In the past, your reputation was something that you really only heard about face to face.
Today, anyone can research you and form an opinion about your character in less than 5 seconds.
This is why search engine optimization (SEO) and reputation management are more important than ever.
It is difficult to tell when a public relations crisis is going to hit your business.
Your online reputation can go from impressive to poor overnight if you don’t take a proactive approach.
This is where SEO for reputation management can help.
Search engine optimization is a strategy used by reputation management companies to bury those negative search results.
We have listed some SEO reputation management tools you can leverage to start taking action.
Why SEO reputation management is important?
It’s clear that your online reputation is so important. According to Forbes, 97% of business owners believe ORM is essential to their marketing strategy. Bad online reputations can result in a decrease in brand value and lower search traffic. This directly impacts profitability. Let’s take a closer look at how a bad online reputation can impact your business.
Organic Search Traffic
A loss of traffic can be caused by negative reviews or results about your products and business. This can also lead to a decrease in sales. Organic search traffic refers to traffic that is found naturally on your website. This kind of traffic is difficult to develop. Consumers might believe your company is a fraud or offer poor quality products if negative results start appearing in search engines about your business. These customers may decide to move their business elsewhere.
Google will prioritize negative reviews if there is a lot of gossip about your site and people click on those links rather than your company’s website. This means that positive feedback on Google Reviews is pushed down to the search results page, where consumers won’t see it. If it becomes too much, it can lead to a vicious circle that can destroy your online reputation.
Paid Search Traffic
Negative reviews and articles about your brand could also reduce the effectiveness of your paid ads. To try to get around negative reviews and articles, you could spend twice or three times as much. However, your paid ads will appear above any negative information. This can lead to confusion and make consumers wary of your business.
Brand value
Negative reviews can have a direct impact on your brand value and equity. This makes it harder to attract customers and collaborate with other businesses. Trust, loyalty and financial merit are the three main components of your brand value and equity. Your competitors gain a competitive edge if your brand value falls. Consumers will seek out products similar to yours from companies with a positive reputation.
Profitability
This all leads to a decrease in profitability, which is one of the most important business metrics. You’ll lose search traffic and customers if you don’t make money. Loss of profitability can lead to stockholder loss in large corporations, and smaller businesses having to lay off employees. Negative reputations can lead to large-scale investments in reputation management services or SEO specialists to improve things.
Learn more about SEO for reputation management. How can you use SEO and other tools for managing your brand reputation? We’ll share strategies and tactics to help you protect your online reputation.
Create Social Accounts For Your Name
Many reputation management companies will put up social media profiles everywhere. This might seem logical.
They’re hoping that one of those sites will overtake the bad information.
In truth, there are only a few social media sites that search engines really care about.
This is the order in which you should build your social media profiles:
- YouTube
Social Profile Strategies
Fill out your profile completely.
- Add your bio
- Images
- Videos
- Site links
It must be clear that this is your profile and no one else’s. It should also be clear that you’re a real person and that you’re creating a real profile.
This will increase your brand’s transparency and trust.
Post regularly
Put out some information on a regular basis. It doesn’t have to be every day, but it should be frequently.
Don’t forget to participate on those sites as well. Look for things to like, make friends, etc.
Make new connections
Use your address book to find friends on these platforms. This will kick off your online life.
You’ll find new friends by looking up your interests, profession, and more. The point of social media accounts is to be social. Find some topics that interest you and engage in conversation.
Be relevant
Don’t just dump information online.
Take the time to do it right and well. Be human. Add some value to the conversation.
That will get you more interaction online.
Be Consistent
The biggest mistake that we see is brands that start off posting 3 times each day and then completely stop after a month.
Building social profiles takes time. There are millions of brands online and many are fly-by-night imitators just trying to sell you something.
At first, it can feel like you are talking to an empty room. Most people need to see your profile a few times before it piques their interest. Be resilient.
Writing a Professional Biography
Creating a single bio that has links to social media sites, and your website is a very underrated asset in online reputation management. A professional bio can be used for each platform.
You can tweak it based on the social media site you are focusing on.
Example:
- Funny profile on Twitter
- Professional profile on LinkedIn
Linking to good sites will help to thrust your bio forward. This lets Google make the connection that your Twitter account and LinkedIn profile are from the same person.
Target the specific keywords you want to rank for in your bio. When most people research someone, they search for:
- Name
- Location
- Employer
Add these details naturally into your bio.
How To Get Your Name Mentioned
There are some activities that are highly likely to get your name put on a website.
Public Speaking/Podcasts
Every speaking engagement will show up on a website someplace. This adds to your online profile.
Donate
Donate your time or money. The thank you that you’ll see online will go a long way to keeping your reputation high. If someone searches your name and sees that you’re a big sponsor of the local animal shelter or library, your reputation will rise in the reader’s mind.
Hiring
Putting your name in the ads for hiring someone will put your name out and work all the time. The ads themselves are often temporary, but search engine sites will keep that information online forever.
Crowdfunding
Investing in a crowdfunding project and getting a mention on their thank you page will help you to keep your name and reputation in your control.
Create Content
You should have a blog on your website under your own name, but you need to also create a blog around an interest of yours.
For example, if you love cooking, start a cooking blog. Put it on its own site, like janesmithlovescooking.com.
This will put a lot of content out into the world and give people a look into how you spend your time.
The reason people go to the second or third page of Google is that they haven’t found what they are looking for.
If you have a personal website as the first result, this will give your audience everything they need to know about you.
Protect Your Brand With SEO Reputation Management
Your reputation and the SEO that will help people find it is entirely in your control.
You don’t need to be an SEO expert to do any of the things listed here. You need to be consistent.
It takes time to make sure that your chosen listings appear at the top of Google or Bing, but it’s worth it.
Whether you’re in a job you’ll have forever or you’re going to change jobs soon, if you’re a salesperson or an artist, you can make sure that your SEO for reputation management is working for you.
Managing Your Online Reputation with NewReputation
If your professional reputation has been damaged, you’ll want help putting it right. Fixing your business’s reputation is time-consuming and requires full-time attention.
Unless you have a lot of time, it will be less expensive and faster to simply have New Reputation to take care of it.
NewReputation offers online reputation management and SEO services to make sure all of your needs are well met.
Contact us today and receive a FREE analysis of your search results.
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