Imagine you’re about to buy a product or sign up for a service.
How do you decide if you trust it’ll be worth the money? Will you rely on a salesperson’s pitch or influencers being paid to speak positively?
Or will you look at what people are saying on unbiased third-party review sites?
Chances are, you’ll trust the crowd over the brand.
When potential customers search for your company, they don’t always see your polished website first. Instead, they see your Brand SERP (what appears in Google when someone searches your brand’s name) that shapes their perception if and when they even click.
Let’s see how your brand SERP can make or break your brand and why it holds so much power on your brand’s success.
What is a Brand SERP?
A Brand SERP (search engine results page) is the collection of search results displayed on a platform like Google when someone looks up your brand name. It reflects how your brand appears to researching customers and is influenced by digital marketing efforts to control its visibility, accuracy, and reputation.
It also acts as your virtual storefront. A single negative review can deter conversation, while a five-star review can bring about brand trust and revenue.
Here are some examples of the components of a Brand SERP:
- Brand website: This is the brand’s official website and mostly appears as the top organic search result. It often shows a brand's key pages.
- Third-party brand coverage: These include review sites, editorial articles, forums, blogs, and more discussing or evaluating the brand. Such pages often rank highly and significantly influence user perception by providing external opinions and insights. We'll dive deeper into the specific impact of review sites later.
- Knowledge panel: It appears on the right side of the search results and displays key brand details, such as the logo, description, and links to social media profiles.
- Social media profiles: Search results often include direct links to a brand’s social media profiles, such as Facebook, X, LinkedIn, and Instagram, making it easy for users to connect with you.
- Local business listings: Google Business Profile listings may appear on the search results, showing maps, reviews, and contact information for local businesses.
- Video results: Search engines sometimes display YouTube or other video content related to the brand in a dedicated video carousel.
9. Google Ads (Text and Product Ads): These paid advertisements, including store-level and product-specific listings, prominently display at the top or side of search results and can feature star ratings.
Why optimizing your Brand SERP is important
Determines whether researching customers will purchase
What do you see when you Google your company?
- A polished showcase of your work, followed by great reviews from your previous customers.
- A disaster zone of negative reviews from angry customers on third-party review websites.
If it’s not A, then you are losing customers even before they interact with your brand. We are way past the era of “your website will do all the work.” Today, your Brand SERP is your 24/7 salesperson. If it’s a mess, even your best products won't save you.
Here are a few other reasons it’s important to care about your Brand SERP.
Improves click-through rates
Without optimizing your Brand SERP, negative content might appear in search results, which can affect your click-through rates.
This also extends to your paid ads. Google Seller Ratings and Google Product Ratings can display star ratings and customer feedback directly within your ads, giving users even more confidence to click. You don’t want to be in a situation where competitors' ads feature positive reviews while yours remain empty, leading to missed opportunities.
Offers faster wins than traditional SEO
While organic search ranking improvements often take months, optimizing your Brand SERP gets you noticeable changes much faster.
Claiming brand profiles to showcase business info and reviews, responding to negative feedback, publishing press releases, and encouraging satisfied customers to share their experiences can significantly improve how your brand appears in search results in just days or weeks.
Enhances user experience
Whether it’s your contact info, FAQs, or main service pages, users want to find what they need fast. By optimizing your Brand SERP, you make that easier with rich search features like site links, featured snippets, and quick access to key details.
How third-party review sites serve as a trust indicator on a Brand SERP
Third-party review sites act as a valuable source of independent social proof and credibility, which can greatly impact a brand's SERP and influence consumer trust and decision-making. They aren't directly owned by the brand itself, which is exactly why users and search engines trust them more. They are a great way to strengthen your brand’s image or expose areas that need attention.
Say you search for a brand online and you find high-ranking third-party reviews on page one. This will validate that brand’s reputation by providing real-world insight into customer experiences.
Here’s how third-party reviews serve as a trust indicator:
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Third-party review sites give your brand instant credibility in search results
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Trusted platforms like Sitejabber, Tripadvisor, Yelp, and G2 often appear near the top of search results because of their strong authority with Google. In fact, longstanding platforms such as Sitejabber have established direct partnerships with Google. When your brand shows up on these sites, it instantly signals credibility to users, especially if your ratings are positive (and not from fake reviews).
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Boosting your ad performance As previously mentioned, getting stars on your ads sends a strong trust signal to shoppers. Google Seller Ratings (used for store-level ads) aggregate reviews from authorized third-party sites and showcase star ratings directly within search results.
Certain review platforms can also help with Google Product Ratings. They are shown in ads and organic product listings across Google's shopping platforms. 
These visible ratings increase trust at a glance and can significantly improve your click-through rates by making your ads more eye-catching and credible.
Pro Tip: Sitejabber can help you qualify for Google Seller Ratings and Product Ratings from a single platform. -
Review platforms let you manage and improve your reputation publicly - Third-party sites allow you to respond to feedback, resolve issues and show that you care about your customers. This kind of visible responsiveness can turn a negative comment into a brand-building moment and shape how new visitors perceive your brand.
How do negative reviews impact my Brand SERP?
Negative reviews can directly shape what shows up on Google when someone searches your brand.
Here’s how:
- As discussed, high-authority review sites rank fast. If a negative review gains traction on popular platforms, it can quickly surface in the top search results—often above your own site.
- Google trusts third-party signals. Search engines rely on trusted external platforms to evaluate your brand's quality. A flood of low-star ratings tells them something’s wrong.
Essentially, negative feedback could have your brand looking like this:
Or, like this:
👉 TLDR: If your Brand SERP is filled with poor reviews, it’s like having a front window filled with angry customers. People walk away before they even step inside.
What mistakes do businesses commonly make managing reviews on SERPs?
Some of the most damaging mistakes are also the easiest to fix:
- Only focusing on their own site. Your homepage might be optimized, but prospects are reading customer feedback from objective third-party sites first.
- Ignoring negative reviews. Silence speaks volumes. Not responding to criticism can make your brand look untrustworthy.
- Playing review whack-a-mole. Many teams spread themselves thin by attempting to manage reviews across a bunch of sites manually and separately. Set up an automated system to spearhead an efficient review strategy.
- Inconsistent business info across platforms. Mismatched names, locations, or website URLs confuse Google and reduce your trust score.
Pro Tip: Businesses can use our Sitejabber for Business platform to get customer reviews across multiple sites that matter most to their audience. Instead of collecting reviews in just one place, you can spread reviews to different platforms like Google, Facebook, and industry-specific sites, making sure potential customers see fresh feedback wherever they’re searching.
Become visible by optimizing your Brand SERP
How your Brand SERP looks gives potential customers a first impression of your business. Before they land on your website or explore your products, they’re already evaluating the search results to determine your trustworthiness.
What appears in a brand search influences a customer’s decision within seconds. Don’t leave it to Google alone to represent your brand. Always ensure your SERP shows your audience what they want to see.
Third-party reviews are powerful tools for growing online visibility. To build trust from search results, take control of your Brand SERP by managing online reviews and maintaining accurate business information everywhere it appears.
Register for free with Sitejabber for Business today and discover how our platform can help you turn customer reviews and data into powerful tools for trust, visibility and growth.
