For the T.O.W. for this week we read Search Engine Visibility, an Edelman Insights paper by Steve Rubel and others at Edelman Digital and had to respond to it:
Things I learned:
- people use different words and phrases when writing than they do when searching
- searching is the predominant online activity
While these may seem like trivial tidbits of information, there is a lot to take from them. Knowing that people use different words to search than they do when writing is a key piece of information. With that knowledge the words you use when you write a press release are vital, so that you can get a higher rank on google’s PageRank system. Also knowing that search is the dominant online activity is the reason why this information is important.
What was I surprised about:
- that companies actually ask google for more favorable position
- that google or any other search engine does not release info about their algorithms that they used
I never really thought about how a certain page is the first link that comes up when you make a search using a search engine. This paper showed me how that happens and I was surprised to see that news organizations actually asked google for better positioning, that is just funny to me for some reason. I just have this image of google being the dad and news organizations being the child asking their dad to put them on their shoulders
What I want to know more about
- SEO in general and how I can use it to help me in my career
This paper was a good introduction into search engine visibility, but now I want to know more about SEO and how I can use it to help me in my career.
