Instructor and digital communication professional Gamze Nurluoğlu comments on how every step taken on Google leaves a mark on the "digital footprint", which is gaining more and more importance with each passing day. This information, which is closely related to everyone, is of great importance for each user in digital media.
Most people view their social media accounts as purely social media and update their status indiscriminately. Hesitations about the impact of these updates on education or business life are very rare. Gamze Nurluoğlu, a digital communication professional and founder of the communication company with the same name, says, “Most users think that they only share the latest developments with their friends and followers, whereas everything we share in the digital world follows us.” “Employers believe that social media gives more information than a simple resume of a candidate. says. The way to really get to know the candidate is through digital traces," he reminds everyone to check how their own name appears on the Google search platform.
Digital trail or digital dirt?
The terms Egosurfing and Egogoogling represent people's search for their own name in search engines. As long as it exists in the digital world, the traces left increase, so it becomes difficult to control this information. Nurluoğlu said, “You can see that even information on a secret Instagram account is publicly available on Google, or you see, your resume from 10 years ago comes first to people," and how can this whole process be brought under control under the name of "Digital Asset Management"? He shares his suggestions for buying:
Search in incognito mode
The first rule of users to search for themselves by their own name is to search in incognito mode. Without cookies and personal information saved in browsers, the first and only way to see what users will encounter when they search for their own name is to search in "incognito mode".
Search your name on Google once a month
It is of great importance for users to follow their company or name on a regular basis so that they can control their digital assets. The ideal time in this regard is to be checked once a month. In this time period, it is possible to manage new information. “But let's say you're a very prominent person and there's a huge flow of content about you. Then searching at least once a week will yield more efficient results,” he says.
Another suggestion is that if there is an intense content flow about the person and it is not possible to control this flow with manual scanning, a digital listening service should be obtained, so all the results published about the person on the internet are presented as a report.
A free version of this can also be used, as well as the "Google Alert" service offered by the Google browser. When related words are entered as keywords here, new results are notified to users via e-mail.
Pay attention to the results on the first page
The most important area in search results is the first page listed in the results itself. Especially the top 5 results. According to a study by Advanced Web Rankings in 2014, almost 95 percent of web traffic goes to the first page of results, and over 67 percent of all clicks go to the top 5 results.
“Also remember; People search about you because they want to learn about you quickly. They will not go page by page, and they will make their first impression and leave. Now think again, what were the top 5 search results about you?” says.
Scan the first 5 pages
“Are we going to only look at first page results because the first page is important to people? No! The first 5 pages are very important for us. Researcher persons; Remember that the first page will not be enough. Don't risk missing the information on the remaining pages and scan all the pages.
In your scans; Review your social media accounts, dating site accounts, retail wish lists, message board posts, blog posts, comments, mentions, and other web service accounts.
Do not click more than once on negative results that you do not want to stand out.
On digital platforms, many positive and negative results about users can be listed on the same page. The chance to interfere with some may not be possible, especially on the pages that undertake the "dictionary" mission. “What we're going to do here is click on negative results as little as possible because the more clicks; The higher you will get in the search results. The more clicks you get, the more Google will think this result is of interest. If you see the same result when checking every month; skip it now that you've detected it," he says.
Search by post date
When you start doing a regular search every month, after a stage, you can check what has been added that month by searching only by the last post date. With the advanced search options of the browsers, it is possible to look at the posts related to the searched topic in the previous month, week and / or in the last 24 hours.
Don't forget to check the photos and videos section.
The algorithms of digital media focus on keywords. For this reason, it is important to search not only for words, but also for photos and videos. “When scanning the results, be sure to look specifically at the photo and video section. In particular, it will be important which results from the photo section match your name. “Sometimes there are photos that are unrelated to you because of a profile link, or there are photos that you were tagged in but were not aware of.”
Search for titles or attributes that identify you along with your name
“Titles, companies, or your specific characteristics. After searching with your name, you can also search with these features and evaluate the results. Thus, you will have the chance to evaluate the results of people who search through your specific we feature.”
Don't just Google for the search process
Although Google is the most popular search engine with a market share of 69,89 percent among search engines, one should not only search through Google. Adding Bing, Baidu and Yahoo to the list is also important when searching.
Contact the main source first for the information you want to remove
The fastest solution to remove information from search results is to reach the administrator of the relevant site and remove the information from the main source. If there is a situation where the site administrator does not respond or cannot be reached, requests can be made by applying to the search engine.
“Remember, online reputation management is not a one-time thing; It is a process that you need to continue for your own personal brand perception. It is up to you to make this process productive for yourself and to introduce yourself to those who want to get information about you in the most accurate way.”
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