Classic Search
Branded vs Non-Branded Queries
Branded vs non-branded queries is the split of a site’s search queries into those that include its brand name, misspellings of it or its unique products, and all the others. Reporting them apart separates demand from people who already know the brand from the demand that organic search wins from people who did not.
- Industry term
By QueryRev ResearchPublished Updated6 min read
Why it matters.
Google defines a branded query as one that includes your brand name, variations or misspellings of it, and brand-related products or services. It says that focusing on branded and non-branded queries separately can help you understand traffic patterns: branded queries typically lead to higher-ranking pages from your site and result in higher click-through rates, whereas non-branded queries offer organic growth, as they show how new users find your content without any initial intent to go to your site[1].
That is the case for splitting them in a report. A total can stay flat while the two groups move in opposite directions: brand demand, which advertising, press and word of mouth drive, can fall as non-branded clicks from SEO rise, or the reverse. Revenue claims about search work belong to the non-branded group first, since people who typed the brand were looking for it already.
Search Console now does the splitting. Google announced a branded queries filter in the Search results Performance report on 20 November 2025, and on 11 March 2026 said it was available to all eligible sites. It splits query data into Branded and Non-branded across web, image, video and news search, and adds a card to the Insights report with the breakdown of total clicks[1].
Its limits are written down. The classification is made by an internal, AI-assisted system, not by a regular expression, and Google says some queries may occasionally be misidentified. The filter is available only for top-level properties, not URL-path or subdomain properties, and only for sites with enough query and impression volume. It has no effect on how Google Search ranking works[1].
Another limit applies to every query report. Search Console leaves anonymized queries, those not issued by more than a few dozen users over a two-to-three month period, out of its tables, and omits them whenever a filter is applied, so figures from filtered views can fall short of the chart total[2]. Check how the two views add up against the unfiltered total before you quote a share.
The split also reaches AI search, where a question that names a brand and one that does not are different demand. For the first to be answered from the brand’s own pages, the assistant has to be allowed to read them. In QueryRev’s study, ChatGPT-User is named and blocked on 262 of the 6,294 sites whose robots.txt could be read, 4.2%, and Perplexity-User on 186, 3.0%[3].
How it is measured.
Take clicks and impressions for each group from the Performance report, with the branded queries filter on, and report the share of clicks that is branded and the share that is not[1]. Keep click-through rate, which the report defines as the click count divided by the impression count[4], and position apart for each group: branded queries have a different profile from the others.
Judge SEO work on the non-branded group. Compare its clicks with the same period a year earlier, so that seasonality is not read as growth, and follow its landing pages to key events and revenue.
Check the filter against a list of your own. Take a sample of queries, mark the branded ones by hand from the brand name, its misspellings and its unique products, and note where the filter disagrees. Google says its method differs from a regular expression on keywords, so a list of your own is a check, not a copy[1].
Measured by
- Branded clicks
- Non-branded clicks
- Non-branded year on year
A worked example.
Illustrative: an invented site, to show the method.
A garden shop has 12,400 clicks from Google in a quarter, about the same as the quarter before, which looks like no progress. Split by query, 7,812 clicks, 63%, are branded and 4,588, 37%, are non-branded.
A year earlier the same quarter held 3,888 non-branded clicks, so non-branded clicks are up 18% year on year. Branded clicks fell as a seasonal campaign ended, and non-branded rose. The shop reports both, with the filter’s name and the date of the export beside the shares, and takes its SEO results from the second group.
What to do, step by step.
Check that the branded queries filter is available for your property: a top-level property with enough query volume.
Compare the filter with a hand-made sample of brand terms, and note the queries it classifies differently.
Report clicks, impressions, click-through rate and position for each group, not for the total alone.
Compare non-branded clicks with the same period a year earlier.
Follow non-branded landing pages to key events and revenue, and read branded clicks as demand the brand already had.
Check how the groups add up against the unfiltered total, and write down the definition and the export date beside every share.
Mistakes to avoid.
Reporting one total. A single click figure hides which part came from people who knew the brand. Report the two groups, so that a fall in one is not covered by a rise in the other.
Treating the split as exact. Google says some queries may occasionally be misidentified by the filter[1]. Use it for the direction and the size of a group, and check a sample by hand.
Crediting SEO with brand demand. Branded queries come from people who already know the brand[1]. An SEO result is the growth of non-branded clicks, measured against a baseline.
Forgetting anonymized queries. Filtered views leave out anonymized queries[2], so two filtered views may not sum to the chart total.
Changing the definition between reports. A split made with the filter in one month and a keyword list in the next is two different measures with one name. Keep the method fixed and note when it changes.
How QueryRev treats it.
QueryRev labels each query as branded or non-branded and reports the groups apart, with the definition used shown beside the number. Revenue from non-branded organic visits is the figure its ROI work starts from, and the branded group is kept visible as demand the brand already had. See the guide to the monthly SEO report and Search Intelligence.
Questions people ask.
What counts as a branded query?
Google counts a query that includes your brand name, a variation or misspelling of it, or a brand-related product or service. A query for a unique product of the site can be branded even if it does not contain the brand name.
Is the Search Console branded filter a ranking factor?
No. Google says the filter is there to segment your data and has no effect on how Google Search ranking works. An internal, AI-assisted system classifies the queries, and some can occasionally be misidentified.
Why do branded queries have a higher click-through rate?
Google says branded queries typically lead to higher-ranking pages from your site and result in higher click-through rates. People who search for a brand by name are usually looking for its site, so the result they want is at the top.
Sources and citation.
Primary sources only: the search engines, the AI vendors, standards bodies and QueryRev’s own research. Each is cited in the text by its number.
Introducing the branded queries filter in Search ConsoleGoogle Search Central Blog ·
A deep dive into Search Console performance data filtering and limitsGoogle Search Central Blog ·
State of AI crawler access, October 2026QueryRev Research ·
Performance report (Search results): Overview and basic setupGoogle Search Console Help ·
Cite this definition
A suggested citation. Its link goes to the definition, whose anchor does not change.
QueryRev Research. “Branded vs Non-Branded Queries.” QueryRev AI glossary, 24 October 2026. https://queryrev.com/glossary/branded-vs-non-branded-queries#definition
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