Branded vs Non-Branded Queries in Search Console: Full Guide

Branded vs non-branded queries: what counts as which

A branded query contains your brand name, a misspelling or variation of it, your domain, or a product name unique to you; every other query is non-branded. Google Search Console can split them two ways: the built-in branded queries filter (Performance → Search results → Query filter → Branded or Non-branded), which Google classifies with AI and offers only on eligible top-level properties, or a brand regex, which works on every property, in the API and in AI assistants.

Google’s definition, from the announcement of the branded queries filter, includes the brand name, misspellings such as “Gogle”, and brand-related products such as Gmail. Here is how that plays out for a fictional CRM called Acme, whose products are Rocketboard and Skyledger:

Why the branded vs non-branded split matters

The two segments measure different things. Branded searches come from people who already know you, so they track awareness: PR, advertising, word of mouth, product launches. Non-branded searches come from people who didn’t set out to find you, which is the part SEO actually wins. Google puts it the same way: branded queries usually rank higher and earn higher click-through rates, while non-branded queries show how new users find your content.

Blending them hides the story. Here is an illustrative quarter for a SaaS site after a funding announcement and a podcast campaign:

The headline says organic search grew 6%. The split says SEO lost 8% of its non-branded clicks and the campaign covered it up. The reverse happens too: a quiet month for brand demand can hide genuine SEO gains. Blended CTR and average position are distorted in the same way, because branded rows sit near position one with high CTR.

How to use the Search Console branded queries filter

Google announced the filter on 20 November 2025, rolled it out gradually, and updated the announcement on 11 March 2026 to say it is “now available to all eligible sites”. To use it, per Google’s help page on common Performance report tasks:

1. Open Performance → Search results on a top-level property.
2. Click the filter bar and choose the Query filter.
3. Select Branded or Non-branded.
4. Add a date comparison to see each segment’s change, or open Insights, which now has a card comparing branded and non-branded clicks.

What you should know before you rely on it:

• It is AI-classified, not regex. Google uses an internal AI-assisted system that covers your brand in all languages, typos, and queries about a unique product that don’t name the brand at all. That is more than most regexes catch.
• It can be wrong. Google says some queries may be misidentified, and a hands-on comparison by Spotibo found the classification clearly off on one of the projects it checked. Spot-check the queries in each segment before you report on them.
• Not every property gets it. It is limited to top-level properties, not URL-path properties such as https://example.com/blog/ or subdomain properties, and to sites with enough query and impression volume.
• It covers web, image, video and news search types in the Search results report, and it has no effect on rankings.
• History may be limited. Check the earliest date in your own report before building a long trend.
• It is interface-only. The Search Analytics API reference documents no branded filter or dimension. Looker Studio, scripts, spreadsheets and AI assistants reading Search Console all need a regex; our guide to Search Console API filters and row limits covers the rest. Bing Webmaster Tools has no equivalent either.

Build a brand regex for the API

A good brand regex is a list of alternatives wrapped in word boundaries. Build it from what people actually type, in this order:

Put together, one pattern serves both segments:

We tested it against the example queries above: it catches the five branded rows and leaves “hubspot alternatives”, “crm for startups” and “acmella” alone. A few rules keep it reliable:

• Use word boundaries. \b stops “acme” matching inside other words. It only understands ASCII letters, so for accented brand names use spaces or ^ and $ instead.
• No spaces around the bar. A space is a character to match, so acme | akme is a different pattern.
• No lookarounds. Search Console uses RE2, which has no (?!…). Exclusions go in a second filter.
• Leave out generic product names. A product called “Boards” would pull in every “kanban boards” search. Match it only with the brand, for example acme boards.
• Version it. Changing the regex rewrites history. Keep it in your report notes with the date of each change.

The full syntax, with 35 tested patterns, is in our Search Console regex cheat sheet. The fastest way to find your real misspellings is to let an assistant read your query data:

Split branded and non-branded clicks with AI

With the regex in hand, the split is two filters. GSC MCP Server’s query_search_analytics tool (Google only, read-only) accepts up to ten filters, each with a dimension, an operator and an expression. Use includingRegex on the query dimension for branded and excludingRegex for non-branded, then choose the dimensions that answer your question:

Grouping by date returns one row per day for the whole segment, so you get segment totals without paging through thousands of queries. Group by query or page only when you need the detail, and use startRow to go past 1,000 rows.

Track non-branded growth over time

Be clear about what each tool can do. compare_search_periods compares a period with the previous one, or with the same weeks a year earlier, and returns the top gaining and losing queries. It has no filters, so it can’t give you segment totals. It is still useful: the assistant can label each gainer and loser with your brand regex and tell you whether the movement was brand demand or SEO.

For segment totals, run query_search_analytics per segment per period. multicall bundles up to ten tool calls into one request (each still counts towards your monthly tool calls):

That last instruction matters: here is why to judge 2025–26 comparisons on clicks.

Branded vs non-branded queries in Bing

Bing Webmaster Tools has no branded filter and no RE2 regex filter, but the split still matters: Bing reaches a different audience from Google, and Microsoft Copilot grounds its answers with Bing search. See why Bing Webmaster Tools matters for AI search. With GSC MCP Server, pull Bing’s top queries and let the assistant apply the same regex:

This is a match on the rows Bing returns, sorted by clicks, not a filter on Bing’s full data, so treat it as a share of your top queries rather than an exact total.

A monthly branded vs non-branded report

Lead with non-branded performance, because that is what SEO controls, and present branded as a demand signal alongside it. A one-page version:

Calculate the share from classified clicks, not the property total, so anonymized queries don’t drag it around. Footnote the regex and the date it last changed. The last row doubles as keyword research: see how to find new non-branded queries worth their own page. For a full client pack, combine this with the AI-assisted agency reporting workflow; founders can fold the two headline numbers into the 30-minute weekly Search Console routine.

Pitfalls: anonymized queries, AI Overviews and misclassification

Branded plus non-branded never equals the total

Search Console omits anonymized queries to protect privacy. Per Google’s documentation on Performance report dimensions, they count in the chart totals unless a query filter is applied. A regex is a query filter, so both segments exclude them and the gap shows up as “unclassified”. Expect the same gap with the native filter, which is also applied as a query filter. The size of the gap varies from site to site, so track it rather than assume it.

AI Overviews change non-branded CTR first

Most informational queries are non-branded, and informational queries are where studies have measured the steepest CTR falls from AI Overviews, so non-branded CTR can drop while rankings hold. Ahrefs’ February 2026 study of 300,000 keywords found that an AI Overview correlated with a 58% lower click-through rate for the top-ranking page. Seer Interactive measured organic CTR on informational queries with AI Overviews falling from 1.76% to 0.61% between June 2024 and September 2025. Before you blame your content for a non-branded CTR drop, check whether impressions and position held. Search Console’s Generative AI report shows impressions without queries and isn’t in the API, so it can’t be split by brand; the Generative AI report guide explains what it can tell you.

Other mistakes to avoid

• Counting competitor names as branded. Keep them in a separate competitor segment.
• Trusting either method blindly. Read the top queries in each segment every quarter.
• Reading a branded drop as an SEO problem. A fall in branded clicks usually points to demand, seasonality or reputation. If non-branded is falling too, follow the organic traffic drop diagnosis.
• Forgetting URL-path properties. The native filter won’t appear on them; the regex works on any property you can access.

Frequently asked questions