Don’t Forget to Put Your Name On It

courtesy of NatalieMaynor

By Jennifer Blanchard

A few months ago my writing coach told me that she “Googled” my name and no references to me came up on the first page.

She told me although it takes time to rank with Google, I needed to get my name on that first page.

I didn’t really think much of it. I figured at some point, if I kept putting content out there, I’d be ranked on Google.

But as I was posting the most recent guest post on Procrastinating Writers, I realized a huge—but obvious—mistake I had been making for almost a year and a half: I wasn’t putting my byline on any of my posts.

Over the last few weeks, I’ve been adding my byline to all of my posts (slowly, but surely!). Now my name is finally ranking on the first page of Google.

Here’s how to avoid the mistake I’ve been making for almost 16 months now:

Put Your Name on It.

It’s as simple as it sounds. Put your name on it: your blog posts, articles, Flickr images, YouTube videos, etc. Claim them as yours (as long as they actually are yours, of course).

Here are some reasons why.

Putting your name on it:

• Shows that it is yours. You wrote/created it.
• Can help position you as an expert. As you get your name out there more and more, people will start to refer to you.
• Can help your search engine ranking, allowing people to find you more easily.

You’d be amazed how many times you walk past a “no-duh” opportunity and don’t even realize it.