Protect Your Online Reputation
(Page 1 of 4 )
In this day and age it shouldn’t surprise anyone that our reputation matters in the online world too. It is definitely a no-brainer that we should do our best not to ruin our reputation across the virtual world. But we all know that things can go wrong; others may intentionally try to degrade your image or brand, for example. In this article we’re going to cover some of the most effective ways to protect your online reputation.
Warren Buffett, the stock market investor that's currently the world's richest man according to Forbes, couldn't have said it better: "It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it." If we think about it, our entire life depends on our reputation, the image through which we are visible to the world. And this applies to the online world as well. In fact, it's much more important and here's why.
Recently, I had the good fortune to talk with the HR assistant of a significant company. She assured me that indeed, one's online reputation must be protected and improved. The simplest scenario is that a potential candidate applies for a job, sending in his or her résumé. The assistant told me that they do a "quick Google" search on the name of each candidate. And sometimes the results are shocking (and not positively).
On the other hand, you may say that this kind of practice shouldn't influence your ability to fulfill that job's requirements, and that obviously there are possibilities that lots of people share the same name. Of course, if you have no "online" presence at all, then so be it; they will find nothing. But if you have a ruined reputation, then it may cost you the job. And no, they won't confuse you with somebody else, you can totally be positive of that.
Here's some good news: according to statistics compiled by GEO Ltd., only 23% of users go to the second page of SERPs (Search Engine Results Page), and less than 10% go as far as the third page. This is the result they found from lots of crunched SEO logs. In the real world, we can say that almost nobody goes beyond the first page if he or she finds worthwhile content on that page and especially within the first hits.
Knowing this, protecting your online reputation ("reputation management" is the technical term) means nothing but adding lots of positive content regarding your identity and doing your best so that the negative results get knocked off the first page. You need to understand that deleting negative hits isn't possible. You cannot make them disappear. But you can move them down to pages where nobody will look. That's much better.
That is what this article is all about. Read on and learn how to protect your online reputation!
Next: Do It Yourself >>
More Website Promotion Articles
More By Barzan 'Tony' Antal
