How to SEO your resume.

This here post is dedicated to PN.

I posted the above comment on Twitter, asking if people have search engine optimized (SEO) their resume.  I received so many @replies & direct messages asking for more information that I thought in these economic times, it made sense to put together a solid how-to guide that helps get your resume in front of those who need it most.  A special thanks to Mark Beekman who read over the below list and provided some solid feedback.

Here we go…

Get your resume online.  This is the obvious first step…open up the SEO doors and let people (and the algorithms) see who you are on their terms.  If you password protect your resume page, you will NOT be found!

Buy a URL that describes the job you are after.  Search engines like URLs that say what they are.  For example, if I was a Creative Director looking for work in Los Angeles, I would go buy the URL www.CreativeDirectorLosAngeles.com  This will rank very well for anyone searching for a Creative Director in LA.  Here is a site for buying web addresses (URLs) cheap: GoDaddy.com  It’s ok to buy more than one URL for your resume, but just make sure you don’t have the exact same content on both pages…search engines don’t like that.

Title tag and page title.  Your title tag holds a lot of weight…this is what usually shows up at the very top of the browser above the URL in the ‘frame’.  Search bots take this information seriously and it is often overlooked, so make sure you have it included.  The actual title of your resume page is important as well.  Make it large for more search and visual importance.  Make sure both page title and title tag utilize your same keywords, but have slightly different wording. 

Make sure all your resume copy can be found by the search bots.  If you have any text that is in an image format, consider changing it.  If, for visual purposes, you have some text in a graphic header, make sure that key information is repeated in searchable HTML copy.

Use a relevant set of keywords.  Research how employers are searching for candidates in your field and use those keywords and phrases throughout your resume.  If you are looking for fulltime work, make sure you use that phrase.  If you want a job in Dallas, make sure that’s a keyword you use throughout.  Always be in the mind of those who are looking for employees online.  To help you get into that mind of the employer, you can download the trial version of Trillion here: Search results software -Trillion  This helps you understand the popular terms people search for.

Job Titles.  These tie back into using relevant, known keywords.  Think in terms of what is the most common job title for what you do?  If you didn’t have job titles at your work, or you had an uncommon title (like Chief Storyteller), consider replacing that with the more common term, or at least use both terms together.

Image optimization.  If you are going to use images, make sure you name that image with the appropriate keywords.  For example, if you are someone that likes putting a picture of yourself on your resume, make sure you label that image like so:  FirstName_LastName_JobTitle_Location.

Alt tags.  Provide alt tag text for your images.  This is what people see if the image does not load (or is loading slowly) and it still helps a wee bit with your search results.

Links.  Make sure you link out to any of the work you have done that can be found online, and more importantly, make sure those sites link back to your resume.  When they link to your resume, it is very helpful if they use the same keywords that you are optimizing for and the links vary slightly from one to the other.  There is a lot of link spamming going on out there, so make sure you are slow and methodical about acquiring your inbound links…if not, the browsers will punish your site and ‘black list’ it.  For a resume I don’t see this happening, but just keep in mind that you can’t start littering links all over the web at the same time with the same copy.

Not too wordy. In an effort to get all the needed keywords into a resume, sometimes the content gets long.  Try to avoid this from happening.  If you keep your content short and targeted to your keywords and phrases, you will be fine.  It also helps to Bold or italicize those key points.  A simple example: ‘Civil Engineer Resume’ will outrank ‘This is my Civil Engineering Online Resume’ in almost all cases.  Keep it short…you don’t want to lose people once they get there by being long winded.  Online legibility and ease of reading web pages is a whole other blog post, but if you are interested in that, here is a link: writing for the web

Leverage social rating and bookmarking sites.  Add social icons to the bottom of your page and encourage people to digg, mixx, furl, delicious, etc.  Once your resume goes live, Digg your own page to ensure the title that shows on their site is optimized with the keywords that you are optimizing for.

Cross-link your personal social sites.  Place a link to your resume on any social sites you are a member of:  Facebook, Linked In, Twitter, MySpace, Flickr, etc.  As mentioned above, make sure the links contain your targeted keywords and that there is some variation in the wording of the different links.

Get links from industry sites or publications.  One way to do this is to add comments on industry blogs w/ links back to you.  Be careful doing this, as you don’t want to ’spam’ sites for the purpose of getting your resume out there.  Be relevant with your comments and make sure you are adding to the discussion.

3rd party job sites.  If you are additionally posting your resume onto 3rd party sites like Career Builder or Monster, most of the same rules above still apply.

Because I don’t want to waste your time and regurgitate already chewed information all over you, I don’t ever look to see what has been written about the topics I blog about.  I share from my experiences, and as a result I sometimes miss really good points, so please let me know if there is anything else that you think will help with those looking for work.

Also…if you know anyone looking for work, feel free to pass this along if you think it might help.  If you Twitter, here is a convenient tweet post:

If you, or someone you know, are looking for work, this post on optimizing your resume through SEO could help: http://tinyurl.com/asjcuy