How You Can Protect Your Online Reputation

When everyone’s a critic, how can you manage that negative web article about your business? Take advantage of this sage advice to protect your online reputation.

Your good business name is an asset. When your business name gets smeared, so does your reputation, which could ultimately affect your bottom line and the continuation of your business.

While it’s imperative to have an online presence for your business, it is possible to have your online reputation damaged from negative comments or actions by others. When this happens, it’s time to take online reputation protection action.

Warren Buffet once said, “it takes 20 years to build a reputation, and 5 minutes to ruin it.” While in the process of performing an online reputation management strategy, what if you find a derogatory remark, comment, or even a full article on search results of your business? Here are some tips to keep your online reputation management on track.

Stay Proactive

One of the best pieces of advice anyone can give you regarding online reputation protection is to stay proactive about catching negative information. If a negative article appeared about your company and you did not notice it for six months, imagine how many times that article could have been read.

Instead, form a policy to routinely check major search engines for information about your business. That may mean simply Googling your business once a week or setting up alert notices when anything about your business appears on the internet. Keep active in noticing negative information, and you will have a better chance at managing or even removing it.

Ask That Untrue Information Be Corrected

If you find an article that states something about your company that is simply untrue, you can ask to have it removed or corrected. Online journalism, or professional blogging, has a much more relaxed policy about checking facts. Many times, posts are written for the sake of sensationalism. However, you have every right in your online reputation protection strategy to contact an online author or journalist and ask them to remove or correct information. Nine times out of ten they will do so.

Publish Content and Garner Backlinks for Your Company Name

If you find that you cannot remove the negative articles or posts, then you will need to do your best to “bury” these negative results deeper in the search results. Write articles and submit them to article directories, with your company’s name and URL emphasized in the author’s biography box. In addition, you may want to pick other URLs that have positive information about your business to place in the resource box so that these results will show up higher when your company’s name is typed into the search box.

Hire the Reputation Protection Pros

If you find that an issue is simply overwhelming and is picking up viral speed on the internet, don’t hesitate to call a professional online reputation management service. A trustworthy service will be able to battle negative comments and have them knocked down in search results. This can positively impact your online reputation management, since 77% of online searchers never look past the first page of SERPs (search engine results page). The firm will feed search engines with new, updated, and positive information about your business, and they will work hard to protect your online reputation. The investment is certainly worth protecting your good name.

There is no reason for you to sit back idly as negative information is spread about your business on the internet. Protecting your online reputation means staying active in spotting negative remarks and taking initiative to remove or dilute the information so that only the best information is presented about your business.

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