In today’s high-tech world, it is important for everyone to manage their online reputation, especially when you are trying to find a job. Whether you are right out of college, or a 15-year veteran of the workforce, a bad online reputation can hinder your job search. By employing the seven steps we discuss in this post, you will be able to keep your online reputation clean.

Step 1: Search for Yourself

The first thing you need to do is search for yourself. Use Google to search for your name. Even search their images category to see what comes up in the results. You can set a Google alert for your name, or variations of it, so you are notified each time something is posted about you or by you online. These alerts can be sent once per day, once per week, or each time new content involving your name is posted online.

Step 2: Move Content to One Spot

Programs such as WordPress allow you to create simple websites with nice designs for your content. Make sure you move all of your content to one location so it is better to manage. You will look professional without having to hire a professional web designer to build your site.

Step 3: Buy Your Domain Name

The next step is to buy your domain name from any domain company you see fit. It should be your legal name, not your nickname. For example, it would be josephsmith.com, not joesmith.com. When you use your legal name, it will be easier to find a domain that has yet to be used. The cost per year to buy your domain name is just $12. This is very affordable and you can buy the name for multiple years at a time.

Step 4: Become Active on Social Networks

Even if you are not interested in becoming an active member on sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and LinkedIn, you should still join these sites and complete your profile. You should not be dormant on these sites, which means you should post new content at least once per month to keep the profiles active and fresh.

Step 5: Links to Social Media Sites

Do your best to link all of your social media sites to each other. This will increase your online presence and help to get your profiles noticed more often. Also, some of these sites allow you to customize your profile URLs, which means that you can have your LinkedIn profile URL be linkedin.com/in/josephsmith.

Step 6: Keep Some Content Private

Even though the internet is not truly private anymore, you need to keep your private content private when necessary. Do not post pictures of yourself in compromising positions, because they can come back to haunt you in the future. If you are worried about pictures posted by friends and family members, let them know your thoughts on this and make your account private.

Step 7: Stay Positive

The final tip is to remain positive at all times when posting online. When you become a negative or overbearing poster, you will earn a bad reputation online.

Today’s post was written by A. Harrison Barnes, the founder and CEO of The Employment Research Institute, a company of more than 150 job search websites, recruiting firms, online employment news magazines and various job search companies.