Google Your Name. You’ll Learn A Lot About Yourself

Google your first and last name. Right now.

What’d you discover?

Do you blanket the first few pages of Google entries for people with your name? (I realize if your name is John Smith, this might be challenging).

Here are the top 15 listings I found when I Googled Laura Christianson.

#1 – My Web site, laurachristianson.com (this is good, because my Web site is the hub of all my social networking activities)
#2 – the “About” page from my Web site
#3 – My Ziggs profile (interesting that it should rank so high; I discovered my profile was outdated and updated it)
#4 – My Exploring Adoption blog on Typepad
#5 – An interview that Carolina Hope Adoption Agency did with me
#6 – An essay about open adoption that’s been reprinted in several magazines
#7 – My ShoutLife  profile
#8 – My LinkedIn profile (another one I needed to update)
#9 – My author listing on Christianbook.com
#10 – A guest post I wrote for Mary DeMuth’s Pioneer Parenting blog
#11 – My Twitter @adoptionexpert profile
#12 – My Twitter @bloggingbistro profile
#13 – My Gather profile
#14 – LinkedIn directory of all users named Laura Christianson
#15 – My Facebook profile

Googling your name from time to time gives you helpful information about what you’re doing right… and wrong.

My listings show me:

• I dominate the first six pages of Google for my name. This is good, because if someone wants to find me and they can spell my name correctly, they’ll find me. (Either the other Laura Christiansons of the world don’t have much of an Internet presence, or I’m doing a better job with Search Engine Optimization.)
• The description for my Home page needs to be fixed. Currently, the Google description is picking up the text from my first blog post, which explains that I’m in the process of overhauling my site. Not a good welcome for prospective visitors.
• My business, Blogging Bistro, doesn’t show up on page 1 of my listings. Very bad. Granted, I just changed the name of the business and the Web site is brand new – Goggle just began indexing it. And it does rank #1-4 if you Google “Blogging Bistro.” But I’ve got some serious SEO work to do so my business listing moves higher in the rankings for my name.
• I need more inbound links. My top 15 listings include three inbound links (from articles I’ve written for other people’s sites). But I need to focus more on link building.
• My social media profiles are prominent. Even though I’m not particularly active on several of these networks, I’ve set up profiles to make it easier for people to find me (more on how to do this in the next two posts).

So… what’s one thing you will improve on, based on Googling your name? Put your goal in writing, in the Comments area.

Coming this week on Blogging Bistro:

• Part 2 – How to Make Google Love Your Twitter Profile
• Part 3 – How to Make a Name for Yourself on Google

And in the June issue of Bright Ideas Blogzine:

• Dos and Don’ts for creating your social media profiles