Sean Blanda is out to own Blanda. I wish him well. It will be a tough task. (Note on those links: There’s two of them. The first to his post; the second to help his SEO by linking his root domain to the word he wants to own).
I’ve never set out to own “howard” or “owens” in Google. I score very poorly in both (I gave up on each after going five pages deep, so I may not show up at all). My friend Ken Layne used to be the #1 Ken on Google. That’s like, wow!. Then he stopped blogging on his personal site for a long time, and even now his blogging is light on the links in and out to other bloggers. Result: he’s fallen to #6.
Previously: Owning your name in search, variations and nuances
I fall in and out of the first page of Google results for “hartnett,” which I think is a decent showing considering the inexplicable fame of this guy.
The war for Sholin rages between myself and… my mother. Currently, I’m ahead in Google, but Mom is beating me on Yahoo.
Thanks for the boost Howard. My friend Brian Kirk just wrote about this as well.
I added a sidebar link to help your cause as well.
….. as well.
Now that actress turned Hollywood real estate agent Leah Lail isn’t in the news much, I do very well for “lail.” I only trail Robin Lail’s toney Lail Vineyards. Now Jack’s another story.
Kind of strange to just want to own one part of your name. Usually, that’s not how people look for us using Google, nor how we end up showing up in Google–it’s usually for both names. With the plethora of social media out there, it’s easy to build “personal brand” or “online profile” (pick your buzz concept here) for whatever name you choose to use to brand yourself. But one should do something to make one’s name unique to search. Hence, I’m “Tish Grier” vs. “Trish Grier” although I show up under #2 as well, if anyone mistypes.
As for “Howard Owens” in Google–you certainly own that brand! You beat out Howard T. Owens, who’s the executive producer of Billy Ray Cyrus’ new show, Nashville Star, by several pages.
Given how big Hollywood egos are, I figure Howard T. Owens is really, really pissed at me.
Within insider circles, he’s a big deal … maybe not a big public figure, but he’s a major mover in entertainment.