As part of our growth within the boundaries of the Internet, we need to be aware that search engines could have some dirt we may not want exposed. To remain proactive, managing your online personal reputation will allow you to control what shows up before search results do. It’s time to manage your personal SEO.
What Does Your Online Conversation Sound Like?
Depending on what your goals are and who you may be, your online reputation management tactics may change. However, you could already have some of the more common conversations throughout the Internet, such as:
- Job seekers to employers
- Consultants to prospective clients
- CEO to potential partners, investors and the general public
These are a small collection of the online conversations taking place. In order to control other conversations, you should consider other strategies such as blogging, and using social networks.
How Do Search Engines See You?
As search engines provide us with so many results, we should assume that some of these that come up may be less than ideal information. Depending on who is searching for you and how badly they want to get to know you (consider a hired professional, or someone conducting Web research), results may vary. In this instance, you want to make sure that your online presence is ready to be viewed by anyone; sparkling clean and perfect.
So, if someone searched for you what would they find? If you haven’t kept your online presence polished, it could be anything like past indiscretions, cluttered results, or material that is irrelevant, sensitive, or just plain boring. Whether the search results lead you towards crisis mode, or open your eyes to your opportunity to do something, its time to manage your personal online reputation.
Begin to Mold Your Online Presence
You can take control of the search results to build and maintain your healthy reputation by implementing a plan for Personal Reputation Management. Consider some of these questions while doing so:
- What do I want people to know about me?
- How do I engage users once they learn about me?
- How will I monitor the results that people find?
As you answer these questions, you will begin to outline your tactics and goals. While you continue with this process, you can also control more positive results.
Begin to Develop Yourself
If you haven’t yet built a concrete foundation for your online reputation, now is the time to start. There are endless options for you to choose from; start a blog, join social networks, build your online profile, share your interests with users, and generate conversation. While you begin to maintain these platforms, you gain control over what information search engines have about you while directing conversation to where you want it to be and what you want it to be about.
It’s your reputation and your information. See this as the perfect time to perform SEO on yourself! If you Google yourself, what would search engines say?
