Google’s Explore Brands feature aims to match relevant brands and products with eCommerce-focused search queries. The rollout began in 2022 with a focus on mobile devices, but it has become increasingly common to see the Explore Brands feature on desktop since last year.
What is Explore Brands on Google?
The feature appears as a list that can be expanded and shows brand names, a product image, and a short snippet explaining brands’ product ranges or offerings. On mobile, a store rating is also pulled through from online reviews. One of the industries where the Explore Brands feature is expected to have a big impact is online fashion brands.
For example, a search for men’s t-shirts may return a list containing brands such as ASOS, boohooMAN, and Next with an accompanying image displaying a product relating to the search query. In this case, an image of a man wearing an ASOS t-shirt would appear next to the ASOS brand name.
What does Explore Brands mean for fashion brands?
There are three main benefits of the Explore Brands feature:
Smoother shopping experience
Google will help the user by listing credible brands relating to the search query, as well as displaying relevant products to allow the user to find what they’re looking for in a shorter amount of time.
Higher click-through rates (CTR)
Displaying a product image means users have a clearer idea of a brand’s product before they have even landed on the brand’s website. As a result, brands that are optimized for the Explore Brands feature should benefit from higher click-through rates.
Increased brand visibility
The Explore Brands feature is another opportunity for fashion brands to increase their ‘real estate’ holdings on Google’s results pages. The more features that a brand is optimized for, the more chance they have of being noticed before competitors.
How to appear in Explore Brands
Optimise for eCommerce keywords
Consider more targeted keywords in your product descriptions and website copy. Users who are searching for a product are often more specific, factor this into your strategy.
For example, targeting terms like long-distance running trainers or marathon shoes instead of sports shoes may be more beneficial.
Use brand schema
Schema helps search engines understand and categorise the content on a website; there are many different types including local business schema, video schema, and event schema.
Another type is a brand schema. Using brand schema will give Google a better understanding of what it is your brand is selling.
Product images
As already mentioned, the Explore Brands section pulls through a product image from eCommerce websites to give users a more informed results page. As a result, it’s important to use high-quality product images that accurately match the search terms you are trying to rank for.
Final thoughts
Google’s Explore Brands feature is just one of a long list of updates relating to Google’s algorithm. While the tips in this article will help you optimize your content for the Explore Brands feature, it won’t be long before there’s another new feature for you to get your head around if you own a small business or work in SEO.
If you are the owner of a company or website, consider working with an SEO agency to help stay on top of the latest SEO trends.
Sponsored by Growth-onomics
I am Nick, a B2B & SaaS marketer with a focus on SEO, content, and techstack marketing
I created the Marketing Experts Hub to simply explain marketing, cover business topics, and software for marketers with a pinch of opinion.
If you want to stay in touch and learn more, sign-up to my newsletter and follow me on LinkedIn, where I post interesting my learnings and interesting industry news.
