Online Reputation Management by David McBee — Presentation Transcript
IS IT IMPORTANT? • If a potential client is searching for you online by name, it’s normally because they’re interested in doing business with you.• A site saying unfavorable things about your business can destroy any chance you had of doing business with that potential client – even if the claims are untrue.• In a recent survey performed by Cone, a brand marketing agency, results show that 80% of those interviewed have changed their purchase decision based upon a bad review they read, up from 68% in 2010.
CAN YOU REMOVE IT? • You can actually pay companies like RipOffReport.com to “clean up” the negative comments. This usually consists of an advertiser’s response to a claim. This can often come off as defensive and actually make your business look worse.• Often, the data doesn’t actually come down. Simply having your business name next to the word Rip Off on Google’s search results is not going to help you gain a customer – no matter how eloquent, honest or clever your response to the claim.
THE BEST STRATEGY • The best strategy for dealing with a negative result on Google is to move it to page two – or more accurately, move other pages ahead of it until it ends up on page two.• In this example, we see a pissedconsumer.com website showing complaints for Safelite Auto Glass.• If Safelite can get their yelp results, their twitter pages and their citysearch results (plus one more page) to rank better than pissedconsumer.com, it will be moved to page two where fewer potential clients will see it.
BUILD MORE WEBSITES • A business can also build more than one website. There are ten organic spaces on Google’s page one. You’re more likely to own more of the real estate with more websites.
SOCIAL MEDIA SITES • Build and promote social media profiles for your business.
WEB 2.0 PROPERTIES AND YOUTUBE • You can place content on Web 2.0 sites like Squidoo and Weebly.• Upload videos to YouTube for another shot at a slot on page one of Google.
REVIEWS • Increase your positive reviews on sites like Google Places, Yelp and IYPs.
HOW DO YOU GET ALL THESE SITES TO RANK? • Content + Links! Provide great content and then build quality, relevant links to these properties until your business “owns page one” for any search of your business name or brand. [Read “Backlinks are Like References”]
EXAMPLE • Check out this search for Southwest Airlines.• Their own properties are ranking – including their blog.• Their social media profiles are ranking.• Some Web 2.0 properties are ranking.• Even their iPhone app is ranking.• They “own page one” for their name.
STEP BY STEP • Make sure you have ten to twelve online properties that you can optimize for page one. These can be websites, blogs, web 2.0 properties, social media profiles – even third party profile pages or positive articles about your business.• Optimize the sites you control by doing onsite SEO.• Create great content.• Build links.
ABOUT DAVID MCBEE • David McBee writes the blog, “Let’s Translate. Making Sense Out of Internet Gobbledygook” where he writes educational articles about abstract and complex internet marketing ideas using analogies that anyone can understand.• Some of David’s favorite topics: • Search Engine Optimization • Link Building • Sponsored Links Management • Infographics • Social Media • And more.• “Like” David at www.facebook.com/davidknowssearch or visit DavidMcBe.com.
For me I would rather rank different social media profiles of a company than making a lot of websites.
I agree that there’s certainly a lot of value in getting your social media profiles to rank. But I recommend caution because you don’t technically “own” those profiles. Facebook or Twitter or whoever can make changes that Google doesn’t like and you could lose ranking through no action of your own.