An assistant already has an opinion about you, built from six things: what you say about yourself, what's actually yours online, who backs you up, the tone that follows you, whether it resolves you correctly, whether the story still fits.

Ask an assistant who competes with your company, then ask the same question about each one it just listed. The list rarely points back – one might mention you, the other two usually won't.

Count how many of your own first five search results you actually own. A dormant listing, a former hire's profile, a review page outranking the homepage – none of it a hack against you.

By the time you say a word you have been introduced already – an old search result, a profile for a job you no longer do, one sentence an assistant repeats. None of it is what you would lead with.

Search the thing you sell, not your name. The problem, in a buyer's words. Not on that page? Somebody else is answering a question that was about you.