Online Reputation Management - It Pays to Keep a Good Reputation

Online reputation management begins with solid proactive crisis management and reverse SEO strategies.  A recent LinkedIn online survey about Online PR by Rostin Ventures brought a number of solid, insightful responses from respected professionals in our industry. The question: How important is SEO to Online Reputation and Brand Management for a company's Public Relations?

The survey responses were best expressed by Sarah Skerik, Vice President of Social Media at PR Newswire: "The role [search engines] play in influencing opinion is undeniable. [They] are the starting point for most Internet users, and surveys tell us that most journalists start story research with search. The results at the top of the search results page play a powerful role in shaping behavior and surfacing commentary from the social layer."

Author Victoria Ipri added: "The real breaking news is what people are talking about right now, today. This is the same information you’ll find at the top of today’s search engine rankings. And this is precisely where SEO, combined with online reputation management, plays a vital role."

Actions speak louder than words. When faced with a negative article or comment on the web, the best approach is an objective, tactful response to the situation. Remember, Internet content possesses longevity, and your company's positive and ongoing engagement in the worldwide community is a surefire safety net should any negative publicity knock on your door.

The strongest strategy behind online reputation management begins with proactive public relations before a negative event occurs.  How is your company proactively managing its public relations and brand strategy within search engine results pages? That's where Rostin Ventures comes in, providing professional, well-written, insightful content for Online PR, Reputation Management and Crisis Management strategies.

 

Best Practices in Reverse SEO Consulting for Brand Management

Why do companies need online reputation management? Julie Ross, President of Rostin Ventures notes recent SEO industry news,"After the New York Times story about black-hat SEO tactics for JCPenney broke on February 12th, more attention than ever has been directed toward SEO companies' practices in helping their clients' websites climb to the top of the search engines. The Times asked an SEO expert to research why JCPenney held ultra-high online rankings for nearly every category, who later revealed that literally hundreds of unrelated backlinks to irrelevant sites had been deployed to pull JCPenney.com to the top.

Google responded to the Times story by severely penalizing JCPenney's site, and subsequently changed their search engine algorithm. Although the improved Google algorithm initially affected 11.8% of the queries, its changes reward websites with high-quality, original content and links to related content -- and reduce the rankings of poor-quality sites with unrelated backlinks generated by link farms. This is great news for Rostin Ventures' clients, because that's precisely what we do: As part of our White-Hat strategy for bringing relevance and high online visibility for our clients, we produce quality online content and blogs with industry-related content that links to other industry-relevant sites."

Twenty years ago, negative press rarely gained traction. If a disgruntled customer or an irritated employee wanted to vent their frustrations, they were limited to writing letters to newspapers and magazines. Both were forgotten by the time new editions hit the store shelves. The Internet changed everything.

Today, social media profiles, blog and forum posts, and entire websites devoted to publishing negative commentary about others, remain online. They gain traction in Google, YouTube, Yahoo, and Bing, Facebook, Wordpress, Blogger and thousands of other social platforms and online sites. Once they do, they can gain momentum in your market. This is the core reason to maintain an online reputation management strategy.

By vigilantly monitoring every mention of your company’s name, you can identify issues that threaten to tarnish your reputation. If you discover a public relations disaster in the making, you can immediately respond. You might decide to open a dialogue to present the facts. Or, you might launch a reverse SEO campaign to remove bad press from the search engines. The goal of online reputation management is to prevent negative commentary from gaining momentum.

There has never been a greater need for using best practices in SEO for online reputation management. Angry customers, annoyed employees, and even disingenuous competitors can spread damaging rumors about you and your company with a few clicks. If the bad publicity gains traction in the search engines, it can spread quickly. Online reputation management is the most effective solution for controlling the message.

The question is, are you using online reputation management through effective SEO consulting practices? Others on Linked In answered the question. 

How important is SEO to Online Reputation and Brand Management in Public Relations Online?

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Online Reputation Management Tips To Help With Your Job Search

Online Reputation Management lands jobs. For good or bad, what you say, do and write can and will affect your reputation. That is why it is so important to make sure you manage your online reputation. It is a direct reflection of your personal brand. Just like a corporate brand, this is how and what people think of you. Reverse SEO for online reputation management, essentially online brand management of your name, can help emphasize your positive and hide away the negative.

We all make mistakes. Maybe you posted a photo you wished you hadn’t, or had a heated disagreement about politics on Facebook that, in the light of morning, was over the top. Unfortunately, the Internet never forgets, and while you can try to delete that information, it is often stored in a search engine's cache, and can be found later through basic searches.

This is really important for job seekers. Over 75% of HR professionals have reported hiring decisions being positively influenced by a candidate’s online reputation; conversely, 60% of human resource professionals have rejected a candidate for negative online information. Silly Facebook pictures, an offensive comment, or even someone else who posted negative or incorrect information about you are not worth losing your dream job. Reverse SEO will help you hide the negative and accentuate the positive.

Online reputation management is becoming so important that some universities are even providing seniors with a six-month subscription to an online reputation management service, and helping them overcome their negative online content. By using reverse SEO we can produce more content that will distract away from any negative online slip up’s.

Here are three reverse SEO tips to help with your job search:

1. Buy your name as a domain name, and post a single page that serves almost as a resume. Use it to point to your other positive content, like a blog, your LinkedIn profile, or a YouTube channel. If you share a name with someone else more famous, or have more than a few negative content problems, you need to make sure you buy the name you want to be known by professionally. — maybe your full name (William Smith, not Bill Smith), or first, middle, and last (William Henry Smith).
2. Sign up for several social networks with your "professional" name. Get your vanity URL (a URL that includes your name) on Facebook, LinkedIn, and other social networks, as well as blogging platforms like WordPress.com and Blogger.com.
3. Make sure you're putting positive content on your networks. It's not enough to just create the networks. You have to give the search engines something to index. The more content you create, the more the search engines have to index. As you create more new stuff, the search engines will push down the old stuff off the front pages, and out of sight of the hiring managers and HR professionals.

Reverse SEO is not a miracle maker, but it can definitely help. Negative search engine results will not completely be deleted, but they will most definitely be hidden. 89% of search engine activity is proven to derive from the first page of a search engine anyways. If you can push bad information further down on a search engine, you can eliminate any bad online reputation that may damage perception of your personal brand.

Three Reverse SEO Tips To Help With Your Job Search

Reverse SEO lands jobs. For good or bad, what you say, do and write can and will affect your reputation. That is why it is so important to make sure you manage your online reputation. It is a direct reflection of your personal brand. Just like a corporate brand, this is how and what people think of you. Reverse SEO can help emphasize your positive and hide away the negative.

We all make mistakes. Maybe you posted a photo you wished you hadn’t, or had a heated disagreement about politics on Facebook that, in the light of morning, was over the top. Unfortunately, the Internet never forgets, and while you can try to delete that information, it is often stored in a search engine's cache, and can be found later through basic searches.

This is really important for job seekers. Over 75% of HR professionals have reported hiring decisions being positively influenced by a candidate’s online reputation; conversely, 60% of human resource professionals have rejected a candidate for negative online information. Silly Facebook pictures, an offensive comment, or even someone else who posted negative or incorrect information about you are not worth losing your dream job. Reverse SEO will help you hide the negative and accentuate the positive.

Online reputation is becoming so important that some universities are even providing seniors with a six-month subscription to an online reputation management service, and helping them overcome their negative online content. By using reverse SEO we can produce more content that will distract away from any negative online slip up’s.

Here are three reverse SEO tips to help with your job search:

1. Buy your name as a domain name, and post a single page that serves almost as a resume. Use it to point to your other positive content, like a blog, your LinkedIn profile, or a YouTube channel. If you share a name with someone else more famous, or have more than a few negative content problems, you need to make sure you buy the name you want to be known by professionally. — maybe your full name (William Smith, not Bill Smith), or first, middle, and last (William Henry Smith).



2. Sign up for several social networks with your "professional" name. Get your vanity URL (a URL that includes your name) on Facebook, LinkedIn, and other social networks, as well as blogging platforms like WordPress.com and Blogger.com.



3. Make sure you're putting positive content on your networks. It's not enough to just create the networks. You have to give the search engines something to index. The more content you create, the more the search engines have to index. As you create more new stuff, the search engines will push down the old stuff off the front pages, and out of sight of the hiring managers and HR professionals.

Reverse SEO is not a miracle maker, but it can definitely help. Negative search engine results will not completely be deleted, but they will most definitely be hidden. 89% of search engine activity is proven to derive from the first page of a search engine anyways. If you can push bad information further down on a search engine, you can eliminate any bad online reputation that may damage perception of your personal brand.

Take a look at this video to view more on Online Reputation Management for Job Search:

Online Reputation Management: What Happens in Vegas Should Not Be Seen on Your Resume By Hiring Managers

Online Reputation Management could prevent this story from becoming reality for you. What happens in Vegas would stay in Vegas if it did not come up in search engine results under your name. Your friends commented on the trip in social networks and it ended up in search results for everyone to see... including the hiring manager from the company you applied for. Believe it or not, it could happen. Manage your online reputation and control what people read about you in search engines. Online reputation management of Reverse SEO pros could push down negative search results in your name and launch good information under your name in the search engines. http://www.rostinventures.com

Reverse SEO: They Are Reading About You in the Search Engines

Reverse SEO experts in online reputation management provide search engine readers with what you want them to see. Reverse SEO pushes the negative information down in search engine results. Manage your online reputation with these proven techniques of these Reverse SEO Management pros.

Online reputation management (ORM) was created to help business owners and professionals deal with bad press. Countless companies – large and small – have found themselves on the receiving end of negative publicity. When it is posted online, it can spread quickly. The size of your business has little influence on the devastating effect of such feedback. Online reputation management curbs the impact of bad publicity in search engine results. It allows you to control information about you.

Rostin Ventures, http://www.rostinventures.com, Reverse SEO Experts in SEO Consulting and Public Relations Online

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Reverse SEO: Who is Reading About You in Search Engines

Reverse SEO manages your online reputation, pushing the negative information down in search engine results. Manage your online reputation with these proven techniques of these Reverse SEO Management pros. Online reputation management (ORM) was created to help business owners and professionals deal with bad press. Countless companies – large and small – have found themselves on the receiving end of negative publicity. When it is posted online, it can spread quickly. The size of your business has little influence on the devastating effect of such feedback. Online reputation management curbs the impact of bad publicity in search engine results. It allows you to control information about you. Rostin Ventures, http://www.rostinventures.com, Reverse SEO Experts in SEO Consulting and Public Relations Online