Where is John Wilson?

Currently, I bounce around the top of the Google search results. Sometimes one or two, sometimes at the bottom, but since mid last year I’ve always been on page one of the number one search engine in the world when searching for “John Wilson”.

Tonight, a friend of mine saw a commercial for Bing - Microsoft’s new search engine. I was tweaking the new design of my blog and thought I should search “John Wilson” to see where I was. PAGE TWO! This begs the question – how could the number one blog in the world get it right and Bing get it wrong?

Great question. I was playing around with Bing and searched the word “search”. You’d think (at least if I was Product Manager) that Bing would be the number one result. Not so:

Where is Bing? Or Google?

Yahoo? Dogpile (I didn’t even know they still existed)? AOL? Seriously?

I thought this was weird until I ran the same search at Google…

Where is Google, Google?

Where is Product Management? This is either an example of the most pure product management or the silliest thing I’ve seen.

To start this blog back up after a long hiatus I thought it may be useful to recap the initial goals of the site and a brief history of where it’s been. I’d also like to explain where I think it’s going, but I don’t quite have that figured out yet.

Goal: To be the number one site on the search results when a Google user searches “John Wilson.”

The point and the challenge is that I have such a common name. When I started this blog I thought having the number one search result on Google would be a great resume builder and new age business card. I checked tonight – after not updating for more than six months, and I’m the number three link under John Wilson!

Where is John Wilson?

As I was trying to think about how to get back into this, I began thinking about all the places I currently have a presence on the web. I was shocked at how many there were that were connectible to what others are doing:

• Facebook – “What are you doing” drink of choice
• MySpace – The Armpit of the Internet – I rarely update this
• Flickr – http://www.flickr.com/photos/wilsonjs
• Twitter.com/john_wilson
• icyou channel (Wilson 2016)
• Gamespot Forums
• Rotten Tomatoes Forums
• Woot Forums
• youtube channel
• GoogleChat
• AIM
• Yahoo Games
• Netvibes
• ESPN Forums
• Sherdog Forums

Just to name a few. All of which can be traced back to me. Wierd. It’s very easy to just sign up for things.

Where are we going?

Great question. I have lots of travel pictures, which would take “Where is John Wilson” much more literally. There is also this voyage to the top of the search results. I’m going to start working as a boxing judge soon, and a football official in the fall. We’re doing lots of great things at work… there is a serious paradox of choice here. The most important thing will be to keep adding interesting content to move to the top of the Google rankings.

“John Wilson” of whereisjohnwilson.com moves back up to page two on the Google results page when you type John Wilson directly into Google.

About nine months ago this blog was the first link on page two, and then for some unexpected reason I moved all the way down to page six. That was incredibly disheartening, and it actually led to me slowing down on posts and attention to the blog. Now that I have switched it over to WordPress and away from GoDaddy (thank God) I have been picked back up somehow by the Google spiders.

I’m certainly glad to be back, here is some proof:

I can’t seem to get the database out of godaddy, so I’m going to sum up everything I wrote about last year, in reverse order, in a few posts (which is kinda sad I guess):

• Before I was listed on Google there were 109,000,000 posts in front of me
• (I still need a logo)
• Seth Godin said I wouldn’t last (btw… I outlasted his Dip Blog)
• I was inspired by people who use domain finders to name their children
• I explained how to use Google Analytics, Technorati
• Peter Morville author of Ambient FIndability links to me (and said Seth is silly)
• I get a first victory by making it to the front page if you type “john wilson blog”
• Blogger Mike Sansone has 530,000 hits, John Wilson goes to 123,000,000
• “John Wilson” goes to page 6 on Google
• 9rules snubs me
• “John Wilson” moves to page 2 on Google
• Richard Florida and the Creative Class and the importance of SEO
• John Wilson Fishing – Phone attacks trying to steal my cc number
• I stumble on Jim Killeen
• I get listed on Freakonomics
• I blabber about Celebrity Apprentice
• Deal or No Deal Strategy (which gets tons of random hits)
• I start MBAforRent
• I get promoted at work

All of this, and I’m tearing down the site to start here fresh. I was only averaging about 10 hits a day. Hopefully this new design will help me get things more focused.