If you are a professional, you need to be using Google Alerts. With Google Alerts, you can track keywords in the web world in news articles, blogs and other citations. Set them up for your company’s name, your name, even hot keywords in your field. You will receive emails that list places your alerts were mentioned on the web.

I set them up for my last name, my company and keywords related to my clients. Every mention is aggregated and delivered via email. This saves me the hassle of doing “ego searches.”

If your front-page Google results are less than desirable, BrandYourself can help. You can sign up for free monitoring and submit good sites (like your LinkedIn profile) so that your search results look more professional and are truly yours (not another Beth Ziesenis).

Another way to do damage control is to close public (or private) profiles you may have lingering on sites you no longer use. How many site subscriptions do you have? Facebook, Yahoo, Skype, Groupon – maybe even an old Myspace account? AccountKiller lists hundreds of popular signup sites and rates them white, gray or black for how easy it is to unsubscribe to them, plus gives you pointers on removing your personal information. Warning: Some of the sites it lists are not safe for work.

Both Google Alerts and BrandYourself made Beth’s Top Personal Tools list!