Reputation management is nothing new, but online reputation management is becoming increasingly important in today’s digital world, with many businesses looking to an online reputation management agency to help them take control of their reputation. Essentially, there are three categories that exist within reputation management. These three categories are building a reputation, managing a reputation, and recovering a reputation. Usually, when a business seeks the services of an SEO company for their reputation management, they will do so because they need one of those three categories more than anything else. However, the three are actually inextricably linked and are better addressed together.
Why Reputation Management Matters
Our world is one that is now almost fully online. Furthermore, everybody knows shopping around for the best deals and the most trustworthy companies is vital for every purchase or service usage. This is why any business will endeavor to be portrayed online as a go-to source for a certain product or service. It is also a known fact that businesses with a positive reputation can increase their prices and that they are worth more on the stock market. Because their reputation supersedes them, customers will trust that prices are fair and they will expect more growth in the company.
Reputation management is about far more than simply recovering a destroyed reputation. It is about being preventative and proactive. It helps to create a positive reputation and to maintain and even improve it. All online activities that involve the business have to be monitored very closely and they must be addressed. An SEO company will be able to look at each piece of information that appears online and know whether to promote it, or whether to undertake SEO (search engine optimization) efforts in order to hide that piece of information.
There are many strategies used in order to build and maintain a reputation. This includes creating content through social media, blogs, forums and more. Promoting information that is already out there is also an important way of growing a good reputation. If a reputation is damaged, this will be noticed in decreased sales, lost partnerships and opportunities and more dissatisfied customers. If not handled correctly, this could actually mean the end of a business.
The way people perceive a certain business affects investment and sales alike. If this perception is negative, it could truly cripple a business. Unfortunately, it is nearly impossible to have a piece of content taken down from the internet. In fact, this is unsuccessful in 90% of cases. This is why it is far more important to work on having this information pushed back so far that people simply cannot find it anymore.
Qualities of an SEO Consultant Who Also Focus on Reputation
When you link your SEO and your reputation management, you need to find a consultant with the following qualities:
- They understand each business’ individual situation.
- They can help businesses build, maintain and repair their reputation.
- They understand that there is urgency involved in these situations and will react quickly.
- They offer custom solutions specific to the needs.
- They are proactive as well as reactive, meaning they will also engage in practices that will attract more positive reviews.
A reputation is nothing something that a business can just ‘have’. It is something that they must work towards earning and then they must work towards keeping that reputation. This takes a long time and a lot of effort. A reputation can also not be forced. It is created by perceptions and conventions. Destroying all a business’ hard work in terms of building a reputation, unfortunately, takes just a few minutes to do. This is why it is so important to work together with an excellent consultant who has knowledge of damage control strategies and preemptive actions to take.
