Townsend Belisle is the CEO and Executive Producer of Haystack Needle, a strategic design and production agency located in New York.
getty
We’ve all done it.
At one point or another, we’ve all allowed curiosity to get the best of us and Googled ourselves. In a flash, you’re bolting across the digital landscape of your life, pausing for a breath on the most noteworthy snippets. Eventually, you move on, confident that you have seen the original masterpiece of your online life.
But be warned: Just because Google served up some feather-fluffing results on a digital platter, there’s no guarantee anyone else will see the same content. That might have been the case in 2005 when search engines were learning to crawl. But now, Google is old enough to drive, vote and drink; its algorithm is complex. In other words, results vary from person to person.
Our firm has been running a digital reputation agency for 15 years. We’ve learned that, while there is a fair amount of secretive sorcery behind every successful reputation campaign, there are plenty of things we can teach clients to do or, more to the point, not do to optimize search results and keep their online presence magically clean.
Will The Real Search Results Please Stand Up
We all know Google’s algorithm works in mysterious ways. Cookies, keywords and cryptic code seem to read your mind while manipulating advertisements, restaurant recommendations and binge-worthy Netflix suggestions. But did you know this same witch’s brew also drives your search results? Every click, query, share, purchase and input you’ve ever made on that device affects the search algorithm.
MORE FOR YOU
Getting an authentic snapshot of your (or your company’s) search terrain can boggle the brain. Google uses myriad online markers to create the bespoke results a self-search will turn up. Here are some of the top factors that mold your personalized Google reality:
How Is Google Tracking Me?
- Browsing history: Every ad you’ve seen sees you. The Google Display Network appears on over 2 million sites and reaches over 90% of internet users worldwide.
- Search history: All your interests, queries and biases are stored in search history and used by Google to shape your results.
- Location: Search results are hypersensitive to the searcher’s physical, geographic location. The results are biased based on where you are sitting when you tap that glass button.
- App usage: From one device to the next, Google tracks your apps and uses the data to influence your search results.
Turn Up The Volume
One of the most influential factors in search results is search volume, which is the popularity of such a search. Your average CEO is likely to have no more than 100 people searching for them at any one time. However, Google algorithms respond directly to search volume. The more a single name or article is searched or clicked, the more relevant it becomes, and the higher it lands in search results for everyone.
This volume bias can improve favorable results such as corporate profiles and five-star ratings. However, it’s far less welcome when salacious nuggets of clickbait emerge, what we call unfavorable assets (UAs). The more clicks a UA gets, the higher it lands in search results, which can tank your online reputation or your company’s valuation.
Ego Trip To Reputation Slip
For most of us, with relatively few search queries of our name, the result of Googling oneself is a harmless stroll through past employment, alma maters and the occasional high school musical. However, for those with a public profile to protect, please tread lightly! Always remember that any click, share or read of search results adds relevancy to that result for other readers and causes those items to rise in search-result algorithms. So, be especially wary of those pesky UAs, and resist the urge to click on them at all costs.
While it may take a wizard’s degree in the digital dark arts to fully optimize your search results, with a little savvy and some self-restraint, there are plenty of less magical steps to take when it comes to protecting your digital reputation.
Here are some basic, helpful tips for beginning to optimize your own search results:
1. Google your peers, especially those with similar interests—or those that do similar work for similar companies—and consider their results as opportunities for you. What profiles emerge? Where are they featured? Are they showcased in any videos? Are they actively pushing out content?
2. Determine those authentic, low-maintenance results that intuitively feel right for you. If you’re a high-powered executive, you may not need to be active on social media. If you’re an amateur photographer, would it help to have your portfolio featured on the first page of results? Or, if you’d rather be invisible, what favorable content already exists out there that you can repurpose?
3. Link any existing, favorable presence to any new, favorable content. Links add equity to results, and linking between everything favorable will keep those results rising with the tide.
Above all, do not click on anything unfavorable. While the results you see are subjective to you, any activity you make within your own search results can influence what others will see.
Forbes Agency Council is an invitation-only community for executives in successful public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising agencies. Do I qualify?
Go to Source
Author: Townsend Belisle, Forbes Councils Member
