One of the most important steps in figuring out how to build a personal brand is determining what name you will create a strategy around.
For most people this is a daunting place to start. Perhaps you have gone by a name for your whole life and now suddenly you have figured out that when you try to create an online strategy around it there is also a famous indie movie actor with the same name. Don’t let this discourage you as it is an obstacle that is easy to overcome if you follow these steps.
Here are 4 simple step to help you choose a name to SEO for:
- Type the name you currently use into Google
- Look at the first page of results for the following items:
- Number of results
- Someone else with your name as their domain name
- Wikipedia (if there is a Wikipedia page with your name and the page is not about you, it will be very hard to compete with.)
- Images that appear (if Google populates the results with some images, that means that there are a few big figure heads with that same name)
- After you have looked at those results, try typing in your name with the following variations:
- Full first name Full last name
- Full first name Middle Initial Full Last name
- Full first name Full middle name Full last name
- With each name, repeat step two and analyze your results.
Understanding the competition around your name will help you greatly with figuring out which name to try to SEO for. You do not want to be going up against a name with a lot of competition as you will not be able to compete initially. Also be warned that changing your strategy from one name to another is a very difficult task and I suggest against it.
After you have narrowed down to the name that you want to build a personal brand around online, now you need to go and determine if the domain name with your name is taken. You can sign up for a free account at Brand-Yourself.com and check your domain name’s availability when you login and look to purchase a domain name.
