How to rank your name on Google.

What Google shows for a name, and why

A name is an ambiguous query. There may be dozens of people called what you are called, so Google tries to work out which person the searcher means and shows pages it trusts that clearly match that person. Three things decide what wins:

• Clarity. The page is unmistakably about one person: name, role, company, location and a photo that match other pages.
• Trust. The page sits on a site Google already trusts: a major profile network, an established publication, your own long-standing domain.
• Connection. The pages point to one another, so Google can see they describe the same person.

Everything below is a way of giving Google more of those three things.

Step 1: pick the exact name you want to rank for

Decide on one form of your name and use it everywhere: with or without a middle initial, a shortened first name or the full one. “Jon A. Smith” and “Jonathan Smith” can look like two different people to a search engine. If your name is very common, the version with a middle initial or a professional suffix is often easier to own.

Step 2: claim the profiles Google already trusts

These are free, fast and usually the first results to appear:

• LinkedIn. Make the profile public, set a custom URL with your name, and write a headline that says what you do.
• Your company’s team or about page. A short bio, your photo and your role, on a page with your name in the title.
• Industry profiles. Crunchbase for founders; your professional body’s directory for lawyers, doctors and advisers; speaker and author pages where they apply.
• Social accounts you actually use. X, Instagram or YouTube, with the same name, photo and one-line bio.

Use the same photo and the same one-line description on every profile. It sounds cosmetic, but it is how Google (and people) tell you apart from namesakes.

Step 3: own one page that is about you

Either a personal site on a domain with your name, or a dedicated page on your company site (for example yourcompany.com/about/your-name). Put your name in the page title, the URL and the main heading, write a real bio, and add Person structured data that lists your profiles in sameAs. That list is how you tell Google “these are all me.”

{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "Person",
  "name": "Your Name",
  "jobTitle": "Founder & CEO",
  "worksFor": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Your Company" },
  "image": "https://yourname.com/photo.jpg",
  "url": "https://yourname.com/",
  "sameAs": [
    "https://www.linkedin.com/in/your-name/",
    "https://www.crunchbase.com/person/your-name"
  ]
}

Step 4: get coverage that carries your name

Profiles and your own page fill three or four spots. The rest of page one is usually coverage: interviews, profiles and features on publications Google already trusts. For coverage to rank on your name, the name has to be where search engines look first.

• In the headline and the URL of the article.
• In the first paragraph, not buried in paragraph six.
• In the image alt text and caption.
• Ideally on a profile page on the publication that lists everything written about you.

Earned press is the gold standard if you can get it. Our guide to getting featured in a magazine compares the routes. Paid features work too, provided they are labelled as sponsored and their links are marked rel="sponsored", which is what Google’s policies require.

Step 5: connect everything

Link from your own page to your profiles and your coverage, and from your profiles back to your page. Add each new feature to your sameAs list or your press page. Every link between two pages about you makes it easier for Google to treat them as one person rather than several.

Step 6: submit, then measure

• Verify your own site in Google Search Console, submit its sitemap, and use URL Inspection to request indexing of your about page.
• Search your name in a private window at day 7 and day 30 after each new page goes live, and note which results moved.
• Keep a simple list of the ten results on page one. When one of yours enters it, you can see exactly which step did it.

If there is something you do not want on page one

Be clear-eyed about what can and cannot be removed.

• Your contact details and ID numbers. Google’s Results about you tool finds results showing your phone number, email, home address or government ID numbers and lets you request their removal from Search. It removes the result from Google, not the page from the internet.
• Outdated pages. If a page has changed or been deleted but Google still shows the old version, you can ask Google to refresh it.
• Legitimate news and reviews. These are not removed on request. The honest remedy is to publish stronger, accurate pages that deserve to rank above them, which takes months, not days. Be wary of anyone who promises to delete a real article.

Our reputation management service is built around that second approach.

How long it takes

Profiles on major networks often index within days. A new page on your own site or a new feature typically appears for an uncommon name within a few weeks. If you share your name with someone famous, you may never outrank them, and nobody honest will promise you will. You can still own the results for your name plus your company or your profession, which is what most people actually search.

How we do this for clients

Every Blue Leopard feature is built around step 4: your name in the headline, URL, first paragraph and image alt text; NewsArticle and Person structured data; a profile page on the publication; and same-day submission to Google. We check where it ranks at day 7 and day 30 and send you the data. If a feature is not ranking by day 30, we strengthen it or publish a second piece. See PR for founders and executives for the details.