Mitchell Harper raised an interesting question on his blog by asking whether people with online credibility should be leveraging the power of their name's Google search results to inform prospects.

He explains that the 3rd party content found on Google will likely build a more credible picture than anything you say about yourself on your own blog:

For more information about me, just Google me.

Someone else's opinion of you or your products will always hold more authority and trust than you bragging about yourself. By having the balls (excuse my french) to tell people to Google you, and even providing them with the link directly, you allow them to read about you from the perspective of other people, and assuming you don't have any sour deals in your past this could be a great way to get the trust you need to close a sale, convince a prospect to give you time for a meeting, etc.

I think Harper may be on to something here. Google search results do build credibility, so if you're experienced and credible online, the search engine results for your name should help tell your story in a very compelling manner.

For my name, I'm fairly satisfied with the results. However, I've been an active participant on the web for much longer than average. It also helps to have an uncommon - but by no means unique - name. This adds up to around 90% of the top-100 results having something to do with Ed Kohler as in me rather than some other Ed Kohler like my father.

With that in mind, what do your search engine results look like? Are you comfortable pointing your prospects to Google for confirmation?