3 Things to Look for When Googling Yourself

At one time, Googling yourself may have seemed like a furtive, narcissistic activity—something you did secretly and didn't tell anyone about.

But these days, Googling yourself on a regular basis is a vital part of managing your reputation. It's your chance to discover any misinformation or problems with your digital reputation and take steps to correct the situation before it spirals out of control.

Here's a checklist of three things to look for when Googling yourself to help you curate a digital footprint that accurately reflects your achievements and puts you in the best position for success.

Doppelnamers

The first thing to look for when Googling yourself is whether or not you have any doppelnamers—a recently coined term used to describe someone who has the same name as you (or a very similar one) and who dominates your online search results. This is not usually done deliberately or with malicious intent—rather, it's almost always a natural result of the extent to which common names overlap. But the fact is that doppelnamers, whether they're convicted criminals or award-winning lawyers, are doing you a disservice simply by occupying your rightful place in your Google landscape. If you have a doppelnamer, you need to claim control of your profile as much as possible so you don't get confused for someone else or receive credit, positive or otherwise, for things you didn't do.

Outdated information

If you've just searched for yourself for the first time in a while, in all likelihood, you've just discovered that your latest or best body of work isn't even close to represented on the internet, while a quote you gave in a college newspaper or an old social media profile is still getting star billing on Google's search rankings. The best remedy for this is to keep your professional and social profiles fresh by regularly updating them with new details that speak to the accomplishments and interests you want to highlight. If you'd rather that article you wrote for your high school paper not show up prominently in your search results, try placing a fresh article on a topic relevant to you now on an online media site. Google likes new information and will usually preference it over old news, but it can't read your mind or listen in on your mother's excited phone calls about your latest promotion—you've got to take responsibility for ensuring that Google has access to the latest and greatest information about you.

Anything negative or easily misunderstood

It's a no-brainer to watch out for negative information about yourself appearing online, but it's important to go beyond what obviously constitutes "negative." Pay special attention to content that may not be overtly bad or damaging, but that could be easily misunderstood or misinterpreted, particularly in a professional context. More often than not, this will be something haunting you from your past that you probably didn't even put there yourself, like that old college newspaper quote or a quip that a friend made about you as a joke. Whatever it may be, it's vital to take action about it now. If you don't, people will go on finding it, and will continue to rely on it to make decisions about you.

Remember, just because you didn't intentionally publish something about yourself online and perhaps weren't even aware that it was there doesn't mean that people won't use it to form opinions of you when they find it.