Question: JoAnn writes “….when I Googled myself a while back, I was somewhat taken aback to see my name and other contact info listed on some sites I’d never heard – nor had I given my permission for the listing.”
Answer: Hi JoAnn, your experience is EXACTLY why you want to Google yourself regularly. You want to know what’s out there, what’s relevant to you and your goals, what’s NOT relevant. In this case, the sites you never heard of were not relevant.
Google yourself once a week or a minimum of once a month.
When you find your info on other sites, as you experienced, there are a few things you can do. Here they are:
- Claim your profile. Some sites are called “aggregators” – they comb the web and any mention of your name is compiled into one location. ZoomInfo is one such site. When you claim your profile, you are in control of what’s listed in the profile. It will still aggregate news stories, but they will be the correct ones.
- You can ask that your information be removed from the site.
- Bury the info with better info. You can do this by having a top-notch LinkedIn profile (LinkedIn typically appears on Page 1 of a Google search), cleaning up your Facebook page (if you’ve got one), or starting a blog relevant to your goals.
Good luck and let me know how these tips work for you… and for YOU too readers!
For those interested in getting the most from LinkedIn, here’s the link to my upcoming class: http://linkedinrockstar.eventbrite.com/
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