Source: crystaljingsr on Flickr

I’m hunting… Right now, I’m searching through the major search engines to learn about each person in this semester’s #jenclass. I’m searching through Google, Bing, Yahoo and Pipl. Each turn up  Each turn up interesting facts about my students… And so far, even the most savvy could be taking more advantage of their searchability.

I’ll probably remind each person a few things:

• Blog consistently using your name
• Leave comments on other websites and make sure you link to your website with that comment
• Participate in more sites
• If you can get a custom URL, get one and make it as close to your name as possible
• When you blog, make sure you use keywords and put your name in those keywords

If there is anyone else out there with your name (and I’m sure there is), there’s even more reason to create new content as often as possible. The longer and more consistent you are with creating material for the web, the easier and higher you turn up in the search results.

I tell my students that employers will search for you just like you search for a person’s name before you go out on a date. The little discoverable moments will help that employer know if he or she wants to spend more time courting you for a new job. The effort you put in now to create an established name on the web will be rewarded when an employer can easily see how great and worthy you are for employment.