Have you ever tried typing in your name, your product or your company in a Google search and looked at the first listed results that come along? Chances are your main website or your social network profile page or resume will appear among the top search results and this can be good for your reputation. However, you may also find some utterly disturbing entries that you would definitely not want an employer or customer to read about you.

Such embarrassing and usually very damaging online items about you or your business is a possibility and if you won’t do anything about it would eventually put irreparable damage to your online reputation. Search engines have no way of filtering out what’s good or damaging for you as the robots behind these search machines rely on algorithms and mathematical formulas that determine who should land on these result pages.

But this should not be the case. You can take control of what the search engines say about you, and what other people can read about you, by applying effective internet reputation management strategies and practices. You can do this on your own but it may take a longer process which can do more harm than good. Or you could seek help from professional online reputation management companies to help you take back what is yours – control over what people see and read about you online. The choice is yours but you have to act now.