Personal brand SEO is easier than you think

I once had a colleague I hadn’t talked to in ten years contact me with an SEO emergency. My first question was, “How drunk were you?”

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I once had a colleague I hadn’t talked to in ten years contact me with an SEO emergency. My first question was, “How drunk were you?”

As I suspected, the SEO emergency had started with a bit too much alcohol. It ended with an embarrassing story the world could read when they Googled my colleague’s name.

I had to deliver the bad news that SEO emergencies of this type couldn’t be solved with a quick SEO patch job despite what any commercials on talk radio might claim.

Read until the end of the newsletter, and I will share what ended up happening. 😀

Algorithms are smart

In years past, when algorithms were less sophisticated, it was easier to overcome negative SEO results by diluting the index with positive results, but now the algorithms can filter out the noise from what people really want to see when they Google a person or company: the unvarnished truth (even if its’s not true.)

For those of you who have yet to deal with an SEO emergency, the best time to deal with personal brand SEO is now, not just to head off bad news but to establish your brand in search results.

Pick realistic keywords

When most people think of SEO for their personal brand, the first thought that comes to mind is how they can “rank” their website higher—using this as the objective misses out on the ultimate goal of SEO, which is to be more visible on search engines to people who are searching for you.

If you want to generate more eyeballs on search, it shouldn’t matter whether that is your website or another website promoting you.

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[SPONSORED by Search Intelligence]

How we landed top-tier Digital PR links in the pet niche:

▪ We analysed 568 million Instagram posts containing hashtags for 281 dog breeds

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▪ We wrote up a 600 words report on our findings, with tables and clear content layout

READ MORE

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This is especially prevalent when searching for specific individuals on search engines, where the dominant sites are likely to be social networks like LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, or even TikTok. Many people are convinced that their own websites should be the first-ranking result for their own name, but in most cases, this could be a near-impossible task.

There’s no way to outrank a site like LinkedIn, Facebook, or Yelp based on SEO best practices alone.

Instead of fighting an uphill battle to push down sites that aren’t going to go away, it is a much better effort to make sure suitable social media and alternative pages show up. 

Here are six ideas to do this.

1. Ensure all your social handles' title tags match your searched name. If people search for “John Smith San Jose,” get that in the titles or at least on the social media page. If they search for “Jane Doe attorney,” use that phrasing prominently.

2. Author content in your niche. Guest posting has gotten a bad rap because of shady link-building efforts, but guest posting is still a valuable tactic for brand building. Get a byline on prominent media sites like FastCompany, Forbes, Entrepreneur, or similar sites. With AI ideating and editing, writing is easier than ever, so start contributing. (If I can help by sharing how I received bylines on these sites, reach out.)

3. Sign up for alerts on all platforms (Google, LinkedIn) that allow you to comment on trending topics in your niche. You might not get a link or even a business benefit, but these posts help create your authority footprint when people Google you.

4. Write on your own site or a blogging site like Medium. This isn’t just to squat on a web property; it's to really put your thought leadership in the wild so that when people search for you, they find you.

5. Guest on podcasts/virtual events

6. Speak at conferences

One last thing to remember is that no one ever wants to be involved in a scandal or negative search, but it could happen even to the best of people. Building out your online presence with top social media profiles goes a long way towards preventing a reputation issue should anything ever cause negative searches for your name.

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So what happened to my old colleague? For thousands of dollars, he hired a firm with a shady reputation, and they built dozens of garbage articles that lasted on the search results for a few days before being removed from searches for his name.

Fortunately for him, he also followed my suggestion of building out all of his social profiles, as I recommended above. Since they were all new to the index, it took them some time to begin showing up for his name on Google. I also suggested that he put some effort into creating positive events that the media might cover. He did this, too, and while it took time, these articles are also visible for his name beneath the social profiles.

Those unfortunate articles about his alcohol-fueled events still exist. Still, they are far deeper in the index and unlikely to be seen by anyone but the truly motivated.