SECTION 2 - BUILD
MODULE 7: Seo
Search engine optimisation (SEO) can feel complex at first, and most people's eyes glaze over when it comes up. But understanding the basics is genuinely useful for your job search. Knowing even a little about SEO will help you show up when employers and recruiters search for you online, and that can make a real difference when you're trying to get hired.
Explain what SEO is and why it matters for your visibility as a job seeker
Learning Objectives
Identify the key factors that influence how you appear in Google search results
Take practical steps to improve how your name, website and profiles rank online
Manage your text, image and video search presence so employers find the right version of you
So, let's start with a couple of quick definitions.
SEO defined simply
How Google and other search engines rank your digital content.
SEO defined in detail
The process of affecting the visibility of a website or a web page in a web search engine's unpaid results, often referred to as "natural", "organic", or "earned" results. In general, the earlier (or higher ranked on the search results page), and more frequently a site appears in the search results list, the more visitors it will receive from the search engine's users.
In Australia, Google is the predominant search engine with over 92% of all search traffic. In the USA the figure is more like 64%, as Bing and Yahoo are much more popular there. So we'll focus on Google.
The question then becomes: how does Google decide which websites it ranks on the first page?
The honest answer is that nobody really knows, because Google keeps its algorithm closely guarded. The experts all have strategies built from test results and clues gathered from working with Google and SEO every day. But Google has shared some of what it does and does not want, and that's the best foundation for your SEO approach.
Here are 6 simple SEO strategies to get you started.
Topic Items
Readings
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The simplest SEO strategy is to give Google what it wants. Follow its guidelines and most of your content will appear on page one without much trouble. The problems start when people try to trick Google into ranking their content above others. If you think you can outsmart the biggest, most resourced digital company in the world, good luck with that.
The Google search premise is straightforward. It wants you to have a good website with useful, relevant content so that its values are aligned with yours. So focus on building great SEO by working within the rules.
Here is what Google wants, straight from its own website:
How to make Google happy:
Make pages primarily for users, not for search engines
Do not deceive your users
Avoid tricks intended to improve search engine rankings
Ask yourself: would you feel comfortable explaining what you have done to a Google employee? Is it useful? Would you do it if search engines did not exist?
Help your website stand out by focusing on what makes it unique, valuable or engaging
How to make Google unhappy:
Automatically generated content
Participating in link schemes
Creating pages with little or no original content
Cloaking
Sneaky redirects
Hidden text or links
Doorway pages
Scraped content
Participating in affiliate programs without adding sufficient value
Loading pages with irrelevant keywords
Creating pages with malicious behaviour, such as phishing or installing malware
Abusing rich snippets markup
Sending automated queries to Google
The advice here is simple: focus on creating a great website with valuable, relevant content. Doing that will naturally improve your SEO for the search terms you want. Which raises an important question for your job search: what do you actually want people to find when they search for you?
There are three search priorities worth understanding. Your personal name, your online presence (LinkedIn, portfolio, social), and any content you create. For a job seeker, your personal name is almost always the most important place to start.
Why your name matters most
When someone hears about you and wants to find out more, they search your name. That could be a hiring manager, a recruiter, or someone passing on a referral. The goal is to have at least three strong, professional links appear on page one of Google whenever someone searches your name.
One thing worth thinking about early: be consistent with your name. Whatever name you use on LinkedIn is what goes on your website, your business card and anything you publish. If you go by a nickname in some places and your full name in others, you are splitting your SEO. Pick one version and stick with it.
If your name is common, hard to spell, or you have changed it, you will need a clear strategy to make sure the right version of you shows up. This is worth getting right before you start applying for roles.
The second most important search term is your professional presence, your LinkedIn profile and any portfolio or personal website you have. If someone is referred directly to you, a strong personal website at www.yourname.com.au combined with a well-optimised LinkedIn profile gives you the best chance of controlling what they find.
The hardest and least urgent thing to rank for as a job seeker is a product or service search. Someone searching broadly for "marketing graduate Melbourne" is not looking for you specifically, and the odds of converting that search into a meaningful opportunity are low. Focus your energy on making sure the people who already know your name can find the right version of you quickly.
SEO strategy number one: make Google happy. If you want to stay up to date with changes, the next tip covers that.
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Google does not like it when you ignore its changes. It is a small price to pay for a free service. Happy Google equals better results for you.
Google never releases its exact algorithm, but it does give hints. You may have heard of terms like Penguin, Panda, Pigeon and Hummingbird. These represent significant algorithm updates that affect which content ranks and which does not. Google publishes notes on each update so you can adapt.
Recent updates have focused on two things that are directly relevant to job seekers: geo-location and mobile optimisation.
Geo-location helps users find results near them. Google uses your address, your social media location and the GPS chip in your phone to work out where you are and return the most relevant results. Over 80% of searches are now done on a mobile phone, which means Google almost always knows where you are. If you are based in Melbourne and a recruiter in Melbourne is searching for you, that proximity works in your favour.
The other major update focused on mobile-friendliness. With over 50% of Google searches and over 90% of social media activity happening on mobile devices, your personal website needs to be mobile responsive. You can test yours using this free Google tool: google.com/webmasters/tools/mobile-friendly
To keep up with ongoing Google updates, these blogs are worth bookmarking:
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The most important thing you can do for your SEO is know your own personal brand. If you are unclear on how you want to be known, it is difficult to build a consistent online presence that performs well in search and connects with the employers you want to reach.
Once you know your positioning, your target roles, and the type of employer you are going after, you can start creating content that reflects that clearly.
Bill Gates famously said "content is king" back in the 1980s, and it remains true for SEO today. Google no longer just reads keywords. It reads paragraphs. Stuffing your content with keywords does not work the way it once did. To earn good SEO, you need to write informative, relevant content that connects to the terms you want to rank for.
This is why blogging and publishing on LinkedIn is the number one tool for increasing your SEO over time. We cover this in more detail in the Leverage section.
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Having quality links to and from your website is a strong way to improve your Google ranking. These links should be visible on the page and should reference related websites or relevant content. Google measures link quality by the popularity of the linked site and how relevant it is to your content. The better the link quality, the more Google will see your website as valuable, and the higher you will appear in search results for your target terms.
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Your URL (the web address of your website) plays a significant role in how your site ranks in SEO. It needs to do two things: tell people what your website is about, and support your SEO.
Next time you do a Google search, look closely at the URLs in the results. Parts will be highlighted in bold, showing how the URL connects to the search term used. The closer the match, the more likely that site is to appear at the top.
For a job seeker, the most effective URL is simply your name: www.yourname.com.au
The .com.au extension signals to Google that you are in Australia, which helps with geo-location ranking. If your preferred URL is not available, try adding a middle name, initial, or profession. The important thing is to secure a URL that is as close to your name as possible.
If your name is hard to spell or could be typed in different ways, consider purchasing a few variations and pointing them all to the same website. URLs are inexpensive and having more rather than fewer is a smart move early on.
As your career develops, your URL strategy may shift, but starting out with your name as your primary URL is almost always the right call.
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As mobile internet use has grown, geo-location has become one of the most important factors in how Google ranks search results. Mobile devices have built-in GPS chips, and Google uses that data to return results that are as geographically relevant as possible.
For job seekers, this means your location matters in search. If you are based in Melbourne and employers in Melbourne are searching for someone with your skills, being locally anchored works in your favour. If you are targeting roles interstate or overseas, you will need to think about how your online presence reflects that.
A few more practical tips worth knowing:
Keywords "above the fold" (the first thing visible on screen) are less critical than they once were
Time matters. A new website will not rank highly straight away. SEO builds over time
Avoid changing your URL once it is established. Your SEO history is attached to it
Google reads paragraphs, not keywords. Write useful, long-form content
Name your website images with your name, not generic file names like "image001"
Make sure your images are optimised for fast loading. Slow pages affect SEO and leave a poor impression
There are many other factors that influence SEO. If you want to go deeper, the suggested blogs in Tip 2 are a great starting point.
By following these six strategies, you will be well positioned to appear on the first page of Google when employers and recruiters search for you. Next up, we look at how to build a website that supports your job search and makes a strong first impression.
Module Resources
What you'll cover in this video:
What SEO is and why it matters for your job search
How Google ranks search results and what that means for your personal profile
Why your name is the most important search term to optimise for
The three types of search results you need to manage: text, image and video
Practical steps to make sure employers and recruiters can find you online
Why consistency across your name and profiles is critical
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