we know that bias towards big brands exists in search because they use ranking factors such as topical authority which relies on sites being trusted by Google. Google identifies trustworthiness partially by the backlink profile of a site, and larger brands typically have stronger back link profiles than their smaller counterparts.
This means that despite the best efforts of some users to create high-quality, engaging content, quality content can only take you so far, as you are limited by how much of an authority Google sees you as. If Intelligency and Nike wrote content on the same sports topic and our article far outstripped Nike’s in terms of quality content and in-depth analysis, Nike would still rank higher than Intelligency because of their authority.
What’s causing low-quality content to rank?
As stated, Google will rank sites with more topical authority despite the level of content output coming from these brands but this is also because Google believes this is what users want to see. Google uses a Navboost Algorithm that interprets user engagement signals and these signals point to users wanting to see…big brands. People are familiar with these brands and will come to them for information as they believe them as trusted sources. See Roger Monti’s article on the topic discussing how familiarity bias affects Google’s rankings.
How you users combat bias in search
It’s important not to give up hope! Although, as we said it is difficult to compete with much larger brand, there are ways in which it can be done. Targeting more niche keywords to begin with that aren’t being targeted by your competitors but still showing potential is a great way to gain a foothold on search. Once you are ranking for more niche terms, you can build up to competing for more primary keywords in your industry. All the while building up your backlink profile and working on your digital PR should help to become a more reliable source of information within your industry.
