{"id":4612,"date":"2021-05-11T17:16:32","date_gmt":"2021-05-11T17:16:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jobhunt.fj-dev.com\/monitor-your-online-reputation-with-google-alerts\/"},"modified":"2022-02-22T06:17:56","modified_gmt":"2022-02-22T13:17:56","slug":"monitor-your-online-reputation-with-google-alerts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.job-hunt.org\/monitor-your-online-reputation-with-google-alerts\/","title":{"rendered":"Monitor Your Online Reputation with Google Alerts"},"content":{"rendered":"

You can’t repair a problem you don’t know you have. Monitoring your online reputation is smart self-defense now, and Google Alerts are an important tool to help you.<\/p>\n

[MORE: Guide to Online Reputation Management<\/a>.]<\/p>\n

Since the vast majority of employers do a search on job seekers’ names before inviting them into an interview, job seekers can and should monitor their names using Google Alerts. Someone else<\/em> with the same name who has done something shocking, unusual, or disreputable can negatively impact YOUR job search.  Or, your own “digital dirt” may need to be buried.<\/p>\n

When employers do their Google search, they won\u2019t know if you are the person who robbed the bank or posed nude, but they probably won\u2019t ask you if it is you or take the time to do more research to find out who it is. So, you might lose out, even if you were not<\/em> the person who showed up in the Google search. The best defense in this case is knowledge!<\/p>\n

Put Google Alerts to Work for Your Job Search!<\/h2>\n

Type your name in the \u201cSearch terms\u201d box. Go to Google.com\/alerts<\/a>, and follow the steps below. Google Alerts are free, very easy to set up, and easy to cancel if you decide you don\u2019t want them.<\/p>\n

1. Search query:<\/h3>\n

Enclose your name inside quotation marks, as in the example below. The quotation marks will tell Google that you want the words in your name as a phrase, so Google will look for all the words together on a page rather than each word separately which is much less useful.<\/p>\n

2. Result type?<\/h3>\n

I suggest \u201cEverything\u201d as the \u201cType\u201d because that will mean Google searches through the entire Web, blogs, news, discussion, and videos. \u201cEverything\u201d throws the widest net which is what you want in this case.<\/p>\n

3. How often?<\/h3>\n

\u201cOnce a day\u201d is my preferred \u201cHow often\u201d selection. The other options are \u201cas it happens\u201d and \u201conce a week,\u201d which can drive you crazy with too much activity or not notify you soon enough. If nothing happens on a given day, Google won\u2019t send you an empty message.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

4. How many?<\/h3>\n

\u201cOnly the best results\u201d is Google\u2019s recommendation to keep volume down and to be informed only when a high-quality and relevant result appears. That seems like a good idea to keep from being buried with notifications about insignificant posts.<\/p>\n

5. Your email?<\/h3>\n

Adding your email address and clicking on the “Create Alert” button are the last steps.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t worry, Google won\u2019t send you a message with 50 results in it unless everything in the top 50 results changes at the same time, which is extremely unlikely. More likely, you\u2019ll receive one or two results per message, and only one or two messages per week unless your name is extremely common.<\/p>\n

\"Setting<\/p>\n

Done!<\/strong><\/p>\n

If you discover that your name is very popular, you should consider modifying your public or professional name to be unique. For example:<\/p>\n