How Personal Brands Can Succeed in SEM - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career

How Personal Brands Can Succeed in SEM - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career Why Search Engine Marketing (SEM)? Having your website rank in search has changed dramatically over just the last five years, and many brands may have seen a decline in their ranking. Since social media came onto the scene, the way people look for information on the Internet has become much more conversational. Google in particular has also evolved to adapt to this new style of communication with its latest algorithm, Hummingbird, which means personal brands must also change their search methods. Has your brand’s website been off the search engine radar? There are new techniques that can bring visitors back with restored visibility. It’s important to know about the latest strategies in order to be successful on the Internet today. The modern search engine marketing methods differ from those traditionally done by personal brands in the past. Gone are the days of “stuffing” specific keywords into content. The following are some advanced techniques that will help your website rank higher on places like Google and Yahoo. Steps to Search Engine Marketing Creating content is just the beginning of optimization for search. Here are some key factors to success: • Research topics instead of keywords While having a base list of keywords for your personal brand’s topics and niche is good, these should only be used as a reference. Google now pulls information based on topics, which means your content should contain a theme of words based on your keywords. For example, instead of utilizing just the keyword, pet food, throughout your article you can include similar or related terms to create something that reads more natural and less mechanical. Make synonyms a big part of your research, and you will be able to come up with several variations to choose from. • Keep your words and phrases close together Search engines will be able to find your content a lot easier when the semantics are correct. The search terms are now more relational today and can produce a variety of results. Dog breeds, for example, might produce a variety of results like “terrier dog breed” or “dog breeds that don’t shed.” • Stay relevant to your topic It’s important to check your personal brand’s content to make sure that your search terms and phrases relate to what you are writing about. Not only is it important to know your target market in this process, but to also apply this principle to the links included in your article(s). As search engine marketing evolves it is important to stay on top of the latest trends, and to write fresh and original content that people are searching for in your personal brand’s niche. Once you are familiar with the needs of your audience it is easy to produce a list of topics for your content that include a variety of keywords that relate to what you are writing about. A well-written article or page will help your website rank higher in search, which will lead to more visitors and exposure online.