Have You Googled Yourself Today?
Author: Jamie | Filed under: Online Reputation ManagementDiscover What the Web’s Saying About You
When was the last time you Googled your own name or your business name?
Why does it matter? Well, it matters because there are millions of blogs, review sites and people on forums and Twitter all talking about businesses they’ve dealt with.
More and more people seem to be turning to the web to air their complaints, and these complaints may be getting picked up by Google and other search engines.
Imagine typing your company name into Google and finding a scathing review in position one – think of the damage that could do to your reputation.
So what might you find when you Google yourself?
- A bad review
Bad feedback on you or your business on page one of Google is definitely something you need to sort out. If the information is false, you should contact the offending party immediately.
If the bad publicity is true then you need to populate the results with positive content to drive the damaging site onto page two where a lot less people will see it.
- No mention of you or your business
As the old Oscar Wilde saying goes “The only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about.”
If there’s no sign of your business on page one of the search results when you enter your company name, you need to do something about it and quickly. Many people will type a business name into Google if they don’t know or can’t remember your web address. If you aren’t listed they may just give up and look elsewhere.
- Your own website and social media profiles
In an ideal world, you’d like to find your company website in position one when you Google your business name. You should also Google your own name to see if you’ve been mentioned on any business forums or blogs.
Even if you do only find positive mentions of you and your business, it does no harm at all to add to these by writing optimised blog posts and participating in popular online forums.
Google your own name and business name now, because it only takes a few seconds and could unearth some information you didn’t even know existed about you online.
If you liked this article you should read my top 10 tips for online reputation management
If you have any comments or questions, please leave them below.
Good thing to be reminded about this. Fortunately I do this about once in two weeks to check what’s going on, what has improved and what has gone bad with me and my business.
As you say, this can act as a very good feedback and make us take action on things that have gone bad.
Cheers,
Jane.
Jane | Find All Answers recently posted..Effective Blog Commenting to build high quality backlinks
Hi Jane, thanks for your comments. I think this is definitely something more small business owners should be doing on a regular basis. You can also automate the process by setting up Google Alerts on your name and your business name.
Jamie Fairbairn recently posted..E-commerce Sites and Distance Selling Regulations
Very important post, especially if you want to build a “personal brand”. If future employers or clients Google your name or business and get pages of articles you have written, your blog and pertinent social media commentary you’ll stand out from the crowd. Conversely if they Google your name and find nothing but a picture of you from Facebook passed out from too much cold medicine, then it may not be the look you are shooting for.
P.S. I followed you over from Jim Connelly’s blog
Hey Mike, thanks for commenting. Always good to have Jim’s readers over here on my blog. It’s a very important point you make about a “personal brand”. Even if you’re not a small business owner, looking after your own Google search results is wise, especially if you’re planning on job hunting.
Jamie recently posted..Your Opinion Matters
Hi Jamie,
I must say this is a good advice. Sometime ago out of curiosity, following some search keywords coming to my blog, I did a google search on my name and I was surprised at the report. I think when you are building a business on the net doing this from time to time will greatly help.
Chadrack recently posted..Auto Link Juicer — Another Powerful Traffic-Getting Product from Jason Potash!
Last time I did that in the first week of May and found that my blog got Google Sitelinks…Lol
That was a nice thing to find Shaan!