What is Search Engine Reputation Management?
Search Engine Reputation Management (SERM) is an essential component of online business success. It involves monitoring and actively influencing the public perception of a company on the internet. Its ultimate goal is to effectively handle negative search results and feedback concerning the business. By monitoring the company’s presence online and undertaking appropriate measures, SERM can drastically improve an organization’s reputation and attract potential customers. In this way, it could become a fundamental component of success for businesses operating in the digital age.
Search engine reputation management (SERM) gives businesses and websites the opportunity to monitor activities that can affect their public image, both positively and negatively. This includes optimizing Search Engine Results, Paid Search Advertising, Press Release Optimization, Blogging, and Social Media Marketing. By taking advantage of all of these methods, companies can manage and maintain their reputation.
Why is SERM important?
94% of people are swayed by a negative review they find about your business, so it’s imperative to monitor and manage your online reputation. Your market value is directly connected to your reputation, and people are increasingly relying on reviews when choosing with whom to do business. Online reviews can have a profound influence on modern consumers, which is why it’s necessary to stay on top of your online presence.
Search Engine Reputation Management in Sioux Falls (South Dakota)
Our team of professionals possess the expertise to analyze and maintain your digital reputation. It is essential for your business to be mindful of your online presence, as neglecting it could prove detrimental. Therefore, create a strategy to ensure that you are always in command.
How does SERM Work?
Once a brand has faced reputation issues, the next step is restoring their online profile. At our company, we help brands influence a positive view of their brand through online reputation strategies. We use search engine reputation management (SERM) to manipulate the public reputation in a positive direction. SERM combines SEO, social media, and content marketing plus PR to enhance the overall online reputation of the brand. We take the following steps:
- Implement strategic content marketing and promotion on the website and various social media platforms.
- Enhance SEO tactics to encourage visibility of positive content.
- Eliminate any negative posts or content with negative sentiment.
1.- Proactive Monitoring
Proactive Monitoring is key to protecting and improving your reputation online. Search across a range of online channels, such as search engines, blogs and review platforms, to stay up to date with how you’re seen by your customers. Being active in these online conversations means you can address queries, answer complaints and handle feedback before it has a chance to turn negative. This will help build your company’s reputation on the Web.
2.- SERP Cleansing
SERP Cleansing is the practice of removing negative search engine results from the top pages. To optimize the top ten search results for your business, create new, impactful content such as customer reviews, media coverage, guest posts and other positive content about your company. Aggressively publishing this type of content can have a huge impact on your search engine results.
3.- Improve SEO
To improve SEO:
- Use relevant keywords and phrases
- Update content regularly to keep search engines active
- Link webpages together
- Optimize page loading speed
- Keep titles and meta-descriptions concise and accurate
To optimize SEO, it’s important to use relevant keywords and phrases, update content regularly to inform search engines, link webpages together, optimize page loading speed for a better user experience, and create concise and accurate titles and meta-descriptions. Doing so will help to improve rankings of relevant sites and reduce the effect of negative content.
4.- Respond to Negative Content
Make sure your organization stays on top of customer feedback and is prepared to respond to negative content as quickly as possible. When doing so:
- Reach out and contact the customer. Let them know you heard their feedback and are taking steps to address it.
- Apologize for any negative experience they may have encountered.
- Ask specific questions about their experience, allowing them to explain the issue in detail.
To effectively respond to negative content, be sure your organization is proactively monitoring customer feedback. Reach out to unsatisfied customers and apologize for their negative experience. Ask specific questions so they can fully explain the issue at hand, and then take action to remedy the situation. Doing this will ensure the customer feels heard and their needs are being addressed, improving brand loyalty and future interactions.
5.- Social Media Presence
Social media is an invaluable tool for cultivating an audience, authority and trustworthiness. It provides a great platform for interacting with current and potential customers, while also boosting your SERP rankings. The more engagement that occurs on social media, the higher esteem you are held in by search engines. The positive views and comments about your business or brand directly affect SERPs and improve your online profile.
6.- Push Positive Content
Social media has the potential to be a powerful tool to increase your audience, strengthen your leadership and boost your trust. With social media, you have the capability to connect with your customers while simultaneously significantly elevating your visibility on SERPs. Receiving good feedback and references for your business across social media channels will have a significantly positive effect on your search engine rankings. The more engagement you are able to acquire and amplify through social media, the more trustworthiness search engines will give to your brand.
Conclusions for SERM
In order to get started with Search Engine Reputation Management (SERM), there are three important steps to consider:
- Monitor your online reputation. This is especially important in order to protect your brand online and offline. Monitoring activities on social media and building a loyal following is key.
- Pay attention to customer feedback. Transparency is important in order to build trust, so attend to all comments, both positive and negative.
- Leverage SERM experts. Our team of reps can guide you through the process and has worked on more than 500 projects across 30+ countries.
