Most entrepreneurs have two things in mind before setting up their business: a solid website and a good social media presence. From there on, it should be smooth sailing right?  Not quite.

One can never tell when someone decides to fuel a slander campaign with the specific purpose of destroying your  online reputation  and your business.

Some people get a kick out of it, while others actively pursue a smear campaign to derive new leads for their business by  stealing  from yours. And what could be more effective than ruining the online reputation of your local business?

There’s more to online businesses than a basic “SEO” plan that comprises of a few blog posts here and a few social media posts there. While we have reasonable  control over our own social media accounts, you can’t say the same about other people who could be carrying a grudge and want to smear your reputation.

Today, all you need to spearhead a smear campaign is a fake social media profile and a little bit of ingenuity.

It goes without saying that when you launch your business, reputation management should be somewhere in the corner of your mind, if not at the front.

Let’s explore some of the more in-depth reasons why online reputation management is important for your local business.

The majority of your clients are directly dependent on how search engines treat keywords related to your industry. The more you show up on the front page of search results, the more clients you will attract. It’s like how bees are attracted to nectar-rich flowers.

When someone types our local business name into a search engine, the results page not only shows web pages related to the search query but also creates a separate window for customer reviews. This review panel will either make or break your chances of securing a new deal.

Your  online reputation  is defined as the information related to you online.  When firms hear of this, their first reaction is to privatise their settings in fear that  some  questionable material might pop up, and this reduces their chances of securing a good deal.

But as ironic as it might sound, privatising your settings would  hide  your business from customers who are actively searching for you.

This isn’t a good practice from an SEO perspective, and neither does it paint a wholesome image for the client who wants to know what your agenda is. The truth is that even the most successful businesses and the Fortune 500 companies are not immune to negative reviews. However, this isn’t a bad thing.

The power of hindsight will reveal that a  few  negative reviews against a sea of positive reviews actually create a degree of credibility that would otherwise not exist if there were only positive views.

All you need to write a negative review is access to a computer and the internet. Even a smartphone with its minuscule screen will do just fine, giving you just enough typing manoeuvrability to write a scathing review.

In a world that is purely driven by capitalism, negative reviews are actually a good thing. Negative reviews provide companies with an incentive to improve their products and services.

Jealous competitors who want to steal your clients will have enough motives to publish critical articles or even go so far as to fill out a Ripoff Report.

The same can be said about angry clients who will go the extra mile to write horrible reviews, anything to detract people from your business.

Your best bet against the barrage of online ‘assault’ is to arm your local business with positive content, and the trick is to push enough high-quality content out there to offset the negative PR campaign being propagated against you.

Your online reputation management firm will target specific keywords that could be used by prospective enemies to smear your name.

Do keep in mind that the content itself has to be of a reasonably high quality so users would find it interesting to circulate among their social circles.

This will increase your number of backlinks. The more backlinks you have, the greater are your chances of ranking for a specific keyword and burying the negative content under a mountain of positive results.

Once again, SEO and  content development for online reputation management  is an ongoing effort that needs regular investment and attention.

Remember the general rule of thumb when it comes to online reputation management: if you aren’t doing it, someone else will. And you don’t want  them  to take charge of  your  online reputation.

What happens when you allow negative content to go up undefended? It immediately rises to the top of search results as it is the only content that is actively making use of the keyword.

Search engines will only promote your business if you create content on a regular basis.

When it comes to online reviews, people trust them blindly. This is scary because everyone knows how easy it is to fake them. I recently came across a YouTube video about a smartphone that I wanted to purchase.

As I typed out the full name of the device, one of the first links that showed up was a YouTube video that read, “39 reasons why you should not but this smartphone.”

This single search engine result  almost  convinced me to not buy the device at all. I didn’t even bother to click on the link to assess what the video was actually saying.

Besides, who really has the time to watch a feature-length video about a phone that is so bad that they went through the extra hassle of putting together the video reel and then uploading it online?

Yet, upon further inspection, I found out that the video was nothing more than a negative PR campaign that had very few  actual  reasons to not buy the phone, such as a lack of more high-end features, which should be pretty obvious given the price range of the device.

It’s the equivalent of saying, “Why doesn’t a Prius perform the same as a Bugatti Veyron?”

A little more research revealed that the phone was the perfect choice for my price range, and I went ahead and bought it.

But can the same be said about the dozens of other users who were convinced that the device was indeed bad because of a fake review that simply existed because of SEO strategies?

The answer to this question is a resounding  no.

So what could the company behind the phone do to detract people from a PR campaign that was clearly planted by rival phones to steal customers? The answer is obviously online reputation management that churns out positive content on a regular basis and displaces negative content.

Here’s a frightening statistic that should convince you about the truthfulness behind the statement “first impressions are last.”

“84 percent of people trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations.” Most people do not perform any background checks, and they will simply accept what they find at face value and judge the company based on what the first search engine results page of Google.

However, you can use this fact to your advantage and promote your own marketing campaign because at the end of the day, the person showing most movement will win.

Sometimes, your product or service truly does require a makeover or a complete restructuring, because customers don’t get what they are paying for. Learn from the negative reviews that your customers drop on your Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram feeds.

If you don’t make the necessary changes your customers are begging you to make, then your bottom line will suffer, irrespective of how successful your PR campaign is.

Refine your products and services by actively keeping on top of these complaints, making sure to track the ones that appear more consistently.

Think of customer reviews as a positive feedback loop that ‘feeds’ the system to automatically improve itself. The key to success in any industry is to improve, adapt, and innovate.

Don’t expect the same old strategy to continue making your clients happy. The law of diminishing returns will kick in and they will eventually move on to a different business that offers a better experience because of a new product on the market that offers benefits which you initially refused to accept.

Companies like Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo managed to stand the test of times despite a cascade of negative PR campaigns, disastrous products and services, and a general disdain for their massive customer base.

Despite all the negativity, these companies existed while Atari and Sega got phased out. This is because, in spite of all their general lack of regard, these companies have always emphasized innovation above all else.

One of the biggest advantages of online reputation management is that by taking charge of your PR campaign, you are directly (or indirectly) becoming a figure of authority in your niche. By creating more positive content, you can acquire a search engine metric known as “Domain Authority,” which is an index that is ranked from 0 to 100.

A high number means that you are a person of ‘authority’ in a specific niche, and if you write more content on the keyword, Google will immediately rank it on top of other search results.

The precautions you take in order to manage your online reputation allow you to establish and maintain thought leadership in your niche.

The only flipside to becoming this ‘person of authority’ is that it requires a lot of time-consuming, intensive research that most CEOs and businesses do not have time to devote.

This is why it makes so much more sense to outsource these needs to a digital marketing firm that specializes in online reputation management.

A single bad review has the power to derail your business, cut your revenue streams by more than a half, and completely obliterate your positive PR campaigns.

In contrast, a positive web presence can bring more leads, attract more customers, and keep the older ones for the long haul.

The perfect time to take charge of your online reputation management is now! It is ill-advised to leave your online reputation to chance, because you can’t predict with precision that there isn’t someone actively trying to damage your reputation.

They’re just waiting for their big break when search engines recognize their content and start publishing it on their front pages instead of your own content.

Keep in mind that search engines make use of algorithms that constantly search for new information related to specific keywords.

And once they find new blogs and posts, they will indiscriminately publish them, simply because they are the new players in the market.

Once someone has posted a negative review about your business or product, you should analyze if the review falls under free speech.

This means that the critique of your product and service should ultimately add value to content, instead of just promoting hate speech.

If it’s the latter, then you can send a lawsuit. However, we would advise against sending lawsuits because they are extremely time-consuming and require a massive amount of money.

If you’re out of options or feel intimidated by the prospects of managing your online reputation, it is highly recommended to hire someone who knows.

Forcing someone else to remove content on you is not easy. If not handled by the right professionals, it may backfire because most of these webmasters usually have access to a network of people who are more than willing to disclose details of your private spat.

This could cause more bad press!

Our strategists specialize in the removal of unwanted information, illegal content without the risk of bad press. The abusive online material is removed discreetly, efficiently and affordable. Speak with our strategist today and  delete your digital footprint!

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