Spend any time wondering about your online reputation management? That’s what I thought! As per a study by Erik Qualman of Socialnomics.com nearly three-quarters of consumers report they trust the feedback provided by online reviews. Also some 80 percent have changed their mind about choosing a product after reading only one negative review online, and over 84 percent indicate that they find online reviews as a trusted source of information.
You have to take negative reviews seriously and take steps to counter the negative effects!
Let’s look at five proven strategies to do that.
- Look at your brand’s search results regularly – Check your company’s name in Google no less than once a month. Google Alerts is a good idea to tell you if there is any conversation regarding you, your business name or your important keywords. Be sure to look beyond page one, as damaging entries may be lurking there on their way higher.
- Deal with negative content ASAP – Do your best to make contact with the individual that posted the content in question as quickly as possible, especially if they are an unhappy buyer. Do your very best to take care of their concerns in a positive manner. Don’t jump into a public tussle with them! You won’t like the results.
- Use your company’s name in your page optimization – Be sure your pages as well as other content are utilizing your company’s name in keywords, tags, URLS, and titles. The more pages you own that bear your company’s name, the better the possibility Google will view your site as the authority for this keyword (your company name) and give you higher rankings. Also, most negative content will more than likely not have done any SEO.
- Create more content channels with your brand – You can use free blogs like WordPress.com, Blogger.com or even subdomains of your own site for this, along with your social channels such as YouTube, Facebook, and Google , will help keep the company name prominent. Post fresh content to these channels also, so they maintain their search positions.
- Ask your customers for reviews – The most obvious and by far the most useful tool for effective online reputation management is to ask your satisfied customers for a review. Encourage and even reward reviews. This is also your very best source of social proof!
Follow these tips to protect your good name! Trust us…you’ll be glad you did.