Have you Googled your own name and company name recently? These words are the basic keyphrases your target audience will search when trying to hook up with you, or research you online, so you need to pay close attention…

Today I did two simple Google checks - one on “Gina Couper” and the other on “Juicy Onion”. At the time of checking, I had published just one post and one page on my Juicy Onion Blog i360. I wanted to know, “How does my Blog i360 page rank on Google compare to my page ranks for Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and ZoomInfo?”

As you will see below for “Gina Couper”, my Juicy Onion Blog i360 already enjoys a page rank of 2, just behind results from the New Zealand Herald (one of NZ’s leading news sites enjoying massive link equity). Interestingly, for the keyphrase “Juicy Onion” (not shown here), I show up Number 1 – ahead of amazon.com, theonion.com, chowhound.com and ehow.com – all established sites with much higher traffic volumes!

So my Blog i360 did good, very good. But where is my Facebook ranking, pray tell?

One of the reasons Facebook is touted as one of the best hangouts online, is that it is supposed to enjoy high page ranking. However, as at today, for “Gina Couper”, Google displays no Facebook results whatsoever! I admit, I have only been active on Facebook for just over a month. Could it be that Google hasn’t even indexed my Facebook profile yet?

In contrast though, remember it was just a week and a half ago that I did my first Juicy Onion post, and I am already showing up big time.What about LinkedIn, then? I’m showing at Number 8 – a whole 6 ranks down from my Blog i360 results. Having been active on LinkedIn since October 2005 (more than 2 years), that’s a little underwhelming in comparison.

ZoomInfo’s “Gina Couper” results are nowhere to be seen. Once upon a time, I did show up here prominently – don’t know what happened. No my account hasn’t gone AWOL. It’s just that nobody can find it. Which in effect is the same thing really, isn’t it?

As a Twitter newbie (on board for only around 3 weeks) I have no ranking either. But I have heard great things on this via the Twitter grapevine so will keep my eyes peeled.I love Facebook for business, but who’s got more than a month to wait to show up in the search engines? If Woody Allen said, “Eighty percent of success is showing up”, then I’d have to add to that, “- quickly”!

Moral of the story? If you want to show up on Google in a juicy way, quickly, then get started with your own Blog i360. Don’t just leave it to social networking to get found.

Gina Couper.

PS. Leave me a comment and let me know what your questions about search engine optimisation (SEO) are. If you’re a business person, like me, learning about SEO is like pulling teeth! What stuff reaaaalllly frustrates you? What are you having trouble “getting”? I will endeavour to translate the Geek-speak for you. And I will break it to you gently.

Next in series