A study from the United States shows that search engine rankings can influence the outcome of an election. The report demonstrates that voters can be noticeably swayed by how candidates’ names, campaign news, and articles appear in search results.
A study by Robert Epstein and Ronald E. Robertson indicates that search engine optimization can play a role in election outcomes. “Biased search rankings can shift the voting preferences of undecided voters by 20 percent or more,” the report states. When a candidate gains more visibility in search engines, the influence also increases, and even small changes in ranking positions can affect voters’ opinions.
The results of the Swedish parties
Visibility in search engines versus voter support according to the latest survey from SIFO (2017-09-16)
As a Swede, one is of course particularly interested in the visibility of the Swedish parties in search engines ahead of the election. We have therefore carried out a small study to see the “Google temperature” of each party. In summary, we can say that SD, the Green Party, and the Social Democrats are at the top, in that order. Here is the list:
- sd.se (8,111)
- 2.mp.se (7,016)
- socialdemokraterna.se (5,582)
- vansterpartiet.se (4,105)
- centerpartiet.se (3,807)
- liberalerna.se (3,063)
- kristdemokraterna.se (3,035)
- moderaterna.se (2,579)
What do the values mean?
The value we used above comes from Sistrix, which measures over one million Swedish keywords. From these, we extracted all the terms where the parties appear in the top 100. They were then weighted against the number of searches and the position of the keyword. A higher value therefore indicates that the party receives more traffic from search engines.
Some interesting keywords
Current search result for “Defense policy”
Note that the search results are geographically influenced (this search was conducted from Örnsköldsvik), which is why they differ somewhat from the unbiased results of the study.
As a personal observation after doing some quick analyses of the keywords each party appears for and their positions, it is clear that some parties are far ahead of the others. There is an inherent strength in being large when search engines weigh the authority of sites. Despite this, for example, the Left Party and the Sweden Democrats stand out—they have simply done a better job with their search engine optimization, especially the latter. If you exclude brand searches (e.g., “centern” for centerpartiet.se), it becomes obvious that the Alliance parties are far behind. Even if, in some cases, they have relatively good visibility in relation to their size, it is often for non-political keywords. Those searching for school policy or defense policy will end up with the Sweden Democrats—something that perhaps should have been a stronghold for the Alliance.
To get a reasonable picture of the different parties’ placements, we have compiled a selection of keywords where each party can be found on the first page of Google. The position, shown in parentheses, is from 2017-09-17 on Google.se, without geographical or search history bias (search engines otherwise adapt searches to your specific characteristics).
Social Democrats
bli medlem (1)
vår politik (1)
första maj (1)
den svenska modellen (1)
invandrare tar våra jobb (2)
rätt till heltid (3)
socialbidrag (4)
föräldraförsäkring (4)
restaurangmomsen (5)
välfärd (7)
Moderates
bli medlem (2)
partistyrelse (9)
gåva (11)
bidrag till invandrare (11)
tiggeriet i sverige (12)
Sweden Democrats
skolpolitik (1)
försvarspolitik (1)
partiprogram (4)
miljöpolitik (4)
extraval sverige (4)
sveriges invandringspolitik (5)
begränsa invandringen (5)
politik frågor (5)
Centre Party
enkla jobb (1)
engagera sig politiskt (3)
valprogram (3)
välfärden (4)
statens uppgifter (4)
skuggbudget (7)
Left Party
vinst i välfärden (1)
individuell föräldraförsäkring (1)
deltidsstämpla (1)
jämställdhetsfrågor (2)
partiledare lön (2)
ensamstående föräldrar (3)
Liberals
politisk sekreterare (2)
jakobsberg bibliotek öppettider (2)
socialt utanförskap (4)
utanförskap i samhället (4)
polislön (6)
Green Party
engagera dig (1)
höja bensinskatten (3)
stockholmsregionen (4)
så röstar du (4)
skatteutskottet (7)
Christian Democrats
minska arbetslösheten (6)
motion riksdagen (8)
pressektreterare (9)
skolarbete (10)
It’s not too late for the laggards
It is possible to influence search results yourself, and that craft is called search engine optimization. SEO is by nature a relatively slow process, aimed at influencing Google’s algorithm (no other search engines matter in Sweden due to Google’s dominant position). Starting with SEO today could deliver good results in time for the election and the campaign lead-up.
Magnus Bråth
Consultant & Adviser
Magnus is one of the world's most prominent search marketing specialists and primarily works with management and strategy at his agency Brath AB.