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Ask HN: How to become the first result of a Google search for a name?

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Re: Ask HN: How to become the first result of a Google search for a name?

#61

Post by pvtmert »

first of all, i think you made it over complicated. just gh-pages and cloudflare would work very well. you might need raw storage for your images and stuff use something like imgur.

increase those: - number of external links in your website - number of links to your website from external resources make them available in your public profile, fb, twitter, linkedin, github etc.

make your site multi paged somehow. so it will seen as resourceful (eg. you can make intro in the main page but add pages that explains how you did in some project and link them with first page)

include links of websites of companies you worked for

for fonts use googlefonts or some cdn, use same stuff for external resources this will have your site linked with billion visitor domains

have proper mobile version have https properly configured with hsts ^ these are important, use page speed insights to increase those

btw i didnt do anything much but when searched my domain comes in #3rd place, first 2 are linkedin and github. name is "mert akengin" domain is n0pe.me for reference.

Re: Ask HN: How to become the first result of a Google search for a name?

#62

Post by Bromskloss »

esnard wrote: post #60
Bromskloss wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wait a minute… https://static.iseeme.com/photo-upload-templates/BKC400/dedi...

sha1("date\n") == "a975c295ddeab5b1a5323df92f61c4cc9fc88207"

Haha, this is even more baffling! How did you know that?

PS: Might it have come from a botched attempt to hash the current date?

Re: Ask HN: How to become the first result of a Google search for a name?

#64

Post by tedmiston »

sixhobbits wrote: post #30

It definitely helps to have a unique name, but it's possible without. A lot of good advice in this thread, but as someone who achieved what you want, some extra points: * Don't focus on one site. Spread your content around on as many sites as possible and link each one back to your home page. This is easier than you might expect -- nearly all tech sites are looking for content creators, whether or not they explicitly…

I'll second the point about creating a hub. I've pushed my personal site + blog to the first page for my name using this technique.

https://www.google.com/search?q=Taylor+Edmiston&ie=UTF-8&oe=...

I link back to it from everywhere, especially my social profiles.

The blog is more important in terms of content, so I'm planning to transition to that being my main hub with everything else as a profile page on that site eventually.

I also previously had the rest of the first page with my social profiles until someone with the same name as me got arrested and convicted of murder, and that press sunk my links to page two. On top of that, another person with the same name is getting married and their marriage sites are ahead too but I think that's temporary and they'll sink afterwards. I've started including my middle initial in social profiles which helps differentiate.

Re: Ask HN: How to become the first result of a Google search for a name?

#65

Post by tedmiston »

SOLAR_FIELDS wrote: post #58
cdibona wrote: post #19

To some degree, this is a Sisyphean task: Google doesn't have one solitary index or signal anymore, it's extremely personalized. So even if you are number one for you, it's extremely likely that you won't be for much of the rest of the world. And this assumes you have a unique-ish name/site/project.

You could at least get a better idea by searching with the !g bang through DDG. It won't solve the problem of other people's personal filters, but at least you'll get an objective result not based on your own.

Since !g just redirects to a normal Google search url, I don't see how this would be any different than searching Google directly.

Re: Ask HN: How to become the first result of a Google search for a name?

#66

Post by tedmiston »

throw_away2 wrote: post #13
rampage101 wrote: post #12

There are no simple hacks to get to the top. You need people to be searching for your name, find your link, and then spend time on the page. It helps a lot if you have posts that show up on Reddit, or other social networks. Since there is no content at all on your site there's no way anybody will stay on your page.

How does Google figure out if visitors stayed on the page? Chrome telemetry (creepy)? Google Analytics (are you required to use this to get a good ranking)?

Usage of Google Analytics doesn't affect your PageRank, but it is one way to find out what people that clicked through to your site searched for to find it.

Re: Ask HN: How to become the first result of a Google search for a name?

#67

Post by tedmiston »

UweSchmidt wrote: post #56
tonymet wrote: post #48

just buy paid adwords for your name. the cpc will be rock-bottom (no one else is buying) and you won't pay very often. Prob $5/mo tops

Can you elaborate? Does google reward you if you pay up? It cannot possibly be about the ad that is generated somewhere?

He's saying that you'll be able to easily get the ad space that appears above the list of unsponsored results. Since your name is a relatively unique phrase, it's unlikely other people would compete for those ads, so your cost should be low.

Re: Ask HN: How to become the first result of a Google search for a name?

#68

Post by egypturnash »

The first link I get for "Viktor Vojnovski" is what I assume is your twitter. Which has a link to your site. Isn't that good enough? https://twitter.com/vojnovski?lang=en

And your site is like link number five on the first results page for me. So that's climbing the ranks pretty fast.

I have done absolutely zero SEO and my personal site (egypt.urnash.com) is the first result for every search for "egypt urnash" I've ever done on any search engine. I have also had this URL be my main presence on the internet for at least a decade, I've lost track. There's a ton of content on there with lots of links pointing to it, too. Have patience. And put some stuff on your site.

Re: Ask HN: How to become the first result of a Google search for a name?

#69

Post by janesvilleseo »

Ironically, this post will actually help you achieve what you are looking to do. As another has mentioned it is now on page 1 for me. And as another has said search results are now personalized.

So how do you get it to #1 for your name. Content can help but is not 100% needed in this case. Your name is rather unique. I am in the similar situation as I have a fairly unique name too.

So what I recommend is making your site a destination. Make sure all your social profiles link to the domain. Reference your name in the link where possible. LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, Github, etc.

Lastly as someone else has mentioned, give it some time. It will move up as you build up the importance of the website.

And if you want, while you could change domains to include your name, you could also just have a page (url) that has your full name in it.

Re: Ask HN: How to become the first result of a Google search for a name?

#70

Post by perryprog »

chenshuiluke wrote: post #50

Don't worry about making your personal site the first result. Having your name spread out across multiple sites can help give searchers a more wholistic view of who are and what you have done in the past that makes you stand out. Here's what I did: I negotiated with my parents before I was born to give me a unique name. I made a github profile with lots of projects. I wrote a short crappy book for Amazon Kindle. I wa…

>Here's what I did: I negotiated with my parents before I was born to give me a unique name.

Yeah, this is really helpful for SEO, so if you haven't done this yet for your personal site, go do that!

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