What Does Your Web Presence Say About You?

Much of the time when I meet someone, I google them. Sometimes I’ll google them after meeting, but more importantly if it’s an arranged meeting with someone I’ll google them before meeting them. To me, this is normal.

I’ve also been cognizant of whether others do some investigating of me. Sometimes I’ll hear subtle clues, for example if I mention something I’ve written recently some people will tell me that they did read it. I’ve found it more striking, though, when it becomes apparent that someone has not even done a simple Google search and I think they should have.

Why should someone try to find information on the web about another person? Well! A thousand and one reasons, of course. It can help in social situations. I’m learning how to golf, for example. I’m pretty bad still, but enjoying and looking forward to the ground drying out so I can play some more this summer. Someone I meet who’s read that could get a conversation going with me about golfing.

But, more important than easing over awkward social situations, you can find out things you need to know about people you’re about to do business with. Hiring a new freelancer to do some coding for your website? What does Google turn up about that person? You’d be surprised. I have avoided freelancers in the past as a result of information turned up on basic searches. You should too.

Adam Darowski tells us that The Blog is the New Resume. (hat tip to Bijan Sabet for pointing to that post) I do get a bit surprised when someone asks to see my resume. I think it’s so obsolete. I don’t believe that it necessarily has to be a blog, but creating a web presence seems to me a more effective way of showing potential employers, business partners, or investors who you are and what you’ve done.

But, still, Google shows more. Google even shows what you wrote on the Usenet back before the web became popular. Some people make it easy for others to find them online. Me, for example. On most community and social networking sites I use the same account name, petertdavis. So, google petertdavis and it shows up nearly 20,000 entries. Follow those links and find tens of thousands of more things, articles I’ve written, items I’ve posted, images, designs, ideas, etc ad nauseam.

Google yourself today to see what image you’re projecting on the web. I don’t know any industry where this isn’t important. I hired a carpenter recently, and I googled him. If you want to work with web savvy people, it’s even more important.

I’m also surprised when I meet someone, and there’s nothing to be found about that person. I guess I’m so far into this now that living in obscurity seems alien. Even if someone’s in a witness relocation program, the Feds would be smart enough to create some info available on the web for their new identities, wouldn’t they? To make them seem real. Google yourself. Nothing there? Why not?

The other challenge I share with people with common names like Peter Davis, is how to make yourself stand out among the crowd. I started blogging early enough that my blog tends to stay near the top of the results for my name. I do better when my middle initial is used, Peter T Davis. I started using my middle initial quite a few years ago, when I came to realize just how many of us Peter Davises were out there. But there’s still plenty of stiff competition for Peter T Davis.

So, stop and think a moment, what your web presence says about you. What do you want it to say about you? If you’re not already, should you be using the web to gather information about people? We should all put at least as much thought into it as we put into resumes.

The SEO Lemon

I don’t often blog just to say read what someone else has posted, but occasionally I see something that’s so thought provoking that it’s worth remembering the login to Wordpress and crank out a few sentences. John Andrews post about A “Market for Lemons”, a Nobel Prize, and Snake Oil SEO is one of those occasions.

John’s been doing some reading. Academic economics to be exact. The paper he cites theorizes that through pricing, the used car industry created a “Market for Lemons” by pricing low-quality autos where quality autos should be priced, and overpricing the real quality cars. John shows us how that applies to the search engine marketing industry.

I like this analogy. I’m not so sure we’re there yet, though. Crack a joke about a used car salesman, and everyone gets it. Crack a joke about a SEO, and unless you’re in an after hours Pubcon Vegas party, you get blank stares. It is an apocolyptic prophecy of the industry, but he could be right.

The reason I’m not convinced that SEOs will end up in the same jokes with used car salesmen and personal injury lawyers is that I’m not convinced that search engine marketing will remain a stand-alone industry. I don’t think it’s going away. Not at all. But, I think it’s going to be more and more integrated into the existing marketing industry. More companies will have an in-house SEO and less will outsource.

But then, even that may play more into John’s vision, as the smaller companies who can’t afford to have an in-house SEO will still outsource. And, the smaller the company, the more price-conscious they’ll be, and thus the more likely to hire the boileroom SEO service. caveat emptor

Look Who’s Cloaking Today

 

When I try to visit the following url:

http://www.marketingprofs.com/5/destefano1.asp

here’s what I see:

Contrast that with what Google thinks you should see:

Naughty, naughty. Just something I found when searching Google.