Google (
) is the dominant search engine, with over 63% market share. Aside from it being a place to discover product reviews and corporate information, it is the personal brand destination of choice.
When someone Googles your name, the results are telling of who you are and what you do. In other words, your Google results are your resume, both professionally and personally. Companies seek to rank number one in Google’s search results for their brand name as well as terms in their industry, and you should as well.
Before we get started, I want you to Google your name right now. Copy the results to a word processing document and circle the results that have to do with your name. After you do that, highlight the positive ones in green, the neutral ones in grey and the negative ones in red. Only do this for the top 10 results. What you’ll notice is that you either have a presence on Google or not and you’re either positively portrayed in Google or you’re not.
What does Google say about you?
Everyone uses Google, from journalists to teachers to your friends and managers. There is no time in this disruptive world to go through the first 90 results in Google after a single search, so the majority of people stop after the first page and some after the first three results!
Google might say that you are unqualified for a job or that you aren’t “dating material.” Celebrities have their own Google woes. Let’s examine the Google results for A-Rod, Michael Phelps and Chris Brown. Each celebrity recently had a personal branding disaster, which is observable in their Google results.
A-Rod (Alex Rodriguez): A-Rod is the highest paid and one of the most respected professional baseball players on the New York Yankees.
Google “A-Rod“: You’ll find about three of four results calling attention to his steroid abuse. He tested positive for steroids six years ago while playing for the Texas Rangers during a three-year period.
Michael Phelps: Michael is an American swimmer, who has won 14 career Olympic gold medals, which is the most by any Olympian and by the end of 2008 he held seven world records in swimming.
Google “Michael Phelps“: You’ll find “michael phelps smoking weed” as a related search term for his name, as well as results that highlight him doing drugs.
Chris Brown: Chris is a Grammy-nominated American singer-songwriter, dancer and actor. His first album went double platinum at the age of 16.
Google “Chris Brown“: You’ll find his current LAPD investigation for assault following an alleged domestic violence felony battery against Rihanna.
How to control your Google results
These celebrities’ names once garnered positive Google results, through each homerun, gold medal and platinum album achieved. Although, they had pages and pages of positive results, it only took one incident for their reputation to be in jeopardy. The second the press filed their stories, their Google results were rearranged and negative results appeared. Luckily for them, they can still turn their results around by working hard to clean their record and earn positive articles from the press and bloggers alike.
At the celebrity level, you would need some aggressive PR to change these results because top tier outlets such as ESPN have a high PageRank in Google. For the average person (as long as you have a unique name), here are some strategies that will help you control your Google results.
1. Register for a blog and social networks
One way to take control for your results is by owning or renting web properties that carry your name. Blogs and social networks allow you to do just that. A blog allows you to continuously develop content under a single URL. As your blog generates content, Google will be pinged and rank it higher under certain keywords.
Make sure your blog, in some way, connects to your name. For instance, if your name is the URL or the title of the blog has your name in it, it will rank high for your name. Blogs have high SEO value because there is a lot of content that people can link to. I wouldn’t recommend that everyone starts a blog because you don’t want to post once and then leave it on the shelf for three months; it would be looked down upon by your visitors. Instead, start a blog because you’re passionate about a topic and want your voice to be heard.
The largest and most credible social networks have a high Google PageRank. PageRank is a measurement of importance in Google from 0 to 10. Twitter (), LinkedIn (
), FriendFeed (), and Facebook () have a PageRank of 8, which might not surprise you. They gain links from users linking to their profiles. Try to use unique identifiers for your profile pages. For instance, if your name is Peter Smith, you’ll want the “linkedin.com/in/petersmith distinct URL for your profile. Anywhere you can use your full name, I encourage you to do so.
Aside from the typical social networks, the leading “traditional media” brands also have social networks accounted for. BusinessWeek, The Wall Street Journal, Entrepreneur and The New York Times all have social networks that you can join today for free. They all allow you to have your own profile, a chance to network with peers, high PageRank and massive credibility.
2. Write for other blogs
Much like what I do for Mashable, you can guest post on other blogs, which can take up some of those top ten spots in Google for your name. In general, becoming a content creator will help you take charge of your brand.
3. Create a social media resume
As I stated in my previous Mashable () post “HOW TO: Build the Ultimate Social Media Resume,” a social media resume is optimized to rank high in Google for your name and can support your professional development and job searching needs.
4. Start a wiki under your name
A wiki is an online document that can be edited in real-time and tracked. Pbwiki.com, a service for creating free wikis, has a PageRank of 7, which means that if you use your full name when registering, there’s a good chance it will rank high for you. You could turn the wiki into a resume, a list of your favorite things to do or a listing of websites.
5. Become a celebrity/micro-celeb
When you become more famous, people start to notice and you might wake up one day with your own Wikipedia () page! If this happens, you better believe that it will rank in the top three results for your name. Don’t create your own page though because people will find out (namely the wiki-moderators) and it will be taken down. Becoming internet famous isn’t out of reach anymore, especially when the cost of admission is $0.00.
6. Bond with communities
Whether you join a Ning network or start a Ning network, they all tend to rank well in search engines and are great places to network and meet like-minded people. I would also recommend blog communities such as Social Media Today, depending on what you blog about. Other great examples are Momlogic, and Geeks (owned by Chris Pirillo).
7. Create an eBook
David Meerman Scott, author of World Wide Rave, says that you can get people all around the world talking about you if you give away a free eBook. Instead of making people fill out lead generation forms, give it away for free and you’ll see ten times the eyeballs. Not only that, but with the proper “triggers,” such as a Digg () button, people will share it and link to it, which increases its Google PageRank.
8. Beg people to write about you
Well, maybe don’t beg. You might sound desperate and annoying. You shouldn’t go asking people to write about you. They should do it based on the quality of your content. If you have friends in the blogosphere, they will gladly support you by writing about you. I’ve had people ask me to interview them. Never, ever do that. Join their community first, add value to their discussions and then, over time, they may be interested in promoting your brand.