If you go to your favorite search engine or choice and type in your personal name what are you going to find?
Hopefully a ton of results for YOU and all of your online properties. Of course this might be easier said than done depending on what your name is. If you have the same name as a celebrity or other well known figure it might not be so easy, but you still want to rank for your name searches as much as you can. One of the best ways to rank for your name this is through the use of social profile pages.
Most of us are already on sites like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, but there are plenty of other well ranking social profiles and resume pages out there that can really accelerate the process.
Here is a list of sites you should currently have profile pages with.
- LinkedIn (tips to optimize your LinkedIn profile)
- Completed
- YouTube (be sure to associate your website)
- Amazon
The thing about all of these sites is that they are already extremely established and it won't take much for them to rank well, especially if you put in the time and effort to add quality content to your profile and bio sections.
Another excellent way to make sure you social profiles rank well is to link them to each other and continually link back to them from your other web sites and blogs.
While we're talking about social profiles, we might as well cover a few tips for making your's stand out from the crowd.
- Twitter updated their header photos but many people haven't taken the time to update these images. Find or create some great high quality images and make your Twitter page look that much better.
- Completed.com is a resume site that allows you to add a lot more than just your contact info to the site. You can see my personal profile here and all of the different information you can add to their site. Their system is also very SEO friendly and they want your pages to rank well.
- LinkedIn is quickly becoming more than just your average “job/resume” site as well. You can now add images, media, link your blog feeds and much more. Make sure your profile is updated with your latest information and content that people can find value in.
Find out how to use Knowem to claim your user name on hundreds of networks at once.
When it comes to ranking on the first page of Google, Yahoo and Bing, this is something you definitely want to take care of. Improve your chances of ranking and growing your social following by grabbing your name on as many social networking sites as possible. Imagine how impossible this will be for people in 5-10 years!