Google Vince Update To Favour Big Brands?
August 3rd, 2009For a while now various SEO companies and Webmasters have been reporting that corporate brands seem to getting a push in search results, favouring a bigger trusted brand over smaller less well-known organisations.
In March 2009 Matt Cutts, head of Google’s Webspam team, explained the latest update ‘Vince’ (named after a Googler called Vince who created this modification) could help to improving search ranking for larger named brands and websites with a higher authority within search.
Matt Cutts addressed these concerns stating that the latest changes in search results do not necessarily constitute an ‘update’ rather ‘minor changes’ within Google’s algorithm factoring more trust into for big brand names and generic search queries.
The effect of this does not necessarily giving big brands a push in rankings however it may take into consideration trust factors such as PageRank, authority, link relevance and other factors which contribute to the authority and value of a page within search.
Initially rolled out in the US the Vince update now seems to be affecting UK search results for generic keywords such as “loans”, “holidays” and so forth in which larger brands will see a bigger benefit for generic search terms relevant to their core business.
This update hints heavily at the fact in the future more attention will be offline factors and well as online authority. The days where any old Tom, Dick, or Harry could be visible at prominent positions within search for high-end search terms could be drawing to a close as Google begins factoring in a bigger emphasis and additional trust on brand awareness.
Watch Matt Cutts explaining the Vince update in this video:
...your opinion?