The more effort you invest in building effective online profiles to foster maximum online customer engagement utilizing these social networks, the more relevant you’ll become on Google’s search results. And managing your various profiles is a great first step. From there, you’ll need to determine your content and engagement strategy as well to achieve “page one” relevancy on Google.
When you’re finished reading this article, I challenge you to take three action steps that will help you improve and manage your Google Juice moving forward:
Step 1: Google yourself and take a screen shot of the first page of results. Save that screen shot for future reference.
Step 2: Do a sweep of all your online profiles and make sure that all of your key data matches and is up to date.
Step 3: Set a reminder to Google yourself in 30 days and compare the page one results to the screen shot you took one month prior. See any difference? Note those changes and think about what else you can do to influence this online reflection of who you are as an agent over the next 30 days. Then make a commitment to continue repeating this activity as a regular part of your online brand management.
The end goal is simple. Whenever someone Google’s your name, you want the search to return you, identify you as a real estate professional and provide validation by associating you with your current brokerage company.
As it turns out, the best place to go “find oneself” – or at least the image everyone else sees – is on page one of the Google search results. I’ll let you ponder that for yourself. In the meantime, good luck in your endeavors and enjoy that Google Juice! I’m about to pour myself a tall glass of the same.
Wendy Forsythe is executive vice president/head of global operations at Carrington Real Estate Services, where she is responsible for the operations and growth of the national brokerage with offices in 23 states and 1,200 agents.