Personal Search Optimization: Managing Your Individual Reputation Online

by Christine Harrell

If you're like most people, you think of search engine placement as something that businesses worry about. But if you're in the public eye, you should be thinking about search optimization for a very important individual: yourself. Whether you are the figurehead for a small business, operating a business where you're the central focus, or are the high profile CEO of a major company, you're likely to end up in the news, and people are likely to look at your information when they consider your company. In this situation, managing your reputation becomes more than a luxury: keeping positive news on top and negatives out becomes an imperative.

Always Be Vigilant

The first step to maintaining a good reputation online is to always be watching what is published. If your personal information is published without your consent, it could be more than just cause for you to contact the publisher and request its removal. Depending on how personal it is, you can sue for its removal should the poster refuse.

Although sometimes accidental negative postings receive strong search engine placement, most often the best results come for pages that are actually attacking you. They may attack you in the course of attacking your business, or they may hit you alone. These directed attacks may have a factual basis, or may simply be fabricated. They are particularly common against therapists and others who make their living based on reputation, and for whom online ranking sites are fairly commonplace. People create malicious reviews, negative websites, and more, tweaking them to ensure search optimization. These sites rise in rankings and quickly become something that people see right as they search for your name. Especially if you are in a service profession such as a therapist or doctor, a few negative reviews on the first page can severely damage the confidence of new patients.

Watch What You Are Posting

Occasionally, the content that is undesirable comes from your own postings. Remember, anything you put out onto the internet can potentially be traced back to you. This is particularly true of social networking sites like Facebook, Myspace, and LinkedIn. Simply watching what you say and write online is a good first step toward controlling your image. Think of it as being constantly onstage: you are always presenting to a critical audience quick to jump on negatives.

Know When To Request Removal

In some cases, you can actually have a particularly bad page removed. The first way is to request removal through Google. This is only workable if the page has confidential personal information listed on it. If, for example, someone were to maliciously publish your credit card information, you could request that Google stop listing it.

Google has no control over what opinion based sites might list. You can't have Google remove pages that may be defamatory - the only way to determine what's fact in that situation is in a court of law. However, in some cases unfairly negative reviews on review websites may be removable. If you're in doubt, contact the webmaster to see if removal is possible.

Working With A Company

There are more involved and complicated techniques to ensure search engine placement for only results you want to see. If your strategies aren't working, consider hiring a search optimization company for reputation management. There are a number of things they can do within Google's guidelines to help paint a more accurate picture of you.

Author is a freelance copywriter. For more information about Search optimization, please visit http://www.customermagnetism.com/.

Article submitted Monday, January 16, 2012 & read 1 times.

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