Have a bad reputation online that you don’t know how to fix? Reputation management strategies can help reduce the effects of negative reviews and bad press about your business. What most people don’t realize is that search engine optimization plays a key role in reputation management – and it could be the difference between success and failure for your business.
Let’s take a closer look at how SEO impacts your online reputation to help you understand the benefits of this practice as a whole.
Target The Keywords That Make You Look Bad
What are people searching for online that gets them to these negative comments about you? Are they simply looking up your company name, or are there specific terms that they use to find out about your not-so-shining moments? As with any other SEO strategy, you can conduct a complete keyword analysis to determine which words you should target in your marketing efforts. By putting out good content for these negative keywords, you can move bad posts down the page and ultimately repair your reputation on the internet.
Flood Google With Positivity
Google loves new content. That’s why websites with active, relevant content are able to move to the top of the rankings faster than their outdated counterparts. With this in mind, Google will naturally reward you for putting new content on your website, blog, and social media pages. The new information will be indexed and promoted more so than an article from several years ago. If you come up with enough high-value SEO optimized content to put online, you can push all the bad information to page two and beyond…where only 8% of readers ever go.
Combat False Rumors – The Right Way
Fighting against people who say negative things about you online won’t necessarily work in your favor. While it may make you feel better about the situation, it will also show readers that you have a temper that you cannot control. This may actually validate the negative comments, rather than boosting your reputation. Luckily, you can use SEO to fight back without making yourself look bad.
The key here is to negate what others say about you through strategic content that targets the same keywords. If someone has made an entire blog post about “Manny’s Cell Phone Repair Is A Scam,” put out something titled: “10 Valid Reasons Why Manny’s Cell Phone Repair Is NOT A Scam.” Don’t use threats and violence to defend yourself. Let the facts speak for themselves. Once enough people take notice of the new content you put out, your reputation will improve on its own.