In today's digital consumption-oriented society, one negative article, news story or customer review can kill your business. We often see these types of content surface to the top results of search engines and wipe out a company's growth. Once the public is focused on a specific search term for a product, company, name of an owner, or CEO, you better hope there's no dirt on those results. If people find this ugly information online, forget it, that lead, customer or fan, has been lost forever! Whether you're a celebrity, athlete, local shop, consultant or just an average person, you're exposed to online reputation damage. DUIs, court cases, lawsuits, compromising pictures, horrible business reviews, you name it, all this digital dirt has your personal or business name on it and all your potential clients are watching it, the damage to your livelihood can be massive.
In order to get your new content recognized, trusted and ranked, the needed authority to overtake the dirt that is already there, we need an effective reputation management strategy. Following the basic steps we follow in order to control search term results for any name, company or product.
Orange Snowman will help you identify the key search terms that need to be silenced, muted or eliminate In order to get a clear idea of the efforts that need to be part of an online reputation management campaign. What we know is that press on trusted news sites, government sites or popular blogs or review sites can be extremely tough to outrank, but we do this every day, so it’s just a matter of assessing the damage, formulating a strategy and taking action.
To clean up your online reputation we need a proactive, aggressive approach for cleansing and controlling search engine results. But here's the big challenge, most of this content can't be removed from the internet. Why? Because you can't control the websites this ugly, dirty, information is on. However, we can make this information difficult, or nearly impossible to be found by anyone searching your name, company or your product. Once your reputation has been stained there are no easy solutions. There's work to be done, but do not worry, we are going show you how this can be achieved.
A few bad reviews are nothing to worry about, everyone knows that if you are in business long enough this will happen, so don’t panic. However, we strongly suggest you adapt to your policy the following suggestions.
Are you an attorney getting bad reviews because you are not taking on some cases, look at your marketing messages, perhaps you need to include words like “call to see if you qualify”, “get a free assessment of your case”. Maybe the leads you are attracting have a sense of entitlement due to the words used in your marketing efforts.
If a customer has had a bad experience, reach out to them, it is likely that what occurred was a misunderstanding that can easily be resolved offline. Let the customer know their reviews matter and that you sincerely care about what they think. Don’t worry about a few bad reviews, that is normal and expected.
respond to theft, racist, sexual harassment or defamatory remarks with extreme care. Try not to be combative, be polite, keep your composure and stick to the facts. Understand that your angry reviewer is looking to create as much drama and publicity as possible and yours is the opposite.