Once something is on the internet, it is there forever. Old social media posts and pictures can cost your admission to a school of your choice, a job or otherwise cost you the dreams and success you want. Fortunately, there are some steps you can take to ensure your public image is not damaged.
When your name is put into Google, you want only the best things to appear. If you want to ensure this, there are certain steps that you need to take.
Log Out Before You Google Yourself
The first step to seeing what comes up for your name is to log out before you Google yourself. You should also clear the cache and search history. This will show you what the average person sees when your name is searched for. If you do not do this, Google will provide you with personalized results that do not reflect what other people see.
Identify The Problematic Results And Remove The Ones You Can
After you get your results, you need to look at the first few pages of results and see if there are any negative results you do not want people to see. Removing negative reviews from Google can be complicated, but it’s not impossible. That is why you should know how to remove bad reviews from google. Personal social media posts and personal data can be removed by yourself or you can change the privacy settings on your accounts to ensure the information is not found. It is important to note that all social media networks make your profile public by default and you should manually change this unless you use the account in a professional capacity.
There are negative reviews and bad press that you will not be able to remove, but you can prevent it from being the first thing that people see. If you do not have anything unfavorable in the search, you need to build a fortress around your results. This will ensure that nothing bad appears in the results in the future.
Create New Content
When you create new content, Google will have new and relevant content to rank when your name is searched according to VelSEOity.com. The content you should create varies depending on your profession and the amount of time you have. The content should be spread across social media, personal sites, videos, blog posts, and press releases. If you have a personal website, you need to buy your name domain. If you want something simpler, you can create a basic resume website with a blog that you update regularly to provide Google with fresh content.
You should also have an account on all the mainstream media accounts such as Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. These networks rank highly in the Google search. You can update the accounts as often as needed and adjust the privacy settings to ensure only desired content is seen.
Look Out For Data Brokers
There are online data brokers who scrape the web looking for personal information available and this will be used to create online profiles. Most data broker sites will have an opt-out form you can use. There is also a company called SafeShepherd which automates the process for you.
Removing this information is a good step to avoid doxing. However, these companies will automate the profile creation and they could still create another profile about you in the future after you have removed yourself. This is why you need to be vigilant and monitor these sites if you want to keep your personal information out of searches.
Be Proactive
If you have any pictures online that you cannot control, you will need to be proactive. Contact the administrators of the website and ask for the photos to be removed. It is important that you are polite when you first contact them. You should only consider contacting an attorney if this does not work. They will help you draft a takedown notice. If the images are explicit and being distributed without your consent, you need to look at the revenge porn laws in your state and legal action can be taken if this is violating the state laws.
