May 10th, 2010 by Nick

In the ‘real world’, reputation is somewhat dependent on the associates an individual or group possesses. It is of course related to what they do. Imagine a group of timeshare salespeople in the Costa del Sol. Their reputation might not be great, but it will be adversely affected in a serious manner only if it becomes known that they are socialising with individuals in money laundering circles. What is true in Spain is equally the case in cyberspace.

A site which is poorly designed and hard to navigate around is not going to enjoy a positive reputation. Negative perceptions of it may be reinforced if its contents are inaccurate, poorly written and uninformative. Unless professional SEO services are accessed, the site may be headed down the search engine results pages. As the site may be having a detrimental influence on how the firm is viewed and fewer visitors are frequenting it in the first place, online business disaster may be just around the corner.

It can be very tricky indeed to rectify such an unpromising situation. It is very unlikely that an inexperienced firm can turn things around without external assistance. Nevertheless, if high quality SEO services are contacted, a gradual transformation of fortunes may be possible. However, it is useful for a firm to know some of the basics so that it can make a contribution to an image-changing campaign.

For example, link building strategies must be selected properly and monitored carefully if they are to have a positive effect on the online reputation of a firm. Not only does inappropriate link acquisition incur the risk of a search engine penalty, but it also means that a site can be linked with sites with a negative reputation. SEO Link building strategies which provide incentives for the wrong type of site to make a link are fundamentally flawed. Mass link buying is a strategy which can only deliver unsustainable short-lived success. Indeed, if the site has not been made fit for purpose, getting extra substandard links to it may do it no good even in the short term.

It seems that the best approach is to deliver improvements to the site which will make other sites regard it in quite a different light. As well as the implementation of site-appropriate elements of a comprehensive SEO campaign by an experienced consultant, it is a great idea to ensure that reputation-boosting tactics are put securely in place. These can include such things as listing ‘real world’ contact details, revealing certain details in an ‘about us’ section (possibly complete with a flattering photograph), publicising any industry-relevant qualifications held by team members or mentioning any affiliations to professional bodies. This kind of approach can start to obtain the trust of consumers and lead to the gradual improvement in the site’s reputation.

More and more people are willing to make financial transactions online, but their trust does not extend to everyone. Therefore internet reputation management is an imperative. It has to include some consideration of the sites that are linked to a site, because that is one way in which reputation is formed.

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