I was reading one of Eric Friedman‘s blog posts today – Writing for humans and robots – which by the title is about how to write content that is SEO friendly on both fronts. SEO is a double-edged sword because as Eric puts it, “One of the fundamental bits of SEO advice I give most people when talking to them is explaining the difference between the two audiences you are writing for; humans and robots (computers).”
Once you understand that anything you publish online from pictures to links can be SEOed and searched for, you are already ahead of the game. In my comment to Eric’s post, I mentioned that once I learned this tip, I went back to all of my social networks and changed the name of my links, specifically on LinkedIn. The example is below:
On the left you see my SEOed links that I changed so that it is both human and robot pleasing. The right example is the generic titles that LinkedIn gives you, which gives up valuable information that someone can search for and find. Because of these links, if you type in “Trace Cohens Blog” into Google, my LinkedIn profile shows up first. Amazing!
Google results are Web sites that use SEO to their advantage. By learning simple SEO tips and tricks like this, you can control results for your name or any other word (depends on the word!) and control how you’re perceived online. Remember that your social media presence and Google results are now your first impression with most people.
Do you have any other tips or questions that I could answer? Let me know!
