As a psychology student, the importance of being seen to be ‘scientific’ in our endeavours was regularly stressed and to a point this has affected me ever since. I often get a bit uppity when I hear non-scientific conclusions being reported on Radio Trash News.

I think it is fair to assume that if one searches for something in Google this search will be replicated if one switches browser and searches again using the exact same search string. I think it is also fair to assume that if one has a Google account the search results will be the same whether or not one is logged into that account at the time.

I will state one final assumption, that is that most people would be surprised to find that those first two assumptions are incorrect.

The way to keep yourself from making assumptions is to ask questions. ~ Don Miguel Ruiz

Collect data and ask questions

As part of my own scientific endeavour I collect data and ask questions. I use Google Analytics, WordPress Stats, I have a stats package built into my website hosting and I regularly examine the raw data. I find interesting trends, sometimes I can’t explain the results, sometimes my data sources fail to correlate. By and large though I get an idea of how transparent my websites are and I get an idea about whether or not my Organic Optimisation Techniques are working. I can see fairly easily if people are using my sites but I also need to check to see if people can find them, so I Google myself, regularly. (I would like to point out that I am not alone here, lots of people do this.)

I have previously mentioned that the implications of Googling one’s own name are different for individuals and global brands. People know Starbucks but probably don’t all know Andrew Butler (yet). Further to this Andrew Butler is quite a common name.
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There is little point to creating a website that people aren’t going to read and people need to find the site is there?

I remember quite some time ago (more than a decade), a slightly geeky friend (even slightly is overly) tried to explain how exciting HTML was and also kept on about how great Alta Vista was; Yahoo too. It all sounded bollocks to me, total and utter. I do remember thinking that Alta Vista seemed a strange brand, I couldn’t really hook into it, the imagery the name, it sounded like some sort of 40′s film studio that made westerns and I never really liked westerns apart from those odd ones where the likes of Bardot, Loren or Lollobrigida appeared. Anyway I now see the friend as often as I use Alta Vista. However I have just spent a few minutes using Google to see if I could find an image of Bardot, Loren and Lollobrigida to liven up this ramble. As Tom Waits said;
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