Search marketing is all about doing what you can to bring your name and your brand in front of prospects to increase sales. People use keywords, pay-per-click, sponsored links and a myriad of other ways to move their links to the top of the SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages.) All’s fair in love and business, right?

It seems game is changing, according to the gang at Google, anyway. Google has long been known as the king of search engines by many people and they offer some great services to help anyone doing business online. Some people are taking umbrage with Google’s efforts into marketing oneself, however. Google is offering reputation management services. Google suggests if you don’t like what you find when you “Google yourself,” well, simply create some information you do like and load it up with keywords and other search engine friendly fare.

The specific phrase used on Google blog is “proactively publish information.” The blog talks about publishing blog posts with flattering photos to try to overcome negative photos or asking people to write positive reviews about your company to compensate for some that may not paint such a pretty picture. Reputation management is nothing new in search marketing- people have been doing it since the dawn of the Internet age. Somehow, Google advising it seems a bit unseemly, though, doesn’t it? Maybe they will publish some other blog posts to knock this one off the first page of the SERPs. After all, whose reputation should they be managing- yours and mine- or their own?