Have you ever googled your own name to see what comes up in the search results? As an actor, you should do it often as casting directors are googling your name when you or your agent submits you for a project or if they see your name in a film’s credits. It’s important that the top few links point to imdb, an online profile, or a link to your work. Do this on a desktop browser so that you can turn off the private results by clicking the globe icon on the right hand side. This will give you a view of what others would see. For an example, here’s a search for “Burt Culver”.
The owner of a do-it-yourself search engine optimization website called BrandYourself.com pitched his company on Shark Tank Friday night. I checked the website out and the free service is pretty useful and helps you think about and understand how you can improve your online presence. I have a history in tech and search engine optimization (SEO) and it found things that I hadn’t thought about.
The first thing it does is google your name and present the search results. Then you pick out the search results that you want to have further up in the results. Then the website steps you through various ways to improve a page to increase it’s ranking in the search results. They have a great point system that shows you which steps are most important. There is no need to pay for the extra service unless you want. You can analyse and track 3 urls for free and I just analyzed and deleted a bunch of different urls in my third slot. You don’t have to analyse your name, you could use a business name or even the name of a film project if you wanted to boost the results for searches matching your film or web series.
One thing the website doesn’t cover is the section of search results with images. If the images that show up for your search results aren’t you or don’t reflect your acting then improve the SEO of the pages hosting the images that you do want to have show up. I did find a post in their blog that gives more detailed instructions.
This is one of my posts where I share something I’ve learned with other actors. I’m not super excited about SEO but how you look in google search results can have a significant effect on your career so make it something you check on regularly.