9 tips for personal branding through SEO

On 17 Jul, 2012 By Wietse Sluimer 1 Comments

At the moment I'm working on a large personal branding project for a client using a lot of Search Engine Optimization tips.

1. Personal keywords

What subjects would you like to be associated with? Think of a small set of terms which represent you as a person. These terms will help you set up your personal brand online.

2. LinkedIn

If you don't have a LinkedIn account, get one. Because LinkedIN is a great social network to create link juice with. Set up your profile and strive for a 100% complete profile. This means setting up you career history, educational history, skills and interests. Make sure you use the terms from your personal keyword list. Also make sure you link to 3 websites you want to be associated with, think of a personal blog or company website.

Also make sure you add your own 'third party' content like a Youtube video or SlideShare presentations. LinkedIn let's you do that. Check out these tutorials:

3. Twitter

Do you actively use your Twitter account? Make sure your profile description is talking about the terms from your personal keywords list.

4. Facebook

It's almost impossible to not have a Facebook account. But if you don't have one, you might consider setting up one. Like LinkedIn, Facebook has a lot of link juice to spread around. Don't worry about privacy, just make sure you keep an eye on the privacy settings.

5. Pinterest

Although Pinterest is not that old, Google is already appointing a lot of link juice. My own Pinterest profile is a couple of months old now but already fourth in the Search Engine Result Page (SERP). Make sure it's filled with the terms from your personal keyword list, but put it in an inspiration story as it will be read by female users most of the times.

6. SlideShare

Do you have any (PowerPoint) presentations you want to share with the public? Do it using SlideShare.net. SlideShare let's you add a description and tags to your presentations. This helps Google interpret the relevance of the contents of the presentation and rank it accordingly. Like LinkedIN and Facebook, SlideShare has a lot of link juice to spread around.

7. Blog

Writing a blog will not help you with your short term goals for personal branding. Make sure you have your own domain containing your first and last name and link it to your favorite blogging tool. You might consider Blogspot (owned by Google).

8. YouTube

Have any personal video content, or are you willing to produce it? Set up a YouTube account and upload your videos there. Make sure you add good descriptions and tags. Use the personaly keyword lists to do so.

9. Backlinks

Every piece of online content can be linked to, from other websites. Make sure you cross link all your online profiles. This will help search engines to understand who you are and what content is relevant.