Recognition Marketing - Understanding Pandora's "Bots"
The Good, The Bad and The Ugly of Search "Bots"
By David Miranda
As we speak, algorithmic "reconnaisance" entities, affectionately known as search bots, are relentless scouring the Internet for information on behalf of their search engine masters - on any subject, anywhere, all the time. Once they find what there looking for, they immediately communicate what they have found to their creators for distribution to millions.
How they do this is shrouded in mystery for if anyone were to figure this out they may rule the lucrative world of organic (natural) search.
There is a good, bad, and ugly of search bots.
The good is easy to understand. Bots search and find good things about a person or company and distributes this favorable info to the connected world which, in turn, will be positive (leads, pr, etc)
The bad is less discussed, but also easily understood, i.e. the bots finding some unflattering information in the public domain from motivated third parties who seek to benefit from misinformation, i..e. competitors, disgruntled former employees, etc.
The ugly occurs when "bad" gets widely distributed, particularly through a credible source that gives it credibility and substance in the connected world. The "ugly" then becomes like a bad stain, i.e. difficult to remove.
The words to the wise, therefore, is this:
- Be relentless vigilant of your brand on search engine results. Search results with negative references should be dealt with swiftly by contacting the source directly. Do not assume they will have no impact or just go away.
- Do not try to resolve this issue on your site or blog. It will could aggravate the situation and, perhaps, have the opposite results.
- Do not think there is a magic solution for removing unfavorable information. Search engine results do not have an "eraser".
