Do you ego surf?

I do. I’ll admit it. And I bet you do too….

And sometimes I find cool stuff! Like today. I don’t know if it will last – Google has a tendency to make changes and adjust their results continually – so not everything sticks. But I’m sort of hoping this change sticks around! If you search for my name right now on Google, there are Image Results, right in the middle of the regular search results! Now, it may seem silly to get so excited over that – I mean, so what? So they included a few photos in the main search – big deal.

But in my world, it is sort of a big deal.

Google Results

I’m a photographer – so I want my images to show up when you search for my name – that’s a great thing! So that’s the practical reason why I care.

In the more ego-driven part of my mind, I care for entirely different reasons. As a former SEO Pro, I still am avidly interested in how Google presents their results – I notice when they add to, or change, or tweak their results, even slightly. And in the past I’ve only seen Image Results as shown above when you searched for fairly high-profile people. So when I saw the results for my name, I instantly started to search for my friend’s names, and guess what? I found nothing. Then I started to search for the names of people who are somewhat well-known in certain circles – other photographers with higher profiles than mine – and still found nothing. Then I searched for people with even bigger names, and still nothing. In other words, I may be the least famous person on Google with Image Results showing in the middle of the regular search results!

Why does that make me happy? Well it sort of tells me that while I’m no longer a practicing SEO Pro, what I’ve been doing is working – and that makes me super happy. It’s GREAT to see positive results come from your expertise!

Ego surfing is definitely the norm – make no mistake, everybody does it! And my fun new status may disappear tomorrow – I wouldn’t be at all surprised if it did – but for today, it’s a sign that I’m doing something right, and believe me, I’ll take it!

5 Replies to “Do you ego surf?”

  1. I must be one of the odd ducks that doesn’t do this. But, now, after your post, I must to see what turns up. I can always say “Cheryl made me do it.” 😉

  2. I google myself, lol…and other things I have put out there – like marty pics…to see where they rank…

    You are clearly more famous than I… 🙂

    Google is what got me noticed for concert photography…I think, at the time, my blog ranked high on the concert photography + seattle search…

  3. Ah yes, I’m clearly more famous than you – today! But tomorrow? You regularly shoot very famous people – you’re totally link-bait! You’ll be bump, bump, bumping ahead of me in no time… I guarantee it.

  4. You show up in my googles a lot – we are connected;)

    I just started putting my name on everything over the last 2 years…and for the first several pages of my name google, I own it…which, is enough for me;)

    I have my full name attached to my flickr, myspace, facebook and website…so those are all the primary links that come up when I google me…

    the other 2 are the storm large interview, and no depression, since I joined their site after their festival here last summer, and loaded pix…

    I figure, as long as I am the main person people see when my name is googled, then it’s good – for now;)

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