When I get coffee these days, the barista/o inevitably asks me the question: “what is SEO?” That’s because my coffee mug declares, “I (heart) SEO” in bold letters. But you know who really needs to figure out what SEO is? Rick Santorum. That’s because his name has absolutely *the* *most* *horrible* Google results that I’ve ever seen.
Feast your eyes on these results:
Did you notice the unbelievably disgusting definition of the politician’s name, displaying at the primo Google spot? That got its position because people with a little bit of SEO knowledge decided to screw around with Google’s ranking algorithm and make it happen. It’s a practice known as Googlebombing, and it has been used against politicians since the early 2000s.
Could something like this really make a difference in an election? I doubt it. But I’m the type who never thinks advertising influences my decisions. And SEO could be used to influence political outcomes in subtler and very clever ways.
If my company was hired to consult on SEO for a politician (hint, hint), one of my first acts would be to quietly buy up as many of the domains in the top 10 search results for his or her name that I could. We could then replace that content with our own message, or better yet, give the sites over to grassroots faithful who would do a much better job with it than a central processor could. It’s a lucky thing I only use my superpowers for good.
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