Online reputation is what is found by Google, browsing the web, about a person or a product.
It can easily happen that when looking for oneself, results come out (coming from social networks such as Facebook and Twitter or from comments on Forums and Blogs) with unedifying, negative, or defamatory information. The problem becomes big in case you have to undergo job interviews when you want to sell something and you can have embarrassments even when you meet new people.To avoid falling behind and always have a good reputation on the Internet in this guide we will show you how to check online reputation to find out who and how is looking for me on the internet, so as to be able to intervene to make negative reviews less visible (inevitable at some point) and instead work on increasing positive reviews, accompanied by detailed information and certifying our business. Nothing prevents us from carrying out the same checks even if we are private citizens, so as to see what others see of us when they search for our name and surname on the Internet.
I have already written articles on online reputation although I have never used this word.
I remember, in this regard, the list of sites to search for people on the internet by the name and the article on how dangerous Facebook is from this point of view. Facebook, given its popularity, becomes a means by which to know everything about others, even strangers. Probably, if a person uses Facebook a lot, their profile can be the first result when searching for their name.
Google does not give any information on how many times and who searches for a name on the search engine and not even Facebook (let’s dispel the false myths) can tell me who and how many times someone visits my profile.
To check who is talking about us on Google you can instead use the Google Alert tool that warns if you are talking about yourself, a person or a thing, on the internet.
In this regard, Google also offers an online tool for find my identity online and know who I am on the web.
Added a business on Google My Business
The first step to having a good reputation on the Internet is to add all the details of the activity on Google, so as to be easily tracked every time a user searches on the search engine with our name or with the name of the company. company or business. To proceed, open any web browser on a PC and open the Google My Business page.
On the new page we log in with a Google account in our possession (or assigned to the commercial activity), we press on Add your business to Google, enter the name of the business and the category, click on Next and follow all the suggested steps to complete the information provided on the business (address, telephone number, any website, etc.). At the end of the compilation of the fields, we choose a verification option among those recommended and confirm. If the message appears during the addition This card has already been claimed, click on Request access and follow the instructions to claim the business.
After preparing the information sheet on Google, we add the location of the business also on Google Maps, so as to be traceable also on the maps of the search engine; to proceed we open the Google Maps site, enter the name of the activity carried out, click on the correct name and press on Claim this business -> Manage now or his I am the owner or manager of another business, so as to be able to associate the activity recorded previously also on Google maps.
From now on, any potential customer who searches for our name on Google or who is nearby using Google Maps will have access to official information about our business, as well as being able to access the evaluations made by users who use Google Maps.
If we have doubts about the presence of the activity on Google we can do a quick check using the site to Verify the local activity on Google.
Add and check LinkedIn profile
If we are freelancers or work as employees for a company it can be a good showcase on the Internet to have an up-to-date resume on a professional social network like LinkedIn.
Once the site is opened with a browser in which an associated Google account is already present, a window will appear at the top right to use the Google account to quickly create a LinkedIn account; to proceed, click on Sign in with Google to speed up the creation of the account. LinkedIn is a very powerful tool to find work or to receive new positions because, in addition to providing our online curriculum, it connects companies and professionals related to the same sector, with very precise and detailed categories: being on LinkedIn will significantly increase the level of reputation and seriousness of the company or the activity carried out. To this advantage, we add that often, those looking for our name and surname or our business could receive as the first result on Google their LinkedIn, which therefore becomes our business card on the Internet.
For more information, please read our guides Create a professional profile on Linkedin to be noticed e Complete guide to LinkedIn for looking for or proposing a job.
Update traditional social networks
In addition to LinkedIn, it is a good idea to keep all the social networks to which we are subscribed updated and well maintained, trying (where possible) to always separate the professional activity page (promotional page, VIP page, or company page) from the personal page (where we only have close friends and long-time colleagues). In this regard, all the main social networks (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc.) allow you to manage a page of activity or company, as well as being able to create a page reserved for your work or your professional figure.
Once the public profiles are properly separated from the private ones let’s be sure to get certified on social networks, so that users can recognize the real profile from any profiles with the same name or even worse fake.
To learn more we can read our guides How to create a new Facebook page, Complete guide to Twitter: how to use it, what it is and how it works e How to use Instagram.
How to improve online reputation
We already have updated profiles and updated Google information but the reviews are not positive? Do we have a few stars or a few credible ratings? To try to improve the situation it may be a good idea to open a blog, even simple in 5 minutes with a single page, which is entitled with your name and surname and some information on the activity carried out. To be on the safe side and be well indexed, we recommend subscribing to the following platforms: Blogger, WordPress, Tumblr. With the right amount of patience, our profiles will index themselves in the top positions and will be easily accessible to anyone looking for information about us.
The site’s support is also excellent BrandYourself that promises to raise your profile on Google search results, check if we are well-indexed, if there are many profiles with the same name, and what we can do to stand out from the crowd.
As seen in another article (on how to post an online resume), the best way to protect your online reputation is to create profiles with serious bio and resumes on job search sites that come well indexed by Google.
Conclusions
Those seen above are the most effective tricks to check the online reputation and increase it, using all the tools that the Internet makes available for free, so as to correctly index our name and get (if possible) only positive ratings. If we receive a lot of negative reviews unfortunately we cannot delete them, but we can only work to have a much higher number of positive reviews than negative ones.