What Is Reputation Management?
Reputation management refers to the practice of influencing or controlling an individual’s or organisation’s reputation, typically in the eyes of the public or stakeholders. This involves monitoring and shaping public and brand perception through various strategies, such as addressing negative feedback or reviews, highlighting positive aspects of the entity, managing crises effectively, and actively engaging with the audience on social media and other platforms.
Having a positive reputation can be one of your most valuable assets and reputation management aims to build and maintain a positive image, trust, and credibility for the individual, brand, or organisation. It often involves strategic communication, public relations, and online reputation monitoring and optimisation.
Why Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) Matters Reputation Management?
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is crucial in reputation management for several reasons:
Visibility
SEO helps improve the visibility of positive content and suppress negative content in search engine results pages (SERPs). By optimising content, websites, and other online assets, you can ensure that positive information about an individual or organisation ranks higher, making it more likely for people to see the positive aspects rather than any negative ones.
Credibility
Websites and content that appear at the top of search results are often perceived as more credible and trustworthy. By optimising positive content to rank higher, you can enhance the credibility of the individual or organisation, thus shaping public perception in a favourable manner.
Control
SEO allows you to have more control over what appears when someone searches for your name or brand online. By proactively optimising content and strategically managing online profiles and properties, you can influence the narrative and ensure that the most accurate and positive information is prominent in search results.
Reputation Repair
In cases where there is existing negative content ranking high in search results, SEO strategies can be employed to push down that content and replace it with more positive, accurate information. This process, known as reputation repair or reputation recovery, involves various techniques such as content creation, link building, and online reputation management tactics.
Long-Term Strategy
SEO is not a one-time effort but rather an ongoing process. By consistently optimising your company’s online presence, you can maintain a positive reputation online over the long term. This proactive approach helps mitigate the impact of any potential negative events or publicity in the future.
Definition Of Reputation Management
Definition Of Reputation Management:
REPUTATION MANAGEMENT REFERS TO THE PRACTICE OF INFLUENCING OR CONTROLLING AN INDIVIDUAL’S OR ORGANISATION’S REPUTATION, TYPICALLY IN THE EYES OF THE PUBLIC OR STAKEHOLDERS.
The above definition covers what reputation management is at its core. But as you’ll find out, there is a lot more to it. In this section, we’ll build out this definition of reputation management by explaining the critical aspects:
REPUTATION MANAGEMENT HAPPENS ONLINE
Reputation management happens online because that’s where the majority of all communications happen. Since people choose to interact on online platforms, reputation management companies use social media tactics to achieve their goals.
IT CAN BOOST YOUR SALES AND MARKETING
It’s almost impossible to sell something to anyone who doesn’t trust or believe in your brand values. Because what people think of a brand influences everything about that brand, you should use reputation management as a core component of sales and marketing strategies. With a good reputation management plan, you can clear the way for positive messages to have the maximum effect.
ONLINE REPUTATION MANAGEMENT SERVICES ARE ESSENTIAL FOR A BUSINESS’S SURVIVAL
There may come a time when brand reputation crisis management is needed. Think back to crises when huge corporations such as BP, Wells Fargo, and United Airlines have been able to withstand damage to their reputation, but at a financial cost. Not so long ago people who had a bad experience with a business may have only told a few close friends. Now they can broadcast it to anyone they know who in turn can do the same. It’s easy to see how a bad review can snowball, and get out of control quickly.
REPUTATION MANAGEMENT IS A FAST-GROWING INDUSTRY
87% of customers will reverse a purchase decision after viewing negative content about a brand, product or business online. So as we’ve pointed out, if your business’s reputation is damaged it will ultimately impact your sales targets. There is also a little-known SEO practice called Negative SEO. SEO Strategies are focused on ranking you for what you do and or sell (amongst other things). Negative SEO is any malicious practice aimed at sabotaging search rankings. An example of a negative SEO service offer is in a Reddit thread. GSA SER (GSA Search Engine Ranker) is a tool for automated spammy link building.
Reputation Management Is A Legitimate Practice
Online reputation management exists because, in part, people are more likely to believe, share and spread negative news than they are positive news. As human beings, we have evolved to react to threats, which has now developed into a “negativity bias.” Basically, bad news gets more clicks, and more attention, which in turn means more revenue for the media outlets. That’s why just one misstep can quickly snowball to have lasting, negative effects on your reputation.
A local independent cafe may need professional insight into local reputation management techniques to improve its Yelp ratings. An online retailer may want help updating their Amazon product descriptions and ratings. There is no cookie-cutter approach to reputation management. There are, however, a number of legitimate, ethical, and effective SEO reputation management tools to navigate the process.
Business owners can take advantage of an array of methods to improve their online reputations, including:
- Search engine optimisation
- Technical optimisation
- Google Knowledge Panel optimisation
- Social response tools
- Reputation monitoring
- Link portfolio management
Again, reputation management is all about influencing what people see and how they think about something, whether that be a brand or a person. In today’s connected world, reputation management happens primarily in the digital world and needs to be a core component of a brand’s marketing strategy as it is critical to its overall survival. As reputation management is adapted as an SEO tactic we can both acknowledge its unethical use while at the same realising just how effective it can be when used properly.
Ways To Control Your Online Reputation With SEO?
This next part of the article is about how to make the most of the control that you do have. By using well-established SEO processes, techniques and best practices we can help people see you, your business, and your brand as you want to be seen. More than that, it’s about being seen by the people who you want to see you.
By the time you get to producing a crisis management plan, it’s already too late. Instead, you need to make reputation monitoring a regular business process. There are reputation monitoring tools available; however, there will be some costs involved. It’s important to remember, though, that the cost of negative search results can be a lot higher.
Let us start at the sources of the problems that require SEO reputation management strategies to deal with:
- Monitor your search results: As we have already stated, keep a careful watch on what is being said about you online. Reply to comments – whether they are good or bad.
- Create, publish and share content: Focus on the digital marketing channels you can control – your website, blog, social and media pages. Take inspiration from other articles from the internet within your industry that self-promote their organisations in a positive way.
- Focus on your brand values: Your overall brand is key, and you need to be transparent. Working from the inside out, make sure that your brand is what you say it is online. Negative SEO tactics rely on spreading misinformation, so transparency is the best form of defence.
Where Does Bad News Appear?
- Negative news articles – News articles are very often one of the first things that people see when they Google your business’s name. Even though people are now more aware that fake news exists, they still tend to believe what appears as news.Negative videos and images – The subject of leaked videos, photos or other negative imagery online are a growing problem. Technology exists that allows people to doctor images and videos to fabricate an event.
- Wikipedia – Wikipedia is the cultural default for information on virtually any subject. Unfortunately, Wikipedia can be biased and uneditable. This is a high-ranking website, so a bad statement in it will be seen by a lot of people.
- Online reviews – Review sites like Yelp, TripAdvisor, Google Reviews, and others exist to help the consumer make guided choices based on what other customers have experienced. However, negative reviews signal to potential clients or buyers to go elsewhere.
- Social media – Social media is the method of choice for people recommending brands, spreading gossip, airing complaints and criticising public figures.
How To Get Something Removed From Google Search Results?
If you have found something bad then the good news is, that any tarnished reputation can be improved over time. But it takes a good amount of analysis, hard work and consistency to achieve the desired results. These online reputation management SEO techniques are referred to as reverse SEO.
Reverse SEO is a reputation management tactic that involves pushing down the search rankings of a web listing by optimising other online content for the same target keyword. This is a great tactic if you are facing a full-blown crisis or experiencing some negative publicity. There are a number of steps that can be taken to improve your bad search results and rebuild your online reputation.
Are You Concerned About Your Online Reputation?
Your online reputation is largely out of your control. But there are things that you can do, both proactively and reactively, to manage your online reputation effectively. At BAMBRICK we have had 20+ years of experience in building many great reputations. If you want to talk about how our online reputation management company can manage your reputation, click the button below.