How SEO can be used to maintain your online reputation

When implemented and used correctly, search engine optimisation can be a great medium that can be used to build your online business reputation. With the speed at which technology and trends change online, building your online reputation and maintaining your digital footprint has become an integral part in our digitally driven lives today. Having a positive and good business reputation that outshines your competitors online is essential because most of the time, when people are in doubt, they turn to the search engines and other online properties looking for answers.

With more people getting socially active online and given the ability to discuss anything by being a citizen journalist, it has become an absolute necessity for businesses to gain control over their brand’s online reputation. Find below a couple of tips below on how you can use SEO in your online reputation management campaign.

Online reputation management and SEO

Social media: This is an excellent medium you can use to instantly help you populate your brand’s name on the social web with content that is completely controlled by your company. Even though you can’t control what people are talking about you on the social web, by having a solid social media strategy in place and engaging with your target audience on a regular basis can build a solid foundation for your brand on the social web.

Generating good and positive recommendations for your brand on top social media channels can have an impact on your SEO results as some of these social media channels are displayed directly on the search results. When someone searches for your brand name on Google, if you have a Facebook Business Page and if your business is listed on Google My Business, the reviews and recommendations you have received on these channels are displayed on the search results. The more positive reviews, the better.

Positive reviews: If you find an interesting review of your brand or a blog posts that advocates your services, ensure that you link to it from your website or your blog. Search for all the positive recommendations and reviews about your brand and give it the desired promotion that it needs.

Offsite user reviews on popular social media channels are extremely helpful in earning consumer trust and improving brand reliability. There are many free tools and more sophisticated brand monitoring tools that you can use to locate and link positive conversations that are happening about your brand.

Brand keywords: Direct brand searches can account for a lot of organic traffic, especially for consumers who are late in the buying funnel. Be sure to use your brand and company name as the keywords you target on various content sources such as your blog, social media profiles and on the content of what you are sharing online.

Content: You might have heard before that content is king, but with building your reputation with SEO, it’s vital to have a solid content marketing campaign in place. Don’t just create content for the sake of content. Focus on only creating “magnetic content” in everything you do online. This type of content is specific content geared towards your target audience that is relevant, unique and interesting. It also has the ability to be shared online giving your content and brand name wings and more reach.

How trustworthy are you online?

As more brands are starting with hardcore SEO and social media campaigns to market their services and products, building and protecting your reputation online is not a nice to have anymore, but a must have. Given the fact that everyone has the ability to post anything online no matter where they are, be sure that you are in the driving seat of your digital footprint.