Personal SEO (search engine optimization) Is Essential For Your Career Success

"Personal SEO" is the foundation technique for creating and managing personal online visibility, a requirement in today's search- and technology-obsessed world. Google alone processed no fewer than 2 trillion searches in 2016.

• SEO (search engine optimization) is a term used by web professionals to describe the art/science of making a web page appear in a search engine's results in a search for an appropriate and relevant term. For example, if the website is about sailboats, it should appear in the results when someone searches for "sailboats," hopefully near the top of page one.

• Personal SEO is the art/science of having a person's name appear in search engine results for a relevant search, like a name, job title or professional skill, again, hopefully on the top of the first page. Personal SEO also applies to searches done on sites like LinkedIn, Facebook and other relevant/searchable sites.

 

When someone does a search on our names, we must have positive content about us visible in search engines, as well as LinkedIn and other social networks and professional sites. Done well, personal SEO makes a person highly visible in search results on appropriate searches in appropriate websites.

Personal SEO has an impact in three main ways:

1. People search to expand their networks, find new potential business partners, customers and/or employers and also reconnect with people from their past.

2. Recruiters search to find candidates who are qualified for their job openings.

3. Recruiters also search to verify the qualifications of applicants before issuing interview invitations and job offers.

To consider anyone for a job, a business deal, or inclusion in a professional network, that person must be “findable.” Good personal SEO is how they are found.

Your Most Important Keywords: Your Name

Keywords are a significant component of SEO. For personal SEO, our name is our most important keyword phrase. According to a 2010 study funded by Microsoft, 79% of employers searched Google for the names of job applicants and candidates before seriously considering someone for their job opportunity. In all my discussions with recruiters since 2010, they consistently confirmed that they Googled job applicants, so my expectation is that this figure has greatly increased in 2017.

This relentless searching is the reason personal SEO is very important today. But it must be done correctly, with the right foundation. Today, that foundation is the version of a person's name used for their online professional visibility. The key is consistently using, and protecting, that name. Too many people use different versions of their names in different venues. They are "William A. Jones" on their business cards, "William Jones" on their LinkedIn Profile, "Bill Jones" on their resumes, and BillyJ-MBA on Facebook, Twitter and email. Anyone trying to connect those dots for Bill Jones will have difficulty.

Not being able to make that connection can be a serious problem if a professional network member, like a recruiter or potential client, is trying to find the right LinkedIn profile to go with the business card they received at a networking event. The names must match for quick confirmation and credibility.

If a recruiter has a name from an application or resume submittal, can they easily find the correct LinkedIn profile for that person? Recruiters are typically measured on how quickly they can fill a job (or beat other headhunters to fill the job). So, they are always in a hurry! If a recruiter must do extra research to confirm the identity of the candidate, they may move on to the next candidate, and, consequently, many opportunities may be lost.

Being invisible is not good either. If nothing (or nothing positive) is found related to the name being searched, negative assumptions are usually made that the person is out-of-date, hiding something, or using a fake name.

The Best Response: Defensive Googling

To monitor our online reputations, particularly what is associated with our names, I recommend what I call "defensive Googling." Defensive Googling is periodically (weekly or monthly) searching through Google and Bing on our names. If you don't know what someone will find associated with your name, you may have a serious problem – that you could address – but be totally unaware of it.

Defensive Googling will help uncover occurrences of:

• Mistaken online identity. People with the same name who have done something that would cause a recruiter or network connection to lose interest.

• Self-inflicted wounds. Public places where people have embarrassed themselves with unprofessional photos, language, ideas or suggestions, and publicly available information, like arrests for drunk driving.

• Famous/infamous doppelgänger who pushes someone so far down in search results that the person is never found, making that person look like a joker or invisible.

For example, I know a job seeker who has the same name as a deceased porn star, which complicated his job search because, when he used that version of his name, people didn't take him seriously after they did their usual search. They ignored him because they thought he was making a poor joke. Consequently, networking and job hunting were very tough.

The solution: he changed the version of his name used for his job search (email address, business cards, LinkedIn Profile, resume, public Facebook account, etc.). When he added his middle name to his professional identity, he separated himself from the issue because, fortunately, the star did not share (or make public) that same middle name.

The Best Strategy

We all need to build a strong foundation for our personal SEO and online reputation management, unavoidable aspects of 21st-century life. The keystone of that foundation is the name we use professionally. We must consistently use that name for all professional activities, and avoid doing anything unprofessional while using it. Finally, we need to consistently practice defensive Googling to monitor our professional name so we can learn about and manage potential threats.

Source | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescoachescouncil/2017/05/01/personal-seo-is-essential-for-your-career-success/#7d74fb7d7d74

Regards 

Pralhad Jadhav 

Senior Manager @ Knowledge Repository  

Khaitan & Co                                                                    

Upcoming Event | MANLIBNET 17th Annual International Conference on 15-16 September 2017 at Jaipuria, Noida, India  

Blog | http://pralhad-fyilibrarian.blogspot.in/ 

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