SEO/ Reputation Management, Part II
I know, you're like "Where are the pictures of weird food?" but settle down, sometimes it's good to learn new things. This is part 2 of yesterday's "Fill Google up with stuff about yourself" post," even though people rarely listen to me about this and end up paying me to clean up messes for them.
In case you lost count from yesterday, here is a checklist of digital
assets (controlled by you) that people should find when they Google you. This list is pretty author-focused because as I mentioned, that's the book I'm editing right now, but it also absolutely applies to you if you own a hair salon. Just replace "Amazon Author Central" with "Instagram," and so on.
- Your website, which is based on your name. This
is the center of your empire, and it should come up first when people Google
you. If it doesn’t, that’s the place to
start. - Amazon Author Central page. Fill it out, make sure it’s updating with
your latest information. - Your Twitter profile. Even (as in the example) you’re not using
this for its intended “back and forth chatting” purposes, it still should be on
Page One of Google, pointing people back to you. - Your Facebook Fan Page. Page, not profile.
- Your GoodReads profile. GoodReads partners with Facebook, making it
extremely easy to log in. Again, just go
over there and make sure your information is up to date and that your profile
contains that link back to your main website. - Your Google Plus Page. Michael Pollan’s G+ didn’t come up on Page One
of Google because he has that great profile link from the New York Times, but
again, if you don’t write for the NYT, you still need to do whatever you can to
control those Page One results.
7. Your YouTube Channel. Sorry to say this if you’re not a “video”
type, but YouTube is dominating in Google right now, so if you haven’t done it
already, now is the time to put some stuff in your YouTube Channel. Oh, and if you don’t think you even have a
YouTube Channel? You’re wrong. If you have gmail, you have YouTube. Try signing in! http://youtube.com.
8. Misc. magazine/ blog posts that will help to
“fill in the space” of Page One (there are ten). You will need to pick whatever medium is most
relevant to you (like Instagram, or a music-related website if you’re into
that, or a Tumblr blog). This is also
helpful if you have a common name, because it will help to alleviate confusion
by presenting the person searching for you with multiple instances of you as a
writer.
In case you’re wondering, what you’re doing here is
traditional SEO (search engine optimization), using your name as the primary
keyword for which you’re optimizing.
This should be a relatively simple feat to accomplish, given the fact
that there is likely low competition for your name because you’re not famous
(yet).
Also, don’t assume that you’ll just wait until your work
becomes well known, and then your Page One results will magically fix
themselves. This is not true, and in
fact, I have been hired several times by famous authors to undo the damage this
nonchalance has caused. In one instance,
a famous author wrote a controversial article years ago, and was now releasing
a parenting book. She (and her
publishers) just wanted people to give her new book a chance if/ when they
Googled her, and this was less likely with that controversial article all over
her Page One results. It took more than
a year, but I can now say that when you Google her, you don’t get to the
controversy until Page Three (in SEO terms, we call this “where they bury
bodies”).
I have also been hired by a famous author with a more common
name, just to “clean up” his Google presence, which in his case just meant
making sure that Page One results didn’t show several not-so-nice articles
written about him and one of his books.
In this case (as well as the other one, above), if this author had been
more diligent about his web presence, he wouldn’t have needed me in the first
place.
Let me be clear: I’m
never trying to get anything “removed” from Google (that is not really
possible). Smart SEO/ reputation
management is more about filling up the internet with good stuff about you than
“getting rid” of bad things.
And with that, I will conclude today’s SEO lesson and return
to snapping photos of signs with bad grammar and sushi in gas stations. Be safe out there, people!