Reputation is everything for a business – if people don’t trust you, then they will not patronize your business and will not recommend you to others. They may even go out of their way to dissuade others from working with you.
The online world brings particular challenges to preserving your reputation. Information never really disappears on the Internet, and something that catches popular interest can spread like wildfire. If this information is negative, it can have serious ramifications for your business.
The problem is, information does not have to be true in order to be prominent when people search for information about your company. For example, if you search for “tree octopus” on Google, the first two results are for a hoax site that invented these creatures but presents them as real.
Even worse, sometimes negative information is deliberately spread. An example would be the politician Rick Santorum – in 2003 he made comments on a radio show that compared gay relationships to bestiality, child abuse and incest. As a response to this, columnist Dan Savage launched a campaign where he created a website that defined ‘santorum’ as a term for a byproduct of gay sex. This quickly took off, and is still a highly prominent result when one searches Google for information about this politician. Regardless of your views on Rick Santorum and his comments, this incident shows how Google search results and other online information can be manipulated.
What Online Reputation Management Does
Online reputation management is simply a strategy that your Internet marketing company can use to help deal with inaccurate or negative information. Reputation management can be proactive or reactive.
Proactive reputation management involves monitoring of references to your brand or company online, such that any negative or untrue statements can be dealt with quickly before they spread or become highly ranked in search results. In addition, positive statements are pushed higher in search results, so that it is more difficult for negative information to displace them.
Reactive reputation management is a more difficult proposition. This becomes necessary when untrue or negative information has already become popular, widely spread or prominent on the first page of search engine results. As this information is already highly ranked, it takes more work to move it down the rankings and off the first pages of Google results. However, it is possible to do so, and the efforts can certainly pay off.
Like SEO costs, the amount that you will pay for online reputation management depends on the precise parameters of your requirements, but it is almost always well worth the cost.
Now that you know a little bit about the reputation management an Internet marketing company can provide, consider learning more about Google Analytics consulting. Post written by guest blogger Michelle.
Featured image courtesy of ShashiBellamkonda
