The role of Google is to categorise and organise the world’s information and prioritise the most relevant, authoritative and important information first. So, how do you make sure Google views you as the most authoritative expert on your area of expertise? You build your personal brand to be one!

5 Tips to Help You Build Your Expert Status and Achieve Great SEO Results.

  1. Develop your Area of Authority

If you want people to see you as an authority, it’s time to get specific. Pick a niche that you can specialise in that is meaningful and valuable to the customers you serve. Chances are when you go searching for information or answers, you don't look for a Jack-of-all-trades who can give you a broad and shallow overview.

You look for a specialist who can provide you with a depth of knowledge and experience because you gain more value. Google and your customers work the same way.

When you get specific, you can drill down and explore topics in detail to answer the pressing questions and focus on your audience's needs, wants, problems, and challenges. This gives you a greater opportunity to connect and add real value to your audience. What’s more, it naturally improves the quality of the content you share because it has substance.

Here are some questions to help you find and develop your area of authority:

• What can you do better than nearly everyone else?
• What unique skill, thought, process or value can you offer your customers?
• What are the biggest needs and challenges that your customers have?
• What problems do your customers have that are going unsolved?
• What gap/s need filling in your industry?

  2. Take a Stand

Controversy (provided it's constructive) and championing a cause can be great for developing your personal brand and establishing your area of authority. It can also help you achieve the viral effect that you want and that Google loves.

Find something in your industry that isn't right or something your competitors do that should be called out – and talk about it. Make customers informed. This isn't about naming or shaming, this is about taking a stand, showing your ethics and setting a new standard in your industry. It also helps to establish your credibility and proves that you are looking out for your customer’s best interest.

  3. Give Freely

Wondering how much information you should give away? The answer is as much as you can because the one who adds the most value always wins. Continually ask yourself, what ideas, knowledge and solutions can I share that will improve the lives or businesses of my customers?

It doesn't need to be all of your trade secrets or the exact step-by-step process you use to get results. But chances are you have a lot of insight into your industry, competitors, products, and your customers problems and opportunities that could inform, educate, entertain and add value to your customers and assist potential customers through the buying process.

  4. Make it Consistent

This is perhaps the most challenging point; you need to be consistent with the quality of the information you produce and how regularly you create it.

While there are plenty of other areas in your business that need your attention, this is one area you can't neglect when times get busy. Establish a frequency that you can maintain, and your audience can depend on. Google loves high-quality content that is regularly updated and rewards you for it.

   5. Share it!

When you have good content, don't just put it on your website; share it widely. Put it on your social platforms, share it with industry association/s and distribute it through other highly reputable and relevant websites, blogs and media publications. Digital PR is the new link building.

Sharing will not only improve your credibility with Google and your SEO rankings though. It will also help you to build your network by leveraging the database and following of others – and that’s smart business.

Starting to see why your future SEO success is dependent on your personal brand now? What can you implement today to build your expert status?