Did you know that 79% of hiring managers and job recruiters review applicants’ information online and 70% of employers have rejected candidates based on data found online? When applying for jobs, your online reputation is more important than ever!

[Related Post: The 5 Best Online Job Search Tools]

I have always heard this but I have never been able to find any practical steps on how to actually improve my online reputation (besides watching what photos I put up on Facebook).  That is, until I read Joshua Waldman’s new book, Job Searching for Social Media for Dummies. In the book, I learned very practical steps that I can take to control my online reputation.

Where to Assess Your Online Reputation

If you are like me, you have a tendency to focus on building up your online reputation as much as possible but you never actually take the time to assess where you currently are at.  Of course, we know the easy way to assess our online reputation – Google your name and see what comes up (which you do need to do!), but here are a few more free tools that can help you assess your online reputation I learned from Joshua Waldman’s book.

Today, I am trying all three sites, letting you know how they work and telling you which one I like the best.

Google Grader

This was very cool!  I put in my name and then got to review the top ten search results in Google.  I categorized the results into “about me” or “not about me.”  This helped me figure out how I was doing in the top 10 search results in Google (I owned 7 of the 10!).  It also gives you the option to sign up for the site to let you know in the future how you can own those top ten searches.

My thoughts: Loved it…initially…until they made me put in my email address so that they can send me something to tell me how to rank better.  They wet my appetite and then…nothing…Ok, what’s next!

Online ID Calculator

This tool will help you make sense of your Google results and give you advice on how to build a stellar online identity that’s aligned with your real-world personal brand.  Sounds great..but it looks like a lot of work!  I have to answer a lot of questions about what I find in the search results and how I want to be known.

My thoughts: I have not yet had time to go through all of the questions and respond. But I am sure if I took the time to complete it, it would be very interesting to see my calculation in Google.  I just wish that many of the questions could be answered automatically instead of me having to search through the Google search results myself.

My WebCareer

A free online service that enables you to uncover and evaluate your digital footprint. MyWebCareer helps you to discover, evaluate and manage online data that may help your career prospects. You have to grant this site access to your Linkedin profile which was a little nerve-wracking but it guaranteed that no one else could see my results!

My thoughts: My score showed that I am well on my way to building a strong professional brand! It gave me practical advice such as where I needed to get recommendations and how my Linkedin profile ranked in google.  What I also liked about this is that it narrowed down all of my connections by company and showed a neat little chart (see below).  But, it was very focused on Linkedin and not my overall Google search ranking like the other two tools above.

The online reputation assessment winner is…

(Drum roll please!) All three of them combined into one. I loved each of them because they all have great information and are unique. But, in the future, I would love to get all of this information in one place. Who needs a great start-up business idea? It’s yours!

How do you assess your online reputation?