Own Your Name: What a Client Sees When They Google You

Try it now. Open a private browser window, type your full name into Google, and look at the first page the way a stranger would. Not the way you do, knowing which result is really you; the way a client does, with thirty seconds and a decision to make.

For most working people the page is a jumble. Other people who share your name. A directory entry from a company you left years ago. A conference bio nobody updated. A LinkedIn page, if you are lucky, that looks like every other LinkedIn page. Nothing on it says what you are good at now, whether you are available, or how to hire you. Someone is going to Google you this week: a client deciding whether to hire you, a recruiter, an old colleague. This is what they get.

Own your name is our answer, and most of it is free.

The page, and why it is different

Every public WorkOfficially profile is written to be found. That is not a slogan; it is a list of specific things the page does:

• A clean URL. Your name in the address, nothing else.
• Person structured data. The page tells search engines, in the schema.org format they read, that this page is about a person and what that person does.
• Your proof on one page. The verified badge, your reviews, your work history, what you do best and when you are available, together, with a button to hire you.
• Listed on Google. The page is in our sitemap, and the sitemap is updated when your page changes, so Google is told to come back.

Three things follow from that. You control what people see first. Your proof travels with you: verified employment through Career Bridge and real reviews, on one page, instead of scattered across sites you do not own. And a client who finds you here can hire you here, the same minute, with escrow on fixed-price work.

Free and Pro, in plain words

Free, with every account: the page itself, written to be found and listed on Google. There is no lesser version of the page for free members. If you never pay us anything, you still get the page a search for your name should land on.

Pro adds four things.

1. Your name on Google, once a month

Each month you get a short report: how often your page appeared when someone searched your name, and how many people opened it. Here is exactly where those numbers come from, because it matters. WorkOfficially owns workofficially.com, so Google Search Console gives us search data for the whole site. We hold that data, and for each Pro member we filter it down to searches for that member's name and that member's page. That is the report. You do not connect anything. There is no Google login, no key to create, no permission to grant; the data was already ours, and we are handing your slice of it to you.

The numbers are "at least" numbers. Google hides searches for rare phrases to protect the privacy of the people searching, and a full name is often a rare phrase. So if the report says your page appeared 14 times, it appeared at least 14 times. We would rather under-count and be right.

2. A domain of your own

Point a domain you already own at your page. You add a TXT record at your registrar to prove the domain is yours, then set a forward so the domain opens your page. Your WorkOfficially address keeps working alongside it, and nothing about the page itself changes.

3. No "more talent like this"

Profiles normally carry a module suggesting other freelancers. On Pro it is switched off on your page. A client who arrived by searching your name sees you and only you, which is the whole point of owning the page.

4. IndexNow on every change

When you change your page we send an IndexNow ping, so the search engines that support it hear about the change straight away. We want to be plain about the limit: Google does not use IndexNow. Google follows our sitemap, which is updated when your page changes. The ping helps elsewhere; the sitemap is what reaches Google.

The privacy trade-off

Being found is a choice. Some people cannot be visible, or do not want to be, and Own your name respects that with three modes.

• Open. Indexed under your full name, employer shown.
• Discreet. Indexed under your full name, employer and client names hidden. People find you; they do not find out who you work for.
• Hidden. Not indexed at all. The page is kept out of Google, invisible to viewers from the companies you name, and shows you as a first name and an initial. It still works for anyone you send the link to; it just does not advertise.

Hidden is the honest end of the scale. If you choose it, none of the search benefits apply, by design, and the monthly report will have nothing to report. That is the trade, and we would rather say so than let you discover it later.

What we do not claim

We never guarantee a position. Search results are Google's to decide, and anyone who tells you otherwise is selling something. What we can say is this: most people with an uncommon name reach page one for their full name within weeks; common names take longer and may share the page with others of the same name. A page that is built properly and kept current is the part you control, and that is the part we do for you.

Get your page

If you are new, create an account; the page comes with it. If you are already a member, open Own your name in your settings to choose your privacy mode and, on Pro, read this month's report or connect a domain. The overview, with everything above in one place, is at workofficially.com/own-your-name.

Then Google yourself again in a month and see what has changed.