Matt: Welcome back to Growth Unleashed, the podcast for pet brands that want to grow smarter—without relying on paid ads. I’m Matt, founder of Bubblegum Search.
Louis: And I’m Louis, SEO Manager here at Bubblegum. Last week, we were covering trust and why it’s so important for pet parents. This week, we’re going to branch out into the topic of brand authority. So let’s start with the obvious, Matt—what is the difference between trust and brand authority for you?
Matt: Yeah. The way I look at brand authority is more of an umbrella term, where trust is integrated into it and part of it. You could think of it like trust plus visibility and brand recognition. But really, brand authority for me is about being top of mind in the consumer’s mind.
You know, if you think of anything—it could be pizza—who’s the first brand that comes to mind? For me, it’s Domino’s Pizza. So the point is, brand authority is a mix of those things. How visible are you? How recognized are you? And are you typically the brand that comes to mind when people think of a certain topic, service, or product?
Louis: Yeah. And I guess in Google’s eyes as well, we’re kind of looking around the web. Essentially, brand authority comes from where else is talking about you—not just your own brand or your own site.
Matt: So with that said, what can brands show on their website that confirms they’re legitimate—not just to the pet parents, but to Google?
Louis: Yeah. Obviously, the place to start with building your brand authority is your own website. Some of the easy ways to show credibility to Google are—like we covered last week—user-generated content. Definitely pictures, reviews, all of those are top tier in terms of signaling trust and credibility to both pet parents and, more importantly, to Google.
Beyond that, Google’s been massive in recent years on expertise and showing that expertise on your website. There are things you can implement—for example, an “As Seen In” feature on your site, showing where you’ve been published or who’s talked about you.
If you’ve got vets contributing expert opinions to your blog, make sure they have author bios. You might link to their LinkedIn, or even link to their own website or profile on your team page, if that’s where they live.
Matt: Yeah, definitely. And you can drill down deeper, right? An author bio on a particular blog or article is great, but if you then link back to a deeper page about that particular author and their expertise, that’s even better. It’s great for users and for Google to understand that content at a deeper level.
Louis: Absolutely. And then there are more niche things, like—if you’re a pet food brand who has to be certified or go through certain hoops to sell your food—those certifications, badges, or even awards all help show Google that you’re verified, trusted, and credible.
Matt: And that really ties back to what you’re saying. All those elements cover the key points within E-E-A-T—Experience, Expertise, Authority, and Trust. Those badges and awards you mentioned? They check off all of those.
Louis: Absolutely. One final thing I’d add—especially given what we’re seeing happen in Google’s search results—is schema code.
There are now so many features showing up: People Also Ask, AI Overviews, shopping, images, carousels. If you want to start appearing in those features, you can use schema code on your website.
Just as a quick rundown—schema code is a bit of code you add to your page. It doesn’t show up to users, but it talks directly to Google. It’s really useful for getting featured in SERP features, but also for verifying your brand to Google as an entity.
For example, you can put Organization schema on your homepage, and that allows you to list all of your social profiles and every place that’s officially connected to your brand.
Matt: It allows Google to connect the dots.
Louis: Exactly.
Matt: And we were saying this recently with some of our clients—the shift has gone so extreme with the amount of SERP features appearing for every Google query. Traditional links are being pushed further down.
By maximizing the amount of relevant schema on your site, you give yourself the biggest chance to show up before the click even happens.
Louis: Yeah. The more you’re talking to Google through schema, the more authoritative it will perceive your brand to be.
Matt: I love that.
Louis: So those are a few ideas for tackling brand authority on-site. But what about off-site? What do you think Google and other large language models, for example, are looking for? Where do they want to see you?
Matt: Yeah. It’s a big topic, but really brand authority is built across three key areas: earned, owned, and paid media.
It doesn’t matter how people hear about you—what matters is that they do hear about you and that they trust what they hear and see.
As you know, at Bubblegum Search, we specialize in the earned and owned parts of that equation. But paid still plays a part within the strategy. It could be remarketing. It could be amplifying content that’s already done well organically.
Or it could be knowing that there’s a particular publication your audience pays attention to, and partnering with them to do a newsletter sponsorship or a series of sponsored content. All of those are legitimate ways to build brand authority.
For us, though, the emphasis is on the brand authority we build through our own assets and through what we earn. The goal isn’t to choose just one tactic—it’s to move the needle on the brand signals that actually drive leads and sales.
If it’s owned, you can do it through content marketing—amplifying your content and getting it in front of the right audience. If it’s earned, it’s about identifying where your audience hangs out and getting media attention or mentions in those spaces.
Ultimately, this shows up in things like branded search, backlinks, and influence—those are all KPIs you can monitor.And over time, you’ll see your non-branded keywords start to rise too. You’ll get more traffic, both branded and non-branded. But it’ll be higher-quality traffic that’s more likely to convert into leads and sales.
Louis: Yeah, and they feed into each other, don’t they? More branded traffic improves your rankings for non-branded terms. And the more you show up for non-branded terms, the more people become aware of your brand.
Matt: Absolutely.
Louis: One of the key things across all three pillars of marketing—earned, owned, and paid—is consistency. A lot of people hope to go viral with one thing. And yeah, going viral would be nice.
Matt: That would be nice!
Louis: It would. But consistency is more valuable. If you can keep showing up in the right places, keep pushing out the owned content you’re creating, you’ll keep the momentum going. You’ll slowly build up that interest and trust.
Matt: Yeah, absolutely. And that applies to both earned and owned. Building authority through content takes time. If you’re doing digital PR and getting backlinks or mentions from relevant sites, that’s great—but it only works if you’re consistent.
Are you consistently showing up and becoming top of mind to your audience over a long period of time—not just a week or a month? That’s what makes the difference.
Louis: Absolutely.
Matt: Cool. So that leads on to our next part. If I’m a brand founder listening right now, what can I do this week to start building real brand authority?
Louis: If you’re looking at the next seven days and want actionable steps, start with user-generated content. Reviews, pictures, videos—anything like that adds credibility and helps show trust signals to Google.
If you’ve been featured in any publications, create a banner or a dedicated page showing off those mentions. If you’ve got the features—use them. It’s absolutely valuable.
Matt: One hundred percent. That ties in with what we were saying about marrying off-site success with on-site representation.
People may not have seen the article where you were featured—but when they land on your website and see the logos or quotes from those publications, it brings that trust to the page. And of course, it’s good for Google too.
Louis: Exactly. I’d also implement schema wherever possible. Organization schema and review schema are great places to start when it comes to building brand authority.
There’s a whole other world of schema types we could go into, but those two are great for visibility and trust.
Louis: Finally, go back to that idea of showcasing expertise. If you’ve got vets writing for you or contributing to your content, don’t keep it quiet. Link to their profiles, their LinkedIn pages, or a team page. Show Google that you’re publishing content from real experts.
Matt: Yeah. And tying that all together—I’d say start with your owned content. That’s the part you have the most control over.
Week one is just about getting started. Launch the content engine you’ll use to build brand authority. It takes time—months, even years—but you have to begin somewhere.
And starting can be as simple as launching a YouTube channel, a podcast, or even both. Focus on creating content that’s helpful, expert-led, or gives a behind-the-scenes look at your brand. That humanizes your company and shows that you genuinely care and have expertise.
From there, you can create long-form content, then clip it into short-form pieces for social. Post it on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube Shorts. Turn it into blog posts, newsletters—even lead magnets. That’s how you build a content engine.
Louis: Exactly. And if you can come up with an idea for your podcast or YouTube channel this week—and start mapping out a content calendar—that would be a perfect place to begin.
Matt: Absolutely. Cool. That’s it for this episode. Hopefully, it’s given you a clearer idea of what brand authority really means, where it shows up, and how to start building it right now.
Louis:
Thanks for listening—we’ll catch you next time.