Google Search is a Bad Place to Begin Writing
Chris Gillespie | June 27, 2020
Clients are always beseeching me to improve something written by someone else. Most recently, it was a series of case studies. I had only to look at the source material to know why they needed help.
Nonfiction writing isn’t an act of creation. It’s not just about reorganizing or adding words. It’s the artful exposure of big ideas. A fascinating article is fascinating because it’s the tip of an iceberg lifted aloft by a submerged mountain of meaning. (This analogy was coined by Hemingway.) Great writing is only great because it exposes truth. Truth requires substance.
If you want strong writing, especially in marketing, you need substantive ideas. And when I tell clients or new writers to go find it, many turn to Google Search. That is a mistake. It’s an almost certain path toward not saying anything new.
Whatever you do, don’t begin by Googling your competitors to see what they’re writing. They have a secret: They’re on your website, also looking for things to write. You’ll never find anything new this way.
Similarly, conducting a regular old Google search limits you to only finding the things people want found. Search engines have become a dumping ground for fake stats dreamt up by marketers who stand to gain if people believe them. When you realize this, Google’s Search results read more like joke headlines from the satire news site The Onion.
For example:
“Influencer marketing delivers 11x higher ROI” … says company that sells influencer marketing software.
“Email marketing gets 4,400% ROI” … says startup selling email marketing software.
“Marketers who practice ABM get 50% higher ROI” … says software firm selling ABM software.
With so much ROI going around, it’s hard to believe so many companies are unprofitable. But it’s also clear why so many free statistics are available.
Instead, search Google Scholar, which limits searches to research from universities. You’ll find the site designs are markedly worse, but the ideas and results are genuine. You’re less likely to find stats that conveniently reinforce your preconceived notions, but isn’t that good? I find the results propel me in unexpected directions and offer bounteous material for new topics.
A recent search for Instagram statistics unearthed a scientific study on the perceived authenticity of photos on Instagram. But I also found data about female athletes finding expression on social media and how using plus-sized models can increase purchase intent. There’s my story backlog for the month.
Pro tip: You may be able to access some of the gated studies with a membership to a local library.
More sites where you can find real research:
It’s wonderful serendipity that those who know the most about a subject are often thrilled to share. Experts are your barometer for what’s already known in their field; what’s newsworthy and what’s old hat. Most companies have at least one. They usually work on the product team.
After reading a tagline I’d written for a cybersecurity company, one expert told me, “I’d call bullshit if I heard that. Companies have been telling me that for 20 years. That was so and so’s tagline back in the early aughts.” This was wonderful information to have before publishing.
Experts also know what’s interesting. Interviewing the CEO of an agency about branding, I asked one question—“Do you have a philosophy?”—and recorded thirty straight minutes of talk. In the final minute, he said, “I hope I’m not rambling,” and I assured him he wasn’t. Readers wanted to know what they didn’t know about branding. His stream of consciousness was the interior world readers were curious about.
Interviews also furnish your writing with unusually specific anecdotes that are the essence of credibility. Knowing that hospitals care about HIPAA compliance is a fact. But knowing a hospital wants to monitor cell phone usage among residents because young doctors habitually send videos of gruesome surgeries or celebrities to their buddies is interesting. (And true.)
Fight for your access to experts. If marketers ask you to not bother, warn them to expect soggy writing.
Tips for interviewing:
Record the interview so you can focus on asking questions.
Begin with the disarming question, “What do you love about what you do?”
Write questions, but allow the conversation to wander.
Sometimes, say nothing. It’s the most powerful question.
Prod interviewees to explain how they felt. Especially the corporate-minded ones.
Ask them to explain what they mean, even if it’s clear, to help readers understand their thinking.
When the interviewee says something profound, repeat their statement as a question. Let them elaborate.
(My favorite interview The Beat has featured: From Songwriter to CMO)
What happened one year ago this week? Five years ago? Twenty? Pegging current news stories to past events can dredge up fascinating facts and makes for a great introduction. Find a big event that has an anniversary coming up and ask where all the people involved are now.
“Do you know where the Kardashians came from?” Brad Hamilton, Director of the Hatch Institute, a non-profit for training journalists, asked me in an interview. “Go look it up. Twenty years ago, the O.J. trial happened. One of his star lawyers was a guy named Robert Kardashian. That’s how the Kardashians got famous. Write about that.”
This approach is particularly effective for fads, outrages, or crises that made headlines but trailed off without closure. For example:
Ask yourself: What were the biggest events in your industry over the past decade? Where is everyone now?
One of the internet’s most pernicious effects on writing is that people have come to think everything is available via search engines or news sites. But it’s not. Google searches are like looking at the world through a profit-driven pinhole and the venerable search provider has to update its algorithm some 600 times per year to cull the profusion of useless, self-serving articles. The internet has its exceptions. Reddit is famously free of moderation or modesty. You can find some decent answers on Quora. But if you want to write a credible story about an event or place, go to where it’s happening.
Visit the factory floor and write about the rhythmic hum of humans at work. Go to the client’s office and report on how its esprit de corps is visually evident in sassy laptop stickers and strange office furnishings inspired by inside jokes. Visit a conference a day early and help the vendors set up and learn their fears, desires, and all the internecine feuds nobody ever hears about.
Perhaps the greatest benefit of all this non-Google Search research is that it makes your writing delightfully your own. You may be writing for a business, but if your pitches conform to your interests you can guide a brand into your ideological court. The product analytics platform Mixpanel had no business writing about sleep deprivation, but I did, and it was one of their most-read stories in 2018.
No great writing begins with Google Search. It begins with real research—interviews, studies, events, and a lifetime of personal reading and observation. If your work demands great writing, insist upon the freedom to search for, find, and report on substance.
