Find Your SEO Namesake

Nowadays, it is apparently all about branding. Get your (brand) username known on the social media and social networking sites and you’ve got it made. Well, that’s the theory. And, certainly there is an element of truth in it. Indeed, I’ve created a whole lot of accounts with my Sciencebase username on Twitter, Plurk, Youtube, Facebook, Digg, Flickr etc etc (see selection in sidebar, to the right of this post) and try to be as active as I can on those sites while running my editorial consultancy business in the meantime.

I even spend some time maintaining my rank in Google for the keyword “sciencebase” (currently #1 as you might expect) and for my name “David Bradley” (was #1, but being outstripped by the actor’s entry on IMDb and some Victorian tractor museum, pah!). Although if you add a qualifier e.g. “David Bradley science”, “David Bradley blogger”, “David Bradley writer” and a few other phrases, I’d rather not mention, you’ll see I am #1 for those.

However, a e-conversation with a fellow science blogger got me thinking. He was quite proud of the fact that he’s ranking well for his name and variations thereof, but not for any other keywords or phrases. He told me he was trying to build up an online identity. That’s definitely a good idea but I think that should be the focus of your web 2.0, social media branding. After all, if someone doesn’t already know your name, why would they be searching on Google for it? Conversely, if you have a web 2.0 identity, then that sector of your audience already knows you and where to find you via your Plurks, Tweets, and Flicks etc etc.

If I were my colleagues search engine optimization manager, I’d be looking to get him ranked for more general phrases, such as “blue science widgets”, “red science widgets”, “widgets for science ethics”, that kind of thing…because that’s what people on Google hoping to find those things will actually be searching for, not him by his blogging nom de plume. If you’re Microsoft, Digg, Coke, or NASA, people just aren’t going to be searching for you by name, so you’re not going to grow organic traffic focusing on your name as a keyword.

Of course, it’s worth making sure your name and brand rank reasonably well, for the odd occasion when someone might Google you prior to a dinner party or after a Twitter conversation when they’ve lost the URL you mentioned, but really how often does that go on?