Why Create a Microsite About Yourself?

Someone found SEO Theory for an interesting question that I haven’t really addressed in the past. And, in fact, if I had addressed it in the past the topic would probably need a refresh by now anyway. The question concerns creating microsites for one’s self. Why do that?
Search engine optimization is about obtaining the best possible performance from search referral traffic. That means you want the traffic to be interested in your content and you want the people searching for your content to be able to easily find your content. So when YOU are the topic of the query, having a microsite does sometimes make sense.
In fact, every Web searchable social media profile you create is a microsite; your Twitter account, your Linkedin profile, your Pinterest board, your Facebook page — these are all little sites that tell people something about you
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Google+ gives you the ability — through its (now drifting) Authorship markup — to create a hub for your microsites so that people can see where your content may be found. You can link to social media profiles or blogs where you contribute content.
So, with all these social media options, you have to ask who really needs anything more, like a dedicated, branded microsite. We can still go for the vanity option and create our own personal domains but if (like me) you don’t do much with that domain you’re probably not going to see a lot of traffic to it. In fact, if (like me) your name is shared by one or more celebrities, Google’s current set of algorithms may bury you in bullshit about the celebrities.
In my case I helped Google do the burying — no need to dwell on why. But it’s a rare day when you find any content about any Michael Martinez other than the former Philadelphia Phillies baseball player on the front page of a search for “michael martinez”. Only a few years ago you could have found six natural listings for me (I never tried to own that query).
There are certainly some professional benefits to being found for your name, but there are also drawbacks. For example, if you have a colorful online life you should probably be glad that prospective employers are not finding so much information about you when they search your name.
Then again, if you’re a professional SEO and you cannot be found for your name, people may look askance of your skills. It’s a tough decision even for a marketer. So I think the answer to the question “who really needs a microsite” comes down to whomever really can benefit from one in some measurable way.
Simply building a microsite around your name for a vanity purpose is taking on potentially a lot of Local SEO challenge for a relatively small reward. There are probably better things you can do with your time to promote yourself online.
Some people are so disturbed by the nasty, hostile content published under their names (and found in the search results) that they build a dozen or maybe several dozen microsites about themselves. This strategy may work in weak queries but it’s a good way to draw attention to yourself. After all, if you’re NOT a celebrity and people who know who you are start to find dozens of Websites about you, it will be pretty obvious to them you’re trying to take control of the SERPs.
Celebrities, wealthy business people, and corporations do sometimes invest in the microsite strategy for reputation management. I have tried to steer my clients away from populating their SERPs with vanity Websites; I favor creating useful, task-specific Websites that can provide some visibility (and shielding) for a contested name space. A large corporation may already have an existing set of Websites that can be tweaked or enhanced to do the job, for example.

The thing about microsites, though, is that they need to act like normal, ordinary, everyday Websites too. They need links, they should link out to good content, and they should provide people with a clear indication of what to expect if those people choose to visit those Websites.
Search reputation management has evolved over the past few years. I don’t think it’s evolved much
but you do tend to have more options to work with. Back in 2006 and 2007 when I looked at other people’s RepMan campaigns all I found were empty profile pages (even for companies). They looked awful and often the results drew criticism.
Now with a lot of marketing attention, budget, and emphasis directed toward creating and managing active social media communities around brands peppering a corporate name (or even a personal name space) with a dozen social media profiles looks natural — provided they serve a purpose. Creating an empty YouTube channel is kind of silly and it’s not going to be able to compete well against hostile content.
It’s true that some people like to have fun with their name space. Especially when your name is unusual, you can create content that is interesting and engaging and people probably won’t be offended when they search about you. After all, they’re not likely to be looking for anyone else by your name, right?
Vanity query optimization has assumed a permanent place in the search engine optimization practices category. It’s not necessarily a big money-maker but it can be a good practice ground for people who are learning how to manage complicated SEO campaigns. Competing against yourself can also help you identify better practices for creating content. So vanity query optimization is a good training ground for anyone who is new to Jacksonville  SEO.
But you should pursue vanity query optimization responsibly. You could be generous and populate your name space with content about someone else (as I did a few years ago) but that other person may one day come to overshadow you. You may one day want to take back that name space and suddenly find that you’re competing with professional news media, and that’s not so easy an SEO campaign.
For the record, I have NOT tried to take back my name space but if I were to try I would probably have to focus on just one Website and build really good content there. While I am not the only Michael Martinez who has an interest in being found on the Web, there are actually several other people (authors, artists, performers) who are ALSO being overshadowed by the baseball player’s content. That was never my intention and my philosophy for the past couple of years has been “I’ve done enough harm in this name space”.
Looking back, maybe I would have done things differently. It’s too late for that. I don’t have the time or desire to try to fix the name space, and so many people have written so much hostile content about the former Phillies baseball player (he was, unfortunately, not a very good hitter in the major leagues) that it probably would be a massive undertaking.
The pianist, the drummer, the political scientists, the reporters — all those guys named Michael Martinez who can no longer be found in a search for “michael martinez” — they have probably learned to live with that; maybe they don’t even care. But if they do care, then they probably have good reason to be angry with me for messing with the SERPs to begin with.
So think long and hard before you try to take control over a shared name space. It’s not just about drawing attention to yourself, or blotting out unwanted content — it’s also about what happens to the other people who share your name.

Disclaimer: I have never had a business relationship or any connection with the baseball player. He did not solicit or request my help in managing the search results. He was unaware of any SEO work I did in that name space.

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