Paul Potratz tried to give some background on an online search engine situation that might make dealer principals angry — the store not showing up high enough on initial search tries.

Without getting too bogged down in technical background and jargon, the chief operating officer and founder of Potratz Partners Advertising explained a basic foundation of all search engines: algorithms.

“Search algorithms can be very confusing. It can be actually trying to figure out why someone’s credit score is what it is and how they got there. But let me explain the search strategy behind algorithms at Google, Yahoo, Bing, Facebook are all doing right now,” Potratz said during his latest online video in his series, “Think Tank Tuesday.”

Potratz continued, “The customer is me and you, the individual. The search engines are looking at a long-term gain versus a lot of companies and salespeople who are focused on a short-term gain, which receives a long-term loss. So what I’m really telling you is all the search engines ask, ‘What can we do to be the best search engine in the world?’

“If their ultimate goal is to be a search engine, they’ve got to give great search so when you sit down and search for something, their No. 1 objective is to make sure the paid ad or the organic listing that shows in front of you that’s specific to you,” he went on to say. “In other words, one that you’re most likely to click on. They’re not focused on who will pay more for search. They’re focused on you and me as an individual.”

And with search engines being focused on the individual, Potratz noted that’s where the popular term, “big data” comes into play.

“As we’re searching for things, we’re showing a digital body language. We’re showing a behavior of what is interesting to us and what we want,” Potratz said.

Potratz went in to more detail about how a store’s placement in search engines can be in the video available here.