klbarry

I'm not sure if this could be monetized, but I made this guide for some friends and it worked great for all of them. The idea is that over 50% of hiring managers google prospects, so college students could use a little help in their first search.

This is the advice I give to my friends who want to own the front page. Not sure how it applies for you:

1) Google your first and last name. If you’re like most people on earth, you’re one of many with your particular combination. So how can you rank higher?

Never fight a battle you don’t have to. Pick a middle name, real or imaginary. Google your new full name.

Example: A person's name is Michael Corleone. The Google result is completely owned by Wikipedia and other impossible to compete against sites. Change it to Michael Gerard Corleone, advertise yourself as Michael G. Corleone - no competition.

1a) Put your new name on top of your resume for consistency.

2) Take your new name. If your Facebook looks professional, change your Facebook name to your new name. If not, make sure your Facebook doesn’t use your new full name.

3) Take five minutes to create a LinkedIn account with your new name. Put all of your resume information on it neatly. A good LinkedIn account will get you a recruiter call every month, if your skills are in demand. LinkedIn will rank well for your new name, and you can brag as much as you want on it without looking pompous.

5) Make an account on Amazon, using your new branded name. Pick a couple of books in your industry with good ratings. Read the summaries (read the book, preferably, but I won’t judge if you don’t). Leave a review of the books that makes you look good: show that you know industry terms, talk about your experience, etc. Each review you leave will go to your Google front page and make you look smarter. This only works if you know enough about your industry to sound smart, of course. You can also do this for textbooks, or fiction that you like if you want to sound interesting.

6) Take five minutes to make an account on sites that allow descriptive profiles with your full name Quora, Yahoo Answers, DisQus, Meetup, or anywhere else you want. Feel free to participate in these communities to help even more, although it’s not necessary.

7) Here’s where you can have fun and really seem impressive. Go to Weebly.com and make a free website, called “yourfullname.weebly.com”. Set the page title to “Your Full Name Online” and the page description to “Your Full Name’s Online Website”. Write a paragraph about yourself on one page, and a page with links to your linkedin, Facebook, or anywhere else you want to show people. Go nuts and add anything else you want that might make you seem interesting.

Voila! In 7 days, I guarantee you will look very impressive to anyone searching for you on Google.