Boosting Your Online Reputation

Whether you're a job seeker or an established executive, your online reputation is an important part of your professional image. With a few clicks, a contact can unearth the most revealing — and occasionally embarrassing — parts of your online history. Taking time to clean up and manage your Internet presence is key in controlling your personal brand and presenting a positive impression.

Social Media

Social media is the easiest place to start cleaning up your online reputation. If any profiles have questionable content, set them to private. Click through all of the tagged photos of yourself, and remove any tags on embarrassing or unprofessional images. If a friend has posted an image that you wouldn't want a professional contact to see, ask the friend to take it down. Go through old posts, and remove anything that is overly political, angry, profane or otherwise inappropriate. Finally, update your LinkedIn profile with new details, recommendations and work samples.

Build a Website

A professional website is a fast way to improve your online reputation. Purchase a domain name that consists of your first and last name, possibly with a middle initial. If the URL is not available, try inserting the name of your industry, your job title or another work-related word. Use a simple website-building program such as WordPress to build a basic website that contains your resume, portfolio and contact information. Optimize each page with keywords that an employer is likely to search for: your first and last name, job title, state, university or industry, for example. Use the keywords in the meta tags, in image names and in various positions in the text.

Remove Negative Content

Run a search for your first and last name, and examine the results on the first three or four pages of results to understand what employers see when they Google you. Look out for listings that might be red flags for employers: news reports about a past business failure, an embarrassing comment on an old website or old blog entries. Take down any negative items over which you have control, and try to delete forum comments. If necessary, contact the site administrator to request removal. Remain polite, and explain that the item is negatively impacting your online reputation; keep in mind that the webmaster may not honor your request.

Publish Internet Articles

If you cannot eliminate old, defamatory or embarrassing posts that contain your name, your only option is to bury them with newer, more positive results. Write articles and blog posts that relate to your industry and personal interests, and submit them to reputable websites. Start a blog, and publish professionally focused pieces with your byline. Write for your company website, local newspaper or an industry blog. Treat each piece like a professional writing sample, and publish regularly. Over time, this strategy drives negative results farther down the search-results hierarchy and boosts your online reputation.

As you take steps to improve your online reputation, have patience; after all, your history was not built overnight. With a strategic plan and diligent effort, you can create a positive Internet presence that impresses employers and clients.

Photo courtesy of stockimages at FreeDigitalPhotos.net