Does it really matter if my name is slightly different in a few places?

Yes, more than you'd think. When your name, description and details match everywhere, search engines and AI assistants can confidently join them into one trusted business. When they don't, you look like several half-formed ones, and the confidence — and the recommendation — drains away.

Where does my website fit in?

Your site is the reference everything else is checked against, so its name and description need to be right first. On bernard you can set your site's title and description by asking, and the change lands as a draft you approve before it's live.

Why should I keep my name and description the same everywhere?

This is the least glamorous tip in this section and one of the most powerful: use the same name and the same short description of yourself everywhere you appear. It sounds trivial. It isn't.

Why sameness is a superpower here

Search engines and AI assistants are constantly trying to work out whether the "you" on Instagram, the "you" on LinkedIn, the "you" in a directory and the "you" on your website are all the same business. When everything matches — same name, same one-line description, same town, same links — they join the dots with confidence and treat you as one established entity worth recommending. When it's all slightly different, they hedge, and hedging is the opposite of being recommended.

Set it once, reuse it forever

Write your identity down once: your exact business name, a single clear one-line description, and a short bio in a couple of lengths. Then paste the same thing into every profile, every byline, every "about" box. If you have several sites (see How do I make the most of the audience I already have?), keep them identical across all of them.

Start with your website

Because your site is the anchor everything else is measured against, get it right there first — its title and description are what AI assistants quote when they describe you. Then match every profile to it. That single, boring habit is one of the two levers behind How does AI decide who to recommend — and how do I become that person?, and it's week one of Your first six weeks: a starter plan.

The prompt

“Help me write my business identity once so I can reuse it everywhere. I'm a [what you do] in [town] serving [who you help]. Give me: one exact business name to use everywhere, one clear one-line description, and a short bio in three lengths (a few words, a sentence, a short paragraph). Plain language, no buzzwords, no hype — the way I'd actually describe myself.”

The [bracketed] parts are yours to fill in. First time? Connect bernard to your AI over MCP — a one-time setup in bernard → your site → Use your own AI — then paste the prompt above.

Questions people ask

Does it really matter if my name is slightly different in a few places?: Yes, more than you'd think. When your name, description and details match everywhere, search engines and AI assistants can confidently join them into one trusted business. When they don't, you look like several half-formed ones, and the confidence — and the recommendation — drains away.
Where does my website fit in?: Your site is the reference everything else is checked against, so its name and description need to be right first. On bernard you can set your site's title and description by asking, and the change lands as a draft you approve before it's live.