It’s highly unlikely you fall in of the category of just 5% of consumers not utilizing search engines such as Google. The overwhelming majority of the nation uses search as a part of their normal routines, without even thinking twice.
Even during the early stages of search engines, a certain expectation was had by the consumer. By god if AskJeeves didn’t give me the local Carl’s Jr.!
But seriously, as time went on and search engine improvements were regularly implemented, the consumer was beginning to have immense power with the wealth of great information consistently showing at the top of the search engines. The search algorithms from powerhouse Google (and others who follow) have grown to focus strictly on user experience; as if the consumer ‘deserves’ unique images, lengthy and well-written content, videos, and social media posts when performing a search on the topic of their choosing, which we’ll call a “keyword”.
As long as you are well connected with the digital, you are aware of the trustworthiness that search engines bring. Not only do we expect accurate information, we expect current information – the latest and greatest on the topic.
Using the above image as an example, Google has provided us with a wonderful array of ways to consume the term ‘volcano’. In just the top half of the first page, you see: a Wikipedia definition, a Google Maps location of a local restaurant, reviews to said restaurant, an IMDB link to a movie called Volcano, a us.gov Volcano tracker, and even the latest articles written on volcanoes.
By providing the search engines with our own wonderful array of content, we can in essence “own” an individual or business search result. The opportunity for online branding is wondrous for business owners, executives or actors. Any bad beef can be eliminated from search. And eventually out of reach of anyone.
While more people are search, all the more important it is to take control of what they see.
Hayden Koch, president of HLK Marketing, comments on search engine optimization tactics that give you power of your search results:
Taking control of your online reputation is a real possibility. The whole front page of Google can be yours. Thoroughness and a little elbow grease does the trick. Oh, and patience – as it take the search engines quite a while to recognize the efforts as powerful and authoritative.