by ronpass
Google is watching you!
August 19, 2009 in Featured, Ron Passfield by ronpass
In the BlogTalkRadio session on Monday 18 August, we discussed a range of things including how to promote Squidoo lenses on RedGage, indexing of Squidoo lenses and long tail keywords.
Towards the end, Joan asked an important question, “Is it possible that the longer that you are on the Internet and the longer that you write articles and the more lenses you create and the more blog posts and e-books that you write…Google is interested in indexing you quicker?” I answered with an unequivocal YES (provided you have a focus).
The reality is that Google is building a profile of you every hour of every day. Just picture those little Google bots flying around and scanning websites, blog posts, comments, lenses, social bookmarking sites, social networking sites…and feeding them to the central repository where Google is building a profile of you via the associations it develops between your name (or brand name) and the information the bots have gathered about you.
Google is not only interested in what you write about, but also what people write about you (the buzz about you!). It becomes increasingly important that you provide depth of focus so Google (and others) can build the image of you that you want. You want Google to see you as an authority on certain topics…then you get indexed faster and your comments carry more weight. Google starts to take notice of you when you write in the areas that it recognizes as areas in which you have established competence.
So if you want to see what the bots are collecting about you, just search on your name (or brand name) in Google and see what Google has collected about you…what articles, Squidoo lenses, comments, etc it has associated with your name. I did this for Chef Keem and I was astounded by the endless pages Google has accumulated about our beloved Chef – articles, slideshows, videos, squidoo lenses, tweets, comments, Birthday wishes, etc. Chef Keem has obviously kept Google busy!
Now the really interesting bit…here you learn how Google sees Chef Keem (today at least!). If you go to the first entry under the results listed under the search for Chef Keem, you will see a button above it, “show options”. Click this button and a menu appears on the left hand side giving you lots of ways to view Chef Keem – e.g. his videos, forum comments, results over the past day-week-year, etc. Go down a bit further and click on Wonder Wheel. Here is the profile of Chef Keem that Google has developed from all that content – it reflects the associations that Google has developed about Chef Keem from all that information collected by the busy Google bots.
Google Profile: Chef Keem
…and hence you can see that Google (rightly) accords Chef Keem authority status in areas such as Squidoo lens, Giant Squid, free cookbook and recipes.
So the question for you the reader is, “What Google footprint are you leaving and how deep is the footprint?”
With thanks to 
Overheard on twitter...
Just been watching a fantastic video by Matt Cutts from the Spam Team at Google ( a bit of synchronicity here). He says to rank highly for your blog, you need to be relevant (on topic) and reputable (based on what people say about you)…and these two things determine the page rank of your blog. He makes the point very strongly that it’s not quantity of links you want, but quality.
Here’s a very interesting comment he makes that lines up with our discussion above:
“We crawl roughly in order of page rank. That means the more page rank you have, the faster you are likely to be found, the deeper we will crawl on your site, the more often we will visit your pages to see if they have been refreshed.” [My blog has a PR3 ranking and a post I did yesterday was indexed in Google within an hour. I have noticed that SquidLog gets indexed rapidly also].
Here’s some more gems about blogging and page rank and gaining Google’s attention:
“You have to have something you care about! …Talk about something you care about. If you are not doing that you are not doing as good a job…Try to write every day and if you write about something you care about and write often, you will write good stuff…..”
This video is a goldmine (…and I am only half-way through it at the moment). Here’s the link:
http://wordpress.tv/2009/05/30/matt-cutts-google-sf09/
ronpass´s last blog ..Squidoo: Squidoo Lens Design – Montville Queensland
Ron, you are an education! Thank you so much for teaching us all! And oh how thrilled we are to have you as our guest on Giant Squid Open Mike! Return often please! Chefkeem’s google cloud is so interesting to see! I wish I had chosen a more original name when I started, for sure
Joan Adams´s last blog ..Giraffe Toys updated Tue Aug 18 2009 4:58 pm CDT
Hi Ron, It is wonderful to see you here on Squidlog. We want to have you back on Giant Squid Talk Radio!!
I never thought in a thousand years that keywords would be creative and inspiring, and you have taught me that they are!!
Thank you!!
Wow, this is great! Ron is a favorite of mine, one of the first who encouraged me on Squidoo when I got started, and he’s obviously a goldmine of information. Thank you, Ron, for this post and for sharing your wisdom so freely!
Susan52´s last blog ..How To Become Somebody on Squidoo
Thanks everyone for your very encouraging comments and warm welcome. Chef, I think you have “hit the nail on the head” (or “baked the cake”). It’s interesting that both Google and the Web 2.0 experts are reinforcing the need for “authenticity”, “focus/depth” and “uniqueness”. I suppose, in part, it’s a reaction to spam and scams but it is also what meets peoples’ needs for information and social connection – the two primary drivers of the Internet today I suspect.
ronpass´s last blog ..Squidoo: Squidoo Lens Design – Montville Queensland
You truly are appreciated as you share so much knowledge with us. Thanks. Best of luck on Giant 100. Thanks Ron.
Sandy´s last blog ..THE PATRIOTICKLE SPEAKS OUT
Thanks for the link to Matt’s video, Ron – it’s an eye-opener and worth every minute of watching! There’s definitely a very strong ‘human’ and ‘common sense’ side to Google’s SERPs system. Matt’s pointers for success reflect closely what we’ve been hearing from Squidoo HQ (and SquidLog) all the time: UUU content, decency, authenticity, generosity, and a bit of strategic know-how.