The impact of Google search on political campaigns – the “holy grail” for audience engagement and voter influence in the 2022 midterms – is analyzed by Lee Neves, Political Strategist and Chief of Staff for California State Assembly Member Carlos Villapudua of California, and Jesse Jacobs, Lightbox Search Chief Technology Officer.
Campaign-winning political strategist Neves knows how to leverage the power of Google Search to promote his candidate, “ it’s about being able to control what many people thought was uncontrollable, which is what shows up about you in an online search.”
Trust in traditional and social media is at all-time lows. In stark contrast, trust in and reliance on online search engines, primarily Google, has skyrocketed.
“You want to put out content that is effective both from a campaign-winning perspective but also from a Google perspective. Putting out press releases that don’t rank well on Google won’t help your online profile,” said Jacobs
For political campaigns to succeed in 2022 they must embrace a search-centric strategy when crafting their communications campaigns. Online success means all forms of web content – especially donation pages and volunteer recruitment resources – are easily found in search results.
“It’s such a large part of your campaign. When somebody sees a TV ad or hears a radio ad, they’re going to Google that candidate’s name,” said Neves.
Lightbox Search is an all-in-one search intelligence platform for political campaigns to monitor and improve search results – down to the city or county level – to further their campaign objectives. Location matters: learn what your constituents see in their district. It’s not necessarily what you see.
