Let’s face it, we’ve all done it at least once. We have Googled ourselves to see if we can be found via the Google search engines. If I Google myself, I find my Facebook and LinkedIn pages, the fact that I am the father of not only Brian Cashman but also harness racing, but also my obituary and the fact I was a basketball coach. The only information about me on page 1 that is about me are my social media profiles. On page 2, you find my Digital Firefly profile and the fact I was a chief test pilot for Boeing.

The fact is my name, John Cashman is one that a few other people share. And while there is no bad news that I can find on myself; my common name offers me some amount of protection. But to answer the question on why Google yourself? The best reason is to ensure that the news, images, and web search contain factual information about you and nothing that could be construed as negative. While my name may be common, many other people have unique names that do not offer as much protection if bad news does come there way. Monitoring your name on an ongoing basis can help ensure this doesn’t happen.

The Best Way to Google Yourself

The best way to google yourself automatically is to google yourself within Google News and set an alert around your name in quotation marks. Then select Result Type: Everything and How Many: All Results. Google will then email you anything regarding your name as it finds it and indexes it.