Search Engine Optimization or SEO calls for something more valuable than gold, your reputation.
Your online reputation for your brand, goods, services, can be your life’s blood and when it gets sullied you can bet that you’ll have one major problem to handle in the short and long term.
You can get a bad reputation from any number of sources. Mostly, from reviews of your site, services, and goods. If you’ve sold some lousy service or crumby goods, you’ll sure as heck receive a bunch of complaints on review sites and message boards and anywhere people will vent and rant about it. That information will put a the end to any efforts you have going on as people surfing around will see those negative result and shy away from you.
On the other hand, if you’re an honest to Joe kind of business that has spent countless hours to build up a solid and reputable business, negative problems can ruin you and it’s just downright unfair.
In worse case scenarios, you might have to hire professionals in the Online Reputation Management business aka ORM. These specialists go about doing the diagnosis and repair work necessary to get you back on your feet in the short and long term. This can cost lots of money as this is now a multibillion dollar a year industry. Just one bad post that goes viral about you and your business, and you’ll have to go through hell just getting things correct.
All is not lost, however, as there are steps you can take on your own or Do It yourself aka DIY remedies. These steps are meticulous but not that difficult as a way to get the repair work underway.
First of all, find or make positive content with your name or brand name attached to it. If you know your customers like your work, ask them to write a brief review. You can even whet their whistles or sweeten the deal with offering a discount. People love discounts and if they can save some money for the time it takes to write a short email, all the better. Ask them to share it on social media such as Facebook and the others. This will get the word out and your name associated with positive things instead of the negative.
Getting more technical, ask the pages that you find with positive info to include your name or brand name. Preferably in strategic places. On top of that make sure your name appears in the title tag of the positive pages. Make sure such tags are spelled correctly, the way you use them in regular business. The same goes for URLs. You can take the advantage of having your main URL with your name in it, or you can add it to your business URL as well.
There are all sorts of combinations and takes on the theme. You’ll need to study up a bit and then apply what is sound and true. If need be and you then have to hire a professional to handle your reputation SEO, then at least you’ll have something to work from and stand on to ensure you’re getting the best service. Don’t go with the fly by night services, check the reviews and customer satisfaction from reliable sources and you should be okay.
