On this page
Start with a search you have probably never done
Open a private window, so Google is not personalising anything, and search your full name. Save a screenshot of page one. Note three things: whether a panel appears, whether the results are about you or someone else, and which of your profiles shows up first.
If a panel already shows and it is yours, skip to the claim. If someone else dominates the page, read the namesake warning in step three before you change anything. Everyone else starts here.
Enter your weekly hours. The plan below adds up to about 36 hours of setup. The panel window that follows is Google's, so treat it as a range.
Make LinkedIn the master copy
Before you copy LinkedIn everywhere, make sure it is worth copying. These six fields are the ones Google lines up against your other pages, so settle them first and change them rarely after.
The spelling you will use for the rest of your career. If you use a middle initial, use it everywhere. Set your custom LinkedIn URL to match it.
Choose the headshot you will use on every platform and keep the original file. The same image, not a similar one.
Those eight words become your identity line on every other site. Make them plain enough that a stranger could repeat them.
The place you want to be known in. It should match your site, your speaker bios and your company page.
Your identity sentence, word for word. Stories and proof come after it, never before.
One link, to a page on your own domain. Not a link-in-bio service.
Our ordered profile checklist covers everything else on the profile, and the Profile Read Test scores what a buyer reads in the first eight seconds.
Part one of the claim, shown on screen: what has to be true before the claim option appears at all.
Copy the master to everywhere else
Now the copying. Start with a page on your own domain: the identity sentence as its first paragraph, the same photo above the fold, and links to LinkedIn and your other profiles. Then go platform by platform.
| Where | What to copy from LinkedIn | Time |
|---|---|---|
| Your own site | Identity sentence, photo, city, links to every profile | 6 to 8 hours |
| Company website team page | Name, photo, headline words, a link to your page | 30 minutes |
| YouTube and X | Display name, photo file, about text, one link | 1 hour |
| Podcast and event bios | Send hosts the new short bio to paste in | 1 hour |
| Directories and associations | Name, city, headline words | 2 hours |
Your own site first, because every other profile will point at it.
Make your pages clearly different from theirs: your city, your company, your field, said the same way everywhere. Never edit records that belong to the other person, including open databases like Wikidata. It gets your own changes rejected.
The banner is not read by Google, but it is read by every person who arrives from a search. Worth getting right while you are in the profile.
Weeks four to eight: the mentions LinkedIn cannot give you
LinkedIn is your own description of yourself. Google wants to hear it from other people too. Over these weeks, aim for three to five pages on other sites that name you correctly and describe you in your words: a podcast episode page, a guest article, an association listing, a partner's case study, a local press piece.
Give every host the same short bio, so they repeat your identity line exactly. Comments help too, in a smaller way; commenting as distribution explains how to make them land on the right people.
The eight-week checklist
Saved in this browser, so you can come back to it.
0 of 11 done
- Week one
- Weeks two and three
- Week four
- Weeks five to eight
- When the panel appears
The claim, when the panel arrives
You cannot claim a panel that is not showing yet. When yours appears, the steps are short: open the panel, choose the option to claim it, sign in to the Google account you will keep for good, and verify. The form asks why you are claiming. Answer with evidence Google can already see: your own page, your LinkedIn, the outside mentions. Not with why you want it.
When to stop doing it yourself
- Your name is uncommon and page one is mostly about you already
- You can keep four to five hours a week for two months
- You already have people who would mention you on their sites
- A namesake owns your search results today
- You stalled in week two once already
- Your hours are worth more on the work than on the record
The done-for-you version runs the same route with our team doing the copying, the outreach and the claim packet. Either way, these help:
Questions people ask next
Can I get a Google Knowledge Panel from LinkedIn alone?
Should I change my LinkedIn custom URL?
What if my name is very common?
How do I claim my Knowledge Panel?
Does LinkedIn Premium help get a panel?
Halfway and unsure?
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