Over the past few years more and more employers have told me they do a Google search for a candidate before they hire. One company even went as far to tell me that they have looked at Myspace and Facebook profiles as well albeit that person was already an employee. It’s important to know that it’s not illegal for potential employers to “Google” you, according to the courts.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the volume and quality of traffic to a web site from search engines via “natural” listings, usually by increasing the rankings*. You can also do what I call “defensive SEO,” which is the process of pushing down sites that have a negative impacton your brand. I do this with companies, so why not do this on your name? Let’s call it personal SEO.
Advice: Remember that what you put on the internet can be there forever and can potentially be seen by anyone.
Action Item: Google your name and see what comes up. If it’s anything that might prevent you from getting a job, take it down. If you can’t take it down, sign up on sites like LinkedIn, Wordpress, Etc and create some content branded as your name and try to get that ranking higher than the bad content.
* adaptation of the Wikipedia definition
Related posts:
- Personal Productivity
- From Scott Jones: How to Self Brand
- Web 2.0 Tactics for Successful Job Searching
- Should Your Resume Include Tags?
- LinkedIn: 5 Reasons Why You Should Be On This Site NOW
{ 0 comments… add one now }