Protecting Your Online Reputation with Search Results

Many people are discovering the bad side of search engines – search engines can find just about anything, including that embarrassing college photo of you posted on a social media site, or the comment you left for your ex.

While the friends looking at your drunken photo will find it funny, other people who accidentally locate it through search engines may not find it so appropriate. This could cost you a job or damage your reputation. Because of this, you should learn how to practice a little reputation management in the online world.

It Starts With You

Online reputation management starts with you. You need to be aware of how well search engines work and think of this when you post content online. A certain photo may be funny to your friends but not to a potential employer. Many employers even do a background check of your online activities, by simple “googling your name”, or checking your social media profile. So think twice about what personal content you post online, because it is easier to prevent a problem than to fix it later on.

Fixing a Problem

Sometimes reputation problems show up on the internet whether you put them there or not. Examples of this are reviews from angry bloggers, content posted by friends or family or even negative comments posted by anonymous sources. However it gets there, if you don’t want it to appear at the top of your mother’s – or your employer’s – Google search then you have to take some action to fix the problem.

The first step is to remove anything posted by you or by relatives or friends. If you don’t own the websites the info has been posted to, contact the webmaster and ask him to remove it. In some cases this will work and in other cases it will not. Some sites, especially those in the review business, will not remove reputation damaging content relating to you voluntarily.

If you cannot remove damaging content from the web, you can take steps to help drown it out of search results. This is often referred to as ‘crowding out’ and it involves flooding the search engines with specific and positive content relating to you. The negative content will not go away, but it will appear on page 5 of search engine results, meaning that almost no one will see it.

Do not take your online reputation lightly. Monitor it regularly and take action whenever you feel that damaging information was posted about you.

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