Tip of the week: How to control your online presence

Get text-wise. When creating a professional website or online profile, choose wording carefully. The right phrases boost a site’s rank in the Web searches of potential employers. Google’s keyword research tool (Google.com/sktool) suggests words and phrases that generate search results.

Network. Find people, companies, or organizations with “well-established sites” related to your work, and convince them to link to you. Search engines generally list .gov and .edu sites first, so “contacts in higher education or government” can help.

Do damage control. Watch for “cringe­worthy links” about you—those containing embarrassing photos, unflattering comments, or sensitive private information. Google has a “URL removal” tool, but it’s best to “initiate human-to-human contact with the site in question.”

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Source: O magazine