SEO Consult - Reputation Management

Posts Tagged ‘Reputation Management’

Smart businesses answer bad press

Tuesday, October 12th, 2010

Online reputation management is so much easier than reputation management offline, and yet so many businesses overlook it completely. This is a real shame, especially considering how easily, naturally and beneficially reputation management fits into a search engine optimization plan. It’s even more of a shame when you consider how easily a bad review can bring profits down, and how easily this can be avoided.

The benefits of reputation management go far beyond actually keeping a good reputation on the net. If you’re proactive about your reputation management, you will probably go out there and plant reputation boosters for your business all over the net. This means you’re also seeding links, which will help your SEO plan. You can talk to us at SEO Consult Australia about how to use search engine optimisation to help with reputation management issues.

Reputation management in general helps SEO because it boosts the knowledge of the business around the net. It has obvious benefits for the business itself, although some smaller businesses might question the worth of reputation management for themselves. The real worth of reputation management online comes from the fact that on the internet, there is nowhere to hide.

Information travels on the net

When someone leaves a bad review of your business, or of products that you sell, around the net, it’s available for anyone to access. If the review site is a particularly popular one, it’s likely that this review will pop up when the keywords you’re targeting are searched for. This can have predictably bad consequences.

Proactive reputation management, which involves taking control of the top spots for your brand keywords, can only do so much. When a juicy review beckons Google’s spiders, you can’t guarantee that it will never be seen in the SERPs.

Smart businesses practice proactive reputation management because it achieves the variety of outcomes described above. Really smart businesses should keep tabs on the net for bad reviews, and answer them. Not many do, though, and it’s puzzling to understand why.

Bad press needs a reply

Sadly, bad reviews are more likely than positive ones, but so many businesses let them stand. This leaves the criticism unchallenged, standing in as the truth. When a business answers the review, they show not only are they able to counter the criticism, but that they are reasonable, putting them in a good light.

Several really good examples of this attitude can be found when perusing the site Trip Advisor. Travellers are invited to post reviews of the hotels they’ve stayed in, so other travellers can judge where to stay. Bad reviews appear fairly frequently on the site, but the great thing is that businesses can reply. The ability to acknowledge concerns and answer them means that many hotels who otherwise would look horrible come out looking dignified, professional, and ultimately come out on top. It’s the way to turn a negative into a positive.

If it’s at all possible for you to answer a bad review, do so. Don’t let the criticism stand. Be vigilant, as bad press can turn up on your search pages forever.

Tags: Keywords, Reputation Management, Search Engine Optimisation, SEO, SEO Consult
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Which is better: SEO providers or all-rounders?

Tuesday, August 3rd, 2010

Finding a good SEO company is really hard. There’s no doubt about it. With most of the SEO industry online, and with the ability for someone in Perth to buy services from someone in New York, London or Hong Kong, it’s nearly impossible to establish a company’s bona fides. Even if you do, you’re still left with the decision of which sort of company to go with.

The services provided by individual SEO companies can range from simple SEO, to website design and complete online marketing development. Search engine optimisation may seem like a big field, but with its associations with marketing, publicity, reputation management and business development, an SEO company can have its fingers in many pies.

This makes the choice of optimisation provider even harder. Do you go with someone who has the confidence to say, ‘I only do SEO,’ or do you choose a big company that has experience across a broad range of marketing services? How do you tell who to trust?

Figuring out the credibility of an optimisation firm involves the same things whether they provide one type of service or many. It’s a good idea to start out with their website, checking the information they provide and cross-referencing anywhere you can. Turn the optimisation tables on them and Google them as well – this is the perfect way to tell whether they are using their own advice successfully. When you do this, don’t be too harsh on companies who only appear on the third page. Remember that search engine optimisation is a highly competitive field, and not everyone can appear top of the listings.

The services offered by the company can also give you an idea of how reputable they are. One of the dangers of optimisation is hiring people whose experience has been a little inflated. The industry is full of people who put up a shingle after optimising one or two sites. This doesn’t mean to say that newcomers are not to be trusted, but when it comes to paying for professional services, experience is part of the deal.

Companies who have a broad scope do tend to be a little more professional, simply by necessity. At the same time, there are companies out there whose first speciality was only tangentially related to SEO and who have decided to add optimisation to their resume. Hundreds of IT, web design and marketing companies have only recently added optimisation to their list of skills and it’s important to check out their bona fides before hiring them.

Once you’ve assessed a company’s relative reputation, you will still be left with a long list of options. There is no right answer. Optimisation is a strangely personal process, and it’s important that the company you go with suits your site. It can be worthwhile talking to a shortlist of companies before you begin, to see what their attitude is and what their recommendations are for your site. You can talk to our consultants at SEO Consult Australia if you have any questions. This will also let you assess the extent of work needed on your site.

Tags: Reputation Management, Search Engine Optimisation, SEO, SEO Consult
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