4 Tricks to Improve Your Online Reputation

Business managers know that search engine optimization is important if they hope to be found by customers searching online. They understand that keywords are necessary for SEO to work properly. They might not know that SEO also can affect their reputation online.

If customers post negative reviews, those reviews are searchable and will be harmful to companies’ reputations. An SEO audit could help determine where companies would need to improve their reputation management or if a problem exists at all. To improve your reputation, here are four tips.

1. Monitor Social Media

To ensure that your reputation is strong and positive, you want to monitor your social media feeds. Besides what you post on your sites, you have to watch what your customers are saying on their sites. You want to be engaging, and you want to respond to negative reviews. Although you can’t control what others say about you, you can control how you react. SEO audits will determine what is being said on social media sites. They also will determine if you are posting the right content and messages.

2. Review Others

While it is important that you get reviews about your products and services, you have to remember to spread the love. You also must be an active reviewer of others. If one of your suppliers went out of his way for you, mention it on Google reviews. Take notice of products on Amazon and review them after you have purchased and used them. Review companies you meet that have served you in some way. These reviews will improve your reputation, but they also will boost your search rankings. An

SEO expert could tell you if you need to do more reviews.

3. Respond

It is always important to respond when someone posts something negative about you, but you have to make sure that your response is not angry. Try to ask the negative reviewer how to improve the situation.

For example, if they bought website design services, but aren’t fully satisfied, you could offer revisions at no extra cost. Alternatively, ask what the purchaser found wrong with it then try to fix that issue in a future design of the product or service. An SEO expert will tell you if your responses are harsh or a good way to appease naysayers.

4. Be Consistent

Your reputation suffers if you are not consistent throughout your Internet presence. Use the same profile picture for all your profiles. Use the same professional language on all your sites. You should ensure your posts match the audience of the sites, but it should be the same voice throughout.

For example, on Facebook, you want to be friendly and talk directly to customers, so it is OK to post family photos or pictures of your pets. Just don’t come across that you are a different person. If you are guest-posting on Hubspot, you want to speak with authority and leave off any personal pictures. Make sure the two posts are from the same voice. Being consistent will keep your reputation intact.