Search your name in a private or incognito window, signed out of Google, from a connection in the place where the people who matter are searching, and then do the same on a phone. That strips out most of what makes your own results different from a stranger's. It won't reproduce anyone else's screen exactly, but it is close enough to see what a recruiter, client or journalist is likely to find.
What makes your own results different
People tend to assume Google builds them a heavily customised version of the web. For an ordinary name search the differences are smaller than that, and they come from a handful of places.
Google says it uses your location, past Search history and Search settings to decide what is most relevant. Of those, location tends to matter most. Google always estimates your general area, using your internet (IP) address, your device's location if you have allowed it, the home and work addresses saved in your Google Account, and past activity. Two people in different towns can see a different order for the same name, particularly where a local newspaper, a regional business listing or a club website mentions it.
Personalisation based on your history is lighter. Google's help page on personalised results says it is only used where it is likely to help, and can change the order of results or of blocks such as videos and web links. Its ranking guide adds that a page you have visited several times may be moved up for you, which is where checking your own name while signed in goes wrong: the pages you open most, usually your own website and your LinkedIn profile, can sit higher for you than for anyone else. Google's public position for several years has been that personalisation of this kind is very limited, and that location, language and timing explain most of the differences people notice.
Autocomplete works on its own logic. Google's explanation of predictions says they reflect real searches and take account of language, location, trending interest and, when you are signed in, your own past searches. The suggestions that appear as you type your name on your own phone are not necessarily the ones a stranger gets.
Which Google address you type no longer matters. Since April 2025 Google has been redirecting google.co.uk and other country domains to google.com, and says this changes only the address bar. It had already been basing local results on location rather than the domain since 2017, so typing google.co.uk does not give you a "UK view" - where you are searching from does that.
Setting up a clean search
Open a private window: Incognito in Chrome, a Private window in Safari or Firefox, InPrivate in Edge. Chrome's help page says Incognito does not sign you in to your Google Account automatically and clears cookies and site data when you close all Incognito windows. Before typing anything, look at the top right of the Google page. A "Sign in" button is what you want; if your profile picture is there, sign out.
Switch off any VPN, and be wary of work networks that route traffic through another office, since Google uses the internet address to estimate where you are. A home broadband connection or mobile data is the safer bet.
If you have to stay signed in, for example on a work machine, look for the note in the results footer saying whether results are personalised. Google's help page says the "Try without" link shows non-personalised results without changing your settings.
When the people who matter are mostly abroad, a UK search won't show you their results. A VPN set to that country gets you closer, and Google's search settings include a results region option.
Then repeat everything on a phone, in a private tab of the mobile browser rather than the Google app, which is usually signed in. The mobile layout is different, and for many people it is the version they look at.
What to look at besides the top ten
Don't stop at the first page of web results. Anything sitting near the top of page two can move up with little warning. Open the Images tab and look at which photos appear and which pages they come from, including photos of a namesake. Check the News tab, which can surface old coverage that has dropped out of the main results, and the Videos tab if you have ever spoken at an event.
If an AI Overview appears at the top, read it and note which sources it links to. Google says these appear only when its systems judge they will help, so one may show for your full name and not for your name plus your town. Note the "People also ask" boxes too, and the related searches at the bottom of the page.
Try the searches someone would use to narrow it down: your name with your town, your employer, your job title, or a middle initial. Watch autocomplete as you type each one.
Bing deserves the same treatment. The person checking you may well be using it, and its results often come in a different order. Microsoft's support pages say Bing records the IP address and location with each search, so the same rules apply: private window, signed out of any Microsoft account, VPN off.
Keeping a record
A screenshot alone won't tell you much in three months' time. For each check, write down:
- the date, the device and the location Google showed
- the exact search phrase
- each result's position, the page address and the title as it appeared
- whether each result is about you or someone with the same name
- whether it is positive, neutral, negative or out of date
- anything notable in Images, News, autocomplete or an AI Overview
A simple spreadsheet does the job, with the screenshots saved alongside and named by date.
For most people, a check every three or four months is plenty. Do it more often in the run-up to a job application, a funding round or a new client pitch, after any press coverage, and for a few weeks after a removal request or a change to a page about you, so you can see whether the result has moved.
Something old or inaccurate ranking well usually falls into one of two camps. Some of it you can tidy up yourself, as set out in cleaning up your digital footprint. The rest needs a site or Google to act, and removing negative search results covers those formal routes.