The practice of attempting to shape public online perception of a company is what we call ‘reputation management’ today. Taking care of this perception is one of the main tasks for a business owner, as consumers tend to check companies online before they make a decision.
Reputation management includes monitoring the reputation, addressing content that can be potentially harmful, and using customer feedback to solve problems before they damage the reputation. Overpowering negative search results and stressing the occurrence of positive ones are also a big part of Internet reputation management.
How online reputation relates to the search engine placement
There is a paradoxical – and not good – solution to hide your negative reputation: not having your company’s page listed among the first pages of an online search. That is something you don’t want to do, since this limits how you will be visible to your potential customers. And as we mentioned above, nowadays, people tend to search for a company online long before they make a purchase. So, the one and only real solution, that takes a huge amount of time and effort, is to have your online reputation flawless and always up to date.
Appropriate reputation management can improve your online reputation, which helps bring more visitors to your site. And since Google is rewarding the companies that are popular in their market, it will make your business rank higher and you can appear on the first page of searches.
How to turn down negative search results
First, you have to search for those reviews that are damaging your online reputation. If you reach out to the authors, try to offer them incentives and ask them to make a revision to their posts. It may take some time, but it can influence your reputation more positively than you would think. Since there is always a possibility of negative reviews coming up regarding your business from time to time, you need constant management to prevent negative content from reaching your company. Most business owners use customer review plugins to protect their online reputation because those plugins can filter the reviews before they reach their site.
We already talked about how bad reviews can make your customers turn to your competitors because they don’t want to have the same bad experience. If the reviews of your site are higher than other businesses, your company might get those calls instead. A negative review can cause a loss of 22% of potential consumers, so you can imagine what harm multiple negative content can cause to your business.
How to build a positive online reputation
Managing your reputation with positive feedback and a well-thought SEO campaign can get your company where you want it to be. And since negative online content can hurt your online presence and can influence the traffic on your site, which is also a factor in Google’s ranking system, you should do everything to turn things into something positive.
With appropriate online reputation management, you can help shape a positive and solid online presence for your company. You have to understand the relevance of Internet reputation management, as it is fundamental to your online success. You have do everything possible to prevent or clean up those bad reviews so you can keep your site on the top of Google’s rankings. And since these two things, visibility and rankings, are in correlation, with the right online reputation management, you can improve your business.
