#1
Tue, 04/02/2014 - 09:53
Online Reputation
Interesting article I read today about a company that, for a fee, works on search engine optimisation - making positive information that you control appear before any negative material. SEO has been around since search engines first appeared (I remember way back when putting key words into html files!), with many businesses out there offering services to make businesses appear higher in search results to improve sales. This is the first time I've heard it being offered in this way ie for individuals rather than businesses - I guess if your name was your product, like an actor for example, I can see why it might be important....
ninhursag
Regular Member
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I once worked for a rather dodgy real estate agent for 3 months, I was still finishing up some uni courses (trying to do an honours on top of my degree) and making $18 an hour seemed like a good alternative to making nothing. I mostly just delivered new sale listings brochures to letterboxes in the neighborhood.
A few years later. I accepted a new job and a few weeks into the job, I was asked by HR to explain why I hadn't mentioned my real estate job on my CV. It turned out that real estate company that I had worked for were still listing my name as part of their sales team with fake claims such as 'years of experience' and '100s of local sales under my belt'. Fortunately, the HR lady was kind enough to accept my explanation but when I contacted the real estate company to get the profile removed, they told me that the person who had designed the website had left the country and they didn't have any passwords to be able to remove the information.
Long story short, I filled a form on Google and now they have removed the page from their search results i.e. while the page is still up, it doesn't come up when someone searches my full name. This 'removal' option is only available to individuals though and companies can't exclude themselves from search results.
In summary, always keep searching your name in Google before your employer does.
riman
Regular Member
Wow... interesting to know that the option exists. Will need to do some searches on myself next time I'm thinking of jumping ships @ work...
ninhursag
Regular Member
Interesting idea, i am sure they wont be short of business. So much information online now, it is hard to control it all!
@riman - interesting story, glad you got it sorted out in the end.
newuseragain
Regular Member