How To Improve Your Search Visibility With a Google Profile

When was the last time you Google your name? Were you disappointed that you were unknown? Last year, I google my name and realized I did not exist on the Web. There is a Nan Ross, but she was not me! I realized I had to get on the ball and take the necessary steps to gain visibility on Google and of course beat the other Nan Ross off the chart in the search engine.

Google Profile is a free service available for all Google account holders. You can control how you appear in the Google search engine. With a Google Profile, you can share your web content and social networking sites on one central location. You can include links to your blog, website, photos and social sites that you actively participate in, such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and others. What is so awesome about this service is that it allows others to search for you and find your profile with your picture, bio, location and links to your sites.

Building Your Profile Page

To increase your chances to appear in Google, you must build a profile page. Building a profile page is easy and it took me 15 minutes tops! Once you sign up you can provide information about yourself, including:

*Name (First/Last Name)

* Your Picture

* Where you grew up

* Where you live

* What schools you’ve attended

* Where you work

* A bio

* Links to web site

* Pictures from Flickr, Picasa and other online photo albums

* Contact Information

Personal URL Address

You are assigned a personal URL address, that you can use for your email signature and share on Facebook and Twitter. Oh yeah! Instead of handing out business cards with your Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and hundreds of other websites, please add your Google Profile URL address along with your main website address. As a graphic designer, I try to encourage my clients to avoid having too many websites on their business cards. It looks unprofessional! With a Google Profile address, you have a free identity hub address that points to all the places on the web you keep a social presence.

The URLs feature makes it possible to create a profile with a URL containing your real name or any name you want, like this:

http://www.google.com/profiles/virtualtechdiva

I received a few requests from friends on how can their names appear on the Google search engine. Google Profile gives you a bigger voice in the search engine and a professional looking online image.