How To Defend and Mold Your Good Name On The Internet

As social media and the power of search engines grow, keeping an accurate and positive online image is key to personal and business success. Negative and incorrect information continues to resurface online for years. There are several good practices you can use to both find out what your online presence looks like so you can start protecting and controlling it.

Search for Yourself

Image via Flickr by Victor1558

Start by Googling, but don’t stop there. The more information you gather about your online presence, the more steps you can take to minimize and prevent potential damage.

Set up a Google Alert. Keep an eye on Wikipedia. Check out sites like SocialMention, which tell you mentions of your name on social media sites. Similarly, people searches like Pipl and ZabaSearch dig up and combine information already available on the web.

Hire Reputation Management Professionals

Online reputation management companies will monitor the web for mentions of you and work to control any inaccurate or potentially harmful information. They also protect your private information and help your business gain positive and accurate customer reviews. You can choose what kind of protection you want, and tailor it to your personal reputation or for the size of your business.

Be Careful What You (and Your Employees) Post Online

Everything posted online is permanent. Learn what not to post (like party pictures from college), and ensure your employees know as well.

Keeping information offline in the first place is easier than trying to erase or bury it later. You don’t know how or when a careless post might resurface. Use resources like the book Wild West 2.0: How to Protect and Restore Your Reputation on the Untamed Social Frontier, in which author Michael Fertik explains how to create, maintain, and repair online relationships and reputations.

Control Your Name

Buy any domain names relevant to your business and create a profile for your business on every major social media site, like Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Google+, and LinkedIn, even if you don’t plan to use them. The more places your business is present, the more difficult it is for others to set up false accounts and webpages. Plus, building followings on multiple social media platforms will strengthen your online reputation.

Create Diverse Web Content with SEO

Image via Flickr by Danard Vincente

Post blogs, images, videos, and infographics both on your website and on the social media profiles you created. To improve SEO, write content with words and phrases relevant to your business, and build up links by sharing in a multitude of formats. Not only will this help expose your business and gain followers and customers, the more content you post on the Internet, the more search results will display content you create and control.

Defending your online reputation is a difficult task given the amount of information available online and the ease with which people can post new information every moment, so it’s more important than ever to ensure that you and your business have an accurate, positive, and well-maintained online presence. By beginning with these steps and practicing vigilance, your online reputation is in your own capable hands.