Everybody’s doing it.

Google a business associate. Google a potential partner. Google someone you might hire. Google a potential blind date.

No matter who you meet, everyone’s Googling each other to see who people are, and if they’re everything they claim to be.

For business owners, this is a practice that we must turn into a weekly habit for our own name, company, websites and keyword searches. Googling your name will serve a variety of purposes such as…

You’ll see how often you’re published in the media.
You’ll discover if anyone has blogged about you lately, so you can comment on their blog and reply to their kind posts. (This is an easy way to be on top of things in a timely manner, as it’ll look like you have sophisticated software that finds your name/company all throughout the internet.)
You’ll uncover if anyone is trashing your name, or misrepresenting you. (And quickly resolve the matter.)
You’ll even find if your competitor has “lifted” something from your website to use on their site, due to the “wording similarity” between both your websites. (Then you can take necessary action.)
You’ll see how many pages deep your name, website or keywords your identity is listed on, which will motivate you to blog more, and submit additional articles, quotes to the media or general PR.
Afterall, if everybody is Googling you, aren’t you curious what they’re seeing/reading about you when they do?