Today, when I Google’d him, the top twentyfour spots are all about this one person. There is his own website of course,  www.kalindudley.com, but the rest of the listings demonstrate Kalin’s expertise. There are the obligatory listings for his profiles on Classmates, LinkedIn and Facebook, but he’s also quoted on PPC Hero more than once, as well as cited on the blogs of other online marketers, including my blog at Metric Voodoo. Because most of these listings include the title of the article he’s commented on, he’s easily associated with expert PPC advice, thanks to articles like “9 Mistakes When Creating Ad Text” and “Adding a 5th Dimension to PPC Testing.” 

4/21 google search on "kalin dudley" - page one

This sort of thing is now being touted by some marketers as “personal branding.” It’s relatively easy to do if you put your mind to it, and it can really make an impression on other people when it comes to demonstrating your expertise. But what if you’re like me and there are 10,000 other people with your name? You need to change tactics…

My online marketing organization is called Metric Voodoo. I like the name because it not only fits my personality, it mixes the highly technical with the more organic and mysterious, which is exactly what you have to do in online marketing today. And I share that name with far fewer people! When someone Googles “metric voodoo” they are certainly going to see me more often than they will see the band of the same name because I’m more actively using the name. I also make use of lots of online shared bookmarks and I also leave a few comments lying around on other blogs covering online marketing topics.

I only have 7 out of the top 10 spots on Google, but I have 8 of the next 10 as well, for 15 out of 20 listings. On Metric Voodoo I test social tools like Friend Feed and Twine, but I get some surprising results on ocassion from simple things like posting a Technorati bookmark or sharing a link on Yahoo Buzz.  

page one search for "metric voodoo"

If you are any sort of professional, there are some very basic steps you can take that can help you achieve expert status as well as pervasive SEO results. Some of these are no-brainers, but others so subtle, they are often overlooked.

First – buy your name as a domain name! If you have a common name, look for twitsts, nicknames, synonyms that pertain to your area of expterise and so forth. For Metric Voodoo, all I knew when I started was that there are way too many people named “michelle moore” on the internet and I wanted to differentiate myself by combining the analytical with the intuitive – which is how I do things. I made two lists, parked my butt in a chair and went through GoDaddy’s domain name suggestion tool with various combinations of these words until I found 6 available names I liked.

Second – USE THIS DOMAIN NAME! People all over the internet advocate buying your name but most of them also say “even if you never use it.” Dude, wtf? What else are you gonna do with it? There are turnkey hosts all over the place who can get you a site up and running in a day. I will install a WordPress blog for you in 6 minutes, complete with themes and widgets if you ask me nicely (or Paypal me hunnerd bucks!) Some hosts also offer one-button web site or blog installations. There’s no excuse not to utilize your own web site these days, with as easy as web hosting companies make it. 

Third – grab ANOTHER domain as a blog… go to blogger.com, wordpress.com, blogs2k.com, tumbler.com, yahoo.com – anywhere that offers a free blog AND lets you name it. This gives you another place on the internet that you control, where you can post links back to your main domain without hassle. You can also usually find tools to let you establish an RSS feed on this free blog site so you can feature excerpts from your main site right on the page. (see this article for a complete description of how this process works)

Fourth – produce content on your site… you can’t be an expert if you never have an opinion. Even if other people disagree with your opinion, you need to have one. Set yourself a schedule you can live with to write something, even if it’s just four sentences, on a regular basis. I use a free sticky note application where I jot topics to write about anytime they occur to me, so I always have a list of ideas handy at the computer whenever I have spare time. But you must put content out there in order to be indexed in a search engine.

Fifth – I’m tempted to say “socialize” but I’m afraid that’s oversimplified. If you take a look at the blown up pic of Kalin’s SERPs screen cap, or look him up yourself, you’ll see that a LOT of his “press” is the result of the fact that he comments a lot on other industry blogs.  Blogs are a self-sustaining circle of momentum. You find a few you like and go leave regular comments (once a month, once a week, whatever), eventually the readers and writers on that blog will share the love. If you’re really serious about this step, grab a “no do follow” tool and go blog delving, looking for blogs that allow the follow attribute on reader comments (this means the link back to your site from your signature line on the comment will be followed). Take a look at the Google PR and Compete.com ratings and start making your comments on the sites with the highest PR and lowest Compete, Alexa or SEMRush ratings. Share things you learn with other people through your blogs and on other sites, like Twitter. Join professional groups on Facebook and LinkedIn and participate in discussions that center on your favorite subjects. Let people know that you know what you’re talking about by actually saying something.

All of these things work together, but if you drop the ball an any of them, especially the last two, you can’t make progress in dominating the top 20 SERPs on your name. If you need to set reminders, there are some great free tools for that like Rainlendar. Or you can set up a few Google Alerts to email you when certain topics are discussed in the blogosphere so you know what blogs to visit and comment on.  You can subscribe to the RSS feeds of your favorite informational sites so that when they release breaking news, you can share it with your Twitter followers or your blog readers.  Make sure your blog/site has a site map on file with the ‘Big Three’ and don’t forget to update it when you add content. One of the first plugins I install in every WordPress blog is Google XML Sitemaps, which updates the sitemap on file with Google, Yahoo and MSN automatically every time I post something new.

Just like regular SEO, personal branding and pervasive SEO require upkeep. But taking control of your personal brand and pumping the internet full of positive spin that you control is also the best way to combat, or even avoid negative publicity.  Once you have assumed domination in the SERPs for your name or your company’s name, let me know – maybe we’ll design you a “Google Me” business card!