The Common Man's Guide to Making Google Page 1 | Hacker News Reader

The Common Man's Guide to Making Google Page 1

johnnystartup.com

60 pointsphprida13 comments

When I Google search a colleague or prospective client, I have an expectation that I'll find them on the first page. If they don't have a presence on Page 1, the unconscious begins to think that they may not be as popular/powerful/influential than I had previously assumed.

I think I might cry the day someone says I'm not good enough because of my Google rating.

While he has a good plan on achieving the ratings, it seems disingenuous on the whole. He makes it to page one through social site manipulation and people may think he's better than he actually is.

Of course, walking into a bar and saying 'Just Google me' to some hot chick sounds interesting.

I'm upvoting you because this is a good and thoughtful comment, but it gets me thinking about chickens and eggs.

> He makes it to page one through social site manipulation and people may think he's better than he actually is.

I think of the chicken and the egg. It's easier to do interesting things in the world if you're connected with good people, and it's easier to connect with people if you're doing interesting things. So in this case, the author starts building himself on Google, kind of a hack of the process - but then he writes this interesting guide on how to do it, which people will notice and potentially remember him or reach out to him.

So I get where you're coming from, I agree that it'd be better to do amazing things and then try to get popular off those amazing things, but - a lot of amazing things never take off because no one knows their creator. This probably won't be the case for Johnny as he creates more things going forwards.

Of course, walking into a bar and saying 'Just Google me' to some hot chick sounds interesting.

That sounds like a terrible pick up line.

Writing a link-bait title about getting to page 1 of Google certainly won't hurt either :)

Actually, I inadvertently recently did some of the stuff he said. 1) On twitter I have 700+ following me... 2) To attend founder's dating[event hosted by seedcamp and techhub], I had to fill in my linkedin profile.

So, I did a search of my name: Chester Grant. Three of my profiles appeared on Google's page one.

Before I was no where to be found.

I clicked this link hoping it was about how to make a search engine, and this was the first page of many to come. Drats. :P

Did the search happen logged in or logged out?

Google customizes results based on history and what you clicked on.

Also, people in social circle? Sorry, not SEO

I don't happen to know him, and I checked, and he shows up at the bottom of the page when searching for his name. I think he must have done the search without being logged in.

shows up at the bottom i.e. the GProfile link?

If he shows up at the bottom, that means he did it while logged in (The only way that there would be that big of a disparity. )

No, I searched for him on my own computer and he shows up at the bottom.

I wasn't logged in as him. I don't subscribe to his blog on Google reader or have any social media connections to him. I didn't find the post through a google search. I don't have Google Toolbar installed.

John Valentine? That's childs play! Try having a name like Steve Schwartz, and then you can talk to me about how hard it is to show up on page one ;-)

Actually, I use it to my advantage. I started self-branding using the pseudonym JangoSteve for my web presence. Now, I can go out and cause all sorts of shenanigans, and I don't have to worry about people catching my shenanigans on google, because searching my name will find me somewhere on page 1,243.

Then again, if any of my startups really take off, I imagine that will become less and less true.

But seriously, he does have some good tips if getting your name up there is your thing.

most of his results are "people in your social circle" -- that doesnt count as getting on the frontpage. he only saw that because, well, he's friends with himself.

I would place securing yourname.com high on this short list (as well as using yourname everywhere possible via a tool like namechk.

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