Almost all businesses are today aware that virtually every consumer turns to the Internet to do a bit of research before buying goods /services. And on the internet, your business is only as good or as bad as everyone says it is.
Studies show that more than a whopping 78% of prospective buyers use online reviews before making purchases. This should clearly indicate to you the critical importance of your business’s online reputation.
It is your responsibility to ensure that whatever information about your business that is available on the review sites and social media is absolutely positive. If you are not keeping a constant vigil on your company’s online reputation, your customer-base will begin to shrink.
Businesses are beginning to realize the importance of online reputation management. They are also aware that ORM (Online Reputation Management) is closely associated with Search Marketing. In both cases the techniques to be used tend to be the same, requiring you to regularly monitor and act on search results.
The purpose of search marketing is to make your website rank high in search results. With ORM, your efforts are aimed at ensuring all positive reviews about your business are seen on the first page of search results and negative comments, if any, are pushed to the third page.
In short, you should ensure that positive information and commentary about your business ranks overwhelmingly higher than anything negative.
Any business online reputation process starts with a self-search. Start by searching for your business using a wide net and all possible keywords. Remember, searchers are impatient and less concerned about proper spelling of your products–or even the official name of your company.
Rely on Google Alerts as they can “tip you off to molehills before they become mountains.”
Make sure that you become aware whenever new content about your business hits the Web. Google Alerts email you when new blog posts or other Web pages are created using terms relevant to your business.
Alerts are indispensible for following mentions about your business you might otherwise miss completely. A timely Google Alert can help you promptly handle all online reputation issues about your business.
Google Alerts can warn you about someone who is maliciously using your brand to malign your business. You have also to be guarded about what comments appear about your business in major social media sites and the leading review sites.