As already widely noted, Google has changed their PageRank algorithm to counteract the practice of coordinated link bombing. This should effectively put an end to attempts, such as those organized by MyDD’s Chris Bowers, to elevate the the ranking of news stories that cover controversies surrounding Republican opponents.

No tears shed here. Gaming search results for tiny tactical advantages in the midst of large-scale political races is not my thing.

But political candidates, campaign staff, and political bloggers alike should not lose sight of the real and ongoing battlefield of legitimate search engine optimization, especially in local and regional races. After all, a blog typically covers recurring themes and topics. In that respect, every blog is its own link bomb.
Feel free to check on some of these Google search terms, which generate a lot of traffic to this site:

FAA Delaware County or FAA Delco: New airplane flight paths out of the Philadelphia Airport are a big issue in our suburban Philly community. The changes were possibly the top issue in Novembers’s race for state representative, and the results will figure heavily in the municipal elections of 2007, and possibly even the re-election bids for legislators in 2008. This blog accounts for the two top results for the former term, and fourth the for latter. In both cases, ahead of any elected official’s site, and ahead of the (100% Republican) County government’s own site on proposed FAA flight path changes.

Bryan Lentz
Daddy Democrat ranks fifth for searches on our freshman state representative (PA-161), behind his campaign site and a site so pro-Lentz it’s called “Citizens for Lentz.” Of the fifty top-ranked Google results, all are pro-Lentz or neutral, despite the existence of an attack site generated by his opponent’s campaign that they advertised through direct mail.

Tom Gannon
Things online weren’t nearly as well-controlled for Bryan’s opponent, an entrenched 28-year legislator from the majority party. Yours truly accounts for the content at three of the top ten Google results for searches on his name. Only two of the top ten results are pro-Gannon.

Let’s face it. The big media outlets will typically control the narrative of national and statewide politics. But the field is still wide open for individual bloggers to shape the discussion of regional issues and elections. In fact, search engines probably play a proportionally larger role in influencing voters in local and down-ticket elections, where voters may know less about candidates and might use search engines to survey the available information.

The current political off-season is the time to lay claim to as many of the terms and future traffic as we can, making it harder for opponents to gain traction later.

Simple things you can do right now…

• Make sure your site has links to the official sites for newly elected Democratic officials in your region. Make sure you’re in the loop on positive stories out of their offices.
• Start tracking and linking to negative or controversial stories about Republican officials in your area. Make sure those stories have a long shelf life.
• Maintain or extend your contacts with other area bloggers.
• Create categories or tags for candidates and issues you follow, positive or negative. Make sure you use names and key words in post titles.
• Make use of appropriate cross-linking opportunities. Do you have relevant items in community diaries, flickr, or YouTube? Link them to your blog entries and vice versa.