GSC Branded Queries Filter Reaches Full Rollout on 11 March 2026

On 11 March 2026, Google Search Console’s branded queries filter reached full availability for all eligible sites. The feature was first announced on 20 November 2025 and rolled out gradually before reaching complete availability in March. It is one of the most practically useful reporting additions to Search Console in recent years.

What the filter does

The branded queries filter separates search performance data by whether a query included a brand name or brand product name. In the Performance report, publishers can now view clicks, impressions, click-through rate, and average position broken down by:

• Branded queries. Searches where the user is looking for a specific brand, such as its name, product names, or common variations.
• Non-branded queries. Discovery searches where the user has no specific brand in mind and the site earns the click on the merit of its content and ranking.

Previously, achieving this split required building manual regex filters or maintaining exclusion keyword lists in Search Console’s filter interface. Both approaches are time-consuming to set up, prone to gaps, and require ongoing maintenance as brand query patterns change. The native filter handles the classification automatically.

Why branded and non-branded traffic should be measured separately

The two traffic types serve different purposes and behave differently in the data.

Branded traffic reflects brand demand and recognition. It tends to convert well, has high CTR, and ranks near the top, but it is not primarily driven by SEO work. It responds to brand marketing, offline activity, word of mouth, and PR coverage.

Non-branded traffic reflects organic acquisition: how well a site ranks and earns clicks from users who have no prior intent to find that specific brand. This is the traffic most directly influenced by SEO strategy, content quality, and ranking performance.

Mixing both in a single Performance report distorts the picture in both directions. A brand with strong direct demand will show higher average CTR and position data even if its non-branded performance is mediocre. Separating them makes it possible to evaluate SEO work on its own terms, without brand demand inflating or obscuring the results.

Eligible sites

Google has not published explicit eligibility criteria. In practice, the filter requires that Google has reliably associated specific search terms with a brand, which depends on the brand having a sufficiently established presence for Google to identify its query patterns. Newer or lower-visibility brands may not see the filter available in their account.

What this means

Turn on the filter and look at non-branded performance first. Most sites find organic acquisition looks weaker than blended numbers suggested, which is accurate, and useful to know. Non-branded impressions and CTR are the cleanest proxy for how well SEO content is actually performing, stripped of the brand demand that inflates blended CTR.

For stakeholder reporting, this is now the most defensible way to present SEO impact separately from brand activity. The native filter removes the maintenance burden of manual regex exclusions that drifted as query patterns changed.

Hold off on reacting to the non-branded numbers until you have several weeks of data. One snapshot from a newly separated view is not a baseline. Trend it for a month before drawing conclusions about whether non-branded performance is improving or declining.

Sources

• Introducing the branded queries filter in Search Console — Google Search Central Blog
• Google expands Search Console branded queries filter to all eligible sites — Search Engine Land
• How GSC’s branded query filter changes SEO reporting and analysis — Search Engine Land