Google can be your best friend or your worst enemy. It can affect a business or potential employment. Even college representatives do these sorts of searches.
First, Google Yourself
Before anything else, do a thorough Google search of your name and relevant terms. You might get flooded with results from people with the same name. You will need to narrow it all down to websites and social media accounts that are yours.
If you do have negative results, the entire process gets a little less straightforward. However, sharing a name with someone with a not-so-good online reputation doesn’t mean it will affect you, either.
It is also the first reason why asking an online reputation expert about how reputation management works. They can walk you through the process of removal, and explain all the steps.
Social Media Profiles
You can take steps towards making your personal social media profiles private. Not everyone knows that is an option. For instance, Facebook doesn’t default to private. You have to go into the privacy settings and separate it from any professional accounts and choose to remove it from searches on Google or Bing.
- Click on Menu (found on the top right)
- Click on Settings (bottom of the menu)
- Near Top of the List – Click on Privacy (near the top of the list)
- Click on Edit
You can remove it from search engines. But, people can still search for you on Facebook. Privacy settings can get so confusing, and they change constantly.
Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok all have different ways to remove you from search engine results, and as you can imagine, they are all different and can get complicated.
People are out there that can help with your understanding online privacy and how it can affect your present and your future. You don’t have to go through this confusing process alone.
Taking Control of Your Online Reputation
Once you know what is out there, you can remove anything that you have control of. It means pictures and posts from your social media platforms or taking down websites that are no longer relevant to you and your life.
You can’t control things like articles or other content mentioning you. You can only request removal. Regardless of their response, keep correspondence polite and professional.
You can create new quality content and web pages that will push old and irrelevant results of the first Google search result page. It might feel like a lot of work, but it is worth it to nab that dream job or profitable client.
An online reputation management service works as a guide to online reputation management. They can help with social media profiles, bad Google results, and fresh Internet content to improve and maintain a reputation score that will never fail to impress.
