If I Google Your Name, what would I find?
Deborah Odagbodo
Have you ever searched your name on the Internet? If not,
please take a moment to do so right now! Yes, feel free to stop reading and
search your first and last name on the Internet. If you have a common name,
like John Doe, place the city you currently live in next to your name to narrow
the search. Also, try placing Towson University into the search engine with
your name. For example: “John Doe in Towson MD” or “John Doe at Towson
University”. For many of us, the top links might not be the best current representation
of ourselves. There are a few things you could do to change this and clean up
your online reputation.
How Bad Is It?
After you search your name, if you find things you do not like then take note of that specific website and link. Signing up to have alerts like Google Alerts sent to your email when information is added will help you keep track of the new material added on a consistent basis.
How Do I Get Rid of It?
Once you have pinpointed the things you don’t want to come up when your name is searched, one way to get rid of it is to submerge it. You could submerge the bad information with tons of good info. One easy way to do this is to create a blog post using your real name of something you like do to, such as knitting or skiing. Also, constantly posting interesting current information on your LinkedIn profile will help submerge old information. You could also try writing for established newspapers like the Baltimore Sun or Towerlight because these things will come up first.
In some cases, the information can be removed. For example, if you or someone you know posted a video on YouTube, deleting the video would get rid of it. However, if it is from/by a major establishment you probably will not get much luck asking them to remove the information.
What Else Can I Do?
There are many services whose sole duty is to clean online reputations. Reputaion.com, Defendmyname.com and Naymz.com are just a few. These services come at a pretty penny and as a student, it is probably not worth it. I only suggest you hire a service when the information is extremely damaging and you foresee it hindering you in the future.
Your online reputation is becoming increasingly more and more important and protecting it is vital in this day and age. So be proactive and get to Googling!
How Bad Is It?
After you search your name, if you find things you do not like then take note of that specific website and link. Signing up to have alerts like Google Alerts sent to your email when information is added will help you keep track of the new material added on a consistent basis.
How Do I Get Rid of It?
Once you have pinpointed the things you don’t want to come up when your name is searched, one way to get rid of it is to submerge it. You could submerge the bad information with tons of good info. One easy way to do this is to create a blog post using your real name of something you like do to, such as knitting or skiing. Also, constantly posting interesting current information on your LinkedIn profile will help submerge old information. You could also try writing for established newspapers like the Baltimore Sun or Towerlight because these things will come up first.
In some cases, the information can be removed. For example, if you or someone you know posted a video on YouTube, deleting the video would get rid of it. However, if it is from/by a major establishment you probably will not get much luck asking them to remove the information.
What Else Can I Do?
There are many services whose sole duty is to clean online reputations. Reputaion.com, Defendmyname.com and Naymz.com are just a few. These services come at a pretty penny and as a student, it is probably not worth it. I only suggest you hire a service when the information is extremely damaging and you foresee it hindering you in the future.
Your online reputation is becoming increasingly more and more important and protecting it is vital in this day and age. So be proactive and get to Googling!