Make Money from Name Search

It may be claimed that being found on search engines when someone searches your name is far less important than being found when searches your service. However, to my opinion this claim is only part true. Sure it’s important for service providers to be out there when people search for “lawyer”, “doctor”, “consulting services”, etc. However, the search doesn’t end there since most potential customers will also search the service provider’s name, and you need to be able to convert that traffic to business leads when they do.

How can this be done?

1. Generate a professional web presence when people search your name. This can be done by creating online profiles on various sites like: LookupPage, LinkedIn or Naymz.
2. Make sure your contact details are visible when they visit your webpage.
3. Create a link to your professional company website, where the potential customer can read more about the service you offer.

For more details, read my post “How to maximize your online profile“

You can find the Application link after you login to you LinkedIn account on the right hand side:

LinkedIn Applications Link

Clicking on the link will take you to the following LinkedIn applications page:

LinkedIn Applications Page

There are currently only 9 available appilications on Linkedin, however I expect this number to grow rapidly in the near future. The WordPress app is right on the top left side of the page. You can click it, add your WordPress Blog URL address and chose to display your Blog feed on your LinkedIn home page and/or your LinkedIn profile. You can see that my Blog post are presented on my profile page enhancing the exposure of my Blog posts.

WordPress on LinkedIn Profile Page

I still think LinkedIn can improve this application by allowing members to display the WordPress app on their LinkedIn public profile (click here to view my public Linkedin Profile) which will further increase their Blog online exposure.

Ehud Drezner on Yahoo

After some investigating I found out that this search result presentation is part of Yahoo’s SearchMonkey technology which lets websites determine how they want to present their search results. Any website can do this (in several ways) but Yahoo only chose few websites including LinkedIn to implement in their search results pages. You can watch the short overview video on SearchMonkey to see some examples.

I think this is a very cool feature that will surely enhance the user experience when performing a name search.

Here is a graph showing the the increase in popularity of the “Google Yourself” search terms over the last couple of years. This graph was created based on Google Trends data (scale is based on the average worldwide traffic of the search term “Google Yourself” in all years).

Google Yourself Search Trend

Other interesting resource that shows the popularity of name search and self googling is the recent survey preformed by Search Engine Round Table in September 2008 – Poll: Do You “Google” Yourself? Although the results are a little biased since most of the Round Table readers are very web oriented users, about 96% of the users googled themselves and 35% answered that they google themselves regularly. Here is the Poll results:

Google Yourself Poll

So go ahead and Goggle yourselves and the people you know and see what search results come up.

Google 2001 Index

Back in 2001 name search was A LOT less popular than it is now days so probably anyone that had a prominent web presence then has a huge web presence today for his name search.

So go ahead and Google your name in 2001 to see the results – You might be surprised…

Filling relevant and up-to-date information in your online profiles will help you rank higher in search engines, increase your visibility online and help you build your professional brand. That means that anyone looking for information about you on the web, will find everything they need to know at a glance – your skills, your employment information, your contact details, etc. That’s why it’s important to make sure that your online profile is complete, detailed, and truly represents you. View my LookupPage and my LI profiles to see what I mean.

I will now list a few important points, to my opinion, of how to maximize your online profile:

1. Fill in your personal details. Create a detailed profile including all your personal details, such as country, industry, suffix, etc. Don’t forget to enter your current job position (company and title), because that’s right at the top of the page when someone views your profile.
2. Write about yourself. Use your online profile to help people find all the relevant information about you. Include all the keywords and skills from your resume in your about section. That will make it easier for your profile to be found in search result.
3. Add a photo. You can add a photo (a headshot is recommended) to your online profile to add credibility to your profile.
4. Add links. The links section of your profile is a good way to provide even more information to people who view your profile. Add links to your company web site, your blog, your favorite sites, and more.
5. Add your contact details. Add your contact details, such as phone num, office num, Skype name, etc., in the business details section to make sure people can get in touch with you.
6. Brand your company. Brand your company online by adding a company logo (this is online possible in my LookupPage), a company website, and a company description in the business details section. Let people find you and your contact details when they search for your company online.

For example, here is a screen shot of my LookupPage with all the implemented above points.

Udi Drezner's LookupPage

There are several things you can do. Here are 3 things:

1. Use your middle name. For example: “Michael J Phelps”.
2. Optimize your sites and posts to try to catch “longer tail” searches. For example: “Michael Phelps Pediatrician” if you are a pediatrician, or “Michael Phelps JBL Engineering” if you work at  JBL Engineering.
3. Buy your name. Use sponsored listing services like Google Adwords, Yahoo Search Marketing (YSM), and Microsoft adCenter. Using these services you can publish an ad for your website every time someone searches your name and clicks on your ad.

The main problem with point 1 and 2 is that you have to comprise on your name, and a lot of searches and potential customers can get lost that way. The main problem with point 3 is that you need to have some knowledge and time to manage the sponsored ads campaigns. In addition, all 3 require that you already have a web presence.

There is an new tool I use called LookupPage (www.lookuppage.com) which can help you create a professional web page for yourself (only takes 5 min) that guarantees your appearance on Google first page when someone searches your name (even if your name is Michael Phelps) by creating a personal ad dedicated to you. In addition the service provides you with a personal domain (www.YourName.com) that rank very well on search engines. For example, you can Google my name or search my name in Yahoo to see that my LookupPage is the first result

Another great feature of the service is the ability to track your visitors. Using the statistics section in the LookupPage tool you are able to:

• Learn exactly when and from where your LookupPage has been visited.
• Learn which search terms people typed in search engines  in order to get to your LookupPage.
• Analyze your LookupPage incoming traffic by date.
• Analyze your LookupPage outgoing traffic to your company website.

The site offers a free signup with basic features so you can go ahead and signup to check it out. Enjoy.

Welcome to my new blog!!!

My first post is about the known phenomena of searching your name on the web. If you do it with the most popular search engine (any idea what that is?), this phenomena is referred to as “Google yourself” or “Googling your name”:

Google My Name

If you are a professional (for example a doctor), who cares about and values his reputation, then the outcome of that search is extremely important to you. Numerous posts have been written about how you should defend / control / manage your online reputation. One of the ways in which you can do this, is publishing online profiles which truly represent you (there are plenty free options to do this) or writing a blog under your name. However, what do you do when you have a common name, such as “John Smith” or a popular name like “David Beckham”. In these cases you will probably not rank even in the first 1000 results. One solution is using your middle name, but if people don’t know that name then it is not a good solution.

Any ideas what you can do in such cases? – I will be more than happy to hear your thoughts

Anyway, in my next blog post, I will write about one of the best solutions on the market (in my opinion) for such a problem.