How Google's New Project Owl Update Can Affect Brands

What is Project Owl and how it works
What is Project Owl and how it works
Let's see how it works:


Project Owl is Google's reaction to combatting these problematic results. Whether it's inaccurate information or offensive search queries, Google wants to ensure that what we receive is reliable and relevant information.
What will this change immediately for Search Engine Marketers?
What will this change immediately for Search Engine Marketers?
As of right now, this update doesn't seem to have wide-reaching effects for most brands. Unless you produce content that Google may deem inappropriate or controversial, it doesn't seem like much is going to change in the near future.
But that doesn't mean you shouldn't pay attention. There could be possible implications as this program gains wider reach and begins picking up feedback. Let's explore.
What COULD this mean for Search Engine Marketers?
What COULD this mean for Search Engine Marketers?
This also questions whether or not Google may deem branded content as authoritative content. Since Google never specified what is "authoritative," that could mean that branded content may be taking a backseat to more informational based sites.
Some good things that could happen:
If your marketing was more promotional based, making the switch to more educational or informational based content could help boost rankings under this new change. This would attract more qualified traffic to the website, giving them a chance to market to those qualified leads further after this initial visit.
This change could also mean that outdated, old or now irrelevant pages ranking high in Google could see a downgrade in results. This could be great for marketers focusing on fresh content!
The Possible Downsides:
In the case of marketers, many people could mark any marketing material "misleading" as it often guides the viewer to choose the product or service they're selling instead of general information.
Also, consider the spammy feedback you could get from competitors. How easy would it be for a competitor to go through and negatively report your content to help theirs? The only thing that seems to be put in place to combat this is Google's team of feedback evaluators. Which, from what it seems like, may already have a lot on their plate.
Google's employees are now the current gatekeepers of what is deemed as "accurate" information
Google's employees are now the current gatekeepers of what is deemed as "accurate" information
The big thing here is that we're trusting Google to give us the most accurate and objective information. The problem is that humans (with biases and opinions) are creating these algorithms for us and then filtering their form of the "truth" to us. How can we be sure that the information that we're going to receive will be devoid of their personal biases and opinions?
Obviously, this is a much broader issue that an average marketer will not be able to tackle, but it is important to be conscious of how people are consuming information.
So what's next?
So what's next?
For now, keep focusing on quality, balanced content that gives searchers the answers they are looking for, and you should be okay.
As with all Google changes, only time will tell.
Discover More SEO Tools
Backlink Cheсker
Backlinks checking for any site. Increase the power of your backlink profile
API for SEO
Search big data and get results using SEO API
Competitor Website Analytics
Complete analysis of competitors' websites for SEO and PPC
Keyword Rank Checker
Google Keyword Rankings Checker - gain valuable insights into your website's search engine rankings
Cases, life hacks, researches, and useful articles
Don’t you have time to follow the news? No worries! Our editor will choose articles that will definitely help you with your work. Join our cozy community :)
By clicking the button, you agree to our privacy policy.