Who Is Jesus?…According to Google

Who is Jesus?I believe SEO is critically important for the Christian church.  Search engines control much of the information people receive, the answers they find and SEO effects the search engines.  So, I was thinking about this the other day and thought to myself,

“If people use Google to find information (and they do), what would people find if they searched Google to learn about Jesus?”

 

 

I thought this would be an interesting exercise.  So, I did a search in Google for “Who is Jesus?” and this is what I found:
(You can click the screenshot twice to see a larger version)

  1. Who is Jesus in GoogleWhoIsJesus-Really.com – This is a site from Global Media Outreach that presents information about Jesus from a Christian perspective.  The page in the search listings contains “The 4 Spiritual Laws”, an evangelical tract created by Bill Bright, founder of Campus Crusade for Christ.
  2. WhoIsJesus.com/whois.html – This page also presents information about Jesus from a Christian perspective.  It starts by proclaiming the Gospel and then discussing the various attributes of Jesus.
  3. CrossWalk.com/who-is-jesus/ – Crosswalk is a Christian resources website and this is a page they created with information about Jesus.  Their isn’t a direct presentation of the Gospel, but rather the beginning of an article that presents detailed information about the attributes of Christ.
  4. CCCI.org – This is a page on the Campus Crusade for Christ website with an article by Josh McDowell about whether Jesus was a liar, a lunatic, or Lord.  At the end of the article is a link to a page with “The 4 Spiritual Laws”.
  5. Answering-Islam.org/Who/index.html – A website created by evangelical Christians attempting to foster a dialog between Christians and Muslims by addressing questions and providing information.  The page that comes up is a list of a lot of questions each of which link to a related article.
  6. AllAboutJesusChrist.org/who-is-jesus-n.htm – A website by a group of followers of Jesus who prefer not to be called Christians and reject many of the “issues found in ‘organized religion'”.  On the page that comes up they present information about Jesus consistent with basic Christian beliefs and talk about Jesus being the only way to Heaven.
  7. Jesus.net – A website offering a widget to help people share the Gospel on other websites.
  8. greatcom.org/english/whois.htm – A Christian website with information about Jesus and the Gospel.  They also offer a phone number for people to call if they want to know more about Jesus and would prefer to speak to someone personally.
  9. gty.org/Resources/Articles/A335 – A website from evangelical Christian author, minister, and radio host John MacArthur.  The landing page has a presentation of the Gospel.
  10. whosjesus.com – A website by Christians with information about Christianity.  It’s a Flash website which, quite frankly, I found confusing and difficult to navigate.

The good news is that currently Christians dominate all 10 positions of the top ten results.  So, if someone is looking to learn about Jesus, they will most likely get the right information.

But wait!!

Who is Jesus in Google page 2 screenshotWhen if I click through to the second page of results I find some different results.  Number 12 is saaid.net/islam/5.htm, a Islamic site with the landing page claiming that Jesus is neither God nor savior.  Number 15 is the watchtower site, a website of the Jehovah’s Witnesses.  Number 12 and 15…a few authoritative links and those pages could be in the top ten.

What’s more, when I did my initial search, an Mormon site was number 1 in the paid results.  Of course this isn’t something SEO can change, but it’s something to be aware of.

So, what should you do?
You’re initial response may be that we all need to have well optimized pages that refer to important spiritual questions.  And while that is true, there is something else which you can do that would be even more effective.  Link to sites that are already ranking well.

We’d all like to rank well for these questions, but at this point, if you haven’t already started optimizing and link building for it, you’re really far behind in the race.  But, if there websites which already rank well and which has a message you agree with, why not support them.  By linking to those sites that are already in strong positions, you can help to keep them there and prevent non-Christian websites from getting into top ten.

Photo by k8geek

How else can you use SEO to share the Christian message with others?

13 Responses to “Who Is Jesus?…According to Google”

  1. Just to clarify, if you click either of the screenshots, you will be taken to a page with the smaller image. If you then click on that image, you will get the larger (readable) version of the screenshot.

  2. Hi Kurt,

    This is an interesting article. Particularly for me because on the 16th May, I published a post called, "Who is Jesus?" on my site http://www.LookingTowardsHome.com. I am learning about SEO and am happy that I now rank at No10 for this search phrase.

    This is a great site – keep up the good work!

    PS Are you aware that 23 of the comments here are generic spam comments?

  3. Hi Kurt,

    Me again! Could you check: do you see http://www.lookingtowardshome.com/2011/05/who-is-… at number 10 in Google for that phrase, or is it becausue I am logged in and Google is trying to be helpful and is serving what it thinks I want to find?

  4. Neil,

    I don't see your site in the top 50 for "Who is Jesus". If you're seeing that, it's because you're logged in. You can always log out and check to see for yourself.

    …And, yes, I found the spam comments and deleted them. What a pain.

  5. I'll let you know how I get on. I think I was actually at position 180 for "Who is Jesus" when we last spoke. This week, it's position 100.

    Thanks for pointing out the false security I was feeling about my ranking. Most of the terms that people would use to find my site are ranked around the 300 mark, but because I was logged into the Goog (and it knows what I like) it was showing me much higher up. I didn't know that before you told me – thanks again!

  6. A little update: position 94 :-)

  7. Growth is good. Congrats. Keep it moving.

  8. Great article! Very interesting, and something techie Christians should be aware of and be trying to help. The enemy has enough ground and he doesn't need any more. The links were very edifying and I even added one of the apps from <a href="http://www.jesus.netto” target=”_blank”>www.jesus.netto my website. It's a pretty cool app.

    Another good one to focus on would be the keyword: church. The Mormons show up twice on page 1, something about the Catholic Church and a couple of known emergent Church's as well. But of course number 1 is Church's Chicken.

    Checked the ranking for Neil and Google has you at 147 and not showing up in Yahoo! or Bing.

  9. Neil, you don't even have to be logged into Google for them to show results based on past search's. If you want to see raw results just clear your browsers cache.

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