Key Words and Phrases That Get You Found

Key Words and Phrases That Get You Found Before you read this, you have to promise me that you will think of yourself as a business of one! In order to get the most out of this post, you have to be open to the idea that you are a brand- not a job seeker and not an employee. Most of the really good SEO information is written for businesses, not individuals who want to manage their personal SEO.   As you read some of the resources I list below, replace business with your business of one.   You will have to think about how the advice and recommendations would apply to you and I guarantee you, it all does! SEO (Search Engine Optimization) Here is how Wikipedia defines SEO: Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the visibility of a website or a web page in search engines via the natural or un-paid (organic or algorithmic) search results. This term is used by techies, businesses, web developers, etc. and it MUST be a term you become familiar with. Embrace it because you want to be found in search results.   You want to be visible! Getting a baseline Google your name.   Put it in quotes like this your name Where do you find the first reference to something that is really YOU? Page 1, page 2, page 3??? If you need to rank higher in Googles Search results, go learn about  BrandYourself.com  in this article I wrote: Job Seeker: Get On Page One. Key Words What are the words you use most on your resume and in your LinkedIn profile? You can use a fun tool like wordle.net to get a visual of this. I saved my LinkedIn profile as a pdf and copied and pasted that into the wordle.net box to get this image of what key words appear. The words that are larger appear more frequently. If you would like to see the word counts in their raw form, while you are in Wordle, click on the language tab and look at the very bottom of list for show word counts and this is what you will see: Are these the words that you would expect a hiring professional to find you in their search? Thinking Like a Recruiter, Sourcer, HR Pro They do think differently than you and I.   Thats what makes them great at their job.   They know the correct key terms to search by to find what they are looking for.   Whether they search via their companys resume database, Monster, CareerBuilder, LinkedIn or just plain Google, you have to know, they are searching for candidates using specific key words and terms. Just read ERE.net, HR Bartender,  Workology  or listen to Drive Thru HR and you will see the frequency by which they are talking about tools and techniques for finding great talent and SEO comes up! Most importantly, they are your customer!   They are the ones buying YOU! It is important to understand what they are looking for and what they want! Your Next Steps: Get yourself to appear on page one  of a google search! Heres how. Discover the key words you are using and see if they align with the key words being used by professionals searching for the type of talent you deliver.