Quick Tip: Google yourself
Jan 07 2008
Search for your name and the name of your business. And while you’re at it, try the same thing on Yahoo!, MSN and Ask.com. You may be surprised at what turns up…
If you have a common name like mine, it may be difficult to find yourself. Prominent “Erik Wolf”s include a professional golfer and the president of the International Culinary Tourism Association. I usually show up on page 2 on Google. But if you really try to find me, say by searching for “Erik Wolf + marketing” I’m on the first page and if you search for “Erik Wolf + Georgia” or “Erik Wolf + Branding” I usually come up first or close to it.
Some of the information you might find about me on the Internet are things that I put there. My web sites, my LinkedIn profile, this blog. But some of the information came from other sources… I’ve found a couple of listing sites that have, with startling accuracy, pieced together my entire career including places I’ve worked and the dates I worked there. One site even had links to newspaper articles I’d written while attending college. How? It doesn’t really matter.
Whether we like it our not, we’re living our lives online now and our businesses are too. Searching for yourself and your business regularly is more than an exercise in vanity… It helps you understand what information out there and what, if anything, others are saying about you. When people are considering doing business with a company, a lot of savvy people are searching online. They may also search for the company president and/or their sales person. If there’s information out there – whether an endorsement or a condemnation – you should make it your business to know about it.
It’s also red flag if search engines find no evidence of you or your business… There aren’t many people that can do business nowadays without leaving some sort of online footprint. If you’re not online, get yourself there. How? Well, that will have to be a different post.
Happy searching! 
Published by Erik Wolf under Quick Tips, Web/Interactive
[...] Quick Tip: Google yourself [...]
Pingback by Red Flag Exercise — January 26, 2008 @ 3:01 pm
My name “Rob Abdul” for the last 3 years has been my brand name.
Google has 3,360,000 results for my name Rob Abdul.
I was so proud when my name appeared in Google suggest.
I’m Number 1 for my name on Google, Bing, Yahoo, Ask, AOL and many more!
It may not sound like much but at least 60 to 80 people Google me a month.
It is nice for the Ego, I must admit!
Comment by Rob Abdul — August 17, 2009 @ 11:47 am