What a referred client sees when they Google you. And how to fix it.

A referral usually goes the same way. A former client, a colleague or a friend says, “You should talk to Dana.” The person nods, and later that day types your name into a search bar. They are not ready to write yet. They are checking.

That check takes about as long as a coffee order, and you are not there for it. This guide walks through it from their side, then gives you the fixes in the order that matters.

You cannot see what they see from your own logged-in browser. Your search history, your accounts and your own profile views all get in the way. Do it properly once:

1. Open a private window, on your phone first. A referral often looks you up on a phone, between other things.
2. Search your full name. Then your name and your city. Then your name and what you do, the way a client would say it: “Dana Whitfield coach”.
3. Write down the first five results, and what each one says about you in its title and snippet.
4. Tap each result as a stranger would. Note the photo, the title and the last date anything was updated.
5. Time yourself. Could someone tell, within half a minute, what you do, for whom, and how to start?

A referral arrives with some trust already, borrowed from the person who sent them. They are not asking whether you are good. They are asking a shorter list of questions:

• Is this the person I was told about?
• What exactly do they do, and for whom?
• Are they taking work right now?
• Roughly how does it start, and what does it cost to start?
• What do I do next?

When a referral goes quiet, it is rarely a no. It is usually one of these, and none of them is about your skill:

• A headline that says what you used to be, not what you offer now.
• A personal site last updated two roles ago, or one that reads like a résumé.
• A booking link with no context: no offer, no price, no idea what the call is for.
• Different photos, titles and descriptions on every profile, so they are not sure it is the same person.
• No clear next step, so they decide to write “when there is a better moment.” That moment rarely comes.

You do not need a new brand. You need one place that answers the five questions, and everything else pointing to it.

1. Write one sentence of what you do and for whom. Plain words, the client’s words. “I help first-time founders through their first year as CEO” beats a list of competencies.
2. Say whether you are taking work. “Taking two new clients for October” is honest and useful. So is “Booked until spring, join the list.”
3. Name a starting point. A first engagement with a name and a price, or a range, or “it starts with a paid working session.” A client finds it easier to write when the first step holds no surprises.
4. Give one next step. One button or one line: send a brief, book the first session, reply to this email. Not five options.
5. Use the same name, photo and one-line description everywhere. Recognition is most of the first ten seconds.
6. Make the page you control the one everything else points to. Profiles on other platforms are where you are found. Your own page is where you are hired.

Once your own page answers the five questions, send every other surface there. Your LinkedIn contact info and About section, your email signature, your speaker bio, the notes under a podcast episode you were on. The goal is that any path a referral takes ends in the same place.

Keep the other profiles short and consistent with it. They do not need to hold everything. They need to agree with your page and link to it.

Search results shift slowly, and your availability changes faster than you think. Put a monthly reminder in your calendar and run the private-window search again. Look for three things:

• Does the first result still say what you do now?
• Is your availability line still true?
• Does every profile still link to the same page?

Any page you control can do this job if it answers the five questions. A simple personal site does it well. A SoloBase Studio is one way to have that page without building one: a card with your name, what you do, whether you are taking clients, your city and your local hour, and one next step that opens a private Client Hub for the client behind it.