Sorry I’ve not been posting any “real” posts for awhile. Like everyone else in the journalism business, I’ve taken on more work than I can really handle, which makes me dead inside by the time I get home. I have still been scouring my usual haunts for helpful links and news, though, so you’ll see a lot of that.

Anyway, in the forever since I posted, Google has been tinkering with their services – making a new option available that could rival Facebook to be your “must have” social media profile. The Google Profile essentially allows you to control your presence on Google searches. You can enter all the info you’d want to make available when someone Googles you: Your name, your city, what you do and links to all of your social media accounts. When you have it all set up, you’ll get something like this when you search for yourself on Google:

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If you have a Gmail or Google account, you already have the means to set this up. If not – get a Google account already (they have tons of tools you could be using). When you are signed in to Google, go to where it says My Account. On that page, you can go to edit your profile.

Add a photo, add the cities you’ve lived and what you do for a living (or what you did before you were laid off). Google has a nifty search built in to the profile page that searches for your accounts on tons of social media sites, blogs and other web services. Claim whatever is yours and give it links to anything it is missing – thus making an easy hub for all that online work you’ve been doing.

That’s it! Now you’re easy to find on Google – even if your website has terrible SEO.