SEO and owning your last name on Google

SEO (search engine optimization) is most possibly the key word on the tips of every marketers tongue. My understanding of it is that you position your content in such a way that search engines can better find you and analyze the effectiveness of your data. So, little things such as headings (and its various levels h1/h2/h3/h4), description and keywords all come into play.

I initially launched this blog after having an interesting conversation with a friend, Rob Jama, about resumes in general. He joked about the possibility of ditching resumes completely, and just having a business card that shows Google’s search box with your name in it. This would only work if

a) you are searchable
b) you have fresh content, and
c) you got some serious SEO (search engine optimization) working for you.

During that conversation, I quickly googled myself. Lo and behold, I found myself somewhere on page 3, with a wonderful shiny Facebook link. Within minutes, I purchased a domain name, activated a Twitter account, and got around to blogging (I know it kinda died recently). I installed Google Analytics on the site to monitor visitors, search terms, and the works to better understand my website and its visitors.

A few months later, I found myself crawling to page 2 of the search results. With the continued content, increasing visitors and information relevancy, in a matter of time I was standing on page 1. Keep in mind, this was for the search term (Ahmed Dirie). Big deal…!

Once in a blue moon, I would do quick searches to see what the instant results are, and I’ve watched my name creep up from the lowest level to right below the famous Sheikh, Ahmed Deedat. Neat.

Throughout this process, I learned that by raising your online social activity a little, whether it be through blogs/twitter/facebook etc, or a well structured site, you’ll get indexed on Google and be searchable based on what you put out.

For 2011, as tough as it may end up being, I’ll make an effort to just owning the search term (dirie) on Google, all for the sake of SEO and learning. At this moment, the most popular result on Google is super model, Waris Dirie. Can it be pulled off? Of course! In later posts, I’ll go over some of the steps I’ve taken to meet this goal.

5 Comments

  1. Amal

    I’ve had this on the back of my mind since January, it’s great you bring it up. Starting next month, I’ll be your student in this matter. Great Post!

  2. helen abbott

    Clearly you need to create a Wikipedia page for yourself.

  3. Burhaninho

    Great stuff! Looking forward to seeing you own up Google. The thing about SEO, there is too much to learn. Guest posting on popular blogs and writing books may help.

  4. Jamàl

    The only two things that will boast your GSERP* for the long term are the content on your site and the reputation you receive from your audience.

    Good luck for your endeavors.

  5. Patti Murphy

    Good pointers. Now I need to check my ranking. Murphys are a dime a dozen out there. I can’t even get my hands on the .com or .ca domains, dammit.

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