My colleague, James Slater, and I were debating over whether trying to rank for your name is a necessity or if it is purely vanity. Dave Naylor has previously told me trying to rank for my name is vanity, but I distinctly remember him looking to see if I ranked for my own name in Google when I came to Bronco and begged for a job! Plus I know full well that Dave’s name is a distinctive brand – well known in the SEO World.
I’m currently #2 for David Whitehouse, and I desperately want the #1 slot – in my opinion Google shouldn’t ever give that to me unless I become more famous than the other David Whitehouse, but I reckon if I keep on getting linked to from the SEO community I am bound to secure it.
Damn that guy above me
In my opinion, in the SEO community, if you are applying for a job as an SEO and you don’t rank #1 for your name, then that looks pretty bad on your part, surely?
So have any of you been guilty of trying to rank for your name? Who ranks #1 for their name?
By Carla Marshall, October 14, 2009 at 1:24 pm
When are you going to do a post about me? I need to get higher than #6 for Carla Marshall…….
By David Whitehouse, October 14, 2009 at 1:29 pm
Gimme a link and I might think about it
It won’t be for a few weeks though, my last two before this one were stalker pages – think I might upset my subscriber base of 89!
By David Whitehouse, October 14, 2009 at 1:29 pm
sorry I meant 8
By Kean, October 14, 2009 at 2:10 pm
I rank #1 for my name and the rest of the top 5 relate to me too.
I don’t think it’s vanity to rank for your name, if you’re lucky enough to be searched for you want people to find you quickly and not another person. Ranking #1 may be vanity but ranking highly can only be common sense.
Then again I’d hate to be the guy trying to rank for John Smith, at least i’m lucky in that my name is fairly unique.
By David Whitehouse, October 14, 2009 at 2:52 pm
You can tell Kean ranks number 1 for Kean Richmond, he’s linking with “Kean” instead (unlike Carla and I).
By Kean, October 14, 2009 at 3:48 pm
LOL. I hadn’t ever noticed that but yes it would be nice to increase ranking for my forename alone (this is definately vanity).
Unfortunately I have a University, Radio station and Google suggesting ‘Keane’ instead to contend with.