SEO Filter Bubbles – how they affect your business

Search engines like Google and Bing personalize search results based on your previous computer and internet activities. Did you know that? Do know how much this affects what you see when you do a search for something online? 
Your business information might not be getting to your potential customers because of the internet’s filter bubbles!

So, what are filter bubbles? Online companies even outside of search engines call it tailoring information based on our personal interests. This includes news and entertainment information. What this means is that we eventually don’t get exposed to new information unless it fits into the filter that these companies have built into their websites based on our previous internet usage.
This is called a “Filter Bubble“.

While this is great for capturing your very targeted market based on their “online identity” or what they’ve searched for and using online sites to see and do, it means that there is a limited amount of information used to compare and make educated decisions about.

So, perhaps your offer is within a potential reader’s interest, but you aren’t using quite the same terms on your website or in your social media as that potential reader has been using. That means you might not be seen by that reader.

I’ll challenge you to do a search on google while you are signed into your account at google, Facebook, twitter or any other online account.
Then do another search after you have signed out of everything.
Is it different? I’ll bet it is, and the more specific your search, the more difference you’ll see.

How do we get around seo filter bubbles?

…………and do we even need to?

photo credit: one22andan8th via photopin cc

It’s a good question that we’ll all have to wrestle with. From a marketing point of view, it’s really good that when your market searches for something, you will show up if you are using the right criteria. It means that narrowing down who you work with, what you do and how you do it will help you get noticed by the people who know what they want.

But, what about the people who don’t exactly what they want? Will filter bubbles keep them from finding you based on a general search for information related to your business?

My guess is that they may not.
My second guess is that you should be working on creating good relationships with people you already know. When you think about your business from the perspective of the internet being world-wide, it seems relevant to also look at your business from the word-of-mouth perspective.

Developing the relationship with those you already know is going to help you create a know, like, and trust situation that will spread faster than relying on Google to show your information to the millions of people who might be looking for something sort of related to what you offer.

I see this as the new way to do “local” marketing. Local being relative to the people who already know, as opposed to the millions in the rest of the world who don’t yet.

Who is in your bubble already?

Go market to them and encourage them (through good information, advice, business) to share you with the rest of the world.