Lately, I find myself returning to one question: Is Google still ranking pages or is it already ranking entities?
The idea for this article was born out of a brief conversation I had with one of the experts I admire most in the field,
Mikael Araújo. We discussed Google's shift from measuring traffic to
measuring influence, and he said something that stuck with me: “Brand lift and entity influence exist long before there’s search
volume and that’s what’s hardest to measure.”
At the same time,
Gianluca Fiorelli one of the most veteran and respected names in the
industry responded to a personal story I wrote. His reaction reminded
me of something crucial: true influence is created long before the
numbers start moving.
These two signals, from two different experts, merged into one clear picture: Google is changing the way it understands authority. This article is an attempt to deconstruct this shift, understand what’s behind it, and ask the question that might be the most important in SEO for the coming years: How do we measure influence before there’s even search volume for the brand?
1. Google’s New Direction: From Measuring Pages to Measuring Entities
Over the past year, a clear pattern has emerged: Google is no longer satisfied with evaluating the quality of a single page. Instead, it’s building a model that evaluates:
Who is behind the content?
How much influence does the brand have within its niche?
Where does it appear across the web?
How often is it mentioned, compared, and verified?
Is it part of the professional discourse?
Fan-out queries are the clearest proof of this shift. When Google expands a single query into dozens of internal checks comparisons, reviews, freshness, brand presence, semantic contexts it’s not just checking content. It’s checking legitimacy. It’s checking influence. It’s checking entity presence.
This is the moment where SEO stops being a game of "who wrote the best page" and becomes a game of "who is considered the most reliable and influential entity in the field."
2. Why Google Must Shift to Influence Measurement
To understand the change, one must understand the reality Google operates in today. The world is flooded with content. AI generates millions of pages a day. Websites rise and fall at a staggering pace. Users no longer trust "rankings" as they once did. In this reality, content has become a cheap commodity.
The Paradox of 2026: Precisely when technology allows us to generate everything at the click of a button the value of what cannot be automatically generated skyrockets. You cannot generate with AI:
Trust
Reputation
Human influence
Presence in discourse
Interpersonal connections
Professional legitimacy
Google realized that pages can be faked, but true influence is very hard to mimic. Therefore, it is starting to measure who influences the conversation, who is mentioned repeatedly, who receives third-party validation, and who is considered a reliable entity within the category. In other words: Google understands that the future of search cannot lean on pages it must lean on entities.
3. How Google Already Measures Influence and What’s Still Missing from Search Console
John Mueller hinted at this in the clearest way:
“Search Console continues to evolve to reflect how Google understands websites and entities. Not everything we measure appears in the tool but we are adding more and more.”
This sentence might sound technical, but it actually means something simple: Google measures much more than it shows. What doesn’t appear in Search Console today?
Brand appearances
Comparisons
Reviews
Connections between entities
Legitimacy checks
Presence in semantic contexts
All of these don't exist as official measurement tools but Google does measure them behind the scenes through fan-out queries, entity recognition, and analyzing the links between brands and their reappearance in professional and social discourse.
This connects back to what Mikael told me: measuring entity influence is hard which is why Google doesn't display all the signals. And Gianluca has been talking about this for years: Google is looking for authenticity, presence, and legitimacy.
My prediction: In the near future, Search Console will start displaying entity metrics not just site metrics. Metrics like:
Entity Presence
Brand Influence
Comparison Visibility
Review Footprint
Social Resonance
As of today, Search Console still primarily presents site data: queries, clicks, indexing, errors. But if you look at Google's direction and the hints John Mueller drops you can see it coming.
I believe that in the near future, Search Console will undergo a fundamental change. It will start displaying metrics for an Entity, not just a website. This means a deep shift in how we measure success:
Not just "how many impressions the page had," but how many impressions the brand had.
Not just "which queries you appeared in," but in which semantic contexts you appeared.
Not just "how many clicks you got," but how many times you were compared to competitors.
Not just "indexing," but professional legitimacy.
The algorithm is already measuring this. The fan-out queries are already checking this. The entity graph is already built around this. The next step is simply making it visible.
5. The Measurement Gap: How to Measure Influence Without Brand Search Volume?
This is where the big problem—and the big opportunity lies. Most brands don't start with search volume. They start with:
A small presence
Scattered mentions
Occasional comparisons
Small social conversations
Initial connections with experts
This is exactly what Mikael said: “Influence exists long before search volume arrives.” And this is a precise point. Because if Google is already measuring influence, but Search Console isn't showing it yet how can we measure it ourselves? Today, there is no tool that shows:
How many times a brand appears in comparisons.
How many times it’s mentioned in semantic contexts.
How many experts respond to it.
How many social conversations mention it.
How much "third-party legitimacy" it receives.
This creates a measurement gap a gap I believe will define 2026–2027. It’s an open question for the industry, and I’m genuinely curious to hear how other experts see it.
Summary: The Era of Influence is Here Who Will See It in Time?
If this past year has taught us anything, it's that the world of SEO changes faster than the tools can keep up. Google no longer ranks pages it ranks entities. It looks for influence, presence, legitimacy, connections, authenticity, and real expertise. And it does this long before there is search volume.
Search Console isn't there yet but it will be. Fan-out queries are just the beginning. Entity Recognition is just the foundation. The future is Influence Signals. And those who build their influence today will gain a massive advantage when the system stabilizes.
And before I finish, there is one point I feel must be said not as a criticism, but as a genuine suggestion for improvement. If Search Console is meant to reflect how Google understands entities, and if the algorithm is already measuring influence and social presence behind the scenes then we are missing a tool that shows this transparently.
Brands, creators, and SEOs need to see these signals. Not to "game the system," but to understand how they are perceived in the digital space.
So Google and if John Mueller happens to be reading this if you haven't considered bringing social signals into Search Console yet, this feels like the right time.
I’m Izzik Fayzak, an SEO Strategist focused on building entity authority and search engine data validation. To stay updated with my latest research and deep dives, feel free to follow my work on the Fayzak SEO blog.