How to Get on Google’s Front Page

If you don’t appear on Google’s first page when people search for your name, it’s not just a blow to the ego — it can also be a business problem. Many searchers never go past Page 1, so a poor rank can cost you traffic, customers, and money.

Up until now, possessing a common name meant you were stuck. Google’s new Profile service gives you a chance to cut in line.

A recent Time Magazine article  explained the problem, and Google’s solution.

“The reason people search for themselves is that they’re curious about what other people see when they search for their name,” says Joe Kraus, Google’s director of product management. “One problem is they don’t have any control over the search results. Either they don’t like the search results, or what happens most of the time is, they’re not listed on the first page. If your name is Brian Jones and you’re not the deceased Rolling Stones guitarist, you don’t exist.”

To give people a bit more control over search results, Google introduced a new feature this week it calls a “Google profile” that users can create so that a thumbnail of personal information appears at the bottom of U.S. name-query search pages. Once users create a Google profile, their name, occupation, location (and photo if they choose), appears in a box on the first page of the search results for their name. Next to the thumbnail info, there’s a link to a full Google profile page that in many ways resembles a Facebook page.

I filled in my Google profile this morning. It’s a simple process, although there was one small shot to my ego — “philbernstein” wasn’t available for my profile URL.

So my profile URL is http://www.google.com/profiles/thegreatphilbernstein.

Create your own Google profile here: http://www.google.com/profiles

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