The Canadian, The Farmer And The Double Murderer

Acting on one of good web marketing strategies I heard in my class meeting earlier this evening, I decided to Google my name to see how many search results I could occupy. I have been working over the past month or so on developing a solid web presence. For instance this blog and many other profiles that I have created and linked together work to make up my web presence. I searched for myself expecting to see at least a few of those accounts pop up. I was sorely disappointed at what I was presented with instead.

The first result is that of 20 year old Matt Laurin of Missouri convicted for the double murder of an elderly couple. The top result was how he was found in his jail cell recently after committing suicide. So the first three results are dominated with this content portraying my name. I figure, “oh well, maybe the next result is about me that a potential employer would be able to see”. It is a link for Matt Laurin on a Facebook account. Not the first thing I would want a headhunter to view but at least near the top of search results. Nope. It’s some guy named Matt Laurin from Canada with a bad tattoo and a very unflattering profile image. As if it couldn’t get any worse I continue to scroll. Next is a LinkedIn profile and I think, “yes! now they will see me.” Wrong again. Turns out there is another Matt Laurin on LinkedIn who is an “Independent farmer” in Green Bay, Wisconsin.

What has all this taught me? If you are going to be successful in web marketing it will definitely pay off to be visible on a dozen or more platforms so you can push out all the other noise. Otherwise you might be mistaken for a Canadian Farmer convicted of a double murder and found dead in his jail cell. Embedding keywords in your blog for all the other content that gets displayed with your name before you in search results will also help you rank higher.