When people search for people, they often want to look up people with specific information about them. People want results that exactly match their search query and nothing more.
Which people are people looking for?
This is where people search engines come in! The people search engines will tell you which people have the most visibility on the internet and who ranks first when people type a person’s name into a search engine.
How people can people search people?
People can people search people through people engines. The people engines will show you who ranks highly in people search results and how many people a person has attracted on the internet.
– Google Search (http://www.google.com) or Bing (http://www.bing.com). Just enter your query in the bar at the top of the page and press “Enter” to receive results:
– People Search Engine Ranker by Moz (https://moz.com/researchtools/seo-toolbar/#peoplesearchengineranker). Enter your query into this tool and it will return several pages of information about authoritative pages ranking highly for people search queries:
– people search (https://www.people-search-online.com/). Enter any person’s name into people search and click on the “Search” button to receive a list of pages where that person is mentioned:
You can also find “people search engines” in your favorite web browser by entering the following keywords into Google (or Bing):
In June 2016, I linked up my G-Suite account with Google Search Console . This tool has its own section under the property tab in G-Suite. Now I can see if any links to our site have been removed from their index; some people search engines have a warning/infraction system that allows you to take action if someone has posted spammy content on your site.
– Google Search Console also displays a list of backlinks to our website, with anchor text and referring URL info. However, the search engines are still evolving in their understanding of people’s intent. These two examples are merely starting points for how people search and that there is a lot more to uncover about this concept.
What Makes A Good People Search Experience?
Good people searching experiences offer an alternative way for people to find information on people and places they care about.
This means building out both traditional listings formats (e.g., Google My Business) as well as using other sources of data (e.g., social media profiles).
People search is one step further than local SEO or even organic rankings – it requires intricate knowledge of what people are looking for when they query Google with either people, people names, or people’s roles.
How Do People Search?
People are more likely to use people search when they have a specific people or people profile in mind. For example, people search for ‘cat stevens’ probably know exactly who they are looking for, what they do, and why.
On the other hand, people searching for ‘actors’ is a much broader approach that can be taken than people searching for ‘tom cruise.’ A person may not know an exact name but may still find interesting information from basic people search results about actors in general.
Common Query Types – Where Are We At Now? In 2014 we saw record numbers of queries related to people and places on Google SERPs (over 1 billion people queries per month).
As of late 2016, people search is still growing and we can see the people search industry continuing to flourish.
- “People searching people”: This refers to people searching for a specific person (e.g., tom cruise) or people searching with just a name (e.g., [cat stevens]).
- “People Search Queries”: These are broad people searches for generic terms relating to people (e.g., actors).
Common Query Types – Where Are We Going? As more people begin using voice search on devices like Google Home or even their mobile phones, we will see an increase in people-related chatbots becoming more common. People are also engaging people-related information in a multitude of formats.
- “People Search on Mobile”: As people search becomes more popular, people will take advantage of mobile devices to do more people searching (especially with voice input).
What Are People Looking For? There are numerous reasons why people may be looking for people or business information that you could help them find. These vary from professional needs right through to familial and personal requirements. Here are five potential reasons:
- “Local Business Information”: Users may query people search with the intent to seek local business information (e.g., [black cock]) or look for general people related content (e.g., [actors]). Regardless, it’s people related and people searching for people.
- “Personal Requests”: People may be looking for personal requests when people search (e.g., [How old is Tom Cruise?]). Many people may query their family members or friends. Some people may also people search to validate tentative information they have – a form of checking whether the information is correct without actually approaching the person themselves.
- “Celebrity Search”: If someone isn’t sure who someone famous is, it’s not uncommon for people to do informal searches on them before revealing themselves as fans or conducting more research on an important person in their lives. Especially if that person is a celebrity! This relates closely to Google Image Search.
- “Answers to Common Searches”: people search for people related questions (e.g., [How old is Tom Cruise?]) that people continually query on Google. This could be due to a lack of knowledge or information surrounding the people in question (e.g., people who don’t know what year Tom Cruise was born).
- “Interests”: people have an interest in many people, and as we are such social creatures, it makes sense that people search would reflect this. People will engage people related searches according to their interests and passions – with R&B singers like SZA being more popular than niche musicians like Cat Stevens.
What Are People Looking For? Where people search queries lie predominantly within 3 broad categories: people, people related business and people related “others.”
- People: people are the most common type of query (e.g., [tom cruise]) with 2/3rd of people searches being people-related content. This is followed by people related business (e.g., [black cock]) where 1/3rd of people searches are focused on businesses or organizations which contain people in their name, location or address details. The third category includes people related “others” – this refers to a small number of other concepts that are not directly relevant to people but still relate to them somehow (e.g., celebrities). These may constitute less than 1% of people searches.
What Are People Looking For? When people search, people are looking for people related content in numerous ways:
- People Information Right Now : people want the information they are searching for now – not the relevant links that result from their people-related search. This means that within voice search and mobile phones, people almost exclusively look at what is right in front of them (i.e., the screen). With larger devices like a desktop computer where you can scroll through a multitude of links, users are more likely to look beyond the first couple of results. The implication here is that when people search on mobile it is imperative to use local parameters with your people related content as this will be of value in terms of people seeking people related information “right now.”
- The Right Answer: people look for a person’s name, age, occupation and other biographical details. They also seek people related brands on Google (e.g., [matt hughes people search]) where the intent is to find certain people in locations or positions of responsibility within the business (e.g., Marketing Director / CEO). People may also people search for people to arrange social gatherings with – especially young people who want to get together via online communities like Facebook groups designed around people meeting up locally. With this being said, people may be looking for similar people but from different locations at any one time (e.g., two friends getting together when one of them is in town).
- People Information from Around the Web : people also people search to find people related content that has been published elsewhere online. For example, people may people search a celebrity’s name (e.g., [tom cruise]) to find their social media channels as well as other sites and pages which have published information on them (e.g., Wikipedia). People will people search for people related news stories, business websites, non-profit organization websites and even legal cases involving people. With this being said there are types of businesses who should come up more readily when someone searches for “people” or “businesses” – these include hospitals, shopping centers, events venues and sports venues. Other businesses people may people search for would be people related businesses who people know are mentioned on sites people visit regularly (e.g., brands who appear in television shows).
- People Related Concepts: people people search people related concepts like politics, celebrities, historical events and social justice issues. In the political sphere people will people search a politician’s name to find their campaign page as well as other websites which have published information on them (e.g., Wikipedia). This is also true for political news stories – just like how people get informed by reading newspapers they get their information from online sources too. With celebrities, people want to know what the latest gossip is about people like Tom Cruise or Emma Watson – so they look up on an entertainment website or Facebook / Instagram / Twitter page for people people search. If people people are people related information on historical events (e.g., if they’ve read an article in a newspaper about World War One) then they will people search it and find sources explaining the historical event on Wikipedia or other sites. And with social justice issues people people search to get access to high-quality, relevant content – often by finding their favorite blogs and news sites which have published articles relating to the matter (for example, if a student people searches [berkeley protest] they may come up with very different results than another person who is looking for more factual information).
The Differences between People Searches & Other Keyword Searches: As you can see people \ search for people related content (e.g., people \ search [tom cruise]) but they also people search a lot of other information which people generally find via Google (e.g., people people search [economy]). This means that people will get “mixed into” the query results – either from searching with more traditional times when people are specifically people searching or because some of what they wanted has been missed out on a more standard keyword basis.
How accurate and reliable is a people search engine?
A regular Google or Bing web-search has too much noise in it – text written by any Tom, Dick or Harry! Searching through blogs, forums, social networks takes away all of that noise: only 100% relevant content can surface when you use these people search engines. A people search engine will also help you identify how people are found by people searching the internet, which people pages people visit first, where people click on a people profile link and more.
How can your business use people search results?
Businesses can evaluate competitors to see who is visible in people search results and who ranks higher than them. They could create similar content for their own profiles and make sure their profiles rank even higher than that of competitors’. Business owners will be able to see what terms visitors use when they arrive at their website as well as understand what social media channels attract visitors the most (including hashtags!).
Try using this people search engine yourself today!