Jim Halligan prepares for what may just turn out to be an epic battle over the name on Google. Always paying close attention to the search results, Jim is fit, well-trained, and has an appetite for defeating the opposition. “Any contentder aint just gonna walk up into my set with some silly domain and take this away from me,” Jim says. He continues, “that sucka is gonna have to pay!”.
If you read my last post, I outlined what my intentions were for starting this blog- and how they were horribly wrong. Although, that is true- and I am trying to stay on course, I am now faced with someone who appears to have hired a team to go after my name in the search results. It’s a Hulk Hogan No Holds Barred, Suburban Commando, Sly Stallone Over the Top with my ballcap on backwards situation. All out war. In douchey social media terms, I have worked hard trying to develop my brand name on Google, and i’m not about to let anyone come up in the spot. I’m wearing the belt and ‘SEO’ is engraved in that bitch, so bring it.
My name, Jim Halligan, is pretty common- not as common as others, but common enough that it’s tough to rank for. Needless to say, it’s very easy to get lost in a sea of Jims. I take pride in my name, and I want it to be mine- on the interwebs and beyond. And realisticly, there is a ton of value in having your name show up in search results. I, for one, would like old friends or potenital employers to have the luxury of finding me within a few seconds rather than digging through pages in Google only to get frustrated and give up and never find me. How cool would it be to hand out business cards that have my name and it just simply says “Google Me“?
Now take a look at this:
The screen shot above is from search results that showed up on page 2 last night. The flickr result is mine, but the result in purple is not. To me, it appears to be a poor, blatant and desperate attempt to optimize for the name, or keyword. I think it might get ugly, but whoever is behind this (ahem, fake jim halligan)- be warned: you’re fucking with a pro. In fact, this post will probably push you down in the rankings a few more spots by the time i’m done. And if you are reading this, just to let you know- I know who you are and decided not to call you out. Not that I didnt think it was appropriate, because I respect you and what you do.
So. Search me, click on something that belongs to me, and if you love me… link to me, not the other guy. Have a nice day.
There seems to be something in my gut that just isn’t right lately. Existing without a job for the last seven months has given me more than enough time to think about what the next steps for me are; professionally, mentally, and physically. The lack of employment is not the problem, it has actually helped quite a bit in getting things sorted out. So, this ‘thing’ or ‘feeling’ I speak of is actually the product of weeks upon weeks of rational thought. It’s not what I expected. It doesn’t feel great, but it does feel slightly good to know i’m on the right path to getting all the gears moving at the same time.