Google Scholar is one platform among many that lets you create a list of your work and a profile. We recommend creating a Google Scholar profile for a couple reasons:

• Google Scholar is free to use, so there's a wide audience
• Its huge index minimizes manual input on your part
• Google Scholar is heavily used by researchers in many disciplines

This doesn't mean it's perfect, nothing is. It also doesn't mean it finds everything, it doesn't. 

Step 1. Create a Google Scholar profile.
Note: If you don't have one, you need to create a Google account. Go to Google.com and click on the blue Sign In button in the upper right.

Once you have a Google account,

1. Go to scholar.google.com while you're logged in to Google.
2. Click on the My Profile link in the upper left of the screen. 
3. Add the information requested.
4. Choose your publications from the list Google presents to you. 
5. You can also add publications manually.

Step 2. Updating Your Google Scholar Profile

1. Periodically visit your Google Scholar profile and click on the + symbol at the top of your publication list.
2. Google Scholar will present you with publications which you can add to your list.

Limitations
You still have to spend some time on your Google Scholar profile to take care of duplicate publication entries, make updates, and link new information sources.
Google Scholar finds scholarly publications, as well as items from repositories, news sites, and government sites. It also counts citations to your work from these sites. The metrics Google Scholar generates, like number of citations and h index, can be different from the numbers from databases like Scopus and Web of Science because of this. 

Uses
If you don't have a personal website, the Google Scholar profile can fill that need, especially if you take the time to add a picture and some additional information.

Note
This is adapted from Stacy Konkiel's book, "The 30-Day Impact Challenge: The Ultimate Guide to Raising the Profile of Your Research,"

If you have follow-up questions about Google Scholar, please contact your librarian or Scholarly Impact Services.