What is Reputation Management

Take Control of Your Online Reputation Management

Spend any time thinking about your online reputation management? That’s what I thought! According to a study by Erik Qualman of local seo services Socialnomics.com nearly three-quarters of consumers report they trust the information provided by online reviews. Also some 80 percent have changed their mind about purchasing a product after reading only one negative review online, and more than 84 percent reveal the fact that they see online reviews as being a trusted source of information.

You must take negative reviews seriously and take measures to counter the damaging effects!

Let’s take a look at five proven methods to do that.

  1. Look at your search engine results monthly – Monitor your company’s name in Google at a minimum of once per month. Use Google Alerts or mention.net to notify you when there is any activity involving your company name or important keywords. Also, look beyond the first page of the search results; negative entries can gain traction and end up on the first page tomorrow.
  2. Respond to negative content promptly – Make an effort to contact the origin of the negative content as soon as possible, especially if they are a disappointed customer. Be polite, helpful, and seek to address their concerns in a positive manner. DO NOT get into a flaming match with them. You will end up the loser every time!
  3. Use your company’s name in your page optimization – Be sure your pages and other content are using your company’s name in keywords, tags, URLS, and titles. The more pages you own that bear your company’s name, the better the chance Google will view your site as the authority for this keyword (your company name) and give you higher rankings. Also, most negative content will most likely not have done any Seo services .
  4. Create more content channels with your brand – You can use free blogs like WordPress.com, Blogger.com or even subdomains of your own site for this, along with your social channels such as YouTube, Facebook, and Google , will help keep your company name prominent. Post fresh content to these channels as well, so they maintain their search positions.
  5. Ask for reviews – Your very best choice for an effective online reputation management tool is to ask your best customers for reviews. Don’t be pushy, but encourage and even reward reviews. This is also your best method to obtain social proof!

Follow these tips to preserve your good name! Trust us…you’ll be glad you did.

Allyn Cutts