How to Protect Your Online Reputation and Reduce Negative Reviews

Reputation management maintains and enhances your brand name when obstacles step in your way. They can turn negatives into positives, and with a properly solution-oriented team, there is no problem that can’t be solved.

With people and competitors breathing down our necks looking to find our flaws and exploiting them, it is essential to have a reliable online reputation management (ORM) strategy in order to fend off these online foes.

You may ask, “After launching my own business, why should I be proactive with online reputation management? Why should I actively work towards repairing online reputation at all?”

The sooner you begin with ORM, the faster you will earn a respectable reputation through trial and error.

1. Purchase Related Domain Names

Gather a list of domain names that are similar to yours in sound and spelling, which will protect the competition from creating a nemesis with a similar name.

Purchase as many similar names as possible by rearranging the words and adding simple ones that still relate to your business.

2. Gather Online Reviews

Connect your business with search sites where your potential customers would go to find you; for example, Google + Local, Yelp, CitySearch, SuperPages, and YP.com. An additional step which should be taken here is the addition of client testimonials as this solidifies your credibility in the market. This can be especially useful in reputation management for lawyers.

3. Your Online Image Must Be Consistent

Envision how you want your image to look and, most importantly, how you want people to look at it. Involving your users with your approach and vision will allow them to be in sync. Consistency is key when responding to and dealing with inquiries.

4. Create Alerts

Create Google and all search engine alerts with keywords that you think would imply a bad comment or review about your product so that you are able to handle reputation risks more effectively.

5. Enhancing Online Brand Equity Through PR

Use the web to your advantage! Blog and post good feedback about yourself on credible sites. These writings could reach a level of status that brings your company to the next level. When people see this, they agree with it and sometimes even share it, which only helps in brand reputation management. You want good content to rank higher than your bad content.

6. Utilize Tools Online

The internet has an incredible amount of tools to assist you in maintaining a healthy image. Select the social media networks that will best help you attain the level of significance you seek for your service or product. Teach your customers about what you provide and listen to their feedback so that you can enhance what you’re doing and keep up with what they are saying.

BrandYourself is great tool to use to protect your name within the Internet community and give your links their desired placement in order to promote your company and obtain higher search engine rankings.

Select the social media networks that will best help you attain the level of significance you seek for your service or product. Teach your customers about what you provide and listen to their feedback so that you can enhance what you are doing and keep up with what they are saying.

Certain businesses in certain industries need customer reviews in order to succeed. The hospitality industry is particularly sensitive to negative publicity, as this feedback determines how much business they gain or lose.

7. Monitor Backlinks With Acute Attention

Creating ways to attract and direct your viewers is necessary in order to keep your personal reputation. They give you credibility in search engines and help guide more people to the right information about your service or product. Monitor the backlinks of your website, because the competition will attempt to ruin your credibility by sabotaging your links.

8. Stimulate Online Feedback

Organize your positive feedback in a way that is easy to see, which will in turn attract more people to leave positive reviews. Rewarding your customers for reviews is a great way to enhance your credibility. Survey your clients to let them know you care about their opinion, and publicize it if you can. This will allow you to maintain a more organized and disciplined approach to tracking your customer needs.