Google now shows AI Overviews for brand names (James Dooley Interviews Kasra Dash)

James Dooley: Google now shows AI Overviews for brand names. Today I'm joined with Kasra Dash and we're going to be talking about the Google AI Overviews now being seen, which there wasn't previously, for personal brand names if, as long as they're big enough, and also for business brands. So Kasra, what, what's your thoughts on this?

Kasra Dash: Wow. Uh, I didn't expect this, stupidly, because I, I think it makes sense, but this is going to... I, I think this will probably make or break certain brands. Um, obviously we, we were checking out a load of brands like GoDaddy, Bing, Namecheap, a few others that it was pulling in. And in certain cases, not all the time, but in certain cases, it was actually mentioning why you shouldn't go with certain brands as well. So, that's going to hurt people's conversion rates and click-through rates, especially for navigational searches as well.

James Dooley: Yeah, for sure. I mean, it was quite funny looking at a couple of the different, uh, brand names when it came up in the Google AI Overview. Like, probably one of the funniest ones for me was Bing, how it started showing up the TV show of Bing alongside the search engine, as if, like, Bing search engine is not big enough. We're now gonna show Bing TV show that stopped publishing in 2019. And it's like, do you mean the Bing TV show that's not been running for seven years or the Bing search engine? And I thought that was quite a funny one. But then obviously, like you've mentioned there, there's been one or two big brands. And because they're, like, showing everything of, like, why they're amazing, but also why you might not want to use them. The why you might not want to use them, that is crazy for a navigational term for a brand name to then have that AI Overview show why you might not want to use them is scary. Like, how important do you think online reputation management now is going to become because of this?

Kasra Dash: I, I, I think... I think a lot of people will need to start investing in branding and, and having a positive sentiment online. One, one thing I will say though is that I don't think that there's anything different between this and if you've got a couple of two-star reviews on Trustpilot or a few low reviews on Google Business Profiles and stuff like that as well. So, uh, I, I think there is that side of it where we've already had it. Um, what would you recommend to someone that would want to own their actual brand and, and get a positive sentiment online?

James Dooley: I think for me what I'd be looking to do is maybe you... I know it sounds daft because we're talking about Google AI Overviews, but go into ChatGPT and start searching, like, who is brand name? Why should I use brand name? Why should I not use brand name? Go into, like, your VANOS kind of, um, operating system, extrapolate all them synthetic queries that show up in, uh, query fan-out, and then trying to optimise. So not just the, the brand name reviews, brand name testimonials, brand name awards. It's like, is brand name safe? Is brand name legit? And I just try and own everything I possibly can in a positive sentiment so there can't be any outliers that it starts to pull in anything that's negative press. Um, I think now online reputation management has become more important than ever. But I also think it's become harder than ever because now it's not just about owning the one, like the, the top, the first 10 results on page one just for brand name. I think there's so many more variations and attributes, like you said, like reviews, like awards and everything else that need to come, to come with it. But what would you do, Kasra, then if you're wanting to make certain if you type in your brand name, so whether it's Kasra Dash or whether, let's say, it's The Masterminders event, you go and search that and AI Overview shows up, what are you going to be wanting to try to do to make certain it's a positive sentiment?

Kasra Dash: So, I would first of all understand who my target audience is, um, and I would own that moniker. So, for example, like if, if somebody searches The Masterminders and it says it's not for beginners, I don't really care. Like, I, I, I don't want beginners coming to The Masterminders. I want it to be a high-level audience. Or let's say, for example, I'm a hosting company and I don't want to get into the realm of enterprise hosting because it's too complicated. Um, you need DDoS protection, you need multiple servers and all these advanced Kubernetes setups and stuff. Like, I'm like, okay, that's fine. I'm gonna make certain that AI never recommends me to an enterprise company. Um, and I, and I will own that. Um, and then I'll go down the route of, okay, I am a hosting company solely for SMEs that are based on WordPress. Or, for example, The Masterminders example, I will only go after expert SEOs and business owners that are making millions a month. Um, I don't care about a small little SEO agency that's just set up two weeks ago. Um, I, I, I, I don't... I don't actually think it's a bad thing that it tells people the negatives about your brand, but I think you just need to understand what those negatives are or who those people are that you don't want to sell to and just roll with it.

James Dooley: Yeah, for sure. I think now, now they are going to be looking at that lane of, like, the complaints or the negatives and it's almost like a pros and cons. Like, it's always good to have a review and see these are the pro... The pros of the brand, these are the negatives of the brand. And as long as you can own the negatives and be okay with them negative and them cons, well, that's not my ideal customer persona, then, then fair enough. Like you said, it should be one of them where you're hitting it head-on and you're trying to own exactly what comes back. And even though something might sound and have a bit of a negative slant on it, you're fine with that because that's not your target market. But anyone who's listening to this, what's your thoughts on brand names now being seen in Google AI Overview? Do you think it's a good thing? Do you think that Google should roll it back and not be showing personal brand names within the AI Overview or corporate brands and being seen with, like, who they are, what do they do, and why you shouldn't use them alongside why you should be using them? I'd love to hear your comments in the comment section. Should they remove it or is brand names being seen in Google AI Overview a positive thing? Kasra, thank you very much.