I started a global marketing and branding firm 18 years ago and most of my work comes by referral and word of mouth. I think having a good online reputation is incredibly important to building a strong professional service business like mine. You have to know what digital dirt exists on you so do a Google search and social media audit to see what comes up so you do not get blindsided or surprised in a meeting. There are a few ways I can recommend to stack the deck in your favor:

* Do great work that people will talk about

* Give lots of talks and use examples from your experience, I do a lot of public speaking which leads to people talking about me

* Join networking groups to meet people who are the multipliers in your industry, they talk to everybody and know everyone

* Be active on social media so you can share your talks and content and your followers can help spread the word

* Beware of trolls who try to bait you online by posting comments from fake accounts challenging your credibility or questioning your reputation online. You have to monitor sites carefully these days. I wish that there were more checks and balances to catch them earlier. You have to take immediate action and contact the site administrators to bring it to their attention to shut them down right away if you find anything. These people are never as smart as they think they are.