Over the weekend I found myself googling the doctor for my back that I have been having issues with. The results: nothing. Well, unless you count the websites that reference the doctor with contact information. Now, working at The Ohlmann Group has given me a little perspective on things as simple as ‘getting googled’. I started to wonder how many other people have searched for this particular doctor let alone the specialty service he provides. How easy would it be for this doctor to get a website with some premium SEO landing pages for his name and practice? Well, to be truthful…pretty easy.
Let’s be honest, in today’s world everything and everyone gets googled and this is one of the main reasons I am truly passionate about SEO (Search Engine Optimization). I am a firm believer that if you aren’t talking about your brand then someone else will.
Personal Online Branding
First things first – get googled. Start at the search engines and start googling yourself. Yes, stop laughing and get to it. Don’t just do your name – do your nickname(s) then try with quotes and with “+” between first and last name. There are tons of variations and it is up to you to determine how specific you want to go. Just keep in mind that not everyone is Googling your name the same.exact.way. So, as the Cub Scouts say: Always Be Prepared. The bottom line is because these different variations have different results in search engines they need to carry the same message.
Results in:
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Results in:
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Interesting how the search engine result pages (SERP’s) are different – same ‘person’ different result (except for the 2nd result).
Personal Online Branding Alerts
Prior to getting started it’s best to have a starting point. This is done by creating alerts for your name. In doing this it will allow you the ability to see what search engines are seeing when new information about “you” is indexed. The steps are fairly easy.
- Go to Google Alerts
- Start setting up Search Query for each name
- Nathan Driver
- Nate Driver
- “Nathan Driver”
- “Nate Driver”
- …you get the picture
- Make sure results types are marked “Everything” {from News to Books}
- How often – “Daily” {remember you want to be notified IMMEDIATELY}
- Deliver to: your email
Done and Done.
This is just the beginning – now the real fun starts. Next is creating your personal online brand…coming soon.
Hopefully you learned something new or maybe I missed something in the initial introduction to personal online branding. Either way let me know in the comments below because I’d really like to know.
