What's in a business name
Way back when, in the twentieth century, when we consulted the Yellow Pages to find the phone number or address for a business, it wasn't unusual to find some service companies tacked on an "A" or multiple "A" before their actual names, like "AA Plumbing by Ralph" or "A+ Auto Towing." The prevailing wisdom at the time was that the average customer consulting the Yellow Pages would not look much further down the list past the first few entries.
At the turn of the century, businesses depended less on alphabetical listings and more on how quickly they appeared in an internet search. SEO had less to do with the actual company name, but more with the content of their website. "Zeke's Windows and Doors" no longer cared that they would appear near the end of the alphabetical list of their competitors. They would be more concerned with constructing an online presence that guaranteed they would show up at the top of the list generated by targeted internet searches.
When we were in America this summer, we noticed a new iteration of business naming for preferred indexing. When I searched for the word "Airport" on our GPS, I was hoping it would have included in the top few choices the Pittsburgh International Airport. It did not. It did however, produce this list.
The first entry was related to an airport in name only. It was neither close to any airport, nor was this business in any way associated with aviation. It appeared top of the list, possibly because that business's name was optimized for keyword searches on GPS or Google Maps. At least, that's how I would do it.
At the turn of the century, businesses depended less on alphabetical listings and more on how quickly they appeared in an internet search. SEO had less to do with the actual company name, but more with the content of their website. "Zeke's Windows and Doors" no longer cared that they would appear near the end of the alphabetical list of their competitors. They would be more concerned with constructing an online presence that guaranteed they would show up at the top of the list generated by targeted internet searches.
When we were in America this summer, we noticed a new iteration of business naming for preferred indexing. When I searched for the word "Airport" on our GPS, I was hoping it would have included in the top few choices the Pittsburgh International Airport. It did not. It did however, produce this list.
The first entry was related to an airport in name only. It was neither close to any airport, nor was this business in any way associated with aviation. It appeared top of the list, possibly because that business's name was optimized for keyword searches on GPS or Google Maps. At least, that's how I would do it.
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