Before a job interview, a first meeting with a client or a first date, someone will probably search your name. What they find in the first ten results shapes their first impression of you, often before you have said a word.
The good news: you can see exactly what they see, and you have more control than you might think.
Step 1: Search yourself like a stranger
Your own searches are personalised. To see what others see:
- Open a private or incognito browser window.
- Search your full name in quotes: "Anna Reyes".
- Search again with your town, your profession, and your employer.
- Check Google Images and the News tab.
- Try a second search engine, such as Bing.
Write down everything on the first two pages.
Step 2: Sort what you find
Most results fall into four groups:
| Type | Examples | What you can do | |---|---|---| | Things you control | Your LinkedIn, website, social profiles | Update, improve or make private | | People-search sites | Pages listing your address, phone, relatives | Request removal | | Reviews of your work | Patients, clients, customers rating you | Reply professionally, encourage fresh reviews | | News and third-party content | Articles, forum posts, old company pages | Harder to remove; push down with better content |
Step 3: Remove what you can
- Contact details in Google results. Google's "Results about you" tool lets you request removal of results showing your phone number, home address or email, and can alert you when new ones appear.
- People-search and data broker sites. Most have an opt-out process. It is tedious but works. We walk through it in how to opt out of people-search sites.
- Outdated pages you own. Delete old profiles, blogs and accounts you no longer use.
Our earlier guide on removing personal information from Google covers Google's tools in more detail.
Step 4: Push down what you cannot remove
Search engines show what they judge most relevant. You can add better, more relevant pages about yourself:
- A complete LinkedIn profile with a professional photo.
- A simple personal website at yourname.com.
- Profiles on respected sites in your field.
- Talks, articles or interviews you have given.
These tend to rank well for your name and take up the first page.
Step 5: Reviews of your work
If you are a doctor, lawyer, consultant, therapist, tutor or tradesperson, people may review you personally. Reply calmly and professionally, never reveal private details, and encourage happy clients to leave fresh reviews. A steady flow of recent, genuine reviews matters more than one old complaint.
A 30-minute monthly routine
- Incognito search of your name and name plus town.
- Check Google's "Results about you" dashboard for new results.
- Re-check the people-search sites you opted out of; some relist.
- Reply to any new reviews of your work.
- Update one of your own profiles.
How Reputfy Personal helps
Reputfy Personal does the searching for you. It scans search engines and people-search sites for your name, prepares removal requests, alerts you when something new appears, and lets clients leave sealed reviews of your work, so the reviews that show up about you are real. It costs $15 a month.
