Digital Persona Audit

A digital persona audit evaluates how accurately and prominently a person is represented online. The audit examines the visibility, consistency, and credibility of their digital persona, with particular attention to how search engines and AI systems identify and describe them.

A digital persona audit considers whether search systems distinguish the person from others with the same name, present accurate information, and surface relevant sources.

In addition, a digital persona audit assesses features such as Google Knowledge Panels ^[1] and compares the prominence of search results ^[2] with the person’s goals for their online presence.

Inputs to a Digital Persona Audit

Before you can start a digital persona audit, you need to establish a few facts about the person in question.

First, you need to document the person's name and all variations of their name, including former names.

Second, you need to document all biographical information, including their date of birth, birthplace, profession, and career history, along with identifying photographs.

Third, you need to establish all related entities ^[3], such as books authored, places where they have worked or lived, articles written, educational institutions, associated organizations, and related people.

Finally, you want to establish which information is current and accurate, and which aspects of the person’s life or work they want to emphasize. Furthermore, identify the countries and languages in which the person wants to be discoverable.

Deliverables of a Digital Persona Audit

A digital persona audit, as a process, should have a set of documented findings.

A digital persona audit produces the following documentation:

1. A record of any Google Knowledge Graph ^[4] entities that correspond to the person.
2. Search results ^[2:1] for each entity ^[3:1] in the Knowledge Graph in each relevant language and country.
3. Search results for the person's name in each country and language.
4. A catalog of all mentions of the persona, whether they appear in search results or not.
5. A preferred ranking of the identified sources, based on their relevance to the aspects of the person’s life and work they want to emphasize.
6. A comparison between this preferred ranking and the sources’ actual positions in search results.

All searches can be performed in any search engine, but as Google dominates the search market it is the proxy for the whole market.

Assessment of Competing Personas

Very rarely is a name unique in the world. Therefore one competes with other people for being the one shown in the search results in a given country and language.

In addition to the searcher’s location and language, Google may consider their search history when determining whether to display a Knowledge Panel ^[1:1] and which panel to show.

The goal is for searches in the target countries and languages to surface the intended person’s information and, where available, their Knowledge Panel.

Assessing other people with the same name and their visibility in the search engine results gives an estimate of the effort required to reach the desired goal. Sometimes builting a personal brand under a variation of someones name can reduce the effort considerably.

Characteristics of a Desired Digital Persona

When assessing a digital persona ^[5] one needs to have a model of an ideal digital persona in mind. This model is based on the technical features a search engine such as Google can present for a given person's name.

For example, one can expect that a search for the person triggers a rich Google Knowledge Panel with a title, a description, and Google Knowledge Cards, as well as results in the list well aligned with the person's work and life aspects to emphasize.

However, these expectations must be informed by what makes a person credible online. The desired presentation should reflect the person’s goals and the evidence that supports their credibility online. The audit should identify which aspects of their life and work to prioritize, which outdated or inaccurate information needs correction, and any reputational concerns to address.

Digital Persona Audit for AI Knowledge Systems

AI knowledge systems, such as ChatGPT compete with traditional search engines. In Google's case AI knowledge systems even blend with the search results.

An audit of AI systems is very complex and requires considerable effort because their answers can vary considerable.

However, people well established in Google's Knowledge Graph and search results tend to do well in AI queries like "Who is Jane Doe?". Certainly, when an entity appears dominat in traditional serach it is likely to be well understood in AI knowledge systems.

The Role of Digital Persona Audits in DPO

Performing a digital persona audit is the first step in digital persona optimization ^[6]. The audit documents the current state of the person’s online presence and guides further actions.

A digital persona audit can be performed multiple times in the optimization process to measure progress. To measure such progress one can set specific goals, such as inclusion of a record for the person in the Google Knowledge Graph or triggering a description in the Google Knowledge Panel.