Using Linkedin to increase your company SEO clout

Aug. 18, 2009 - PRLog -- First off, a little background about Linkedin and how it began.

LinkedIn's CEO is Jeff Weiner, previously a Yahoo! Inc. executive and the founder of Linkedin was a fellow by the name of Reid Hoffman, previously CEO of LinkedIn and executive vice president of PayPal, who oversees day-to-day operations and is also Chairman of the Board. The company was started in December 2002 and launched in May 2003. Currently Linkedin has an estimate value of well over $1 billion and is the world's largest "professional networking" site on the net.

So how do I get started using this fantastic tool to my advantage and start benefiting from it's SEO secrets?

After you have registered your account on Linkedin, the absolute first step is to fill out as much of your profile information as possible. But I would like you to pay close attention to the section on your profile labeled "Websites", in this section you can place up to three websites of your liking.  Now here comes the single most important thing to remember in your Linkedin profile. In that section you will have a drop down box whereas you can change from the default "My Website" to the more SEO appropriate "Other". Once you've done that you will see the benefit immediately. Notice the blank spot beside "Other" ? That's where you will put your 'anchor text' . Problem is that when most people fill this out they either use their company name or they flat out leave the name field empty. What is your target keyword or keyword phrase? Use that as your 'anchor text'.

Another nifty little secret is to add the application "Blog Link" to your profile.  What this application does is link your personal or company blog, to your profile so that when you update your blog with a post, the post is automatically displayed on to your Linkedin profile also. And the more "connections" you have to your profile, the more exposure your blog posts will obviously get. It's a no brainer.

Remember what I said previously about filling out as much of your profile as possible including a professional photo and the works? Just making sure you are listening.

Sign up for relevant groups to your target market.  If you are in the market of Costa Rica Real Estate then I would suggest signing up for all the Costa Rica real estate groups you can and then start "connecting" to those people that are interested in the same field as yourself. Starting with this Costa Rica real estate group : http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=2007323&trk=hb_side_g

Post a link to "connect" with you on Linkedin, on all your sites including all your other social networking sites like Facebook, StumbleUpon, Hi5 and the many others.

Now that you have started to develop your own "professional network" using Linkedin as your central hub, you have begun to develop your foundation for full SEO potential.  At this point you've already begun to benefit from the SEO of Linkedin but why not go all the way and squeeze every last drop?

Once you've developed your profile and connections on Linkedin, you can now begin to "network" and "promote". And essentially isn't that what SEO is all about in this newage Web2.0 world in which we live?

Whenever you do an article post or PR(press release), I want you to go to your "Linkedin Groups" that you've joined and post a link to the article by clicking the "News" tab from within the group's main page and then to the right there should be an option to "Submit News Article". This will draw otherwise non-existant attention to your article and therefore giving it more clout in Google and the other search engines.  Even possibly making it to the frontpage of Google or Yahoo News!

My final suggestion for great networking in a professional capacity is this.  

If you are in the Costa Rica real estate business for example and you've got a client looking for something that you may not be able to provide at this time but you don't want to lose the client and pass them off on to the next in the long line of realtors waiting in a feeding frenzy, then listen up. You've got the client. The toughest part is out of the way already now don't lose them.  Post a "discussion" or "job posting" in your joined Linkedin Groups that you have a client who is looking for "Dominical Oceanfront" for example, and you want to present the client with the largest selection of properties in order to ensure they have all the options available to them to make a well informed decision on buying what will likely be, one of their biggest investments. Beginning to see the big picture here? Otherwise without Linkedin you are certainly limited to whatever connections your Roladex holds, which I promise you, is no where near the capacity of Linkedin.

Hopefully I have helped in my own little way at making you aware of the full potential of this amazing professional networking tool and until next time....Pura Vida!

Don Halbert is a professional in the field of Costa Rica SEO and can be reached one of the many ways below.

(011)506.8871.45.40 (Local) | (01) 201.221.3177 (USA) | (1)250.483.3951 (Canada) | (1)866.217.5594 (Tollfree)

Skype Name: SellingCR
Linkedin: http://www.linkedin.com/in/donhalbert
Facebook: Don Halbert

Apdo #310 - 8000 San Jose, Perez Zeledon, San Isidro 11901 - Costa Rica

Web: http://www.sellingcr.com

# # #

SellingCR is an internet portal site specializing in content and news relating to the south Pacific areas of Costa Rica. Special focus on areas like Dominical, Uvita, Jaco, Perez Zeledon and more...