Reputation Management SEO: The Beginner’s Guide
What does reputation management have to do with SEO?
Search engine optimization (SEO) is primarily used to increase the amount of organic traffic your site receives.
However, the way your brand appears in search engines can do a lot to impact the amount of traffic your site receives.
In this post, we explain how to manage your reputation well enough to return positive search results for branded keywords.
What is reputation management SEO?
Reputation management SEO is the practice of improving your brand’s reputation well enough to the point where users only see positive results on search engine results pages (SERPs).
When users search for your brand in search engines, you want them to see positive reviews, your products and links to your content.
Negative reviews on Google, review sites and social media sites have the power to negatively impact brand reputation, which may make Google derank your site across the board.
As such, managing your online reputation by responding to all reviews and trying to resolve negative reviews becomes quite important.
How does reputation management benefit SEO?
When consumers discover new products or hear about new brands, some go straight to search engines like Google in search of online reviews and news articles.
If you actively work to increase your brand’s reputation, you increase the likelihood of only returning positive search results for your brand.
The work you do to improve your reputation increases your site’s authority over time, which will help you rank higher and higher in local search results as well as for keywords related to your niche.
Even if Google does rank your site for keywords, you may not see as much organic traffic or conversions from organic traffic if negative search results exist for your brand.
You shouldn’t discount personal brand reputation, either.
If one notable person that works with or for your brand has a negative reputation, your brand may have a negative reputation by association.
As such, managing your reputation online is quite important.
How SEO and brand reputation are related
A consumer can learn a lot about your business simply by searching for it on Google.
As you know, Google SERPs have much more than simple links to web pages these days.
They have Google reviews and snippets that show reviews from review sites like Yelp, TripAdvisor and TrustPilot. Even review scores from websites appear on Google as snippets.
Google is also more likely to rank Reddit posts higher in search results following a $60 million deal that involves Google paying Reddit for access to its library of human-based conversations to train its AI.
As such, Reddit posts for your brand are more likely to appear on the first page of Google, and if those posts are negative, they’ll be easy for consumers to access.
Google has also been promoting forums more and more since the helpful content update (HCU) hit the algorithm in September 2023, so even if those negative posts aren’t on Reddit, they may appear on the first page of Google, anyway.
News articles related to your brand may also appear in Google search results for branded keywords.
If you’ve been hit with negative press lately, potential customers will find out about it.
Finally, if you own physical business locations customers can purchase goods and services from, you can expect to find Google reviews on SERPs as well.
How to improve SEO reputation management
Online reputation management is an involved process that may require a dedicated staff member or a few.
It involves monitoring your reputation online and actively taking steps to improve it while also mitigating backlash from negative reviews and press.
Here are the online reputation management methods we recommend using to improve reputation management SEO:
- Claim your business listings
- Monitor branded keywords
- Rank branded pages
- Address “fake news”
- Address mistakes
- Weed out spam
- Respond to positive reviews
- Respond to negative reviews
- Fill SERPs with positive PR
- Use an online reputation management service
Claim your business listings
This tip primarily concerns local businesses with physical locations customers can enter to purchase goods and services.
Search engine reputation management is much easier to do when you’re in control of pages consumers use to find and rate your business.
These pages are called business listings, and they exist in a variety of different locations. The most common are Google, Facebook and Yelp, but your industry may have additional listings.
The reason you need to claim these listings is because consumers can create them in order to review your business or “check in” at them. Google is also able to use information from business directories, such as the Yellow Pages, to create listings on its own platform.
No matter how your listings came to be, you should claim any that exist or create them on platforms that are relevant to your business and your niche if they don’t exist.
Make sure you correct any inaccuracies with these listings once you claim them, such as fixing incorrect phone numbers, addresses and business hours and removing irrelevant information.
Google reputation management is handled through Google Business Profile, so I recommend starting there.
Monitor branded keywords
Branded keywords are keywords consumers input into search engines to learn more about your business.
For Spotify, branded keywords include “spotify,” “spotify review,” “spotify pricing” and “spotify app.”
Branded keywords for a restaurant like Subway would include things like “subway menu” and “subway delivery.”
Use a keyword research tool to find a complete list of keywords users input into search engines to find out information for your business.
If you have a positive search reputation, inputting your brand name into search engines should only output informational and navigational results, such as your website, your social media profiles and your products.
Check SERPs for your branded keywords every so often to ensure they return positive results.
You can also set up alerts on Google.
Rank branded pages
Your branded keywords, at least the ones that don’t output results for user-generated content (UGC) as a keyword like “spotify review” does, should list pages you own at the highest positions.
These are the results for the first SERP for the keyword “spotify:”
- Spotify Web Player app – owned by Spotify and hosted on spotify.com
- Spotify Premium web page – owned by Spotify and hosted on spotify.com
- Spotify Web Player app – owned by Spotify and hosted on spotify.com
- Spotify app on Google Play – owned by Spotify but controlled and hosted by Google
- Spotify login page – owned by Spotify and hosted on spotify.com
- Spotify YouTube channel – owned by Spotify but controlled and hosted by YouTube (Google)
- Spotify Premium Family web page – owned by Spotify and hosted on spotify.com
You can see how the entire first SERP for this keyword is dominated by pages Spotify owns. Even if they don’t fully control them, they’re still able to change information on them and influence their content.
Ranking your own domain involves increasing your authority across your entire site. You should also increase your authority on social media sites and marketplaces you feature in.
Address false information, rumors and accusations
Any incorrect or inaccurate information you can’t edit yourself will need to be addressed in other ways.
If rumors are making the waves about your business, you or a member of your organization, don’t go about business as usual and hope the misinformation train will die down eventually.
Address misinformation head on by making press statements and by responding to popular social media content made about your brand.
You can even dedicate an entire page on your website to false accusations and misinformation.
Don’t be afraid to make light of them, either, especially if the accusations aren’t that serious in nature.
For example, rumors in mid-2024 claimed that Bruno Mars owed MGM $50 million for gambling debt he allegedly didn’t pay.
When Bruno Mars began performing a few months later following a hit song he released with Lady Gaga, he made light of the rumors in an on-stage skit in which he pretended to be on a phone call, saying:
“And ever since this article came out about me owing the casino money, you stopped taking my calls. It’s me, baby. I got money. I just put a song out last week. I’m poppin’ on TikTok right now. But still very classy, very mindful, very demure.”
@hooligan_24k Very classy very mindful very ✨Demure✨ 🤌🏽 #brunomars #demure #fyp ♬ original sound – L E N A
He even referenced a trending TikTok phrase at the end.
Address mistakes
The advice I have to offer for addressing mistakes is the same advice I offered for addressing rumors and false accusations: don’t shy away from your mistakes in hopes the discourse surrounding your brand will fade away. Address them head on!
In the press statements, blog posts, web pages and social media posts you make addressing these mistakes, explain exactly why you did what you did or why what happened happened.
If the mistake came from your business, find its root and get rid of it or improve it. Explain all of this in your statement.
What comes next is most important. You need to follow through on any claims you make about addressing your mistakes. Only then can you hope to win back the public’s trust in your brand.
Weed out spam
Removing reviews is not easy, even if they’re legitimately spam. Google, for instance, will only remove reviews that violate its guidelines.
Even so, spam can negatively impact your overall review score, so you should make an effort to remove them, anyway.
To remove a Google review, find the review, then report it or the user that posted it.
You can also report reviews on Facebook, Yelp, Tripadvisor and Trustpilot.
Again, most review platforms will only remove reviews that violate their content guidelines.
In the example we chose in the image above, the user changed their review from five stars to one star due to the claim that the business being reviewed does not allow their employees to unionize even though Google’s content guidelines state:
“Only post content that is based on your experience or questions about experiences at a specific location.
We don’t allow content which contains general, political, or social commentary or personal rants.”
Respond to positive reviews
Responding to positive reviews gives you the opportunity to show your customer how much you appreciate them.
This may increase the chances of a one-time customer becoming a repeat customer.
AI can help in responding to reviews these days, but be cautious about the way you respond to reviews.
Don’t use canned responses. Personalize each response by addressing the statements your customer makes in their review, and provide additional insights that give them a peek into the inner workings of your business.
Be sure to conclude your review by inviting them to come back. You can even slip in a product recommendation here.
Respond to negative reviews
You can ease the impact of a negative review by responding to it.
It may not encourage your customer to change their review, but it can provide additional context for potential customers who read through your reviews.
Just like before, own up to any mistakes you legitimately made, and apologize for them. Give a brief explanation on why they occurred, and let your customer know what you plan on doing to ensure they don’t occur again.
If your customer is lying, address their lies. Show proof, if you can.
Invite your customer to give your business another chance, especially if you’ve addressed the problem that caused the mistake in the first place and can guarantee that it won’t happen again.
Creative positive PR for your brand
All of this talk about review pages may be irrelevant to you if you don’t own any physical business locations, but there’s still a lot you can do to influence SERPs.
Along with improving search engine rankings for pages you own, you should create positive PR for your brand by hosting events, making large donations and collaborating with well-liked influencers.
This can do a lot to change what comes up when consumers input your branded keywords into search engines.
Consider using online reputation management services
Managing your online reputation well enough to improve SEO for your brand is difficult. Fortunately, online reputation management services do exist.
SEO reputation management services generate reviews for your brand and assist in monitoring your reputation as well as reviews your business receives.
Some even optimize business listings for you.
Conclusion
Managing your brand’s reputation online can impact how search engines view your content in search listings.
If you are a business selling products or services, you’d want potential customers to be able to see important pages in SERPs such as features, pricing etc. as well as seeing positive reviews and news.
Therefore, use these tactics to monitor and improve your SEO reputation management.
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