Originally published Monday, July 30, 2012 at 5:55 AM
Kardashian, Limbaugh and you: how they rate on Google
The website BrandYourself.com offers a free grade on how good you look on your first page of a Google search.
Seattle Times staff reporter
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The website BrandYourself.com offers a free grade on how good you look on your first page of a Google search. Something like 96 percent of people never look past that first page, so it is a good indication of how they perceive you.
Of course, BrandYourself would like you to upgrade to a "premium" account that can range from $9.99 a month to $79.99 a year. But it does say, "Part of our mission is to help everyone take control of their own search results with no price barrier. That's why our basic features are 100% free."
Here are the grades for local and national personalities, with comments from Patrick Ambron, co-founder & CEO of the Syracuse, N.Y, firm.
Pete Carroll: A+
Bill Gates: A+
Paul Allen: B+ ("4 'not me'; meaning it was a different Paul Allen")
Jay Inslee: B ("2 negative results, one 'not me' ")
Rob McKenna: C+ ("4 negative results, one 'not me' ")
Dan Savage: A- ("one negative fake Twitter account posting as him")
Bill O'Reilly: B- ("3 negative including billoreillysucks.com, and one 'not me' ")
Brad Pitt: B+
Angelina Jolie: A-
Michelle Obama: A+
Barack Obama: A+
Mitt Romney: B ("one negative, and as an aside, some terrible news stories about his Olympics blunder")
Sarah Palin: B ("one negative, and also very little bad news on the top")
Fred Willard: A+
Sean Hannity: B, ("one negative")
Rachel Maddow: A+
Rush Limbaugh: C
Glenn Beck: B- ("two negative")
Howard Stern: A
Michael Savage: C ("4 negative")
Dori Monson: B ("3 negative")
Dave Ross: B+ ("4 'not me' he shares his name with a comedian and an online marketer, but still has the top results")
Luke Burbank: B+ ("one negative")
Ron Upshaw of The Ron and Don Show: B+ ("nothing negative but 4 'not about me' ")
Don O'Neill of The Ron and Don Show: F ("a few negative postings. Also competing with a famous painter and a well known designer")
Dave "Softy" Mahler: B- ("nothing negative but 7 'not about me' ")
Kim Kardashian: C+
Katy Perry: A
Russell Brand: B
Howard Schultz: A+
Jeff Bezos: A+
Clay Bennett: C+
David Stern: C ("one negative post and 6 'not me' ")
Tom Cruise: B ("3 negative")
Katie Holmes: C- ("five negative")
(Why Tom Cruise beats Katie Holmes: "He has more positive content out there about him on the web. He's had enough positive content around some credible places in the web to keep them relevant and on the first page, enough to even keep some of the negative Scientology stuff off the first page. She has more negative content about the divorce out there on the web. You combine that with the fact she had less positive content to begin with (she hasn't been around as long or in as many popular movies), her results suffer more.")
Mike McGinn: A+ ("McGinn is able to keep negative content off the first page because he does a very deliberate job of creating and maintaining high ranking content that fills his first page. He has a personal website, a Twitter account and Facebook account ... These push other negative things that might otherwise show up on that first page. Google sees a .gov site as really credible because since you can't simply go and register a .gov domain name yourself, so the fact that Mike McGinn has a bunch of content on .gov sites really helps him.)









