The "nameplate page"

A couple of weeks ago, a client asked me to correspond with the graphic designer he had been working with. When the designer and I talked, he mentioned some information about me that he had obviously gotten by Googling my name. It wasn't anything that I minded him knowing, but it did remind me that anybody who does this will find out various things about me: that I wrote a book, that I have several web design-related web sites, and that I have made lots of posts on certain web design newsgroups, some of them not entirely serious.

So recently, when I read Lifehacker: 88 Tech Tricks to Turbocharge Your Day by Gina Trapani, I paid attention to her section on creating what she calls a "nameplate page". The idea is that you can take charge, at least to some extent, of what Google presents to the world in connection with your name. In addition to being circumspect about what you post under your name online, you might want to post a brief web site at a domain associated specifically with your own name. The goal is to have that page come up first, or at least high, in Google searches for your own name, so that curious searchers will be more likely to be given information and links that you have chosen than to find random sites where your name is posted.

It seemed like a good idea, so I now have a little "digital business card" at www.pattyayers.com. I already owned the domain, so it didn't cost me anything, and only took a few minutes. Whether it helps to maintain my sterling reputation remains to be seen!