What happens when someone Googles your name? Does your name appear first in the search engine results, or are you unfortunate enough to share the same name with someone else?
Carolyn Capalbo, a well-known REALTOR in Northern Virginia, has experienced exactly this problem. In short, Carolyn Capalbo is also the name of Ashley Dupre’s mother (you know, the call girl that was involved in the sex scandal with Eliot Spitzer). So, what does Carolyn Capalbo the REALTOR do when people begin Googling her name and coming up with sex scandals, prostitution and photos of women clad in skimpy bikinis?
To save her reputation, and to allow people to know that there is another Carolyn Capalbo, the REALTOR Carolyn Capalbo began using the power of the Internet to manage her online reputation.
If you want to begin managing your online reputation, and you simply want your name back, then it pays to utilize SEO to achieve your goals:
- If you want to find out what Google knows about your name, sign up for Google Alerts. This service, provided for free through Google, essentially lets you know the moment your name appears in Google’s index. From new stories to blogs and videos, if your name appears Google will track it down and let you know about it. This is a great starting place for examining your online reputation.
- Once you’ve begun monitoring Google for your name, you may begin to see a trend of inaccuracies or incomplete statements or, in the case of Carolyn Capalbo, another person in the news with your name!
- Start a blog to get your message out there. A blog is quite simple to set up and is often the most effective means for getting your message out there in cyberspace. If you keep your blog updated and keep your messages current then you will have a better chance of ranking high in the search results. A great way to combat inaccuracies or other persons with your name is to simply keep yourself at the top of the search results; and there’s no better way to achieve this than through an updated blog.
- Utilize the many social media sties to participate in the online community. From You Tube to Twitter and Facebook, social media sites feature results when you perform a web search. In addition, many of these popular media sites are popular among the bigger search engines, thereby allowing you to accomplish higher search engine rankings. Be sure, however, to use the proper keywords to enjoy better rankings.
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