I wonder if Google is lazy with it's branding algo.
For example, the serps in the travel vertical, one of Google's largest are dominated by multiple subsidiaries of two huge global companies which have been given a free pass to ranking for a great many years.
Reportedly, these subsidiaries make up around 80% of Google's total travel ad spend, therefore the spend must contribute heavily to the "branding" algorithm, even if indirectly. It gives the impression to me, that the more a business spends, the higher it's rankings. ( With the current covid19, no doubt ad spending is a fraction of it's former self) .
One of the companies, appearing mostly in 4-5 of the top 10 positions uses an identical white label template, same or similar landing page content, same ownership of subsidiaries, same user experience, same offers etc. The only significant differences are in the domain names.
Other sites, deeper in the results appear to have better and varied content, UI / UX , and other quality factors like customer service, more product, stronger localisation and better pricing etc
Are you seeing this in other verticals, and could Google be told to do a better job in it's branding algorithm by varying the results and providing a non advertising bias of sites for users?
