Online reputation management centres on staying in control. It’s all about controlling what can be seen. Given that 80 per cent of adults will be more inclined to make a purchase following a recommendation and 90 per cent of users trust what they see in reviews you need to be aware of what is being said about your business. Look at the top 10 search results for your business. If there are product reviews showing you can be sure that they are having an effect on how your target audience views your business.
There have been recent updates by Google that facilitate the high ranking of negative reviews and sites. Reputation management rarely becomes an issue to companies until their reputations become tarnished in some way. This leaves things way too late. Businesses need to be building brand reputation ongoing – after all, following a negative campaign it can take a good four years to regain your brand reputation, if at all.
To avoid bad results focus on creating high quality, sticky news items. Set up a product feed into Google Base and the concentrate on getting it rank well. Use blog, images and press releases to create positive results for your company.
Also include analytics in your online reputation management strategy. You can track referral traffic and keywords. You can also check that you have the relevant content to match for appropriate searches. Also audit whether you have enough resource in place in the areas of marketing, customer service and PR.
Through Google Place Search reviews have a larger influence than ever. Encourage positive reviews in places such as Yell.com.Use tools to help you manage your reputation management such as Google Alerts, Twitter, IceRocket to track blogs, Netvibes to keep an eye on RSS feeds.At www.searchengineoptimization.co.uk we are experts at internet reputation management and can help to prevent combat the effects of negative content.