In this era of increased saturation in almost every skilled based field, standing out from the crowd is of great importance. Sure, we all can claim, "I'm a content writer or SEO specialist with x years of experience" but what demonstrates our credentials well is our key profiles being searchable on Google when someone would enter our legal name. Because let's be honest here, if you claim to be an SEO strategist, you should at least get your Facebook and LinkedIn profiles indexed and ranked in the SERP for your (legal) name as a keyword.
Imagine if a client creates a post on Facebook or LinkedIn, declaring that he is looking for an SEO team lead and you comment, "Yes, SEO Team Lead Available". He might type your name on Google and when he actually sees your name alongside your well maintained LinkedIn, Contra or Medium profile(s) in the SERP, your chances of getting hired will increase substantially. Besides, you could get a chance to get in direct contact with your Fiverr or Upwork clients when they land on profiles where you have mentioned your email or other contact details if they search your name.
But ranking for your name isn't easy. There might be a lot of people with your name. According to Facebook, there are at least 50,000+ Asad Imrans who registered themselves on the site. The strategy that has worked the best for myself is using my first name, last name alongside a phrase that represents my caste. You'll be reducing your competition by adding Syed, Shah, Naqvi, Niazi, Khan, and Malik before or after your name. Though your legal name¹ would already have these identifiable phrases so use that instead.
How I Got Myself Ranked for My Legal Name on Google?
I was already trying to secure my spot on Google with the name "Asad Imran" and I was even moderately successful in getting my site and my Facebook profile ranked in the first three results, the rankings would fluctuate and my LinkedIn profile wasn't even showing up in the 100 results on Google against the search term, "Asad Imran". As I have already alluded to earlier, the reason behind the inconsistent ranking was none other than me trying to rank in a sea of other 50,000 "Asad Imrans". So I thought of doing an experiment to see if that would help or not.
That experimental strategy was simple. I changed my name on my Facebook, LinkedIn, Medium, and Instagram profiles from "Asad Imran" to "Asad Imran Shah* as there were only 2 people named "Asad Imran Shah" on LinkedIn (and a quick Google Search returned only one). So, the course was clear and all I had to do was waiting. And after a week, my Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn profiles were ranking atop in the SERP against the keyword "Asad Imran Shah".
Why Did it Work?
I didn't build any kind of commercial backlinks to get myself ranked and the main reason my experiment may have worked might have to do with my rather stouter presence on the internet. Although it has only been 3 months since I started offering my services as a freelance content writer, but my community already knew me as a Literary Blogger because of my blog on English Literature (namely The Assimilators), where I had enacted a dedicated "About the Author" section, resulting in my name getting mentioned as a source in a research paper. Also my name as "Asad Imran Shah" is uncommon. So, that may have contributed to my profiles showing up in the SERP.
How You can Make Your Profile(s) Appear in the SERP?
Make sure you have added a detailed "Summery" about yourself and your career on LinkedIn. Also add experiences, work history and most importantly, recommendations from your past clients. Connect with other people from your niche and expend your network.
Do a LinkedIn search and then Google Search of your regular name. If there are more than 15 to 20 LinkedIn profiles with less followers, add identifiable phrases and repeat the search to see if that reduces the number of profiles.
The next step is to use that extended name on each of your profiles (such as Linkedin, Facebook and Medium etc). Please note that your extended name shouldn't exceed 3 to 4 words as potential clients might find it hard to remember or type your name that has 5 words!
Keep your usernames the same and consistent across all the platforms you have made your profiles on.
Link your profiles with each other through "Social Media Links" as this would serve as Backlinks.
Create your profile on Contra and publish your past projects there in detail. Contra profiles tend to get indexed fast and ranked better.
Make all the profiles open, public and indexable. (A locked Facebook profile and a private LinkedIn profile won't do much).
Explainers:
¹ The name that is written on your CNiC card and other legal documents.