Your online reputation significantly affects the impression that people get when they look for your company online. This is frequently the first impression you make on potential clients, so you want to ensure that it is positive. It is usually possible to recover from a poor reputation online, but the sooner you begin your efforts, the easier it will be and the more effective your internet reputation repair efforts will be.
This guide will discuss why online reputation repair is crucial, as well as provide the most important steps to doing so. With these steps in mind, you can make an effective plan to fix online reputation damage.
Why Repairing Your Online Reputation Is Important
Getting online reputation services to fix your online reputation or create a positive one brings numerous benefits. Potential customers are more inclined to trust a brand that has a positive online reputation. As such, improving or maintaining your online reputation will help you bring in more business. One study even showed that a single additional star on your Yelp rating can increase revenue by 9%.
But a strong online reputation will also help you attract the best possible talent. Hiring top talent will improve your productivity and efficiency as well as your customer experience.
7 Ways to Repair Online Reputation for Your Small Business
Now that you understand why you should fix online reputation problems, how do you go about doing so? Some of the following tips require hiring online reputation services while others are changes you can make or tasks you can complete yourself. All of them work hand-in-hand with other marketing efforts.
1. Find the root cause of your negative reputation.
If you notice that your company has a negative reputation, get to the root of the issue. Read reviews and get feedback if necessary. Is your product defective? Do you send spammy emails? Is your customer service team unresponsive?
Once you find the root cause, you can start to correct it. Every company has so many moving pieces that, without knowing the specific issue, you could spend years trying to improve things that are already fine or don’t matter.
2. Solve the problem and own your mistakes.
Sometimes, you will get negative reviews with fake or unfounded claims. In these cases, you can typically flag them as false.
But what if the negative review is valid? You should always acknowledge it. Don’t deny your mistakes; own up to them. Apologize for the mistake, as this will help with internet reputation repair.
Importantly, you need to reassure the unsatisfied customer and your other customers that this won’t happen again. So, explain what you have done to ensure that this is the case. Have you changed your procedures? Did you fix a technical bug?
This will reassure the reviewer that you value their opinion and want them to have a positive
experience. It will also show potential clients that you resolve problems and listen to feedback. Customers prefer companies that respond to feedback as that feedback likely leads to improvements.
3. Create social media profiles and a blog.
One of the key goals of online reputation repair is to push back negative search results by increasing the number of positive ones. One of the first steps in this process is to create social media profiles on the major platforms. Start with your Google Business Profile as well as platforms like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, and Pinterest.
Once you create the profiles, make it a point to regularly update them as part of your digital marketing efforts. This way, they will appear in the search results instead of negative content.
As a bonus, if you create official social media profiles for your brand, you control the narrative via your content creation. You prevent malicious actors from pretending to be you.
You also just make your company easier to find online, which will help you generate more leads. Consider enhancing your positive online presence with press releases as well.
4. Monitor what’s said online.
Get in the habit of regularly monitoring your online reputation. See what people are saying about your brand and products or services. You can easily set up Google Alerts to make it easier to monitor.
Monitoring your reputation regularly is important because it lets you act quickly in case negative feedback surfaces. A quick response reduces the amount of time that negative information or content has to affect your reputation.
5. Take the negative content down.
Taking negative content down is much easier said than done. As mentioned, you can flag or report fake reviews and the platform will likely remove them. But they won’t do this for negative reviews that are true.
Instead, your best option for removing the negative content is to have the original poster remove it. You can directly ask them to, but this won’t always be the best approach. It’s better to respond to negative reviews or content and resolve the issue. Hopefully, the reviewer will change or update their review or even remove it.
When you can’t remove negative content, the next best solution is to get more positive content online. The more positive content or reviews you have, the less noticeable the negative ones will be.
6. Know when not to respond to a negative review.
You should respond to a negative review in most cases, but there are a few exceptions as well. For example, some people post reviews on sites where reviews can’t be deleted or edited. In this case, there is no need to directly respond to the review as you may not be able to, and the customer can’t change it.
Additionally, don’t respond to reviews left on attack sites filled with negative articles. That will just add content to the site in question, boosting its search engine results. That being said, it will still be worthwhile to reach out to the reviewer so you can win them back.
7. Implement SEO.
Several of the previous tips focus on overwhelming negative online content with positive content. Implementing SEO (search engine optimization) is another instance of this. With solid SEO, your official website should be the first result to appear if someone searches for your brand. This lets you control the narrative and overcome negative comments or news articles.
SEO includes numerous different components, both on-page and behind the scenes. For example, you want to ensure your website loads quickly and is mobile-responsive. You will also want to incorporate keywords.
A blog is an excellent, natural way to use keywords on your website. It will also help position your company as an industry authority. For even better results, choose blog topics that offer value to your clients, such as how-to guides. This will bring even more website traffic as you optimize for those topics.
FAQs
When it comes to brand reputation repair, it is common for business owners to have a few questions. Given the importance of your online reputation to your company’s success, you want to ensure that you understand every aspect of repairing it.
How long does it take to repair an online reputation?
The time it takes to repair an online reputation depends on your goals and your current reputation. If you just have a handful of negative online reviews, you can potentially repair your reputation within a few weeks or months. If your online reputation repair strategies also involve SEO, you will need to be patient as it can take six to 12 months to appear on the first page of your favorite search engine.
How much does it cost to clean up your online reputation?
The cost of online reputation repair depends on whether you choose to do it yourself or hire a company. From there, it will depend on the type of company you work with. An online reputation management service charges at least $500 to $1,000 a month, depending on the size of your business and your current online presence.
But you can start incorporating other strategies for much less. The good news is that any money you spend on certain aspects of your online reputation, such as encouraging customer reviews, will also help boost your sales and gather feedback. As such, you pay a single fee, but the service works toward multiple goals.
How do I clean up my reputation on Google?
Combine all of the above tips to clean up your damaged reputation on Google. Work to respond to negative reviews and encourage customers to leave positive reviews as a way to balance out any negative ones.
You can also clean up your reputation on Google with your Google Business Profile. If you haven’t already done so, claim your business listing. Then, confirm that all of the information is accurate. Add photos and videos, use and respond to Q&As, and make posts.
If your concerns around reputation are focused on Google search results, then you will also want to focus on SEO. This will bring your website to the top of the search results, letting you control the narrative.
Can I remove bad reviews?
You cannot remove bad reviews. You can, however, remove fake, defamatory, or untrue reviews. To remove them, simply flag or report the review and wait for the platform to take action. There isn’t a content removal method for accurate reviews that give you a bad reputation.
Instead of removing bad reviews, reach out to the reviewer. If you can correct the situation, they may be happy to remove the review or even change it.
Repair and Improve Your Online Reputation
Smart companies take advantage of tools to improve their online reputation, and Podium is one of the best options for this. Podium can help you improve your communication channels, drive more leads and sales, and build customer relationships.
Your improved communication and customer relationships will ensure that customers have a better experience. That leads to better reviews and helps prevent complaints. The end result is a better online reputation. Of course, it is easier to retain customers who have a good experience, so this will also increase your sales. Meanwhile, the improved online reputation will help you attract new customers, further boosting sales by generating more leads.
Podium’s free Reputation Grader tool provides a score for your online reputation based on Google Reviews. It also tells you how you can improve your online reputation based on that score.
Additionally, Podium’s Google Business Profile ROI Calculator shows you the extent of the results you can expect after just 90 days with Podium’s tools and services. In the meantime, use the Google Review Link Generator to improve review response rates. Or use the Reviews feature to double your review volume.
Podium also has features to help you deliver a better customer experience, preventing harm to your reputation like negative reviews. For example, the Inbox tool makes it simple to track all of your messages, so you never forget to respond to a customer query or complaint. That gives you more time to address concerns before the customer leaves a negative review or mentions your brand in a negative social media post.
Lastly, Podium’s integrations with Mailchimp, HubSpot, and more, make it easy to connect all of your software and tools to improve efficiency and productivity.
