A few years ago I couldn’t wait to get married. Because I was in love, yeah; but more importantly, so that I could take my husband’s name and people would stop getting that ridiculous picture from college as a top result when they searched for me on Google.

After a few years of working here, though, I’ve learned that you don’t have to change your name just because it brings up some embarrassing search results. Below are some tips for “reputation management”: influencing how you’re perceived online, and what information is available relating to you.

Think twice

The first step in reputation management is preemptive: Think twice before putting your personal information online. Remember that although something might be appropriate for the context in which you’re publishing it, search engines can make it very easy to find that information later, out of context, including by people who don’t normally visit the site where you originally posted it. Translation: don’t assume that just because your mom doesn’t read your blog, she’ll never see that post about the new tattoo you’re hiding from her.

Tackle it at the source

If something you dislike has already been published, the next step is to try to remove it from the site where it’s appearing. Rather than immediately contacting Google, it’s important to first remove it from the site where it’s being published. Google doesn’t own the Internet; our search results simply reflect what’s already out there on the web. Whether or not the content appears in Google’s search results, people are still going to be able to access it — on the original site, through other search engines, through social networking sites, etc. — if you don’t remove it from the original site. You need to tackle this at the source.

• If the content in question is on a site you own, easy — just remove it. It will naturally drop out of search results after we recrawl the page and discover the change.
• It’s also often easy to remove content from sites you don’t own if you put it there, such as photos you’ve uploaded, or content on your profile page.
• If you can’t remove something yourself, you can contact the site’s webmaster and ask them to remove the content or the page in question.

After you or the site’s webmaster has removed or edited the page, you can expedite the removal of that content from Google using our URL removal tool.

Proactively publish information

Sometimes, however, you may not be able to get in touch with a site’s webmaster, or they may refuse to take down the content in question. For example, if someone posts a negative review of your business on a restaurant review or consumer complaint site, that site might not be willing to remove the review. If you can’t get the content removed from the original site, you probably won’t be able to completely remove it from Google’s search results, either. Instead, you can try to reduce its visibility in the search results by proactively publishing useful, positive information about yourself or your business. If you can get stuff that you want people to see to outperform the stuff you don’t want them to see, you’ll be able to reduce the amount of harm that that negative or embarrassing content can do to your reputation.

You can publish or encourage positive content in a variety of ways:

• Create a Google profile. When people search for your name, Google can display a link to your Google profile in our search results and people can click through to see whatever information you choose to publish in your profile.
• If a customer writes a negative review of your business, you could ask some of your other customers who are happy with your company to give a fuller picture of your business.
• If a blogger is publishing unflattering photos of you, take some pictures you prefer and publish them in a blog post or two.
• If a newspaper wrote an article about a court case that put you in a negative light, but which was subsequently ruled in your favor, you can ask them to update the article or publish a follow-up article about your exoneration. (This last one may seem far-fetched, but believe it or not, we’ve gotten multiple requests from people in this situation.)

Hope these tips have been helpful! Feel free to stop by our Web Search Forum and share your own advice or stories about how you manage your reputation online.

Posted by Susan Moskwa, Webmaster Trends Analyst

If that sounds like a lot of work to you….give us a call and we will handle it all for you fully within Google guidelines

I am David Cannell, of Online Reputation Management Sydney.
Try doing a Google search for me:

“David Cannell Reputation Management”

You can find the results in our case study page in the navigation bar above.

See what I have done to protect my name online…we can do the same to protect your image and reputation online too.

Call me today and find out how we can clear your reputation online.

Call (02) 9314 3224.

We have many years experience in Search Engine Optimisation and know how to get positive listings onto Google’s first page within days, forcing the negative media comments about you or your company off the first page so that they are no longer seen when someone does a search for you.

If you have an internet problem and would like to control how people see you when they search online contact us below

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Online Reputation Management

What happens if someone is trying to hurt you by publishing malicious information on the internet?

This is unfortunately very common. Maybe it is an ex employee, customer or business associate. Or maybe it is a complete stranger. But nowadays people are realising how easy it is to make blog posts, or post negative reviews on review sites, that will often rank in Google for your name.

It may distort the truth in an unpleasant way, or it may be completely untrue. Either way it may stay there for years unless you get help to push it off page one of Google.

What happens if the negative site is a news report publicising an event in the past like a court case that is damaging my reputation

It makes no difference if the site is totally true.  You have a right to privacy, and to use the internet to portray positive things about you rather than negative.

Who will see the negative sites?

A large number of potential business contacts, clients and customers will see them.

People use Google to look up someone’s name for two main reasons

To find out more about them and check if there is anything negative about them
Just as a glorified phone book, to find your website or contact information

“It takes many good deeds to build a good reputation, and only one bad one to lose it”

But we already have a marketing budget which has been allocated for advertising and other promotion.

Think again. Reputation management gives a  MUCH bigger return on investment than spending money on general marketing, and the sooner you realise that, the better.

What can be done to help?

We devise a strategy to quickly push that site down to the second page of Google using state of the art search engine optimisation techniques. This normally takes about a month.
Contact Us Today (02) 9314 3224
Mobile (out of office hours) 0404 028 559 or fill in our free quote request below

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Read The Transcript Here

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Listen here to the ABC Interview with David Cannell and Fiona Wiley about Online Reputation Management Sydney

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Recently the founder of our company was invited to speak on a number of issues related to Online Reputation Management both on the radio and on television following a number of newspaper articles that were published discussing what we do here at ORM Sydney. Following David’s interview with Ben Fordham at 2GB, David was invited to speak on both Sunrise Breakfast Television and The Today program on Channel 9. Fortunately, subsequent interviews on 2UE Mike Jeffreys and ABC Radio with Fiona Wiley ere recorded and you can listen to both on this page…

Listen here to the 2ue Interview with David Cannell and Mike Jeffreys about Online Reputation Management Sydney

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Click here to listen to the 2GB Radio Interview with David Cannell and Ben Fordham on Online Reputation Management Sydney

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David Cannell Has Also Been Interviewed in Various Print Media:

http://www.news.com.au/technology/meet-the-man-who-promises-to-make-you-look-good-in-google-search-results/story-e6frfro0-1225998131677

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/ipad/why-online-reputations-matter/story-fn6bfkm6-1225989811452

http://www.news.com.au/national/sport-stars-pay-to-clean-up-online-reputations/story-e6frfkvr-1225990688047

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That’s the basic theory behind expanding your Web presence to protect your reputation online. So can you afford NOT to defend your reputation?

According to a recent Harris Interactive poll, nearly 66 percent of consumers go online to research products or services before making a decision to buy. If a negative news article, a bad review on a consumer site or a rant by a disgruntled employee is the first thing that pops up when prospective clients research your business, how likely do you think it is that they’ll do business with you?

Your online reputation can color the way many groups view your business, including stock holder, prospective clients and employees, journalists and your current staff. Having a page full of negative news stories, blogs from angry ex-employees or a link to a competitor’s site on the first page of a Google search of your company name can be harmful to your company’s business.

We have companies, professionals and individuals come to us all the time who have literally seen their business or career destroyed overnight by a page full of negative Google results.

That’s why taking proactive steps to build and maintain your online reputation is so important. Companies often spend decades building their brands, working to build a reputation to reliability and trust. They know that how the public perceives them has a big influence on their bottom line. The importance of a good reputation extends to the online world, where a growing number of people are going to get their information about the companies they do business with.

Use social networking media — Get a Facebook or Twitter site for your company and fill it up with useful business-appropriate material. Have a social networking policy for your employees – Everyone gripes about their boss, but it’s not wise to do so in a public forum. Make it clear to your employees that posting negative opinions about the company on social networks or Internet forums is not acceptable.

If you would like to find out how we can organise this kind of positive social media online reputation management contact us today.

If you type your name or company name into Google, are you happy with what you see?

If not you need Online Reputation Management…Studies have shown that more than 70% of people tend to research companies or people online before entering into a business transaction with them or giving them a job. Hence online reputation management has now become important for companies of all sizes who do business online as well as for individuals.

What if slanderous or downright untruthful statements are found on the first results pages of Google when your company name or brand name is typed in?

Now there is something you can do, because of this negative publicity you could lose new business or find a higher than expected ‘rejection rate’ for recently closed business or job applications. Many businesses and individuals have thought that nothing could be done about their online reputation management until now… so fight back with reputation management from one of Australia’s top reputation management firms.

You have spent time and money building a your image so do not let hurtful or unsubstantiated accusations ruin it. Also, we are based in Sydney, so you are dealing with a local comapny that knows the local market and get results for clients in Australia. We are registered with an ABN number, unlike many of our offshore competitors.

Why go offshore to the U.S. or U.K. to find a top Online Reputation Management service when you have one on your doorstep. We can even come out to your office and discuss the job face to face.

When you are allowing someone to manage your online reputation, you want to know who you are dealing with. Give us a call on (02) 9314 3224. A Sydney number…an Australian company.