Personal Branding: 10 Easy Steps to Dominate Page 1 of Google With Your Name

Personal Branding: 10 Easy Steps to

Dominate Page 1 of Google With Your

Name

When did you last Google yourself?

Your customers, suppliers and

contacts check you out on Google all the

time

• Do they see an impressive personal brand dominating the page?

• Do the results prompt them to use your services, or do they put them off?

• Google yourself right now

• Does every result positively promote you and your business?

• If not, it's time to fill page 1 of Google with results you love.

10 Steps toDominating

Page 1of Google With

Your Name

1. LinkedIn

LinkedIn ranks really well on Google

• Customise your public profile URL, so it becomes www.linkedin.com/in/yourname

• Fully complete your profile, using keywords relevant to your business

• Make sure your profile is visible to the public

• Use "Applications" to enrich your profile with feeds from your blog, slideshare, twitter etc.

• Add links to your website and your blog

• Link to Twitter too

2. Facebook

Your Facebook profile will rank highly, so your customers

may have a look

• Make sure your profile picture isn't unprofessional

• Claim your vanity URL

• Talk about your business

• Share what your doing with your friends - you might get some more business

3. Twitter

Twitter is another high-ranking site

• Complete your profile, adding your website and/or blog

• Use keywords that are relevant to your service

• Claim your vanity URL

• Even if you don't use Twitter, add one tweet to tell people how to find you: "I'm not active on Twitter, but please connect with me at..."

4. Google+

You have to complete your Google+ profile. It's the one profile you

know Google will index

• Google lifts snippets from your profile for the search results

• They use your Tagline, Occupation, Employment and parts of your introduction, so complete these carefully

• Your photo is also added to the search result making it leap out of the page

• You’ll get more clicks; some research suggests a

150% increase in clicks

• Claim your vanity URL - this is becoming a recurring theme!

5. Your "About" profile on your own website

This is the one profile where you have complete control

• Make it as appealing as possible

• Find your own authentic voice - what do your customers love about you and your service?

• Avoid hype but present yourself at your best

• Add your name to the URL, if appropriate

• Use your name in the title of the page if possible

• Link all your other profiles to this page

6. Google Authorship

Google Authorship enables Google to identify you as

the author of your blog posts

• You need a Google+ profile

• You then need to link your Google+ profile to your content

• Google: “author information in search results”

• Follow the instructions on the page

• If you have a blog and you do this; your face could start appearing in the search results for the keywords you target

• You'll get more clicks

• These first 6 profiles are the most important to complete.

• Here are some more to consider:

7. Slideshare

Slideshare ranks well and you can add a lot of information

to your profile.

• Complete your profile

• Google adds the information you enter for "Occupation" and "Organization" to their result

• Link to your website or blog

• Link to your LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter pages

• Claim your vanity URL

• Upload a simple set of slides to share

8. YouTube

YouTube is a massive search engine. As you probably know it's owned by Google, so videos and profiles

appear in the search results

• Upload a video about yourself and your business

• If you optimise it with your name, you may see it in the search results

• Create your own channel, with your name in the URL and link to your website

9. Pinterest

Pinterest will increasingly appear in the search results

• Complete your profile

• Link to your website, Facebook and Twitter

• Claim your URL

10. About.me

I like the simplicity and clarity of about.me pages and they

appear in the search results

• Complete your profile

• Claim your vanity URL

• Add links to your other sites

Get busy

• Building your profiles on these sites will help you to present an impressive personal brand on Google.

Thanks forhanging around to the end

Steven Hourston Internet marketing specialist

steven@BusinessSparks.comBusinessSparks.com

+44 207 112 8814