Brand protection: branded search cleared of “cross” sites
Brand protection from Best Boost Partners is work on the search results for your brand’s name. We find the sites that practise “cross”: they rank for a branded query, take the visitor who was looking for your brand and send that visitor to other brands. The service is for brands, most often in gambling and betting, and for their affiliate teams. We either clear the branded results ourselves or hand you a report with evidence: who ranks for your brand in each country and where the traffic goes.
In brief
- For whom
- Brands, most often in gambling and betting, whose branded search traffic is taken by sites that send it to other brands.
- What is included
- Monitoring of branded queries by country, analysis of every site in the results, evidence files, complaints and work on the brand’s own pages.
- What you receive
- A table of sites in your branded results, an evidence file for each site, a log of complaints and a regular report on changes.
- How to start
- The brand name and its spellings, the countries, the official domains, the list of approved affiliates and the trademark documents.
What does brand protection include?
Brand protection at Best Boost Partners consists of three parts: branded search monitoring, cross-traffic detection and reports, and branded search clean-up. Monitoring and reports can be ordered without the clean-up, when your own legal and affiliate teams act on the findings. Each of the three parts is described on its own page.
Branded search monitoring
We record who ranks for your brand’s name, for brand + login, bonus, mirror and app, and for misspellings, in each country, language and device.
Learn moreCross-traffic detection and reports
For each site in your branded results we determine its type, follow its buttons and redirects and assemble an evidence file for your legal or affiliate team.
Learn moreBranded search clean-up
We file complaints with search engines, hosts and registrars, write to affiliate programmes and strengthen the brand’s own pages. The set of measures is chosen for each case.
Learn more
When is brand protection needed?
- A search for your brand’s name shows other people’s sites whose buttons lead to other brands.
- Queries such as brand + login, bonus, mirror or app lead to sites that you do not control.
- You enter a new country and want to know who already ranks for your brand’s name there.
- Your affiliate team suspects that some partners collect traffic for the brand’s name and send it to other brands.
- Your legal team is ready to file complaints and needs evidence: screenshots, redirect chains, dates, domain and hosting data.
How does the work on branded search results go?
Brief and query list
We agree the brand names and spellings, the countries, languages and devices, your official domains and the list of approved affiliates. From these data we build the list of monitored queries: the brand name, the brand with the words login, bonus, mirror and app, and misspellings.
First collection of the results
We record the branded results for every query in every country, language and device. Each site in the results is entered in a table with its position and the date.
Analysis of each site
For every site we determine its type: the brand’s own page, an honest affiliate or a site doing cross. We follow the buttons and redirects, record the redirect chain, the affiliate identifiers when they are visible, the hosting, the registrar and the domain data, and take dated screenshots.
Report or clean-up
In one format you receive the report with evidence, and your legal and affiliate teams act on it. In the other format we act ourselves: we file complaints, write to affiliate programmes and strengthen the brand’s own and partner pages.
Continuous monitoring
New sites keep appearing in branded results, so the collection is repeated on the schedule fixed in the contract. Every regular report shows which sites left the results, which appeared and what the status of each complaint is.
What do you receive from brand protection?
- A list of monitored branded queries for each country, language and device.
- A table of the sites in your branded results with the type of each site and the brands it sends traffic to.
- An evidence file for each site doing cross: screenshots, the redirect chain, dates, domain and hosting data.
- A log of the complaints and requests filed, with the date, the addressee and the current status of each.
- A regular report on how the branded results changed in each country.
What can and cannot be promised in brand protection?
The decision belongs to the search engine and the host
Search engines, hosting providers and domain registrars decide on complaints themselves. We prepare each complaint with evidence and track its status, yet nobody can promise that every site doing cross will leave the results.
Evidence first, action second
Every complaint and every request rests on recorded facts: dated screenshots, the redirect chain and the domain data. A site receives the type “cross” only after we have followed its buttons and redirects, so honest affiliates are not touched by complaints. We file complaints only on the grounds the brand actually holds.
Monitoring does not stop
New sites appear in place of the removed ones, so a single clean-up does not hold the result. The work is organised as continuous monitoring with action on each new site.
Frequently asked questions
What is cross in branded search results?
Cross is a scheme in which a site ranks in the top for a query with a brand’s name, takes the visitor who was looking for that brand and sends the visitor to other brands. Cross is most common in gambling and betting. Within brand protection we find such sites, record where they send the traffic and work to have them leave the branded results.
Can every site doing cross be removed from the branded results?
No, nobody can promise that. Search engines, hosting providers and domain registrars decide on complaints themselves, and new sites appear after others are removed. For that reason brand protection is organised as continuous monitoring plus action, and the regular report shows the state of the results honestly, including the sites that remain.
Can we order only the data and act through our own lawyers?
Yes, that is one of the two formats of work. We collect the information: who ranks for your brand’s name in each country and to which brands each site sends the traffic, with an evidence file for each site. Your legal and affiliate teams then act on the report themselves.
How is the cost of brand protection calculated?
The cost of brand protection is named after the brief and a look at the project. The cost depends on the number of brand names, countries and queries in the monitoring, on how often the results are collected and on the format: the report alone or the report together with the clean-up.
What do you need from us to file complaints on behalf of the brand?
To file complaints we need the documents that confirm your right to the trademark and an authorisation to act on behalf of the right holder. We also need the list of your official domains and approved affiliates, so that the brand’s own and partner pages are not touched by complaints. The exact list of documents is agreed during the brief.
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