Online Reputation Management

In today’s world online reputation management is essential. The Internet, and more specifically what people say about you online, is perhaps the single biggest influence on your success. This is true for businesses and brands of all sizes and sectors around the world. Furthermore it also affects you personally and professionally. 

Online reputation management works to counter, weaken or eliminate negative material online and promote the positive, so that when people search for you online they see you in the best possible light.

The benefits of Online Reputation Management

• Credibility – positive links, comments and high visibility online makes you credible in the eyes of customers, stakeholders, employees, influencers and peers
• Trust – people trust a company, brand or person with a good reputation
• Profit – companies with higher star-ratings, reviews and positive content and PR get more business
• Talent – brands with a positive reputation earn better employees

Search engines, such as Google, Bing and others, don’t care about your reputation. They don’t filter results based on what’s negative and positive, but rather on relevance and popularity.

Which is why online reputation management is especially relevant. Taking control of your online presence enables you to present the best possible image of your business to the online community. As an individual you’ll also control what people see when they search for you, and help prospective customers notice you before your competitors. It also protects your brand from any unwanted negative content online. How? The positive profiles and content make it harder for negatives to rank in the first few pages of Google.

Because our approach to online reputation management is organic, rather than automated, our clients’ reputation strategies last as Google’s algorithms change over time.

Why online reputation management matters for businesses and brands

The more search engine results you ‘own’ on the first two pages of an online search the better. This enables you to control what people see. As well as your website, you want them to see positive reviews, social media, profiles and PR.

A study conducted by Chitika reveals that the first page of a Google search for your firm’s name attracts 91.5% of traffic from an average search.

Credibility, trust, profit and attracting talent are all linked to your search results.

Why it matters for individuals

People search people, whether they’re looking for a potential new hire or want to know more before choosing to do business with you. They’ll check out your social media and professional profiles and notice if you’ve been in the news. What people see in the first 2 pages of an online search is what forms their opinion of you. Google yourself, do you like what you see? It is true and fair?

Online search facts and stats

• Google controls 77.98% of search engine traffic
• Each search engine has its own unique algorithm that determines your relevancy, authority, and ultimately, your ranking for a given search query. The nuances of the algorithms are largely unknown (and the search engines keep it that way), which is why you should focus  on improving your ranking with Google.
• A study conducted by Chitika reveals that the first page of a Google search for your firm’s name attracts 91.5% of traffic from an average search.
• 90% of the whole world population only look at the first page of search engine results to form their impression.
• The 2017 Edelman Trust Barometer shows that 64% of people trust online search engines the most when conducting research on a business.
• 90% of people read online reviews before visiting a business.
• 84% trust reviews as much as a personal recommendation.
• 70% of consumers surveyed for a Weber Shandwick report state that they would avoid buying a product if they don’t like the company behind it
• CEO reputation is an invaluable corporate asset, with executives commenting that on average, 49% of the reputation of their company was attributable to their CEO’s reputation.
• Businesses risk losing 22% of business when potential customers find 1 negative article on the first page of their search results and 70% of potential customers with 4 or more negative articles.
• 51% of businesses say their company has been affected by unsubstantiated online reviews or targeted by trolls in the last year.
•  75% of businesses quizzed in Igniyte’s Business of Reviews Report conducted by OnePoll say online reviews, comments and forum posts are important to the financial and reputational status of their business.
•  1 in 5 companies surveyed by Igniyte are unhappy with the way they’re portrayed on their Google page 1.
• Wikipedia ranks on the front page for more than 50% of all keywords.
• Social recruiting is fast growing and virtually all companies are employing social recruiting in one form or another.
• Most social recruiting is done via LinkedIn, with a 2016 social recruiting survey showing that 92% of recruiters globally either plan to introduce or already use social methods for recruiting.
• 93% of recruiters state that LinkedIn is the most popular in-house digital recruitment platform.
• 73% of companies successfully hire people via social media.
• Distributing good content just as important as removing the negative – you have to push out quality content to capture customer attention and keep your image positive and relevant.

How it works

Our graphics show how the process works for businesses and individuals.