My Most Controversial Medium Articles Show Up First on Google

And Google’s meta descriptions have me scratching my head

Everyone’s googled their own name, right?

I’ve done it from time to time over the years. I’ve never found anything interesting when I google my name (maiden or married) because I’ve never done anything unusual.

From Google, I found out there is another Nicole Kinkade in my city. There are actually two in my state — one of whom I already knew about because my mom is friends with her.

There are a host of others with my name across the US. The first results that come up on Google for my name aren’t even me.

Since I’d been writing on Medium — and I know that Medium naturally scores high in search engines — I decided it was time to Google my name again to see which articles of mine were popping up first on Google.

The first two Nicole Kinkades on Google aren’t me, the third is my LinkedIn profile, and then I was shocked when I saw the fourth result.

This article was published late last week. Its headline is controversial, so I wasn’t surprised that it ended up in Google’s search results.

I’ll admit, it’s not an article I want to go down in history for writing. I’ve wasted too much time thinking about what I would like to be remembered for writing, so I stopped worrying about that a long time ago. If I focus too much on what I’ll be remembered for, I’ll never hit “Publish.”

I wrote this article because it’s a topic that’s been circling my mind, and I’m “soul cleansing” with my Medium writing right now.

What shocked me most wasn’t the fact that this article’s title appeared on Google. It was the meta description.

If you don’t know what a meta description is, it’s the brief summary under the title that tells you what a page is about.

Take a look at this meta description, for example:

I was astonished that part of the member-only text from over halfway through the article appeared as the description, making the article sound far more racist than it actually is.

The article was intended as an in-depth analysis and explanation of my personal account of racial biases that I share with many Westerners (although most aren’t bold enough to admit it).

I’ve always found the topic of race a complicated one to tackle. Many of my closest friends are People of Color, and I’ve never once thought I’m better than them because I’m white. More privileged, yes, but never better.

I took a Diversity in America class during my senior year, which brought to my attention all my racial biases. The class, coupled with the books I mentioned in the article, altered my view on race from when I was a teenager in denial that racism still exists in the 21st Century.

The title is subjective since, by true definition, I’m not a racist. I have racial biases, but I chose this title because I have a) been called a racist more times than I can count and b) I’ve felt like a racist because of these biases.

Below is the actual subtitle, which I expected to see (and it paints a different perspective of the post).

I searched for my name later that same day, and Google changed the description to what I expected it to be in the first place.

This meta-description alters a searcher’s perception of what the article is about entirely.

My second Medium post that appears on Google is one I published about another controversial topic — doctor-assisted death.

This meta-description accurately describes the article, at least, although these words also appear later in the article. These words are likely more exciting than my chosen subtitle:

Why doctor-assisted death is the most humane way we can say goodbye to our suffering loved ones

Both of these topics were ones I strongly debated about whether I should even post. I’ve always been nervous about sharing my political and personal beliefs online. Although, it is mentally freeing to write about my experiences and ideas.

I guess I’ll have to live with Google changing my content descriptions to its liking because I’m not deleting these posts.

Neither of these posts is even a high earner or highly viewed. I went into my Google search, expecting my highest-earning post to be the one that appeared on page one with my name. After I scrolled through several pages, I realized it was nowhere to be found.

Lessons Learned

I don’t understand Google’s intentions — or if there really are any intentions behind changing my article’s subtitle for its meta description.

Is someone hired by Google to hand-select meta descriptions to make articles appear spicier than they are? If so, sign me up because that sounds like an exciting job.

Maybe someone who works at Google or someone who has a better understanding of Google’s meta descriptions can give me insight into this.

At the end of the day, I’m just going to keep writing and hoping that no one gets the wrong idea about me from Google’s meta descriptions.

I’ll also pray that my old boss doesn’t decide to Google me, see that on the first page, and decide to sue me for defamation. (Ah, the lovely things we have to worry about as writers.)

Being a writer is tough work, especially when you’re trying to write from your heart and soul about your life experiences. As someone who grew up being told “Don’t write this” or “Don’t write that” because my relatives wanted to save their embarrassment, I always second-guess myself before I hit Publish.

I never realized I had to worry about Google’s meta descriptions altering the meaning of my posts, though.

But now I know, which brings me to the point of this whole article: Never judge an article by Google’s meta description.

And if I go down in history as the girl who wrote an article titled I’m Sorry, But I’m a Freaking Racist, then oh well. I suppose I could always change the title.

At least I wrote and published, but I can only hope Google’s algorithm picks up on a better article from me in the future.

After all, my writing journey has just begun.

Which controversial topic should I write about next? Or, perhaps, I should just stick to my comfort zone and write about writing since Google doesn’t seem to care about attaching those articles with my name.

Writing any words is a life well-lived.