The days of living one’s life in relative anonymity could be said to be over. With the ever presence of Google and other large search engines, the cataloging of employment experiences, social activities, and other personal information is inevitable for most people. Particularly when it comes to looking for a new job, making sure that this information represents you in a positive light is becoming more and more important.

Your Online Reputation Could Cost Your Dream Job

According to Monster Career Advice, approximately 77% of recruiters perform an internet search on candidates prior to meeting them. That’s almost 4 out of 5 candidates!

And, according to a Jobvite study conducted recently, “93% of recruiters tap LinkedIn to find qualified candidates…Facebook is used by 66% of…recruiters.”

Recruiters aren’t just looking for candidates on these sites–they are looking into them, trying to get a better sense for experience in the field, level of professionalism, communication style, reviews by former coworkers, and demeanor in conversation with friends in tweets, forums, or on LinkedIn.

These social media sites, as well as other information online about you, provide a window into your world for recruiters. Whether or not the view is what you’d like for them to see is another story. If you have negative links about you online, it’s definitely worth exploring your options to remove or suppress them so that future recruitment experiences aren’t impacted negatively as a result.

There are paid services available from resources like Bizjournals.com, where they can monitor and manage your online reputation for you.

There are also simple steps you can take to push those negative links past the first page of search results.  This is a worthwhile step to take, as 75% of those who use search engines never actually click past page one of search results.

Use this blog post from Search Engine People to find information on over 50 social media profiles you can create on highly optimized sites. Creating a profile on sites like these very often will result in that profile ranking high in search engine results when your name is searched for. This will likely result in the suppression of negative content about you past at least the first page of search results.

The short of it is, watch your reputation online. There’s no longer a question of whether employers are searching for information about you online. They are–so don’t give them any reason not to hire you based on your online reputation.