If You Can’t Google Me, Do I Exist?

I am totally and completely stealing this idea from somebody else (see “Kent Lewis – 15 Places to Find Me“), albeit with much less wireless cred and internet real estate to be found at.  Of course, we all have to start somewhere, and I’m starting at very near, social marketing’s ground zero.  Understandably, people in the internet marketing industry are very interested in where they, and/or their businesses rank in Search Engine results. More specifically, where do you rank when you Google or Yahoo your own name? Now, understand that Kent has been at this for awhile…it’s his business to get you good Search results.  Afterall, he started his own Search Engine Optimization services company, Anvil Media. He rightfully, and proudly boasts that the bio he has posted on his company’s website is ranked #1, when you Google “Kent Lewis”.  In fact, he’s just being modest…reference to thee Kent Lewis of Portland, Oregon, shows up in the first 7 of the 9 listings on the first search results page!

Of course I had to see where in the Top 10 Scott Thurman listings I ranked, and how many listings Scott Thurman of Portland, Oregon received.  In stark contrast to the Kent Lewis results, there wasn’t a single direct reference to me in the first 10 pages!  After that, I stopped looking. I mean if you can’t find yourself in the first 10 pages, you have to wonder if you really exist.  They listed Scott Thurman the “…award winning actor, director, writer and teacher of acting.” I’d never heard of him either. I had heard of Uma Thurman, who of course had several listings. I don’t begrudge cousin Uma her notoriety, but it’s not like her middle name is Scott.  And Thurman Thomas of NFL fame.  But there were a few other surprises; like the Scott Thurman of “One Life to Live” fame.  Maybe he’s the same actor, director, teacher Scott Thurman in the first link.  Or how about the Scott Thurman who filed for Patent #272480, the ventilated Toilet Bowl…or Doctor Scott Thurman who wrote the deeply penetrating article entitled, “Urinary Incontinence Following Prostate Cancer Treatment“. I guess I should be thankful that I’m not one of the several Scott Thurman obituaries.

Onward and upward. My next blog will prove, without question, that I do indeed, exist!

The First of Four Pillars of Internet Marketing

I had lunch this afternoon with my friend Kent Lewis. Kent is, among many other things, the founder/owner of Anvil Media, Inc., a search engine marketing company specializing in keyword research, search engine optimization (SEO) and pay-per-click (PPC) management.  Every time I meet with Kent I am at once, reinvigorated by fresh ideas, yet overwhelmed by the HUGE task ahead of me.

Last month, I launched MyChinaCityGuide.com, which promotes a Personal Assistant service for people travelling in China. My priorities on getting this started appeared obvious; 1) Build a web site, 2) hire some Chinese people.  Done!  This took me about a month, and I was quite pleased with myself. My web site came in way under budget, and I found a great group of young Chinese students who were eager to be part of my new business. But now what?  This isn’t “Field of Dreams” (“If you build it they will come.”). How do you get people besides you, and your immediate family, to go to your web site?

Which brings me back to Kent and this blog.    I hope I’m not giving away any trade secrets, but Kent’s first recommendation?   Blog.  Apparently it is 1 of the 4 pillars of Internet Marketing. So here I am, blogging.  I’ll save the other 3 pillars for another time, but for now, I’m trying to figure out how to end this.