How do you get found on Google?
It comes down to three things: pages that clearly belong to you, the same details across all of them, and enough time for Google to connect the dots and trust them. Google isn't judging whether you're interesting. It's working out whether a scattered set of profiles, mentions and pages all point to the same real person. The clearer and more consistent that trail, the more reliably your name lands on you.
The quickest wins are the ones fully in your hands: the same name and bio on every profile, those profiles linked to each other, and one page that pulls them together into a single identity.
How do you show up in AI search (ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity)?
AI assistants mention you when they can read a consistent, structured description of who you are from sources they trust. Unlike Google, they rarely crawl a single page and rank it. They answer from facts that line up. If three or four places describe you the same way, an assistant will happily repeat it. If nothing does, it either guesses or backs off.
So the work for AI findability overlaps almost completely with the work for Google: stay consistent, get corroborated. The one extra step is being machine-readable, structured so an assistant can pull facts about you straight out rather than guess them from prose. That's what Search Presence builds for you: a verified, structured identity an assistant can read directly.
Why can't people find you when they search your name?
Usually because your trail is scattered or contested. You post across five platforms, but nothing links them, so Google sees five weak signals instead of one strong one. Or a namesake with a longer track record already owns the result. Or your name shows up slightly differently on each profile, so none of it backs the other up.
None of that means you did anything wrong. It just means the signals that would point to you haven't been joined up yet.
What makes you findable: the checklist
The levers you actually control, roughly in order of impact:
- Use the exact same name, handle and photo on every profile. Consistency is the single strongest signal you own.
- Fill in every profile's bio and link fields. An empty profile backs up nothing.
- Link your profiles to each other so a crawler can walk between them.
- Publish one identity page that lists your verified accounts and states your key facts in a structured, machine-readable way.
- Keep it current. A stale profile quietly drags the whole picture down.
How long does it take to be found on Google?
Weeks to months, not days, and anyone promising faster is selling you something. This stuff compounds: every consistent signal you add makes the next one count for more, but Google re-crawls and re-scores on its own schedule. A brand-new identity page won't instantly leapfrog your established LinkedIn for your name. It starts adding to the picture and gets stronger from there.
The realistic goal isn't to game a ranking. It's to make yourself easy to understand, to hand Google and AI a clean, verified identity to recognise, then let that build. Want to see where you stand right now? Search Presence scores your findability from real signals instead of a guess.