Look at the two shapes above.  Circle and rectangle, right?  Oops.  They’re almost a circle and rectangle, but your mind filled in the gaps to show you the shapes you’re accustomed to.

How about a real-world example?  Imagine you heard last night that it was going to rain. In the morning you look out the window and see clear skies and puddles. What images fill your mind? The air thick with rain in the dark?  Thunder and lightening?

Welcome to the Gestalt “Law of Closure.“  A psychological principle that basically states people fill in gaps in information with whatever they’re predisposed to believe is there.  It’s a factor that needs to be taken into consideration with your SEO-thought leadership efforts.

Do a search now on your company’s name and a topic that you’d like it to be seen as a thought leader on.  What dots would stakeholders connect among the various links?  As your SEO-thought leadership campaign progresses, how will those dots change?   Can you adjust your projected course so that the lines are drawn more in your favor?

Keep in mind, it’s pretty much impossible to completely dominate all the results that will come up for a topic, even if it’s narrow and you occupy the space exclusively.  There’s just too much out there.  But you can exert some measure of control by considering how closure will affect people’s perception and then either preempting the perception or following up with counter-messaging through other channels.