How to Use SEO for Your Online Reputation Management

Reputation is everything, and using SEO, you can manage your reputation to boost your business online.

We all strive to be the best in our respective industries. That said, the larger we grow, the greater the chances that we might find ourselves facing a PR crisis on social media. It might be a simple mistake, but the world of reputation has become much smaller since the advent of social media in business, and the backlash can be significant if appropriate steps are not taken to both address the issue as it takes place, and manage one’s online reputation following one of these issues. Studies show that nearly three quarters of lost business can be attributed to poor customer service or a poor experience, so burying your head in the sand in the time of a PR crisis (and the moments that follow) can prove to be far more devastating to your company’s reputation than tackling the issue head on.

Below are a few pointers that can help you deal with a PR crisis on social media when it strikes, and manage your reputation using SEO tactics following such a crisis.

1. Monitor Your Brand

Whether you’re using a highly advanced listening system or simply following your brand’s mentions using Twitter search, it is crucial that you listen to what people are saying when it comes to your business. Simply ignoring an issue and hoping it will disappear will lead to the issue growing beyond your control. Remember, networks like Twitter have been described as a forum where people tell truths to strangers. Don’t let that truth be something negative about your brand management.

2. Engage with a Dissatisfied Audience

Turning a disgruntled customer into a brand advocate should always be your goal when it comes to social media engagement in the time of a crisis. Instead of a post like, “I hate [Your Brand] because of [Reason],” you should strive to see that same user sending something out along the lines of, “Thank you [Your Brand] for all your help! I will definitely be coming back!” There is a fine line between these two posts despite the fact that they are on completely opposite sides of the sentiment spectrum. And that line rests in how you deal with an issue. So approach dissatisfied customers the same way you would a satisfied one, and resolve their issue before it proliferates.

3. Rebuilding After the Storm

There are a number of SEO tactics that can be employed when it comes to reputation management following a PR crisis. While a crisis might only last a few hours, the backlash on search engines like Google can be ever-lasting – and the damage to your business could be significant. So, how do you go about managing your reputation after it has been damaged by a crisis?

There are several black hat techniques that are frowned upon by both the community as a whole and Google. Review sites like Yelp! are taken into account quite heavily by the search giant, and posting dozens of positive reviews from newly formed accounts will not help as much as you might think. Using proper SEO techniques, you can manage your reputation to promote the positive aspects of your brand while quashing the negative.

First, consider the source of a negative post. Google prefers not to rank content from the same domain more than once. So, for example, if you see that a negative post has popped up on a major news site, try and get another, more positive up there and share it in order to replace the negative one. Shares and links are still the most heavily weighted element when it comes to SEO, so if you can get a positive post from the same source to outrank the negative one, you stand a good chance of eliminating the negative result from the top of your searches.

Second, posting positive content about your business will help your improve the quality of your results. Unlike the poor technique we noted above, this has to do with responding to negative reviews and publishing positive content on or about your site to relevant blogs. Engaging with your unhappy audience in a positive way will better your search results, and new, relevant and high-quality content will always triumph. Remember, you will not necessarily be able to remove content from Google – that it not what the search engine is for. But you will be able to replace content if you approach the process the right way.

Last, create a hub that points to all of your positie content. As the circulation of your content grows, so will your search rankings. There are a few ways of going about this. You can create a domain name with your search term (your brand) in the title – if you do not have one already. You can mention yourself in all of your positive content. You can (and should) link all of your content due to the fact that links are a crucial part of SEO. And you should be posting often. Fresh content is always preferred to dated articles, so a blog will certainly help when it comes to reputation management using SEO.

SEO for reputation management can be a tricky process. But this process is made much more difficult if you ignore issues as they arise. So monitor your brand and engage with your audience to avoid a PR crisis. And if they do arise, take the necessary steps to improve your reputation using the SEO tactics highlighted above.

Do you know of any other tips that might be helpful when it comes to managing your reputation online? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!