How to Properly Filter Brand Traffic
It’s generally essential to separate Google traffic into brand and non-brand categories. This is the only way to accurately measure SEO success. I’ll show you a few tricks to help you filter brand traffic correctly with the Google Search Console.
Summary:
- Always differentiate between brand and non-brand traffic.
- Use regex to filter multiple brand keywords.
- Use \b(keyword)\b for brand shortcuts.
- Refine and save your filter.
- Alternative: save time with GSC PLUS.
Why Distinguish Between Brand and Non-Brand?
In many cases, brand traffic has little to do with your SEO efforts. Strong fluctuations in brand traffic are often due to other marketing activities, such as traditional advertising.
Therefore, it’s often advisable to exclude brand traffic entirely from SEO analyses.
Of course, you shouldn’t ignore brand traffic entirely but should instead serve these search queries correctly and, if necessary, create appropriate pages.
How Do I Best Filter Out Brand Traffic?
You probably know that you can apply a keyword filter at the top of Google Search Console. For example, you could set it so that anything containing “volkswagen” is identified as brand traffic.
While this works, it usually requires multiple keywords to capture all brand-related traffic. However, this isn’t straightforward in GSC, as it typically only allows one keyword at a time.
To work around this, you can use regex, which can also be found in the keyword filter. For example, you could enter something like: volkswagen|volks|vw|voks
But there’s an even better way. Since “vw” or any other brand shortcut could appear within a word, you may end up incorrectly identifying words as brand terms.
Here, too, there’s an appropriate regex command: \b(vw)\b This way, a keyword is recognized as a brand only when “vw” stands alone and isn’t part of another word – perfect!
So the final regex command could look like this: \b(vw)\b|volks|volkswagen|voks
Save It, Use It
Once you’ve found a good regex command for your property, test to ensure it captures only and all brand keywords.
Set the regex filter to “matches regex” and then to “doesn’t match regex,” then carefully review the list.
Don’t forget to include common typos whenever you can.
Alternative: Save Time with GSC PLUS
If you use GSC PLUS instead of GSC, you can simply use the pre-settings. For each of your properties, you can set up the brand once and always use it afterward.
No regex is needed, and you’ll even get more complex brand analyses. If you manage multiple properties, this approach saves significant time.
It’s generally essential to separate Google traffic into brand and non-brand categories. This is the only way to accurately measure SEO success. I’ll show you a few tricks to help you filter brand traffic correctly with the Google Search Console.
Summary:
- Always differentiate between brand and non-brand traffic.
- Use regex to filter multiple brand keywords.
- Use \b(keyword)\b for brand shortcuts.
- Refine and save your filter.
- Alternative: save time with GSC PLUS.
Why Distinguish Between Brand and Non-Brand?
In many cases, brand traffic has little to do with your SEO efforts. Strong fluctuations in brand traffic are often due to other marketing activities, such as traditional advertising.
Therefore, it’s often advisable to exclude brand traffic entirely from SEO analyses.
Of course, you shouldn’t ignore brand traffic entirely but should instead serve these search queries correctly and, if necessary, create appropriate pages.
How Do I Best Filter Out Brand Traffic?
You probably know that you can apply a keyword filter at the top of Google Search Console. For example, you could set it so that anything containing “volkswagen” is identified as brand traffic.
While this works, it usually requires multiple keywords to capture all brand-related traffic. However, this isn’t straightforward in GSC, as it typically only allows one keyword at a time.
To work around this, you can use regex, which can also be found in the keyword filter. For example, you could enter something like: volkswagen|volks|vw|voks
But there’s an even better way. Since “vw” or any other brand shortcut could appear within a word, you may end up incorrectly identifying words as brand terms.
Here, too, there’s an appropriate regex command: \b(vw)\b This way, a keyword is recognized as a brand only when “vw” stands alone and isn’t part of another word – perfect!
So the final regex command could look like this: \b(vw)\b|volks|volkswagen|voks
Save It, Use It
Once you’ve found a good regex command for your property, test to ensure it captures only and all brand keywords.
Set the regex filter to “matches regex” and then to “doesn’t match regex,” then carefully review the list.
Don’t forget to include common typos whenever you can.
Alternative: Save Time with GSC PLUS
If you use GSC PLUS instead of GSC, you can simply use the pre-settings. For each of your properties, you can set up the brand once and always use it afterward.
No regex is needed, and you’ll even get more complex brand analyses. If you manage multiple properties, this approach saves significant time.
Julian has been working as a full-time SEO since 2016. As a consultant, he has supported over 100 clients and specialised primarily in data analysis. The Google Search Console was always at the centre of this.