Whilst ‘googling yourself’ is often seen as a joke, it’s actually a useful exercise in giving you a real-time awareness of your digital branding. Therefore, you should ‘google yourself’ regularly, perhaps once per month.
According to Entrepreneur, more than half of millennials have previously googled themselves, with one in ten Gen Z internet users doing so daily.
After googling yourself, you may be wondering what to do with the information to enhance your personal brand. Read on to hear key digital branding advice on how to understand your google results and what they mean.
Evaluating your search results
It is advisable to perform two searches, both with and without quotation marks as you will not know which format others will use to search you.
Unsurprisingly, the first page of google results are most important, as many searchers will not go beyond page one. Your LinkedIn profile is likely to be at the top of the results, with the top three listings receiving more than 60% of clicks. Therefore, your LinkedIn profile should be compelling and current to have an impact on those viewing it.
Use Universal Search
Universal search describes the format results are displayed in, with multimedia including images and real-time content. You can optimise multimedia by naming all photos of yourself posted online with your name to make them more likely to appear in Google’s results.
You can also set up a YouTube channel and post thought-leadership videos to give those searching your name some more information about you and your expertise. If you are seeking further advice and a branding agency Cheltenham is home to several professional companies, such as Really Helpful Marketing, whose brand development service assists with everything from positioning to photography. Visit reallyhelpfulmarketing.co.uk/brand-development/ to find out more.
Build Your Knowledge Panel
Google results often include a box on the right with a portfolio of text, images and videos called a knowledge panel. Whilst this provides a concise look at you and your accomplishments, you cannot create your own knowledge panel. Instead, Google creates it. However, SEO experts suggest that having a Wikipedia profile, listing your company on Crunchbase and selling on Amazon can boost your chances of getting a knowledge panel.
These tips should aid ambitious professionals in enhancing their personal branding to ensure that Google searches generate excellent results.