It is amazing how much trouble unguarded comments can cause for a firm. Some examples, too embarrassing to repeat, have entered into corporate folklore. Reputation management has always been in part about preventing mistakes of this type. In addition, it has frequently been necessary to minimise any damage which has resulted from clumsiness. The advent and evolution of the net has made reputation management of this type more complicated.

At Searchengineoptimization.co.uk we are experts at online reputation management. This means that we are in a good position to assist firms with a need for this kind of provision. Outsourcing internet reputation management makes commercial sense because it is a specialist activity that demands expertise and experience in equal measure.

The modern problem with irresponsible comments is more difficult than it used to be because of the growth in the popularity of the social media networking sites. Individuals often use them in a personal and a corporate capacity and there is a lot of scope for error. It is also the case that comments made on such media can easily be misinterpreted as there is no potential for attitude to be conveyed by tone of voice.

Internet reputation management is also tricky because of several other tendencies:

• Journalists tend to use the social media to do their research. Any ill-judged comment may well end up being picked up and circulated on the local traditional media. If something is offensive, revealing or embarrassing, then it may be felt that it is appropriate to include it in a news item on the radio or in a paper, for example. It is also the case that a user may write to their local paper about the remark
• The social media allows information to circulate around it in a haphazard fashion. A remark could be taken out of context and it might be then passed around the social media. For instance, it could well be tweeted about and retweeted by individuals who are barely thinking about their motivations or the consequences of their actions
• There are bloggers out there who give little thought to accuracy. They vent their opinions on everything and nothing. If a member of a firm makes an injudicious remark a blogger who may have a grudge against the firm could well do something about in and use it as content. This may mean that a slanted version of events ends up in the search engine results pages doing a lot of damage to the firm’s image in the process

It may be thought that litigation could be the answer. However, whether the comment has been interpreted fairly or not, it could well be the case that legal action only creates additional difficulties in terms of generating negative publicity. Therefore it is always best to place the emphasis on preparation and on dealing with any issues with the minimum of fuss.

It can be shrewd to inform employees that they must be responsible on the social media. However, implementing an optimization campaign is also a good insurance policy to pursue alongside this.

Ever considered the impact images on your website can have? Most companies would think of images only at the web design stage of their site, not afterwards. This can be a mistake, as images can have a big impact on your business image in terms of your online reputation.

Picture this. A customer interested in your star product runs an image search. Because you’ve ignored your image optimisation, the first set of images that appear consists of a couple of pictures taken at home by an amateur reviewer and the usual hodgepodge of slightly related images Google throws together. Your beautiful product photos are nowhere to be seen, and as a consequence, the customer is put off the product.

Image optimisation isn’t too difficult to add to your search engine optimisation plan. All it takes is a little thought about file names and sizes, and the usual application of keywords. If you really want your images to travel, it’s wise to think off-page as well.

As your SEO company can tell you, images have an influence on your website optimization as well, although this relates mainly to the way they’re captioned. Placing keywords in images can be a good way to increase your page’s keyword relevance, and you can discuss this with us at SearchEngineOptimization.co.uk.

Images shouldn’t be simply placed on your pages and forgotten about. They are a valuable internet asset and should be taken into consideration in your SEO plans. Consider your images when you’re thinking about search engine reputation management.

If you want your listing in the search engine results to catch the eye, you need to make full use of every tool at your disposal. Now that SEO has become so widespread, with most businesses at least dabbling in website optimization, it’s getting harder to stand out. Of course, the best path to being noticed is to ensure your page is the best match for the search query, but there are other ways as well. One of them is paying attention to social factors.

There are quite a few social signals being factored into search engine results these days. It’s been creeping up gradually but steadily. With confirmation coming from the search engines and from independent studies in various countries, it’s time for every site owner to take these social signals into account, both for website optimization and for online reputation management.

Here are just a few of the signals to consider, and you can talk to our team at SearchEngineOptimization.co.uk further on this topic:

*Reviews: A basic. Encourage users to review to boost your local listing.

*+1 and other Google log-on features: Although these require the viewer to be logged into a Google account, they’re still valuable. Each is an easy way to attract attention to your listing. Promote +1 clicks and other Google features on your pages.

*Author tags: The recent introduction of the rel=author tag should be a boon to any site owner concentrating on content, yet few are making use of the opportunity. Start promoting yourself as an author and your site will benefit.

If you’re at all concerned about online reputation management, potential brand leeches should be on your radar. These are the group of competitors that are willing to play dirty to get your customers, cashing in on typo traffic, registering similar domain names and other less-than-honourable moves. These brand leeches are willing and waiting to latch on. It’s important to have a plan in place to defend against them.

‘Defend’ is the word to stress here. Defensive reputation management helps prevent tricky situations. If your brand is likely to encounter brand leeches, defensive reputation management is a good addition to organic search engine optimization, and you can discuss this with us at SearchEngineOptimization.co.uk.

Some of the ways to protect your brand defensively include:

*Registering similar domain names. It’s important to note that these need to be made use of if you want to keep hold of them, in most jurisdictions. Alternative domains can be an opportunity to direct traffic to your main site.

*Control negative responses. This includes registering ‘[your business][negative word]‘ names, such as www.example-business-scam.com. This helps prevent brand leeches from sucking your reputation dry.

*Proliferate with positives. A great way to protect your reputation is to make sure everyone knows who you are. There’s a reason Google isn’t fighting with a company called Gooble. As a bonus, controlling as many spots in the top ten search results helps bury negative responses.

These steps may seem a little excessive, but they are necessary for engaging in a thorough campaign of defensive search engine reputation management.

It is the case that a firm can take legal action against individuals who make defamatory comments about their goods and/or services. However, sometimes taking legal action can create greater publicity than a firm desires. Sometimes taking legal action can actually make some members of the public sympathetic to the person who committed the alleged offence. It is often better to adopt a more measured approach. Nevertheless, the advent and evolution of the net means that most online firms should have systems in place to cope with ill-informed and unfair comment.

At Searchengineoptimization.co.uk we have the experience and expertise to devise and implement effective online reputation management strategies. This means that a client does not have to work so hard to ensure that appropriate responses are made to disgruntled customers or competitors who are concealing their identity online.

There are several features which internet reputation management should incorporate:

• Planning is an absolute must. Too many firms are caught off guard. This means that their responses to unfair comments or blog posts are frequently misjudged and disproportionate. Every firm should have an established complaints procedure, a research and monitoring operation and a process for reacting to negative reviews. In addition, it is wise to avoid trouble by using the best delivery services and so on

• Most firms should have a social media campaign to ensure that Facebook and Twitter and perhaps other social media networking sites have individuals who are friends or followers of the company. They will be more sceptical about inaccurate claims made about a company and may even speak up in the firm’s defence. A social media drive can mean that consumers have a much closer relationship with a firm than they would otherwise, and this can stimulate considerable loyalty

• It is a great idea for optimization to be employed to ensure that the upper rankings of the search engine results pages are colonised by positive or neutral or authoritative mentions of a SEO firm. If a blogger launches an unfair broadside against a firm, it may not then get as much visibility as would have otherwise been so. By reducing the visibility of the criticism online, it means that researchers, journalists and other bloggers are less likely to pick up on the ‘story’

• When it comes to responding, sometimes a dignified silence can be the order of the day. On other occasions, it may be necessary to answer the criticism. This should be done with a great deal of courtesy. A polite and minimalist response can be a good approach. However, sometimes an attack on the firm is so vigorous that a more detailed reply is required

• In those circumstances where a detailed response is needed there are several things which should be observed as well as good manners. No response should be excessively hurried. It is worth sorting out the facts and comments in the criticism. Errors of fact can be corrected. If some of the facts have substance it may be advisable to concede them as accurate and make an apology. Any reimbursement of funds should always be carried out as privately as possible.

Sometimes it is relatively easy to learn from an example of how not to do something. This is because ‘how to’ tips can become formulaic and hard to apply to differing contexts. Due to the complexity of online reputation management, mistakes are frequently made in this area. Even large firms have made blunders in what can be a delicate area for any online commercial operation. This means that close attention has to be paid the topic. In many cases, a SME does well to seek specialist assistance.

At Searchengineoptimization.com, we work very hard to ensure that our SEO campaigns are always in tune with the specific requirements of the sites of our various clients. In addition to this, we are experts in delivering high quality reputation management.

Reputation management can go wrong in a diversity of ways. However, some of these ways can be observed more frequently than others. A brief exploration of mistakes made by enterprises of all sizes exposes some common trends. The following list may be of some value:

• It is going to be difficult to cope with a difficult issue if there is no adequate preparation. From the outset of a campaign, clear targets should be set in at least three major areas. Firstly, the upper reaches of the search engine results pages for appropriate search terms must be colonised with positive content. This has to stop any bad publicity going near to the top of Google. Secondly, there must be effective social media campaigns to convince target audiences that the firm has good qualities. Thirdly, it is crucial to devise and maintain a suitable code of practice for dealing with complaints

• Mistakes are inevitable when there is an overreaction to a spot of bad publicity. The use of a specialist firm is recommended because they will have the impartiality with which to respond effectively. Any response simply has to be courteous and understated. Even if the grievance seems to be a petty or malicious one, keeping cool is vital

• Replies to complaints or poor reviews should be concise and to the point. Nobody who has complained wants to receive a meandering and uncertain answer. A reply should adhere closely to the facts of a case. This means that it should not be an aggressive rebuttal. It should merely point out a complaint’s factual inaccuracies in a mild manner

• Any offer of compensation for poor quality goods and/or services should be made in a private way. If free goods and/or services are given openly, it may encourage other individuals to come out of the woodwork

• Reputation management should work well with other internal components of a firm. For instance, specialist online activity can be coordinated with the work of a conventional PR office or department. It is important not to forget that a reputation management crisis can occur simultaneously online and offline. The virtual problem can fuse with a real one. This means that whoever is in charge has to direct a response with care.

SEO is not a science and some questions generate vigorous debates. There are sometimes differences of opinion between seasoned professionals. It is wise to recall that SEO is primarily a practical activity and the relative truth of positions in argument should never escape being tested. When it comes to reputation management, it seems apparent that it has become much more complicated with the advent and the evolution of the net. However, the development of the net has changed offline activities also, so it could be thought to be irrelevant whether or not online and offline action is more problematic. Indeed, we may be approaching a time when the distinction between virtual reality and ‘ordinary’ reality is outmoded.

At Searchengineoptimization.co.uk we pursue focused, flexible and tailored campaigns which benefit the prospects of our clients. This means that each site is treated as a unique entity. In addition to this, we are prepared to collaborate with PR departments to protect a firm’s image. Enhancement and protection of a firm’s online image can be carried out for those firms who lack a PR team.

It might be thought that acting to protect a firm’s image online was much harder to do than taking similar measures offline. This is because the net is massive and incredibly complex. There are so many different places in which a firm can incur a hit to its reputation. If an influential blogger is dissatisfied with a service which has been provided by a firm, the nature of the search world means that the firm could soon be feeling the negative reverberations. If content of a negative type is posted by a disgruntled blogger it could soon be being passed around the social networking sites and coming up high on the search engine results pages.

Fortunately, there are things which can be done to ensure that a firm does not incur a big hit due to a bad online review or because it has unwittingly upset a verbose online character in search of a virtual soap box. Running a well-crafted social media campaign can lead to the development of a following that are unlikely to pay too much heed to the ranting of one individual. Pursuing optimization conscientiously can create a situation where all the top spots for relevant searches on the search engine results pages are taken by positive mentions of a firm. Other online techniques of a more subtle type can be deployed to protect a firm in advance of any trouble. In addition, the response to any difficulty has to be cautious and measured.

When it comes to offline activity, it may be important to watch out for local media output. Any negative publicity which surfaces locally can be made worse if it spreads by the traditional media or via the new media. In these times of change, it should be remembered that investigative journalism and its content often finds its way from the real to the virtual. Hence it is perhaps wise to see reputation management as one massive thing which can be dealt with via coordinated preparation and appropriate response.

For the novice, internet reputation management is sometimes quite a difficult topic. It is hard enough to get an idea of how to maximise the benefits which you can obtain online, without understanding all the diverse ways in which things can go wrong. Problems can arise because firms do not understand the complexity of internet reputation management and these problems can be of a serious nature. Even firms which are large and have considerable numbers of skilled personnel sometimes make the most elementary errors in this area. The economic consequences can be significant. Some SMEs simply do not know the basic precautionary measures to take. It is therefore of use to go over some of the main things which can be implemented, before a problem has actually appeared.

At Searchengineoptimization.co.uk we are familiar with the ins and outs of internet reputation management. Through combining theory and practice, we are in a strong position to deliver an effective service to client firms of all sizes.

It is crucial to recognise the importance of being proactive. Keeping one or two steps ahead of the game is vital when taking care of reputation management issues. For example, it can be a shrewd move to dominate the upper places of the search engine results pages for your keywords. This means that an SEO campaign should be pursued with vigour. Dominating the upper reaches of the search engine result pages in this manner means that negative publicity might never come into the top few positions. In other words, positive aspects of your firm will be highlighted and negative commentary may be made less visible. Keeping your critics from becoming too powerful can only be achieved if you do not respond in an exaggerated way to any complaints.

Another technique which can help ensure that your reputation management is conducted from a position of strength is soliciting reviews. If you can get your products and/or services reviewed in suitable online spaces, your brand will be in a strong place from which to endure a potential setback. There is no point in faking positive reviews; fake reviews are detected on a frequent basis. The aim should be to obtain a mixture of generally positive reviews. A poor review should never cause panic. Some of the finest restaurants in the world, for example, have easily survived a very negative review and there is simply no accounting for taste. A poor review can be responded to with courtesy in an apologetic tone, while any factual errors in the review may be mentioned. Submissions to appropriate directories may be listed in the same list as getting reviews.

Another major reputation management technique is to push for the status of an authority in your sector. For example, the reputation of a firm is harder to damage online if its presence has been noted in a favourable way. This means that tactics like guest blogging, blogging and using the new social media with care can come into their own. Hosting a high quality blog on your site and receiving and responding to comments can be central to the establishment of an impressive reputation.

Reputation is of considerable importance in the world of commerce. Even massive multinational corporations have struggled with reputation management from time to time. The advent of the net and the emergence of the new social networking sites have made it even harder to maintain a positive image. Small online SMEs are obliged to consider their image and are compelled to monitor what is being written about them. Internet reputation management should not be conducted by people deficient in either expertise or experience. Concrete and business-specific plans have to be implemented by specialised firms in order to minimise risk.

At Searchengineoptimization.co.uk we are able to focus on monitoring what is going on in the social networking world. This focus means that we have the capacity to respond appropriately to any issues which may periodically arise. Not every SEO company has the dedication to perform this subtle task adequately.

While it is often effective SEO to encourage customer feedback, a few bad online reviews can have a negative impact on your business. A recent case of a historian giving anonymous and unfairly negative reviews to a rival’s work on Amazon highlights the type of difficulties that can occur. In the past, a customer who was unsatisfied with your service might have moaned to some of their friends, but now they can blog spitefully about you as well and leave their complaint associated with the keywords on your site. Nevertheless, a negative review is not a reason to panic. If you have come up with a flexible reputation maintenance plan, you will be well prepared for this kind of unfortunate eventuality.

A flexible reputation maintenance plan should not be too prescriptive. It should be tailored to the values of your firm and the features of your site. It should normally embrace a few important core principles. The first principle is that an overreaction can be the least appropriate response. If a response is excessive, it demonstrates a lack of confidence in the goods and/or services that you provide. Furthermore, it can lead to the complaint or negative comment receiving additional publicity. Drawing extra attention to the issue is obviously counterproductive in PR terms. The second principle is that you should courteously respond to criticism directed at you in a brief and factually accurate manner. Ignoring complaints can sometimes get you into a great deal of trouble. How much trouble this might prove to be is in part related to the third principle in our list.

Assessing the gravity of the threat posed by the negative comments is crucial and will obviously condition the nature of your response. If the complaint is being raised by a prolific blogger or a well known journalist, try to swiftly placate them by whatever means necessary. If Mr or Ms Disgruntled is an average person of no unusual prominence, treat the complaint with the utmost professionalism but do not depart from ordinary practices. Failure to respond to direct complaints can lead to escalations and the arrival of other unwanted parties on the scene.

With the internet being one of the main sources for news stories and public opinion, managing your internet reputation has never been more important. In a world where people believe a lot of what they hear, and comments and stories can be distributed across the world at record speed, there has never been a better time to get on top of your internet reputation management. Most people understand the basics of managing your online reputation, however a basic knowledge can cause silly mistakes and areas of neglect, so identifying areas where you could be going wrong is the key to ensuring your positive reputation stays intact.

Negative press online differs for a company as it perhaps would in other instances. Consider a celebrity, who is constantly in the press, being the victim of many a false accusation. More often than not, you will hear these celebrities stating how they simply ignore any press features, taking the approach that out of sight is out of mind. Whilst this approach may work for celebrities, ignoring your online negativity will do more damage than good.

When it comes to blatant slander or criticism, most companies will know that the best thing to do is respond to it as quickly as possible. That being said, responding is not enough, and the way in which you do this needs to be considered carefully. Let us take an example of a negative comment on a blog page. The responsive stance which you take on this should be treated in the same way you would treat a positive comment, with a constructive and concise answer. Never let your emotions get involved, and under no circumstances should you respond in haste. If you look defensive and arrogant – or worst of all, threatening – then it is not going to do your online reputation any good at all.

Before responding, you should also be clear about what you want to say. Sometimes a negative comment is not necessarily wrong, and the worst part about this is that the truth hurts. It can be all too easy to disagree with a negative comment out of pride, when in fact they have a valid point. Also, consider the beliefs and principles of your company or business, as you do not want to contradict yourself in any way. Ensure you have rational arguments and responses, and truly believe in what you are saying, because if you don’t, and somebody comes back to challenge you, then you will not be ready for them.

Lastly, try to stay out of trouble in the first place if you do not want negative coverage. Whilst there are a lot of cases of companies being wrongly accused and unfairly targeted, more often than not there is no smoke without fire. If you know that some of the content you post is controversial and will receive mixed opinions, then you cannot expect no backlash from this. If you want to stay positive, then do not provoke too many reactions from readers.