Be true to yourself. Prospects and clients want to know they can trust you, so be yourself—let your brand be a reflection of your unique personality. Don’t try to imitate someone else’s branding. This will seem inauthentic and hurt your credibility.

Highlight what makes you unique. Come up with your USP—unique selling proposition. This is a statement of what makes you different from others, with the benefit to the client either expressed or implied. For example, your USP might be that you’re a specialist for a specific property type or certain neighborhoods. Or it might say you offer a higher level of personalized service. Think about adding a tagline, which can help people remember you, such as “Your dream home headquarters.”

Be a source of valuable information. Your personal brand should represent someone who delivers value to the people who could use your services. Share helpful tips and insightful advice on social media. Offer free resources on your website, in emails, and e-newsletters. Providing these things will establish you as a trusted expert people can rely on.

Maintain a professional image. Dress appropriately for prospect and client meetings and networking and community events. Always be on time, respectful, and courteous. Above all, follow through on all promises and commitments.

Make yourself visible. Your personal brand is you, so make sure you’re out there as much as possible, in person and online. Post consistently on social media, and regularly attend business networking and community events. Maintain a professional-looking website that highlights your special expertise and services and keep it updated with new listings and news.

Take a proactive approach. Instead of waiting for opportunities to promote your brand, go out and pursue them yourself. Offer to speak at business and community events. Write articles for local and industry media. Network with other professionals who could be referral partners—real estate attorneys, loan officers, financial advisors, home inspectors, etc. Keep looking for ways to expand the reach of your personal brand.

Keep it consistent. Use the same logo, colors, and messages in all your marketing efforts—website, social media accounts, blogs, mailers, business cards, leave behinds—everything. This makes your branding cohesive, so people will readily recognize you.

Create a plan. Develop a strategic plan for how you’ll market your personal brand. Research your target audience, create your USP, and lay out the marketing activities you’ll pursue, both online and in person. This will keep you focused on taking the right steps to build your brand.

Determine the right keywords. Keywords are key to SEO performance. They’re the words and phrases your audience uses when searching for what you provide. Do some research to find them. Use tools such as Google Keyword Planner, Keyword Tool, and Semrush. Some are free, some not. Also, look for long-tail keywords—highly targeted phrases that can help you rank higher on SERPs (search engine results pages).

Use those keywords in blog post tags and content.

• Meta tag— the HTML element that provides search engines with information about a web page. This copy appears with your SERP listing, so write a meta title that grabs people’s attention and a meta description that makes people want to click on your link. A CTA (call-to-action) can also boost click-throughs. Include keywords to boost your SERP ranking.
• Header tags (H1, H2, H3, etc.)— HTML elements that improve your SERP ranking by helping search engines understand the relevance and hierarchy of your content. The H1 tag for your blog post title should accurately describe the topic and include relevant keywords. H2, H3, etc., tags are for subheads that organize the content into readable units. Each one should accurately describe the section’s content and include relevant keywords.
• Blog post title. Create a title that entices readers to engage with your article, and contains keywords that align with your target’s search queries. Strive for a natural tone.
• First sentence. This tells readers and search engines the focus of your content. Include keywords that reflect your central theme to capture attention and improve search results.
• Anchor text— the clickable words in the post that you’ve hyperlinked to other site pages. Anchor text should include keywords to boost SEO. Also use anchor text to hyperlink to other sites to enhance your credibility, provide more value to readers, and improve SEO.
• Final paragraph. Your closing thoughts should incorporate keywords tied to your post’s main theme to enhance SEO. A well-crafted ending paragraph can heighten your online presence as an authority, and drive more organic traffic to the post.
• Note— Avoid keyword stuffing. This turns off readers—plus, Google penalizes you for using so many keywords that your post becomes hard to read.

Optimize images. Use descriptive file names containing relevant keywords. Add alt tags that describe the image’s content. Use image compression tools for faster loading.

Make sure your site is mobile friendly and fast-loading. 58% of mobile searches are on mobile devices. Google penalizes you if your site isn’t optimized for mobile. Also make sure all pages are fast-loading.