Jason Barnard Analyses Brand SERPs at SMX Munich 2020 “How Google Interprets and Projects Your Brand Identity” - March 2020
March 18-19, 2020 -SMX Munich brought together international search marketing professionals, brand leaders, and strategists to examine how search visibility shapes business outcomes in an increasingly competitive digital landscape. As one of Europe’s leading SEO conferences, SMX Munich focused on advanced tactics, strategic frameworks, and the evolving relationship between brands and search engines.
Among the featured speakers was Jason Barnard, founder and CEO of Kalicube®, who delivered a session titled “Analysing and Improving Your Brand SERP.” Moderated by Alexander Holl, the session addressed a critical but widely misunderstood aspect of modern SEO: how Google represents brands when users search for them by name.
Your Brand SERP is your digital business card
Jason opened the session with a foundational idea that framed the entire discussion: your Brand SERP functions as your business card.
At some point before or during a commercial relationship, potential clients, partners, journalists, or investors will search for a brand by name. When they do, Google presents a snapshot of that brand’s identity - drawn from websites, third-party sources, structured data, and algorithmic interpretation.
Many business owners assume Google automatically shows:
- Complete information
- Accurate facts
- A fair and positive narrative
Jason challenged that assumption directly. Google does not aim to represent brands as they wish to be seen - it aims to represent brands as it has understood them. When that understanding is incomplete, inconsistent, or misaligned, the Brand SERP can quietly undermine trust and credibility.
How Google interprets brand identity
A central theme of the session focused on how Google builds its understanding of a brand.
Jason explained that Google has no inherent motivation to misrepresent a business. However, it relies entirely on the signals it can access and corroborate. If a brand fails to clearly define its identity through consistent terminology, authoritative sources, and structured signals, Google fills the gaps with whatever information it can find.
This leads to Brand SERPs that:
- Emphasise the wrong aspects of a business
- Highlight outdated or irrelevant content
- Omit critical proof points
- Surface negative or misleading third-party narratives
Rather than treating this as a ranking problem, Jason framed it as a brand interpretation problem - one that sits at the intersection of SEO, content strategy, and reputation management.
Analysing what your Brand SERP is really saying
A key practical component of the session focused on analysis and evaluation.
Jason outlined how brands can systematically assess what message their Brand SERP projects by examining:
- The dominant themes and terminology appearing in search results
- Which pages and sources Google prioritises
- Whether brand, product, service, and expertise signals align
- How sentiment and credibility appear to a first-time searcher
This analysis allows brands to identify strengths, gaps, and inconsistencies in their digital strategy - not from an internal perspective, but from Google’s and the user’s point of view.
Importantly, Jason emphasised that this process applies equally to companies and personal brands, especially in industries where trust, authority, and reputation influence decision-making.
Improving your Brand SERP: control through clarity
Once analysis reveals misalignment, the next step is intentional improvement.
Jason explained how brands can help Google project the image they want by:
- Defining which terms should form part of their brand identity beyond name and products
- Ensuring consistency across owned and third-party sources
- Implementing tracking to monitor Brand SERP changes over time
- Reinforcing credibility through corroboration and structured data
Rather than attempting to manipulate rankings, the goal is to clarify identity so Google can confidently present accurate, complete, and trustworthy information to users.
This approach turns Brand SERP optimisation into a strategic lever - not just for visibility, but for reputation management and commercial confidence.
Why Brand SERPs matter for reputation management
One of the session’s most important takeaways was the link between Brand SERPs and reputation.
When a brand fails to manage how it appears on Google, reputation risks emerge quietly:
- Prospects hesitate without explaining why
- Opportunities stall or disappear
- Trust erodes before conversations even begin
Jason positioned Brand SERP optimisation as a preventative strategy - ensuring that when stakeholders search, the narrative they encounter supports the business objectives rather than undermining them.
Conclusion: brand perception begins at the search results
Jason Barnard’s session at SMX Munich 2020 reinforced a fundamental truth of modern digital strategy: brand perception increasingly begins with a name-based search.
Analysing and improving your Brand SERP is not about vanity or control for its own sake. It is about ensuring that Google accurately understands who you are, what you do, and why you matter - and that it communicates that understanding clearly to the people you want to do business with.
In an environment where trust forms before contact, the Brand SERP is no longer just a reflection of brand strength. It is an active participant in shaping it.
Conference by SMX Munich March 18 and 19, 2020. Moderator: Alexander Holl. Speaker: Jason Barnard, founder and CEO at Kalicube®.
