There are a lot of misconceptions about online reputation management. Some people think it\u2019s just social media monitoring, while others believe it has something to do with public relations, and still others literally have no idea how it can impact business and sales.<\/p>\n

In this guide, I\u2019m going to explain the role of\u00a0online reputation management<\/strong>\u00a0in today\u2019s business and media landscape. Companies of every size can benefit from having a clear outline of its main concepts.<\/p>\n

They are very powerful because, unlike social network content, they are prominent in search engine results. What if someone googles your brand name and finds defamatory content? Let\u2019s see what they are:<\/p>\n

\n
• Negative reviews<\/strong>: Review sites allow users to express their opinion on your brand. Did they like your service\/product? Would they recommend it? Negative content can affect your sales, and addressing the criticism on the site may not be enough. Websites like Ripoff Report and Pissed Consumer provide the perfect platform for this kind of negative content.<\/li>\n
• Hate sites<\/strong>: Some people go beyond simple negative reviews and create ad hoc websites with their opinions, some of them containing illegal content. So-called \u201chate sites\u201d sometimes address companies and public figures with insults and false information. Needless to say, a search result like \u201cThe truth about NAMEOFYOURCOMPANY\u201d or \u201cNAME scam\/rip off\u201d will make your potential customers run away!<\/li>\n
• Negative media coverage<\/strong>:\u00a0Phineas T. Barnum\u00a0used to say \u201cThere\u2019s no such thing as bad publicity.\u201d That may be true for controversial public figures like Paris Hilton, but many times unfavorable TV, print, and online media coverage impacts negatively on companies and brands.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

  It is obvious that everyone has\u00a0the right to express their voice<\/strong>\u00a0about your brand. There are, however, certain boundaries that need to be respected. Some of the negative content online actually is illegal. Why?<\/p>\n

  \n
  • It uses defamatory language<\/li>\n
  • It reports false information<\/li>\n
  • It is aimed at damaging the company\u2019s reputation<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    How do you react to all of this? How do you defend yourself or your company from this kind of illegal behavior? Depending on the scope of the problem, several paths can be pursued in order to restore your online reputation:<\/p>\n

    \n
    • Aggressive SEO<\/strong>: If someone googles your name, appearing on page 1 and 2 of the search results will be much more important than your business card or website. They will show at a glance several high ranking web sources talking about you. If they display false information, the first thing that you or your online reputation management company should do is devise a search marketing strategy that increases the ranking of positive content, owned by either you or third parties. The search engine game is too important to be ignored, and it is the first step in restoring your image.<\/li>\n
    • Review removal<\/strong>: Did that user claim something false about your company? Is that review clearly aimed at destroying your reputation rather than providing feedback? Does it contain improper language? Legal liaison and speed of reaction will make it possible to remove the negative review.<\/li>\n
    • Online investigations<\/strong>: In case of serious attacks to your brand image, it may be necessary to hire skilled online analysts to investigate untraceable threats and attackers via email tracing, data cross-indexing, and other information collection techniques. Cyber investigations are the definitive path to get to the bottom of difficult reputation management cases.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      There are a lot of misconceptions about online reputation management. Some people think it\u2019s just social media monitoring, while others believe it has something to do with public relations, and still others literally have no idea how it can impact business and sales. In this guide, I\u2019m going to explain the role of\u00a0online reputation management\u00a0in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[30,21,28,27,20],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.webigg.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/835"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.webigg.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.webigg.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.webigg.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.webigg.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=835"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.webigg.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/835\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":837,"href":"https:\/\/www.webigg.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/835\/revisions\/837"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.webigg.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=835"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.webigg.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=835"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.webigg.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=835"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}