The truth is, everyone is investigating you – your current employer, potential employers, your clients, potential investors, potential business partners and even your family and friends. Managing your online reputation can be a full time job but for those who don’t have the inclination, resources or the time for that kind of commitment, I’ve put together this brief, 5-step guide to help you manage your online reputation.

1. Google Yourself – be sure to enclose your search terms in quotation marks so that the Google search modifier brings up web pages with the exact phrase in it.
2. Set up Google Alerts for your Name to see when you are mentioned online – you want to be the first to know if you have an issue. (If your name is John Smith, this doesn’t apply, use your judgment here.)
3. Buy your domain name (your first name and last name) and set up a mobile responsive, dynamic page (Google has changed their algorithm as of April 21 to give priority to mobile responsive websites – if you don’t have the time to create a page, you can create one for free on sites like mobity.net and others).
4. Set up a blog where you control the content and manage the comments, post content on LinkedIn that uses your industry keywords and positions you as an authority in your field, share on your Google+ profile, and create a Youtube account to post industry related videos and share those links across your social media platforms.
5. Set up an online work profile on Upwork (formerly oDesk.com) or Freelancer.com – many large companies and entrepreneurs use these sites to source talent and this serves as an excellent way to be seen.

Your strategy is twofold – monitor your reputation and control the information by uploading content yourself. It’s that simple.

How do you manage your online reputation?

LumaSpark is an Expert Positioning and Public Relations Agency