Online Reputation Management in SEO

As modern humans, our online reputation carries much more significance than what people think of us offline. In fact, how we are perceived and thought of online eventually decides people’s behaviors with us offline. Forbes shows that 97% of business owners believe in the importance of online reputation management in SEO. Some of the examples that prove that our public standing and reputation have gone digital over time are as follows:

1. A couple of years back, Nestle faced immense backlash after the company got accused of having to do with harmful practices by Greenpeace. Nestle’s PR crisis management team lacked the skill required to settle the matter and deteriorated the situation by asking Greenpeace to remove their “expose” video from YouTube.
   
   
2. In 2017 United Airlines – a name no strange – lost $1 billion after a video of a doctor being dragged out of the plane went viral. So much so that the netizens and experts started blaming the incompetence of the airline’s PR crisis management team and the CEO.

This shows that a bad online reputation depresses the number of consumers who find your business reliable, tarnishes the brand value, and lowers sales. However, there are several ways of maintaining and improving a remarkable online reputation, and one of them is search engine optimization (SEO).

SEO or ORM? Or Both?

Search engine optimization (SEO) and online reputation management (ORM) have always gone hand in hand. Online reputation management in SEO is a strategy widely used these days by small-scale and large businesses alike. It is basically positive perception management of your company via search engine result pages (SERPs). While SEO is not the only way to maintain an excellent online reputation, it is also not one to miss out on. Its unignorably value makes it mandatory to consider for a top-notch reputation and an overall positive image of your brand.

And why is that so? Recent data from June 2021 shows that search engine giant, Google, has a market share of 87.76% in the global search market. This asserts that confident, authoritative, detailed, helpful, and optimized content puts your business/brand/services in the positive limelight to that 87.76% of the people who are probably looking for your services online. In a nutshell, SEO in online reputation management can take you from rags to riches and back, depending on how you work on it.

Petrified? Don’t be because this article will break to you the wonders that SEO can do in your overall online reputation management.

All you Need is SEO and Some Pixie Dust for a Great ORM

1.     Your Name on the Front Page Decides your Reputation

Before this point discusses the importance of front-page search results, let’s talk about your brand name. It is crucial that, as a seller, you have a brand name that is easy to remember.

Sorry to say, but not everyone will remember a company selling hospital beds named Krenkenhouse dot com. So, make sure to have an easy name and preferably in a language that most of your target audience speaks.

Now, the first thing you need is to rank on the first page. A 1st page ranking means Google believes your website is one of the most authoritative and helpful in your industry.

The importance of ranking on the first page can be better understood by the amount that Google reaped – a whopping $123.83 billion – by mere advertisements in the year 2020. Ranking on the front page of Google means a chance to capture a share of organic traffic for targeted keywords.

2.     Repurposing of Content

Instagram, Facebook, Quora, and Reddit are some social sites that also help rank your content. What you do on these sites is reshare (Not Spam) your already published content.

Once you have published optimized blog posts on your site, try to repurpose them on the said social sites and YouTube. This will help rank your website faster. In 2021, you can not just rely on website content.

On Quora, for example, you can look for queries related to your services, answer them and link your article for further clarity. This way, you are not spamming people’s feeds but rather trying to be helpful and hence, pumping up your chances of becoming a reliable services provider.

How many times has it happened that a website almost convinced you to buy their product, but their little to no presence on social media came off as fishy and shady? This shows that repurposing your content and services on social sites should lead to a solid online reputation.

3.     The Positive Image

While online reputation management in SEO is doable for you and your business’s overall standing, it is also easier for your competitors to plummet your sales using SEO to spread the news against you.

So, always be wary of any mentions by turning on Google alerts. Add the most searched keywords about you and keep an eye on them. Look out for places where you are mentioned. Online reputation management is not always black and white; there are grey patches.

When you get instant notification of an adverse or bogus reporting against you, you can efficiently address it at the moment. Isn’t SEO just unique?

4.     Do Google My Business Now!

Google My Business Listing is a free tool exclusively for businesses. Having your business listed in Google My Business will help you manage the basic information about your business on Google Maps and Google Search.

Google My Business makes a good percentage of the overall Google daily searches. The presence of your business details like number, location, etc., will give you an edge amongst other businesses in your field.

Final Verdict

By now, we are assuming that you must have considerable knowledge about online reputation management in SEO. We understand that ORM is not an easy task; one is likely to need an experienced team. Own a business? We, at Marketing Disty, are a team of professional and competent marketing experts who are available 24/7 at your service. Visit our website to book you Free SEO Consultation.