It's okay to google yourself

Are public perceptions matching the impression you are shooting for?

Spending all your time worrying about what other people think of you is counter productive to the writing and marketing you need to be working on.

That said, you can't afford to ignore your platform. Did you know the vast majority of Google users never look at the search results that aren't on the first page? That means you want to make sure your most important real estate is showing up there.

If your blog or website is missing the mark, this is probably a result of a stagnant site. Search engines love new content. Also, make sure your back end information is set up for daily updates. Even if you aren't making changes daily, you want search engines to check your site often for new content.

Equally important is making sure any old content isn't taking up valuable real estate. About a year ago I realized my old MySpace page was still showing up on the first page of my Google searches. Even though I didn't use it anymore, the account was still active. It took cancelling the account to get it out of my searches. Make sure you don't have any old social media or group memberships that are wasting your precious search space.

We can't control many of the aspects of what shows up in our searches, but that doesn't mean we are without options. Make sure your online presence is as clean as it can be to help your readers find what they're looking for... you.

5 comments:

  1. I do google myself on occasion just to be sure I come up on the first page. There are 2 other people with my name and I'm glad I come up first. So true we need to check these things.

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  2. I google myself once in a while. But, I don't think there is ever enough content that can show up.

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  3. This is such great advice. I never really thought about trying to clean things up before.

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  4. I've been fighting for the past few weeks since I found out my blog (Blogger) doesn't show up on a google search, I've been through all the SEO options and nothing works. I'm about ready to have my husband develop me a new site, but I hate to lose everything I've done on blogger. Grr. Good topic!

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  5. I'm the only Kelly Hashway and that makes me very happy. :) My website comes up first and then Goodreads, my blog, and Amazon links. I can't complain about that.

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