How do headhunters and recruiters use Google to evaluate candidates?

Executive search has been digital for over a decade and the practice has only intensified with AI engines. Headhunters routinely Google candidates before the first call, review LinkedIn closely, and now run ChatGPT or Perplexity queries to reveal anything the standard sources do not show. Reference check conversations increasingly start with whatever was found rather than blank-slate questions. For senior candidates the picture stakeholders find shapes the entire search dynamic: a clean SERP, an accurate and current LinkedIn, an accurate Wikipedia article where notability supports one, and authoritative bio content across credentialed third-party sources reduces friction and makes the placement more durable. Where the picture is messy or contested, candidates spend the search managing perception of their digital footprint instead of their qualifications, and some otherwise viable candidates lose searches they should have won. Executive reputation programs frequently begin with someone going through a search and discovering this dynamic.