After the launch of Query groups in Search Console Insights, Google adds an AI-powered filter that automatically distinguishes searches that include your brand from those that do not. This new feature allows for more granular analysis of organic traffic and measuring a site's brand awareness.
Key takeaways:
- A new AI-based filter automatically separates brand queries from generic queries in the performance report.
- The system detects your brand name, its variants, misspellings, and associated products in all languages.
- A dedicated card in the Insights report displays the split of clicks between branded and non-branded traffic.
- The rollout is gradual and limited to top-level properties with a sufficient query volume.
How this new filter works
The branded queries filter is integrated directly into the Search Results performance report. It provides two distinct views to segment your query data. The Branded view shows the performance of queries that include your brand name or closely associated products, like Gmail for google.com. The Non-branded view groups all other queries.
This filter applies to all available search types all search types: web, images, videos and news. Once enabled, you can view your usual metrics – impressions, clicks, average position and click-through rate – specifically limited to the selected group.
An artificial intelligence-based approach
on an internal AI-assisted systemThe system automatically identifies your site's name in all languages, including common typos. It also detects queries that do not explicitly mention your brand but refer to a unique product or service on your site.
This dynamic, contextual approach can occasionally produce classification errors. Google specifies that this filter is intended only to facilitate data analysis in Search Console and does not in any way affect ranking behavior in search results.
Why differentiate brand traffic
Branded and unbranded queries reveal very different user behaviors. Searches that include your brand generally come from users already familiar with your site. They generate higher positions in the results and click-through rates higher.
By contrast, unbranded queries represent your organic growth. They show how new users discover your content without initially intending to visit your site. This segmentation allows you to evaluate both your brand awareness and your ability to attract new visitors.
A new card in the Insights report
To complement this filter, Google has added a map to the Insights report which shows the overall split of clicks between branded traffic and unbranded traffic. This visualization allows you to quickly measure your brand recognition and compare traffic volumes from these two sources.
Access conditions and rollout
The rollout is taking place gradually over several weeks. Two main conditions limit access to this feature. It is reserved for top-level properties only, excluding URL-path-type properties like https://example.com/path or subdomain properties like developers.google.com. It also requires a sufficient volume of queries and impressionss for the classification signals to work effectively.
Google encourages users to test this new segmentation and share their feedback via the feedback buttons available on the report cards, the "Submit feedback" link, or on LinkedIn and the Google Search Central community!
The article “Google Search Console can now automatically filter your brand queries” was published on the site Abundance.
