Godin Says Google Never Forgets… I Say Take Advantage Of It

Google is a factor in everything we do, regardless if we are happy about it or not. In a recent post marketing author and speaker Seth Godin writes about how Google never forgets, outlining how actions from the past can easily be uncovered in a quick Google search.  He is correct potential employers as well as business partners are using Google to research anyone that is trying to come into their world.

You have two options ignore that power of these actions or harness them to your benefit. I don’t talk much about personal branding and to be clear, I don’t think what I am about to discuss with you is personal branding, I think of it as smart personal inbound marketing.

Step 1: Who will be searching for you?
To best take advantage of Google’s power you should think first think about who will be searching for you. Ask yourself: What type of information do they want to see? You also need to ask yourself: What don’t they want to see? Once you have thought about the answers to those two questions, I recommend that you use that information when creating any user generated content online.

Step 2: Look at your SERP:
The page that displays the 10 results on Google when someone searches your name is called a Search Engine Results Page (SERP). Have you looked at yours? These results are going to help people form opinions about you and could ultimately stop you from getting a job, a loan, and many other things.

When you look at your SERP Do you like what you see?

When I look at mine for “Kipp Bodnar” this is what I see:

Am I 100% happy with my SERP right now? No. But it is getting better. I want my blog to rank much higher and I have frew other sites that I am working to rank better to replace tipjoy and a few of the other less relevant sites. However, overall it is a pretty strong representation of me and it is all content that I am created. the best part is that nothing negative has appreaded in my SERP.

Step 3: Taking control of your digital footprint
To improve your personal SERP I recommend doing a couple of things. First you need to expand you digital footprint. Meaning you need to publish your own sites or become a member of other web services that are relevant to your life. For example, if you are a photographer, you should sign up for a variety of photo sharing services and use them to showcase your work.

The other main thing you need to do is to start tagging your content with your name. Regardless if it is a blog post or a photo on Flickr the more items you can tag with your name the better that service will rank in your personal SERP.

I am sure that SEO experts have much more advice and I encourage them to leave it in the comments, but the bottomline is that you need to be aware of your personal SERP and use it as an opportunity to tell your story.