Wouldn’t it be great to crack the first page of Google results for a search of your name?  Or, if your links already appear on the first page, wouldn’t you like to add yet another result?  Your Google Profile is the simplest, most sure-fire way to add another opportunity for searchers to find you.

Once published, a preview link to your Google Profile will appear at the very bottom of Page 1 search results for your name – which can be extremely beneficial if you have a common name (and others have not yet claimed this space).  Here is an example:

To create a Google Profile, navigate to http://www.google.com/profiles, and come armed with a Google account (Gmail, Google Wave, etc).  From there, updating your profile is an absolute snap.  Follow these 7 steps to create the perfect Google profile that describes you well and encourages searchers to find and contact you elsewhere on the web.

1.  Display your full name and allow others to contact you.

Your Google Profile exists solely so searchers can find you and contact you -  checking these 2 boxes makes perfect sense.  All reward, no risk.

2.  Upload a picture.

Keep in mind that most folks searching for you via Google will likely know something about you, but not everything.  Maybe they met you at a conference, and only remember your name and face?   Including a close-up shot is the easiest way to set you apart from others that share your name.

3.  Include a detailed history.

Same philosophy as above – those searching for you will likely recognize you by a single defining trait.  Did they grow up with you in Omaha, Nebraska?  Do they know you from college or from prior work experience?  Take the time to fill out your past history in full detail, so anyone from your past will recognize that you are you.

4.  Write a killer “What I Do” section.

In the “What I Do” section, Google provides the examples of  “Actor, Engineer, Scientist”.  Boring!  Instead, amp this section up by including a few provocative titles that really describe what you do.  For an excellent example, see the snapshot below from Meg Guiseppi’s profile.

5.  Write a brief, but informative, bio.

Your Google Profile is not a final destination, it is merely a portal.  So, keep your bio brief and to the point.  Include enough information to identify yourself, and to encourage searchers to contact you elsewhere (embedded links work great mixed in with your text).  Note: Others might debate my point about keeping your bio brief, as many have an extremely long description.  Ultimately, it is up to you.

6.  Link, link, link.

Google allows you the opportunity to link to anywhere and everywhere you’d like.  This is your opportunity to send searchers to the real places you want them to connect with you.  Take a look at the Google profile of Robert Scoble, who has linked to over 40 places you can find him on the web.  Wow!  Here is a screen-shot of the pages I’ve linked to.  How many web destinations of your own can you think to link to?

7.  Include common misspellings of your name.

Google realizes that not all web searchers are prolific spellers.  You can include all the potential misspellings of your name so that your Google Profile will appear for all queries.  (Brett Favre, this is your lucky day).

What do you all think?  Do you have a Google Profile?  Share your link in the comments, let’s see those shiny profiles!

Ryan Rancatore can also be found at Personal Branding 101, discussing the tools and tactics that will help you build a killer personal brand in 2010 and beyond.

Ryan would love to connect with you on Twitter at @RyanRancatore, or on Linkedin, Facebook, or Brazen Careerist.

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I’m often asked this question, and my answer is pretty consistent: for an individual, a blog is almost always better, and for a company it is frequently better as well.

I have both, but that’s really an artifact (website, blog). While I can fool around with HTML and other web technologies, I’m not a web developer. My HTML learning pretty well halted in 1995, so what I know is largely useless. Nevertheless, I built a personal website that is Flash-based, using technology from an Israeli startup that makes this pretty easy.

Later, when I felt more confident about going public on the Internet, I started my own blog. I wrote pretty consistently for about a year, but I haven’t written much there recently. (I’ve gotten involved with a startup company, which is very time-consuming, so I’ve been restricting my writing to this site.) It’s OK to give yourself permission to write or abstain – unless your blog is your job. And once you’ve got enough posts – and assuming they’re good – you really don’t have to write frequently.

Oh, and don’t forget to have fun with your blog – just don’t write about religion or politics.

So, I have both a website and a blog. But I still recommend a blog for you, and here’s why:

1. You can write, edit, and post articles without any real technical knowledge. In fact, I write my posts in Word, which allows me to publish them on my blog site in draft or final form (this requires Word 2007).
2. Your blog can be infinitely adjustable – by you, without requiring technical assistance. WordPress, which is the platform I recommend, is designed to be a publishing system (also known as a content management system). Its main purpose is to enable you to post articles and create discussions as a content manager rather than as a technocrat.
3. Your blog will actually get higher Google ratings than most websites – and if you’re out there promoting yourself, this should be all you need to hear! My blog typically gets indexed by Google within 15 minutes of posting an article. I know because I immediately get a Google Alert about the article. I’m also easily found by topic (look up “personal branding statement” on Google and you’ll usually see my article within the first few results (and interestingly, you’ll see the version here on blog.Brand-Yourself.com rather than the version on my own, more humble, blog). Google may actually favor blogs because their content is more frequently updated than static websites.
4. You can make your blog just as appealing as a website. There are hundreds, perhaps thousands of templates available for WordPress, and most are free.
5. You get useful statistics on readership. Not only do I know how many people read my blog, but I know how they get to it – including the search terms that are most often used. That, in turn, enables me to write more directed posts to get greater readership.
6. Blogs encourage conversations, and that’s hard to do on a website.

Keeping these ideas in mind, there are still great benefits to be had from a website that cannot be garnered from a standalone blog.  The biggest plus is the ability to provide a lot of information about yourself which doesn’t fit in a brief blog bio or LinkedIn profile. 

Things like an extended biography, an annotated resume, detailed academic and extra-curricular information (for students and recent grads), and pretty much whatever else you want the world to know about you can all find a place on a website.  Brand-Yourself.com offers a great platform for website creation which is usable by pretty much anyone, regardless of technical ability.  Check it out!   

Also remember, if your blog or website is on your own domain, and your domain is your name, it will help in your Google ranking. This is an advantage of hosting your own website or blog on your own domain.

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I have been talking for the past few weeks about how to get your name to the top of Google and how to seo your site to help you be found.

Instead of spending this week with another week giving our readers another step by step guide I want to show you an example an SEO’d site to point out some good and not so good.

Let’s start with our friend Dan Schawbel, he runs the Personal Branding Blog. Now, if you have taken the time to look at his site you will notice that on the home page he uses the words “Personal Branding” 22 times in visible text and a total of 125 times in Reference tags.  And no, for those of you wondering I did not count, I used this really good tool to check the keyword density of the page: http://www.keyworddensity.com/

What does this mean?  It means that if you were to read his site you would see the words “Personal Branding” 22 times and that he has optimized all of his backend content for that keyword phrase as well.  This is the reason that he comes up number 1 for the phrase and that his personal site comes up number two.

So why else does he come up so highly?  There are a couple of really important factors that should be noted.  First off, according to website grader (which scores him as a 99.5) he has over 11,000 inbound links.  This means that in Google’s eyes he has 11,000 votes towards his site being credible.  Always remember that inbound links are one of the most important factors for search engines to determine how reputable a site is.

Some of the other big things that Dan has working in his favor are:

• Publishes content on a daily basis – Search engines want to see content that is fresh, that doesn’t mean rewrite your home page every day but that does mean that you should be adding pages/posts regularly.
• Dan has good content – it is not that he is publishing the same old stuff every day; he is taking the time to put together good articles that are always focused on personal branding.  Search engines want good content for their readers.

What could Dan do better?

• Extend how long he owns the domain name- Currently (according to website grader) the domain name is only registered for another year.  Search engines want to make sure that the domain name is not new so it is good that he has owned it for almost 3 years, but they also want to see that you plan to use it moving forwards
• Leverage Digg – make sure that all of his articles are automatically submitted to Digg so that users are more apt to click on them and it makes it easier for a passive user to Digg his articles.  Social networks are playing a larger part in today’s SEO world.  Dan does effectively get his content out to many of these networks, but it is important to not let any of them slide.
• I would look to see if there is a way to do a 301/302 redirect of his old blog that he used to run through wordpress- Or at least i would start going through that site and creating links on the word personal branding to his current site.  He has not been able to overcome it at the top of Google and a linking strategy could help take away some of the Page Rank from his old site.

Dan’s site is a great example of how to do site wide search engine optimization.  He has done it very well there is no doubt there.  It is a complex process that enables you to go for higher traffic words than you can sometimes achieve with only writing a series of articles about one topic.  Also keep in mind, larger sites such as CNN and the NYTimes can more easily get harder keywords due to their higher page rank.

Next week I am going to focus my efforts on giving you insight into another important case study, a look at a single page SEO strategy and pointing out the pros and cons.  Thanks and I look forward to your questions / comments!

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A strong personal brand online must have a home base. This is a website that at a minimum describes the unique value you provide, states your qualifications, provides your contact information, and links out to the rest of your presence on the web. If you haven’t started your own home base website, it’s easy: start now with our Site Builder.

Ideally, your home base should be at your own URL, such as www.JohnAdams.com. Get this custom URL through us for $11.99/yr and put this URL on every career touch-point: your email signature, your resume, your LinkedIn profile, your business card, etc. Before you choose the URL you want,  read How to Search Engine Optimize Your Name.  This will make your site rank higher in Google searches when people search for you.

Editing text and uploading media is simple, and you can choose from dozens of designs to tweak the appearance of your site. What are you waiting for? Get started building your home base on the web now.

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