There’s More to Googling Than Clicking on Search
Google can teach you so much more than you think about the way your client is perceived. You just need to understand how it works.
Take the next three minutes to learn how to unleash the power of Google.
Think of a client you’ve recently Googled and Google them again. This time, don’t browse through the results quickly, take a real good look at them.
Ask yourself – do they tell the story the client wants to tell? Do they convey the client’s main messages?
Characterize your client’s image, as reflected on Google, in a sentence or two and compare it to their preferred narrative. This will give you a clear view of what needs to change.
Three points to keep in mind while assessing your client’s Google image:
01
Owned and controlled websites are the key to influencing search results without breaking a (visible) sweat.
Owned sites would be your client’s personal/company website. Controlled sites could be their social profiles, where they control the content but not the platform. You can significantly strengthen the Google ranking of these sites by improving their SEO, content, and code (more about this in later emails).
02
The optimal search result display is organic, and in Google search, organic means diverse.
Google aims to show a mix of social profiles, official websites, news, video content, and more to provide a comprehensive answer to your search query.
03
Not many people really look beyond page two.
In fact, only few will cross the barrier of page one.
Six questions to ask yourself while scrolling:
- Does the result page tell a rich story that reflects your client’s skills and achievements?
- Does it look organic or does it seem like someone worked hard to paint a positive picture?
- How many of the well-ranking results are owned or controlled by your client?
- Are the most relevant results also the best ranking?
- Are there any negative results on the first two pages?
- What’s missing? Does your client’s current role as General Director of X appear on page one? How about the causes they support and great interviews they gave?
Before you go, here’s a neat technical trick that will help you refine your search:
Google’s algorithm tailors search results to your geography, language, earlier searches, and browsing history in order to provide relevant answers to your queries. These personalized results work wonderfully when you’re looking for a specific answer. However, when you want to understand how a specific audience perceives your client online, personalization becomes an obstacle.
Exclude your browsing and search history
In Chrome, go to ‘file’ and choose ‘New Incognito Window’
Choose your search location and language
Type this URL into the address bar replacing the highlighted areas with the relevant data:
https://www.google.com/search?hl=fr&gl=us&q=John+Doe&pws=0
- Defines Google location
- Defines language
- Defines geographic location
- Defines search term
You can find a list of country codes on Google’s developer site.
Now that you’ve targeted your search and analyzed the result, you probably want to know how to change the narrative. Well, that’s a whole different story, which we will touch on in one of our next newsletters.