Many journalists supplement their offline media careers by providing content for internet sites. However this does not mean that they understand how search engine optimization works, when providing copy to clients. Often, it is better to use SEO companies who also offer web building and search engine reputation management help to e-Commerce sites.

Much of the writing seen on the internet is of low value. It is keyword stuffed and full of errors. Many of the articles are openly plagiarised from other sites, then respun using commercial or online software. The result is often barely readable – but to the site owners, this doesn’t matter. All they’re interested in is getting up the page rankings. Luckily, this is becoming rarer, thanks to internet features like Google’s PageRank. Today, the search engines put great score on site trustworthiness. The browsing public, too, are less likely to open links in sites that are obviously not interested in giving them valuable information about a product, so such sites quickly drift off the SEO radar.

Quite often, the sites themselves are trustworthy, but are built and furnished by unqualified webmasters who are content to buy sub-standard content – often from bidding freelance sites where amateur writers are paid a pittance to submit plagiarised and poorly rewritten articles. Writers’ CVs are usually backed by dubious “testimonials” from non-existent “satisfied customers”, and rarely include any genuine quality examples of their own work. This is why new site owners are best off going to a search engine optimisation company. Often, the first advice they’re given is, “Sack your copywriter!” swiftly followed by the suggestion that they spend a bit more, to find someone who can do the job properly.

Luckily, there are plenty of well-qualified SEO companies around, working both on and offline, who can provide quality web copy that will enhance your internet reputation management. These companies certainly understand the concepts of SEO and can combine them with writing skills. Whether it’s a magazine or an eZine, the aim is to provide quality content, and ensure that the public is easily able to access it.

Social media marketing plays a large part in controlling the quality of Google listings. News sites like the BBC and Sky get a large amount of traffic from Google, so news content on other sites must get there first. If you intend to use social news sites like Digg as part of your SEO link building strategy, employing the services of a news journalist to write your copy will be a great help.

Often, new websites are installed by successful “bricks and mortar” companies, who may well have successful trade magazines or newsletters. To maintain continuity across the two genres, and to build a strong online reputation management plan, those newsletters can be embedded on the website. They can also be used for search engine optimization purposes, although generally this will involve altering the headlines and initial and final paragraphs. This is usually the job of an SEO sub-editor rather than the writer or site owner – another reason why employing the services of an SEO company is a good idea.

Search engine optimisation services generally try to get search engines to index as much of their clients’ sites as possible, to facilitate SEO link building and thus increase revenue. However, there are times when they have to do the opposite. A search engine optimisation company also doubles as an internet reputation management firm, after all.

If, for example, your site has attracted spammers or other malicious links, the URL needs to be taken down as soon as possible, while repairs are done and the links reconfigured. Another common reason is that a site or page has simply become outdated, and people linking to it are finding it detrimental to their searches. This can do untold damage to your online reputation management strategy, especially if you have clean links to another site bearing your name.

Google Webmaster Tools is one of those SEO tools that many SEO companies can’t do without. However, it can only be used for Google. It can be used to block an entire website, a single directory or even a single page. So long as the URL is indexed, you can use Google Webmaster Tools to remove it, and it has the benefit of being reversible. Robots.txt is another tool which tells Google not to crawl certain sites or pages. However, even if you block parts of your site with this command, they can still be referenced in the index.

Alternatively, a URL can be manipulated so it drops off the search engine radar until the problem is fixed. There are several ways an SEO company can do this. For example, they can use .htaccess. This is a way to password-protect content that you don’t want the search engines to index. This is a powerful tool, as it indicates to the search engines exactly who is allowed to access the content on specific directory files, thus protecting the content inside.

Another method is not allowing site linking from the page that’s opened. However, it’s not totally foolproof, as someone who opens that page link may then go to another page which lists the referral page. This will create a link that the search engines could follow.

A preferable option would be to use ‘No Index’, a piece of code that supposedly blocks all references to the URL in the search index. However, it is only foolproof on Google; Yahoo! and Bing will still show the reference. Nofollow is an alternative, but time intensive method of removing a page reference from an index. It’s ineffectual unless you are prepared to put a nofollow insertion on every path leading to that page.

Most of us have come across 301 redirects, even if we haven’t implemented them ourselves. A 301 redirect command is a permanent way of removing a defunct URL from the index, replacing it with a new one. It is doubly useful as Google PageRank is automatically transferred from the old URL to the new one, meaning your search engine optimization program doesn’t have to be restarted from scratch.

Internet reputation management is all about having a positive presence on the web. A site doesn’t always have to have a negative review or bad blog report to fall in the search engine rankings. It can fail due to being on the wrong directory.

Many companies offering SEO services persuade their clients to list their sites on large directories – the most prolific being Dmoz, otherwise known as the Open Directory Project. This is an open content directory, meaning anyone can take the content and use it for their own purpose.

While this has the potential of raising the profile of your site via link building (Google uses a large amount of ODP data) there is much concern among online reputation management professionals that listed sites are in danger of being spammed or even blacklisted. In the past, allegations were raised that volunteer editors were simply using the site to improve the rankings of their own websites, while lowering the online reputation of their competitors.

While staff have the power to take action against those abusing the system, many users feel the site is still far from transparent. At its inception, it was accused of being set up as a commercial enterprise, a complaint still raised on SEO forums today. It is still run by a hierarchy of editorial staff, who make decisions behind closed doors.

With the best will in the world, the average site owner is unlikely to get much traffic from Dmoz directly, there are simply too many other sites in competition on the category pages. In addition, although each site is only supposed to have one listing, in one category, some have hundreds. Topix.com, a news aggregation site founded by Rich Skrenta, has over 10,000 listings. Interestingly, Skrenta was also the founder of ODP. It certainly proves the usefulness of the site from a social media marketing angle, just don’t expect much in the way of SEO.

A much better idea for search engine optimization is to get listings on vertical directories. Generally operated under a closed-content policy (meaning site content is protected) these directories provide in-depth content on a niche area of the market. This could be, for example, pet products, home improvement firms, travel or estate agents. There are also local directories, which provide categorised listings for companies within a localised area. These are very useful for “clicks-and-mortar” firms. An obvious example would be Thomsonlocal.com.

Search engine optimization services have found that vertical directories play a dual role in SEO: they provide search engines with content in response to localised enquiries, and they offer a platform for PTC (pay-to-search) advertising for smaller businesses.

Also known as PPC, or pay-per-click advertising, this is a popular way to avoid the uncertainties of search engine optimization. However, many owners have given up on schemes like Google Adwords, finding they get a better ROI (return on investment) with social media marketing tools. PPC advertising in vertical directories has gone some way to reversing this trend, especially since verticals have begun adopting the search engine model.

Also known as online reputation management, SERM is usually offered under the umbrella of search engine optimisation services. As with SEO, it uses a number of tools, one of which is online directories.

A negative search engine listing can do untold damage to a company’s reputation, so an SEO company offering SERM will usually look at why your site got a negative listing, before looking at ways of getting that listing changed or taken down. Unless there’s a clear-cut case of libel this isn’t always possible, so it’s usually quicker and easier to look at ways of repairing the damage instead.

The first thing an online reputation management company will do is look for positive search engine reputation listings, i.e. those that show you and your company in a good light. They will then work on placing those results higher, and displacing the negative listings to the second page of the search or beyond. Most browsers don’t go beyond page one when searching for information. This is where directory listings come into focus.

A large number of e-Commerce websites have listings in directories like Business.com, Yahoo or the Open Directory Project (Dmoz). An internet directory is simply a list of websites organised in categories to make searches easier. The problem is that each site is mixed in with hundreds, perhaps thousands of others. Also, unless the directory is a very specialised one, the page title will be the name of the category. The HTML of a page is one of the strongest elements in search engine optimization, making the listing basically useless. To improve its online reputation, what a site will need is a page of its own, with a title that SEO services can have some kind of influence on.

As a rule you won’t be able to use keywords for the title of your page (unless your company name is a keyphrase, of course). The leading directories have an internet reputation management strategy of their own, and won’t want to compromise this. Instead, you’ll generally be offered a listing under your company name. In the case of a sole trader this may be your legal name, or the DBA (Doing Business As) alternative, i.e. your trading name.

At this point, a search engine optimization company will look very carefully at the niche their client is in, and look for vertical directories covering that specific area. A vertical directory is one that provides in-depth listings for a niche category, rather than thousands of non-specific listings. As a comparison, Dmoz is an open-content site with a high incidence of spamming and favouritism among editors. Although it is widely used by e-Commerce sites, often the first advice internet reputation management firms offer them is to get the listing taken down.

Vertical directories are very useful. They don’t have to be tied to an exact area of expertise. For example, if the company has a physical as well as virtual presence, an online reputation management company may suggest a local directory listing to improve SEO rankings.

Internet reputation management is important to all those who conduct business online. We all get hurt when someone says something about us that we know is unfair or untrue. Online, it’s a thousand times worse, because those doing the damage can hide behind a cloak of anonymity.

Everybody cares about their reputation, whether it’s from a personal or a business point of view. But whereas we can challenge a disgruntled customer or lying competitor, it’s not so easy when the attack is online by someone at an undisclosed address. It goes far beyond how others perceive you personally. An online attack can damage brand or corporate perception, and even lose you a contract.

In these days of libel suits and suing for damaged feelings, people have the mistaken image that unethical business practices are over. But they’re not; they’ve just moved underground – to the internet. There, you will find plenty of examples of unethical practice, mis-sold goods – and companies using underhand tactics to “bad mouth” their competitors in an effort to move further up the Google rankings. Those who know their product or services to be above reproach are not beyond being used in this way – in fact, they’re the ones most likely to become victims, because they pose the greatest threat.

Online reputation management should be of interest to all CEOs, whether their business is online or bricks-and-mortar based. People equate a CEO with their company image – to them, they are one and the same. People use the internet to catch up on news, and if they develop negative perceptions about a company leader, it will reflect badly on the brand or organisation. Blogs, social networking pages and social news pages can all be targets – so it pays to look yourself up now and then, and check nothing bad has been said in your absence.

However, online it’s more likely to be the reputation of the company or brand that is called into question. After all, that is what people are usually searching for. If a negative result or low degree of satisfaction is thrown up in a search query related to your site, the consumer will generally go elsewhere. This is true of both brands and companies.

Often, reputations are damaged on blogs or discussion boards, in the form of flaming. A flame war develops when an internet “troll” denigrates a person or a product online, in order to generate a response. Often, they have no knowledge or interest in the product they are lashing. It’s the virtual equivalent of starting a punch-up in a pub with a complete stranger. Such flaming was very damaging to PayPal a while back – so don’t underestimate the damage it could do to your own trade.

Reputation management can be undertaken individually. However, there are a growing number of companies who will undertake the task on your behalf. They use search engine reputation management and media analysis tools to scan for possible problems. If your company has taken a sudden, unexplained dip in sales, it’s well worth considering.

Online reputation management is ideal for companies who wish to handle feedback from clients and essential if you want to build trust and authority with both search engines and your human users and customers.

As businesses evolve the path to success rarely runs smoothly and receiving negative comments at some point is likely. Firms work hard to ensure that their websites are ranked in search engines’ top spot to get them noticed by as many potential customers as possible. However, poor commentary relating to companies may also accompany positive feedback on pages with a high ranking.

There are steps that can be taken to limit the possible damage that may be caused by those views that could affect the status of businesses concerned. In order to maintain a positive internet profile, internet reputation management companies can begin monitoring the web from the moment websites are launched. This ensures that negative views are caught early, which gives firms time to respond accordingly.

A common way of looking for disparaging comments is to perform searches on brand names. This will call up pages where feedback can be located. Likewise, product, company and individuals’ names may be entered into search engines to see if these pages are connected to disparaging remarks. Obviously search engine optimization can be something of a double-edged sword if you don’t take things like this into account and act when you should.

As well as investigating whether certain brands have attracted poor commentary, internet reputation management experts also tend to see if any keywords favoured by their clients are linked with negative views. This is to rule out the potential knock-on effects that may occur to a firm’s online status if it is connected with SEO keywords that generate unconstructive opinions. Following standard searches, other web locations may be checked by specialists dedicated to boosting the profile of businesses.

For example, news sites, blogs and forums are often scanned to ensure they are free from negative commentary. Although monitoring media is a useful online reputation management tool, there are further techniques to limit the impact of poor feedback that has managed to appear on highly ranked pages. A popular way of doing this is to increase the off page links embedded in other sites so those publishing the views may be ranked lower and are effectively diluted.

This has the advantage that it increases the online presence of the firms concerned. This process may be taken over a series of weeks and months and concentrates on link building. At the beginning of a campaign of this nature, internet reputation management companies may suggest to their clients that they start a blog or press release project, which will include links to encourage web visitors to click through to the main internet portal.

Over time this is likely to build up, with firms advised to upload new material regularly to the blog. In addition, the creation and upkeep of social networking sites will prove advantageous, while article writing schemes – where content is shared with many other sites -  is also beneficial. Affiliating with other groups and portals connected with similar industry sectors is a further technique that is linked with effective online reputation management.

As these additional web pages supply ever increasing backlinks to websites, so those featuring negative commentary may not be placed so highly or are counteracted by the large number of positive views published on the newer sites. A good SEO company will include reputation management aspects into bespoke campaigns that suit your business and requirements.

For most owners of websites, online reputation management does not have to be a huge issue. However, with the increasing opportunities for user-generated content, including with social media and blogging, the risk of negative posts and comments appearing high up in the search engine rankings or even above-the-fold has increased.

Unfortunately, these negative comments can be made with little in the way of justification or evidence to support them. There has been a worrying growth in the number of inflammatory or ‘flame’ websites and weblogs which consumers or even in some cases competitors have launched.

This means that search engine reputation management is more important now than ever, to shield brands or reputations from potentially damaging content which search engine queries have brought to light.

Sadly, research has shown that that if a company website has a negative result directly below its search engine entry, up to 70% of web users will go to the negative result first, rather than the company’s official website.

The first step in online reputation management is, of course, to ask for the offensive or negative to be removed. If that doesn’t work, there are plenty of other things you can try. You can bump up existing pages with positive or neutral comments, create new content through articles or blogs, or add new sister or sub-domains.

Because search engines are changing and updating their results so often, results need constant monitoring, and this is where a good search engine optimization company can prove their worth.

How We Help

At Search Engine Optimization, we’re experts in SEO and online and search engine reputation management. We aim to get our clients the best possible results in the shortest possible time. That means front page listings for the major search engines for your chosen search terms. All our clients have their own dedicated account manager, and a 24-hour online reporting system, so clients can see work as it is finished.

You’ll also have access to monthly ranking reports so you can track progress accurately.

There are three levels of SEO services which we provide, gold, platinum and diamond. The gold service starts at just £1,500 and can provide you with the results you want in a month.

The diamond service, costing £3750, includes a very broad range of on and off page SEO services, and blog integration. With this programme, we promise results within three months. And, as with the other programmes, you only pay once we have achieved the agreed results for you.

We can help with online reputation management by monitoring your search engine results closely, and by discussing a plan of action of there is any negative content.

But don’t just take our word for it, read some online testimonials from our clients who have been delighted with our SEO services, including search engine reputation management.

Why not ask for a free analysis of your website now, so that we can start to show you where your site’s performance could be improved.