SEO…It Can Happen To You Too!
March 20, 2007 by Nadine Turner
So it was over one month ago that I created my LinkedIn profile expecting it to come up #1 on a Google search… yeah right! But, it was only five days ago that I pledged to optimize my online self to the top ranks of a search using an actual plan. I found that SEO, that mysterious acronym for Search Engine Optimization is a hotly debated topic when it comes to doing it “right”. I don’t know how to do it right yet, but what I do know is how to play with it. This is my SEO experiment.
Mind you, my original plan was/is to land a great job, not be #1 on an internet search, but I discovered I needed to be first out of the gate to take control of branding myself. There’s not exactly a line of people queuing up to do this, but the complete absence of an online presence sounded like something unforgivable – like I missed the boat and didn’t even know that I needed to be on it! I followed up that thought with remembering that to some, saying “nothing” is the same as saying something “bad”. Ok so enough of that…on with the report.
My strategy consists of creating profiles and “tagging” myself on a wiki, premier social network sites, creating a blog and listing my LinkedIn url on each. Here are the results 5 days in:
- PBWiki.com, created 3/10, no search result yet
- Emurse.com, created 3/14, Emursed…only in oblivion
- Worldpress blog, created 3/16, no search result yet
- LinkedIn profile, created 2/16, no search result yet
And the winner is…drumroll please…..
- Jobster.com, created 3/14. Finally, I got “Google-juice” and I’m #3 on a name search after only 5 days, wow!
By the way, I spoke to an SEO “guru” who charges for her services and said it takes 3 months for Google to reindex….what a load! I think I’ll be getting a couple of great job offers this week. But if not, and I have more time, my next step will be to Blog at someone else’s, very popular and well SEO’ed blog spot and see where that takes my online presence.
I like to call her my “anti-matter” self in that alternate universe called the Internet. How did I get here? Again, serendipity.
Hi Nadine-
Your SEO guru was a bit off (or at least incomplete). Google does a deep crawl every few months, but actually indexes and freshens content on a frequent (and varied) basis, based on a number of factors.
When you google yourself, you’ll see (to the right of the green link text) a faded link called “cached”. You can click on that and see the date it was most recently indexed at the top.
Congrats on taking control of your SEO brand and good luck on the job search!
-Tony Wright
(Jobsterite)
Thank you Tony!
CAN IT REALLY!?!
Very neat stuff!
If you could shoot me an email, I’d love to check out your profiles. We’re always looking for ways to improve things.
Unfortunately, results vary greatly from user to user — so much of SEO is tied up into the specific content that goes on to each profile, and how it goes on. What words were bolded, what was left out, etc. etc.
Best,
Alex Rudloff
Emurse.com
As an update, Emurse.com now ranks #2 on a search for “Nadine Turner”, higher than any of the other services mentioned
Good job Nadine. Best of luck!
Thanks Joel!
[...] their Emurse profile in the top 5 results on their name. Hat tip to Nadine Turner for doing her own testing/reporting of [...]