Online Reputation Management, SEO, Web Development
Five Important Steps to Building a Powerful Online Reputation for Your Business
By | Published: May 7, 2012
Online reputation management is not always a simple task, but it can be essential when you put so much work into building a quality online business only to see it ravaged by negative feedback from a few customers who may exaggerate the bad experiences they may or may not have had.
The good news is that, with only a few simple steps, you can ensure that your business’ reputation doesn’t get stained by a negative review and that future customers can learn all about the advantages of working with you.
1. Control the First Page on Search Engines
This is perhaps the most important step of all, as it involves the highest risk factor. More than 90 % of the people who browse through online search engine results stop before they access the second page on any search engine; so, if they don’t find anything that would encourage them to access your site, they will just move along. Most importantly, it has been proven that a negative review on the first page of Google is enough to ruin your business altogether.
2. Promote Your Own Positive Content to Overshadow the Negative One
Now, the fact is that you can’t really delete a negative review off a review site, since it doesn’t belong to you. However, you can promote positive information about your brand that can push the negative reviews down in the search results, as well as draw in more customers.
Google likes freshly updated content, so do your best to find the best places for promoting your company, such as LinkedIn, Facebook or Google+, and promote the achievements, goals and advantages associated with your brand. Also, try to keep adding new articles to your site and blogs, as well as press releases and blurbs about all your updates as often as possible.
3. Keep Track of Your Business’ Reputation
Before you can do anything about negative reviews, you have to first become aware of them. Look up the most popular review sites and relevant blogs or web pages where any type of information or testimonials about your company could appear. It may be hard work, but the sooner you locate a bad review, the easier it will be to deal with it and keep it from causing irreparable damage to your online reputation.
4. Provide Appropriate Responses to Negative Reviews
Once you find a negative review, you have to find a way to deal with it. The best way would be to contact the customer who posted it and offer them assistance and information that may help them see how their review was based on incomplete insight on how your product works, or inform them on what additional options they may have had depending on the nature of the service your company provided for them. In certain cases, you may be able to convince them to update their review and add a star or two to the initial rating.
5. Hire a Professional ORM Service
Hiring a professional service with experience in online reputation management can give you a wider perspective on any changes in your reputation and a better chance to improve it.
ORM services such as those offered by Spotless Rep can provide you with a powerful reputation monitoring system, a way to keep track of all the major review sites on the web in real time, detailed reputation scoring reports, as well as tools for building a better reputation and overcoming your competitors by drawing more and more customers to your business.
Of course, fixing an already stained online reputation is much more difficult than building a new one, so, if you want the best possible results, don’t wait for negative reviews to show up before you act. The best chance you have is to be proactive and employ all these steps before crisis hits you.
Five Important Steps to Building a Powerful Online Reputation for Your Business
Online reputation management is not always a simple task, but it can be essential when you put so much work into building a quality online business only to see it ravaged by negative feedback from a few customers who may exaggerate the bad experiences they may or may not have had.
The good news is that, with only a few simple steps, you can ensure that your business’ reputation doesn’t get stained by a negative review and that future customers can learn all about the advantages of working with you.
1. Control the First Page on Search Engines
This is perhaps the most important step of all, as it involves the highest risk factor. More than 90 % of the people who browse through online search engine results stop before they access the second page on any search engine; so, if they don’t find anything that would encourage them to access your site, they will just move along. Most importantly, it has been proven that a negative review on the first page of Google is enough to ruin your business altogether.
2. Promote Your Own Positive Content to Overshadow the Negative One
Now, the fact is that you can’t really delete a negative review off a review site, since it doesn’t belong to you. However, you can promote positive information about your brand that can push the negative reviews down in the search results, as well as draw in more customers.
Google likes freshly updated content, so do your best to find the best places for promoting your company, such as LinkedIn, Facebook or Google+, and promote the achievements, goals and advantages associated with your brand. Also, try to keep adding new articles to your site and blogs, as well as press releases and blurbs about all your updates as often as possible.
3. Keep Track of Your Business’ Reputation
Before you can do anything about negative reviews, you have to first become aware of them. Look up the most popular review sites and relevant blogs or web pages where any type of information or testimonials about your company could appear. It may be hard work, but the sooner you locate a bad review, the easier it will be to deal with it and keep it from causing irreparable damage to your online reputation.
4. Provide Appropriate Responses to Negative Reviews
Once you find a negative review, you have to find a way to deal with it. The best way would be to contact the customer who posted it and offer them assistance and information that may help them see how their review was based on incomplete insight on how your product works, or inform them on what additional options they may have had depending on the nature of the service your company provided for them. In certain cases, you may be able to convince them to update their review and add a star or two to the initial rating.
5. Hire a Professional ORM Service
Hiring a professional service with experience in online reputation management can give you a wider perspective on any changes in your reputation and a better chance to improve it.
ORM services such as those offered by Spotless Rep can provide you with a powerful reputation monitoring system, a way to keep track of all the major review sites on the web in real time, detailed reputation scoring reports, as well as tools for building a better reputation and overcoming your competitors by drawing more and more customers to your business.
Of course, fixing an already stained online reputation is much more difficult than building a new one, so, if you want the best possible results, don’t wait for negative reviews to show up before you act. The best chance you have is to be proactive and employ all these steps before crisis hits you.