SEO and reputation management are two different tactics used in business, but they are related. SEO refers to search engine optimization and it is about increasing your company’s visibility on search engines. Reputation management is about maintaining your company’s image and ensuring negatives are lessened and positives are heightened.
SEO can be used in reputation management. By getting positive search results mentioning your company at the top of search engine rankings, you can increase the positivity of your company’s image. SEO can also be used to help reduce the impacts of negatives and bury them in search engine results so positives appear first.
Here’s a look at some things you can do to merge SEO and reputation management. Doing these things can help you to build a solid online image for your company that is rarely impacted by negativity.
Gain Control Over Information About Your Company
While you cannot control everything that is published on the internet, you can do your part to minimize any damage. You should first begin with ensuring your business is only being represented in places where you can control the content or at least manage it. For example, community sites that let people edit entries and add in any information they want can be horrible for a business. You should avoid having your business on such sites.
Review sites, which may seem bad, can actually be good. They rank high on the search engine and allow you to respond. You just have to stay on top of them. Make sure that you are paying attention to what is being said about your business and responding accordingly. This is also true for social media sites.
Be Present on Social Media
That brings us to your involvement in social media. If you want to go anywhere in business today, you must have an active social media presence. It isn’t enough for you to just have social media accounts. You must use them and be present all the time. You need to control your social media, too. Manage any negative comments appropriately and interact with your customers and those leaving comments.
You should make sure to use the right names for your social media accounts. Don’t try to be cute or creative. Use your business name or as close to it as possible based on what is available. You want to be easy to find and search for. Complete the profiles, including all information that is asked for. Make connections with other businesses and people in your contact lists. Stick to only the top social media sites because they will help you in search engine rankings and reputation building the most. You don’t want to waste your efforts on platforms nobody is using.
Use Blogs and Guest Articles
If you really want to get your name out there in a positive light, content is king. Try writing articles on topics related to your business or those that your customer base would likely want to know about. Get your articles on top blogs or websites. Make sure you include a solid bio, too. Typically, a site or blog will allow you space for a little blurb about you. Talk about your business, provide good links and keep it professional. This bio can do a lot for your reputation because it serves as a nice marketing tool.
Get Assistance
You don’t have to go it alone when it comes to leveraging SEO to manage your reputation. There is help out there, like ReputationDefender. A professional company that understands reputation management and building can do a lot to help you understand the process and even develop a plan for you to follow that will enable you to build your online reputation quickly.
Not every business owner understands reputation management. That is fine unless you choose to do nothing about it. When you take the right steps to build a solid reputation, you are only doing the very basic thing. You need to continue taking steps to keep your reputation positive. Getting help with the process is usually the best way to ensure you end up in the right situation.
In addition, knowing what to do is not really common knowledge. You may be clueless when it comes to setting up and managing social media accounts. It is important to note they require quite a bit of management and work, so if you don’t know what you are getting into, they can be a real drain on your personnel’s attention. Getting some help can reduce the headaches and help you to learn how to handle difficult issues that may arise, such as a negative commenter.
Building a good reputation for your business should be something you are focused on. After all, reputation is everything in the business world. It is the reason why some brands become huge and others fail. If you harness the power of SEO to help you build your relationship, then the sky is the limit to what you can do.