You aren't Googling yourself enough (and it shows)

I've been Googling myself and my clients in AI Mode for a while now, and there's a lot you can learn from how Google interprets who you are and what you're known for.

Key Takeaways

• Google AI Mode can show you how your personal or brand reputation is being interpreted online, including what you’re known for and which sources are influencing that understanding.

• Your website isn’t the only source shaping how Google understands you. LinkedIn, media coverage, directory listings, reviews and other third-party mentions can all contribute to your wider online reputation.

• Regularly Googling yourself or your brand can uncover outdated information, inconsistent messaging and reputation gaps, while also helping you identify the topics, expertise and frameworks you’re already becoming known for.

I Google myself a lot. That probably sounds a bit egotistical, but I promise there is a reason for it.

Once I started doing it, I began to notice just how much information there is in the answers. Not just whether you show up, but how Google interprets who you are and the sources it's using to come to that conclusion. The most interesting part has been watching those answers change over time.

Google's interpretation changes over time, based on new information

When I first started searching for myself in AI Mode, I was described as a digital marketing specialist and founder of Red Queen Marketing. Then I started seeing the word “entrepreneur” come through. More recently, I've started showing up as an expert in SEO and Digital PR and seeing much more specific information about the work I actually do.

I've been taking screenshots as I've gone because I wanted to see how it changed over time from July to August. 3 results over 3 dates, as I ended up in different articles and directories. Use the slider to view

• 

  18 July Results from searching who is Michelle Tansey

• 

  1 August search results from asking who is Michelle Tansey

• 

  11 August search results for asking who is Michelle Tansey

When you start looking at the sources behind the answers, you can see that it’s more than just your website that it pulls from. It's pulling from my LinkedIn, my About page on Red Queen Marketing, my personal Michelle website, directories and third-party websites where I've been featured, mentioned or contributed to.

One of the more obvious changes happened was after I filled out my profile for a mentoring platform GrowthMentor. I gave them information about my background, what I'm good at and what I can mentor people on. I self published a profile, and their team also featured an interview with me as a customer success story. Within a day or two it became another third-party source about me, and that’s when I started seeing the word “expert” pop up in the results. 

Your most recent mentions and links play a large role in informing the internets opinion of you

I've also noticed recency seems to play a part in what gets surfaced. So you can't just sit with that one media mention from 10 years ago, you need to keep feeding it.

For example, location-based information started appearing more frequently and prominently after a team member recently put me in a few relevant directories.

I also wrote an article for an NDIS-related website a few months ago, about my personal experience as a sister to two disabled brothers. It was something I did for advocacy, not for work, but for a period it became quite prominent when I searched for myself because it was the most recent thing I’d written about (beyond my personal channels). . At the time, it was also one of the more recent third-party articles about me online.

That's why I now pay attention not just to what Google says about me, but where it's getting that information from and what's been added or updated recently. Because sometimes the things influencing how you're being interpreted online aren't necessarily the things you're actively thinking about.

One piece of high quality coverage and expertise sharing equalled Google calling him an expert

We recently got coverage for a client on nine.com.au where his expert commentary was used and the article was syndicated across some websites. We also got him an expert article on a smaller media site.  

When I Googled him a week later in AI Mode, he was now being described as an expert commentator.

This is where I think it gets really interesting because it demonstrates the growth impact of Digital PR. When you're getting someone featured in the media as an expert, you're not just getting a piece of coverage or a link. You're creating another third-party source that connects that person with their expertise and backs up what they say about themselves elsewhere online.

I've now seen versions of this with my own results and with clients, which is why I've started paying much more attention to what changes when we get new third-party mentions, links or profiles live.

That being said there is a commercial impact and the example for that came from a completely different client

One client had changed their business. The internet was still five years behind.

We worked with an online sauna retailer that had been in business for more than 20 years. The business had historically done custom sauna builds but had pivoted to also selling prefab and DIY saunas online. They'd updated their website and About Us page, to reflect the change. So if you looked at their website, what they did was pretty clear.

We’d been working with them for a while and they were getting great traffic and rankings but we were noticing they seemed to hit a rankings ceiling when showing up for searches like "buying a sauna online". So we went back to basics and searched for the brand itself. Who are they? What do they do?

When we searched them across Google AI Mode, Gemini and GPT, they were all pulling from old information. There were outdated directory listings, review websites and even a LinkedIn bio that hadn't been touched in five years. They'd updated the website, but they hadn't updated the rest of their online footprint. So we decided to test what would happen if we did.

We went through 16 of the highest-impact good quality (not the seo spammy ones) directory listings and updated them. We added new listings where there were gaps. Then we aligned the messaging across their other owned profiles including Google Business Profile, socials, LinkedIn and product review profiles.

We waited a month and checked again.

This time, the description had changed. AI was now describing them as a "wellness distributor and online sauna retailer", which was much closer to the business they had become. We started seeing movement on the commercial terms we'd been trying to improve, they eventually hit #1 for "sauna" with their sauna shop page and #2 for “buying a sauna online” and other related terms. 

There are obviously lots of things contributing to SEO performance, but this experiment gave us a really clear example of how changing those signals across the web could change the way the business itself was being understood.

And it also changed how I think about a link building tactic as simple as an old directory listing.

It’s not just your reputation, Googling yourself can help you create content from your content.

This is probably my favourite part because it's something I've started using for content as well. If you've been writing articles, posting on LinkedIn, appearing in media, contributing commentary and generally sharing your thoughts online for years, there is a lot of information about what you think sitting around the internet.

So when I'm stuck, I can search myself and start asking AI Mode questions like:

• What frameworks has Michelle Tansey developed?

• What concepts is Michelle Tansey known for?

• What does Michelle Tansey consistently talk about?

• What opinions does Michelle Tansey have about link building?

• What is Red Queen Marketing known for?

• 
  

And suddenly you've got another way to look at your own work and develop your own frameworks. You can even download the results straight into a Google Doc and start working through them.

And guess what? Those ideas aren't unoriginal because AI gave them to you. After all, it summarises your thinking. Your articles. Your LinkedIn posts. Your commentary. Your concepts. Your digital footprint.

And if it gets you wrong, that's useful too

This is the other reason I think people should be doing this regularly. If you Google your business and the description is wrong, outdated or doesn't really sound like you, that's information you can use.

If the information is wrong, take a look at the sources. Is it an old directory still describing what your business did five years ago or has it picked it up from some old Linkedin content.

The same applies to your content. If you ask what frameworks or concepts you're known for and the answer is all over the place, maybe the way you're communicating those ideas isn't clear enough yet.

That's not necessarily a bad result. It's showing you where there might be a gap. This is why I keep Googling myself. I'm not particularly interested in seeing my own name on a screen. I'm interested in seeing whether what I think I'm putting out into the world matches what is

coming back.

So, Google yourself