When you meet a prospect CUSTOMERand they express interest in you, your company or your offering, one of the first things they do is Google Your name.

Why? People trust Google and it search results have become much like those of an online brand AND marketing business card. They can make or break a deal. On the other hand, many individuals and companies trust Google to understand them and be able to accurately represent them in those results: they expect it to be able to “connect the dots”, but the algorithms are not ever so clever (at least not yet). In many cases, it's up to you to tell them who you are – to check the results for your name.

The following strategies will work for Google Search, Google Gemini, AI Overview, Bing Copilot, ChatGPT, Perplexity and a number of other emerging search engines because they all essentially work the same way. They will give you better control of your name and the reputation on all platforms and thus bring an ideal audience to your sales funnel.

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They follow three simple (but often time-consuming) stages:

1. Build your house

you MUST have a website online that you own and control. Search engines use that site as an authoritative source of information for you, and you can control how they perceive and represent you through the information it contains.

Such a site is often called the “entity home” and maintaining it involves keeping all content 100% up-to-date – a place where important facts about you are checked, compiled and cultivated. It's also important to include external references that corroborate what you say, which creates more extensive verification of your statements.

Information on the entity's website should, not surprisingly, be presented in a clear and consistent manner so that AI research and the auxiliary engines can understand it. Additionally, prioritize the elements you want algorithms to focus. This will more accurately present you to an audience as someone capable of solving their problems or adding value.

Search engines find a key reference point for ANY single person online. There are no exceptions, so if you don't intentionally create a home for your personal brand, they will find one for you. not control and leave the rest in the hands of a third party such as LinkedIn. My bet is that you don't want to give sites like that free reign.

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2. Be consistent everywhere

Once you've set up your entity home, make sure you haven't contradicted yourself elsewhere. Create a list of every platform you have a profile page on and update them.

Social media profiles on Facebook and LinkedIn are an obvious first step. Next, consider the profile pages you may have created over the years (and perhaps forgotten) on platforms such as Tumblr, friend, Mastodon, Goodreads, Trash rack, entrepreneur AND Search Engine Land.

Your company website is, of course, an important additional source of information, so have a profile page there (create one if you don't already) and update it regularly.

Finally, consider publicly editable data platforms such as Wikidata, Crunchbase AND IMDB. Fact-check and refresh any information and make sure everyone links back to your entity's homepage.

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3. Third party authentication

Now comes the hardest part.

Until now, you have fed algorithms, which have provided and confirmed all points of information across multiple sources. The problem is, just like humans, AI algorithms won't just take your word for it: they need corroborating evidence from other people to convince them you're telling the truth. In other words, you need to get third-party authentication. The question is, “Who can/should confirm what I say?”

First, find all the websites you don't check where you are the main topic and check the accuracy and consistency of the information, not least when it comes to your main message. Not every account/opinion has to be the same, of course, but they all have to be accurate. Where there are inconsistencies or when you can improve the relevance of the information, contact the publisher of the site and ask them to update it, but be aware that updating the information in this way may require some creative thinking.

Here are the main methods to do this:

• You do: Manage resources that appear independent but are under your control. Update, for example, profiles on all your company websites: I have profile pages on my company website (calicube.com), our education website (kalicube.academy) and our webinar series (kalicubeteusdays.com).
If you manage websites for associations or organizations related to your field, these can serve as excellent platforms for validation. They give the appearance of third-party authentication while maintaining control over the narrative and ensuring accuracy and consistency.

• Friends/colleagues do this: If the owner or author of the website is a colleague or friend, implementing updates is generally quite simple. These sources are particularly valuable as they come from a relevant and seemingly independent third party, and thus carry weight with both algorithms and human audiences.

• Ask a favor: This is the most difficult path, but often the most worthwhile. Being truly third-party means you have no connection to the publisher or author, and search algorithms will generally give them the most weight. This means it's worth your time to make the effort to ask for that “favor”, otherwise known as inclusion on select sites/resources.

In the short term, you can fool both human audiences and algorithms by publishing the same old content on sites you fully (or partially) control, or asking friends to help you out, but in the long run you'll need win the third – party certification.

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Search algorithms observe your brand online activity and simply repeat what they read in AI search and help engines. So communicating clearly with the audiences that matter most—by presenting content that's useful to them on the platforms they hang out in—means you'll be ready to win the personal branding game with a human audience. AND with search engines.