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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Building your personal brand is one thing but if no one can find it your efforts have been fruitless.  While many people go about the right steps to build a personal brand they overlook what they need to do so that search engines can easily find and crawl their content.

Let’s start off with what Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is: the process of taking content that you produce and make it search engine friendly so that search engines like Google and Yahoo can crawl and index.

So what makes search engine friendly content?  The answer is: content that you yourself would like to read or content that will benefit other people.  Search engines are not interested in indexing content that is written to fit their needs because they too are businesses.  They want to give their customers (web users) the best content that they can find.

Here are some basic tips that you can employ as you are producing content, whether it is on your blog, in an article that you are writing, or on your personal websites.

1. Use Google’s Keyword Tool. Google has a great tool to help you figure out what keywords other people are competing for.  You should tailor your content to be for a specific keyword.  To help you figure out what keywords are obtainable use the keyword tool where you can track competition.
2. Have good title.  Search engines put a lot of weight on the title of your article because they assume that your title is a good representation of your content.  Witty titles are not as effective online as they can mislead users and search engines.
3. Use the keyword phrase as you see it. If you are competing for the keyword phrase “How to write a bio” you need to make sure that you use that phrase exactly as you see it.
4. Keep new content coming. Search engines like to see sites that are regularly publishing new content because it shows that the site owners are invested and are putting more time into the site.  This will take some time on your part but will yield more readers in the long run.
5. Track your progress. Use a tool such as Google Analytics (FREE!) that will help you track the number of hits that you get to your site on a daily basis.  If you don’t track it then you will not be able to determine how your efforts are going.

Always keep in mind that SEO is not an overnight process.  As you build your personal brand it will take time.  Many experts say that you should not expect to see any of your efforts have an effect for 3-6 months.  After that you will start to see it pick up.

Keep at it and don’t give up.  Building a personal brand through search engine optimization is important and is a big step in increasing the visibility of your brand.

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Question: When you type “piano” into Google, why does www.frontiernet.net come up as a result before www.piano.com?

Answer: Because FrontierNet has stronger Search Engine Optimization (SEO) in place than www.piano.com.

Say what?

Search Engine Optimization is the process of making certain pages rank higher in Google for specific search terms. When I type “piano” into Google, the page that is most search engine optimized for the word piano will come up first, even if it’s not www.piano.com.

Since winning career opportunities today requires a compelling and positive web presence, you’re going to want relevant sites to show up about you when someone searches for your name in Google. That means using principles of SEO to make sure that people can actually find you on the web.

SEO is no longer just for product promotion in the corporate world. It is now a vital tool in your efforts to manage your online reputation.

Google your name right now. How many total results come up? That number is the amount of pages you need to elevate yourself above to end up on the first page of Google results.

Think about where you already “exist” online. Most likely, you have a profile on social networks like Facebook, MySpace or LinkedIn. Perhaps you’ve commented on blogs or forums and left your name with your posts. These are all digital “bread crumbs” you’ve left behind, all of which can be found in search engines.

Managing your reputation online means making sure all the bread crumbs you leave are consistent, credible, and visible. They make up your personal brand on the web.

So how do you start making your best digital bread crumbs rise to the top of Google?

Here are 5 tips:

1. Figure out what exists about you online, right now. Search for yourself in Google to see what’s already out there. Is there an ex-convict with your exact name who comes up in the first page of the results? Are there 10, or 10 million search results returned for your name? How unique is your name, and are other people already dominating the search results for it?
   
2. Based on your search, strategically choose the specific search term you want to be found under. If there are hundreds of thousands of search results for your name, it’s going to be hard to elevate yourself to the first page of Google results. That’s why you need to choose a unique name to use consistently across the web that doesn’t have too much competition. If your name is John Smith, you probably won’t make it to the first page of search results for “John Smith” (searching for that name brings up abou six million results). But if you include your middle initial, you can start separating yourself from the competition. “John G Smith” returns less than seven thousand results. And if you include your full middle name, you start becoming much more unique. “John George Smith” returns less than three thousand search results. Name competition is your first obstacle, and is becoming such a problem that people actually pay consultants to create unique baby names for their children. That way, they ensure that their kids can be found on Google in future years. That’s how important search engines are becoming: the web is making the Yellow Pages obsolete. (It’s  interesting to note that parents are now buying domain names for their children who haven’t even been born yet. So don’t be surprised if your cousin – who might only be a fetus – already has his name staked out on the Internet).
   
3. Use the same name everywhere on the web with unwavering consistency. If you’re optimizing for “John George Smith,” then you should always use that name on the web wherever you go, whether on your Facebook profile, your LinkedIn profile, blog comments you make, or anywhere else. You should also put consistent information about yourself on all your profiles, so that the same key words are always surrounding your name. This associates certain phrases, like “graphic designer” or “musician” with your name. The end goal is to provide content about yourself in a variety of places that a search engine will see, each place building a consistent and widespread message about you. That message will then be strongly linked to search results for your name.
   
4. Link from yourself to yourself. Create a link from your Linkedin page to your Facebook profile and everywhere else you exist on the web. First, this helps people find you when they are on one of your profile pages. Second, and more importantly, Google counts a link from one site to another as a “vote” for that site. Sites with the most votes end up highest in search results. So the more places you link to the places you exist, the higher they will show up in results when someone Googles your name. Also, instead of just putting the link as http://facebook.com/59446372, make the text of the link be your name (when possible), like John George Smith’s Facebook Profile. This tells search engines that the link with the text John George Smith is related to you, and increases your rank in results. Many times people use links that say: For more information, click here. This is bad because based on the link text, search engines have no idea about the context of what you are linking to. Instead, say: More info about John George Smith.
   
5. Grow your web presence You probably have the standard social networking sites, but it is important to get out and start to gain a presence on lesser known sites as well as networking systems that may pertain to your specific niche. Look forward to future posts with specifics about the best social networks, directories and social bookmarks you need to know about.

Next: How to Interlink Your Web Presence (And Why You Should) >

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