Even though a tarnished reputation isn’t necessarily for a business isn’t necessarily at the fault of the company, it could put a serious dent in sales volume and profits. Something as tiny as a social media post that you found hilarious could start a string of angry comments from followers who found the post offensive in some way or another.
It is never a bad idea to start thinking about online reputation repair, even if there is absolutely nothing wrong with the current state of your brand’s reputation. Trust us when we say that repairing a rep is much more difficult than maintaining one, so start taking the proper measures to keep yours golden.
Whether your main focus is one reputation maintenance or you have some serious fixing to do, you can follow this step-by-step guide for performing DIY online reputation management and repair.
Step 1: Identify the Cause of the Reputation Tarnishing
If you are in the position for some repairing, the first step is to identify the root of the problem. Why are you developing a bad rep in the first place. Sometimes the answer is extremely clear, and in other instances it is not at all. Do some digging to figure out what your customers are saying about you. This will better equip you for developing a strategic plan.
For those business owners that aren’t experiencing any bad reputation publicity, you should still be doing some research. But instead of figuring out what’s not working, you’ll need to determine what is working.
Step 2: Start at the Source
If you do come across any negative content regarding your brand, try to repair it at the source first. ReputationManagement.com says that “articles are often syndicated, so you’ll need to find and correct the issue on the original content….if you successfully correct the issue or remove the content, then you can submit a content removal request to Google.”
Step 3: Replace the Negativity with Positivity
It doesn’t matter how successful you are at removing the negativity, none of it matters if there is nothing positive being said about you. This is something that you shouldn’t rely on your customers to do – although they will leave positive comments if you do your job properly. You need to take matters into your own hands by creating your own original positive content.
The more positive content about your business that’s on the internet, the better you’ll be seen. Not just by your target audience, but by Google as well. Google uses algorithms to determine which sites should be ranked first and which ones should be lower on the results. These algorithms look for many things, including frequency of your name on the internet.
The more content surrounding your brand, the higher you’ll rank. The higher you rank, the more positive attention you’ll receive from potential customers. When creating your content, always make sure that it adds some value to the reader. This is another factor that Google uses to determine your ranking.