I’ve always said short-term memory is like lake front property. There is only so much lake front property to go around and you have to allocate it to the most important things within your life. Now that I’m forty, my lake front property – aka my short-term memory – seems to erode faster with each passing day.
Google is far from forty and has a memory like an elephant. Good SEO only makes this elephant stronger.
My SEO Efforts Will Outlive Me
This concept has been overly apparent to me this last year. As I left my prior life and launched my own company I knew I could easily reinvent myself. I did and while much of me transferred from ERP Rebecca to WordPress Rebecca or SEO Rebecca, Google still sees all three. I realize I should stop whining, but I can’t. I love Google, but the elephant memory is exhausting. I spent a lot of time marketing ERP Rebecca with good old fashion SEO and looking back now I feel like I did it a little too well.
If you Google Rebecca Gill you’ll see references to Web Savvy Marketing and a bunch of social media profiles for me on pages one and two of the search results. You’ll also see my former employer at the bottom of page one and references to “ERP Rebecca Gill” and “TGI Rebecca Gill” in the suggested searches from Google. Both are me, but the old me.
Will the Real Rebecca Please Stand Up?
You’re probably wondering if I’ve just done a lousy job marketing the new Rebecca. No I haven’t. My efforts working on new Rebecca haven’t been in the works as long as the old Rebecca, but I’ve done well. It’s just that Google doesn’t forget.
Google Rebecca Gill SEO or Rebecca Gill WordPress and you’ll see there are a lot of references to the new me. A lot. But that elephant just won’t let go what it was taught years ago.
What’s the SEO Take Away?
While this conclusion is not completely scientific, it does have merit. Google places significant value on on-page SEO for providing short-term search results. However, off-page SEO significantly influences Google for providing search results with longevity.
If Google didn’t place so much value on inbound links, my old employer would no longer show up for my name because they have virtually no content with references it. In addition, Google would not suggest users replace their generic searches for Rebecca Gill with ones that include ERP or TGI. Again this is not scientific in nature, but it does provide a little insight into how the search engine results work over a long period of time.
My Personal Take Away: Be careful what and for who you optimize because if you’re good at SEO, it will haunt you forever.
Interesting reading. One suggestion that has worked for me in the past when doing something new. If you create enough content with you new company and links back to your new web site using the same key words that Google is now showing in the search results for you with your old company. Google will soon get that is old and out dated information about you.
What I have discovered is Google Search cares more about new up dated information than they do about how many people linked to your old employers site. One thing is you talking about them won’t help. Good blog idea, but if you really want to get rid of all that, tell them not to blog about you either for awhile and use the same SEO and keywords for your new business.
It worked for me. All except the old reference to my acting days my TV shows & Movies. People must keep clicking that it never goes away. How I deal with that is I include it in my Bio on only two sites. This way it doesn’t look like I’m trying to avoid that in anyway. If you can’t beat them join them. Which it looks like that is what you have done. I think it’s working for you.
I love your analogy of equating backlinks with long term memory. The more good connections you have coming in from multiple sources gives you staying power in the search engines.
People need to remember that everything placed online has the potential to follow them for a VERY long time.
You’re doing the right things but modifying an established brand takes time and effort.
At least, both are positive brands.
Jerry
Thanks for the comments Dawn and Jerry.
Establishing a brand does take time, but it is well worth the effort!