The latest on G+ Help File Settings Tab from Spencer Wade

The latest on G+ Help File Settings Tab from Spencer Wade

Originally shared by Spencer Wade

Highlights of the G+ Help File Settings Tab: Making Simple Changes

With the constant stream of new apps on the market, not to mention the age of some of the first accounts many of us created, it can be tough to be sure you always use the correct information to create your profile. It’s not uncommon for a user to begin their profile under one name, only to want to change it to their personal name after some time. The same thing can be said for birthdays as well. Maybe that information wasn’t something you wanted to include when you were new to a platform, but with Google+ you feel confident enough to add that layer of personal identification to your profile. So, what do you do?

For simple changes like name and birthday, all you have to do is go to your My Account Page and make the changes. It’s quick, painless, and, aside from verifying your account, it’s just as easy as setting up your account in the first place. You may want to take some time to look over all the controls you have access to from the My Account page – we’ve talked about it in the past (https://goo.gl/LVuyQ3) – and it’s a good place to get familiar with since it controls so much of your Google identity across products and platforms.

The other change covered by this week’s settings is your search results setting. This refers to the find-ability of your profile in Google search results. Often, because it’s G+, your profile will tend to show high in search results – especially if you’re active. Google gives users the ability to decide whether or not their profile is crawled by search engines. When turned off, your profile is much more difficult to locate using any of the available search engines – not just Google. If your account is set up through your work or school, you’ll probably have to bring in your system administrator to make the changes for you, but the results, once completed, should still be the same.

Even if you choose to not allow your profile to be crawled, there are still several ways it can be discovered by people searching specifically for it.

Here are a few ways this is possible:

• Someone knows your profile’s URL.
• Your profile is linked to an outside website.
• Your profile is suggested by others.
• A search for your profile is conducted inside Google+.

Knowing the ways your profile can be found gives you the power to exert whatever kind of control you’d like. You can make it as undiscoverable as possible, or exercise strict controls on your settings to insure no one you don’t want on your profile page ever gets there. Aside from just not being present on social media, these settings give you the best option for defining the experience you want and that’s as good a solution as you’ll ever find in a digital medium. So, give it a try and spend your time enjoying your profile instead of worrying about it.