3 Simple Steps to create your own Virtual People Card

Google has launched public search profile cards, also called ‘People Card’ for individuals in India. The new feature has already begun rolling out in English for Mobile users in the country.

Here is the tweet by Google introducing the card –

What is a People Card?

If you’re trying to find a person on Google Search, these new cards make it quick and easy to find the right person. When you search for someone’s name, a card would be displayed to you. Withing the card, you can find the person’s name, profession, location, and other relevant information that you can look into.

People cards tend to increase your personal brand visibility by making a knowledge panel-like list of cards displayed to the searcher. The knowledge card provides you information related to a person’s personal description, location, contact details, social accounts, and others.  Currently limited to India, the Google+-like feature gives personal brands and individuals some control over their own search results.

Why do we need a People Card?

While searching for famous people on Google, we tend to easily find their entire information bundled together in various knowledge panels, in an easy-to-digest format. But what happens when we search for someone who isn’t famous, or for that matter, search for our own names? It’s not easy to find the person that we are looking for, since there are a number of other people who share the same profile.

This is where People Cards come in. It’s like a virtual visiting card where you can provide your essential information that you want others to see. If you’re a business professional, performer, or anyone looking to build up your own online presence, People Cards is the way to go.

How to create a People Card?

Creating a people card is easy. Follow the below-mentioned steps to create your own virtual visiting card:

• Sign in to Google in the browser that you use, on your mobile.
• Search for your name in the Google search.
• You will find an option along with your name ‘Add me to Search’. In the next few steps, you provide information that you want to be displayed as a part of your card.
• The first section that you need to provide is your personal details. Here, you provide a profile image, along with your Name, Location, Occupation, and a brief description of you. These are the mandatory fields that need to be provided for a basic card.
• Apart from these, the card also lets you add additional information about your profile like your Education, Work, Hometown, Phone number, Social Profiles, Email, and others. You can provide details for what you want to be displayed.
• Once done, click on Preview to see how the card would be displayed while being searched for, in Google.
• Finally, Click on Save to activate your People Card.

How safe is it to create a People Card?

Google has a variety of protections and controls in place so as to maintain the quality of information accessible through People Cards.

• Only one person’s card is allowed per Google account.
• A phone number linked with an account is mandatory to authenticate the account.
• A number of mechanisms have been placed to protect against abusive and spammy content.
• If low-quality information or a card that you believe was created by an impersonator, you can tap the feedback link to let Google know.
• The card can be deleted at any time from the search result.

To summarize, for the millions of influencers, entrepreneurs, prospective employees, self-employed individuals, freelancers, or anyone else out there who wants to be discovered, this new Search feature will help the world find them.

References – https://india.googleblog.com/2020/08/introducing-people-cards-virtual.html, https://searchengineland.com/google-launches-people-cards-in-search-338982