Some quick tips to protect your Google identity

Americans spends billions of dollars each year on protecting their personal identities from would-be identity thieves.

But have you ever thought about protecting your Google identity? Your Google identity reflects what appears in the search engine results page when someone “Googles” your name. When was the last time you checked your search results of, well, you?

On a recent show, Mindy Weinstein of Market MindShift joined us to provide tips to ensure we are found on Google when someone is searching us. Three of her main points include:

• Remain active on social media. According to Mindy, Google — and other search engines — will often index and show social media profile pages in their results. Make sure your personal information is current and that you remain active on social media platforms, such as Facebook, Google+, YouTube, LinkedIn and Twitter.

• If you have a website, whether business or personal, make sure you have a bio or profile page. This tip helps with conversion and search engine optimization. You should have a page on your website that provides your bio, so people can get to know you. The page will naturally be optimized for your name and will have a strong chance of showing up in search results. Be sure to include your name in the title tag and meta description tag too.

• Optimize pictures of you. When you upload a picture of you to your website or as a profile picture for social media, use your name as the filename of the image. For example, if I was to upload my headshot to my website, I would title it “mike-weinstein.jpg.” If possible, also include your name in the “image alt attribute” (if you are using WordPress or another platform, this is easy to do). The alt attribute describes what is in the image, so it would make sense to include your name anyway.

Properly protecting and ensuring your company is found in search engines is as equally important. Mindy has recently released her new eBook, The Beauty of Digital Marketing, as a free resource for those who are navigating the world of Google.

Looking forward to seeing you on the first page of Google.