Five Important Online Reputation Management Lessons From 2019

Although 2019 has come and gone, it has taught us a lot that we can take into the new year.

Whether you loved every moment of 2019 or you’re ready to see the back of it, there’s no denying that a lot has happened over the last year that can help us learn and grow. Not only has the past year held personal lessons for all of us, but it has given us many unique insights into the world of online reputation management.

A big part of successfully managing a strong online reputation for your business has to do with keeping up with the times. The algorithm Google uses to rank businesses in the SERP (search engine results pages) is changing all the time, and so is the way that people search online. Staying ahead of the times is one of the best things you can do for your online reputation, and there are a lot of lessons that you can take with you from 2019 to help you perfect and maintain your business’ online reputation going into 2020.

The Top Five Online Reputation Management Lessons of 2019

#1. Mobile site optimization is no longer optional.

These days, most people aren’t searching for a nearby restaurant or nail salon on their computer at home; instead, they’re using the smartphone that’s in their pocket. This is nothing new, mobile searches started eclipsing desktop searches all the way back in 2015, but the trend hasn’t slowed down, nor is it expected to, and the number of mobile searches continues to rise. And while mobile-friendliness is something that every business owner should have on their mind, if your business is customer-facing, like restaurants, coffee shops, jewelry stores and the like, it’s a trend that you don’t want to ignore.

Starting in July, Google rolled out a major change to its search index algorithm by launching mobile-first indexing. Historically, Google’s algorithm ranked a site’s relevance based on its desktop version, but because of the large increase in mobile searches, Googlebot now uses the smartphone agent to crawl and index webpages. Optimizing your site for mobile search is one of the smartest moves you can make in preparing for 2020, and thanks to Google’s algorithm change, it’s no longer an option for businesses that want to stay visible online.

Here are a few things you can do to optimize your site for mobile search:

  • For everything from your website to the email templates, always make it a point to use a responsive design.
  • Optimize any videos on your website so that they are compatible with mobile phones.
  • Make sure that your images — even those that are downsized to fit on a smaller screen — are high quality and cropped closely so that the details you want are maximized.
  • Break up long paragraphs. A paragraph that looks digestible on a desktop can be overly long and wordy when viewed on a mobile device.
  • Make sure that any buttons that are on your website are also easy to use on the mobile version of your site.
  • Your site should be easy to scroll. Users can quickly get irritated when they’re forced to pinch and zoom to see your content or navigate your site.
  • Use a font that’s big enough and easiest enough to read for most users, which means that you’ll want to use at least a 14-point size.
  • Prioritize content mobile users are most likely to want. For example, if you have a restaurant, you’ll want to make sure that your address, menu and phone number are all easy to access.

#2. Social media is a must.

While most people think of a business’ online reputation as their reviews and average rating, the truth is that it has many moving parts. And while reviews may arguably be the most important part of the reputation management puzzle, reviews aren’t the only place that your brand will be mentioned or talked about online. These days, more people are talking about the experience — and their complaints — on social media. Wherever your brand is mentioned, it behooves you to be there, which is why having a presence on social media is no longer optional.

One of the reasons why it’s so important to establish a presence on social media is that it works in the opposite way as reviews do for your business. Think about the people who are reading your reviews. They’ve sought out your business for one reason or another, and they’re checking out your reviews so that they can get to know your business a little better and so that they can decide whether to trust you with their business or not. Social media, on the other hand, helps your brand get introduced to a whole new audience of people who may never have even heard of your business before.

When managed correctly, social media has the power to help you connect with your clients or customers on a more personal level, but it can also help you to make new connections and build trust with a whole new set of people.

#3. You may need to utilize tools to tackle reputation management in 2020.

Reputation management used to be fairly simple. Back in the day, all you really had to do to stay on top of your business’ online reputation was to do a quick Google search of your business name or check your social media pages for mentions or reviews. But these days, reputation management can be a lot more complicated. With so many different moving parts, present-day reputation management is a whole other beast to tackle, and a lot of businesses could use a little help doing so.

There are a lot of tools that you can use to more effectively monitor your business’ online reputation, but one of the best free tools available is Google Alerts. Google Alerts will help you monitor any mentions of your brand, business name or applicable keywords across the web. You don’t have to limit alerts to just your own business, either. With Google Alerts, you can also monitor your competition’s online reputation, which will help you stay ahead of the curb.

Another can’t-miss reputation management tool that you’ll want to take advantage of is Top Rated Local®. Top Rated Local isn’t a typical review site; it’s more of a review aggregator that can give a business an overall snapshot of their online reputation. Each Top Rated Local business has its own Rating Score™, which is determined by the number of review sites a business is listed on, how many reviews they have and the average rating of those reviews. With the Rating Score, you don’t have to go to 10 different websites to figure out where your business stands online; you’ll have the information you need in one place.

The benefits of becoming a Top Rated Local business go beyond the Rating Score. When you claim your listing with Top Rated Local, you’ll have a lot of tools at your disposal to help you more effectively monitor your online reputation, including real-time notifications when you get new reviews, a monthly overview of your online reputation as a whole, the ability to respond to your reviews, the ability to request a rating change from a reviewer, a Top Rated Local badge that you can use to display your reviews on your website and so much more.

Become a Top Rated Local business today!

#4. Video is more important than ever before.

Video has been a powerful marketing tool for years, but if 2019 has shown us anything, it’s that video is the kind of online marketing. Here are a few interesting stats to demonstrate the importance of video in your marketing campaign:

  • Every day, more than 100 million hours of video are watched on Facebook alone, and more than 500 million hours are watched on YouTube.
  • Some estimates find that you can increase conversions by up to 80 percent with video.
  • By merely mentioning the word “video” in the subject line of emails, you could see an increase in the click-through rate of as much as 13 percent.
  • YouTube is actually the second most popular search engine, behind Google.

There’s no doubt about the power of video, but it can also be intimidating for local businesses that may not have the resources of a professional video team behind them. Luckily, there are a lot of great ways you can use video without the need to hire an expert:

  • Share your story – Every business has a story, and video is a great place to share yours. When you share your origin story with people online, they’ll gain a more personal look into your business and will give you a chance to connect with them on a whole other level.
  • Educate your clients – Chances are, you’ve got a lot of expertise to share, and whether you create a tutorial on how to keep your home’s exterior paint job looking great for years to come or how to protect your computer from viruses, video is the perfect medium for tutorials.
  • Give thanks to your customers – Your business wouldn’t be around without your customers, and video is the perfect way to say thanks.
  • Show the world your culture – Let the world in on the behind-the-scenes action in your business. Videos of team-building events, volunteer opportunities and holiday parties help to show the human side of your business.

#5. You can’t just wait for the reviews to come to you.

It used to be enough to simply monitor your online reputation and deal with reviews as they come, but reviews have become such an essential part of a business’ online reputation that many businesses simply can’t afford to let acquiring reviews be a passive thing for them. These days, the most successful online businesses know that they need to take a more active approach to getting reviews.

The unfortunate fact is that the vast majority of people don’t even think about writing a review — that is, unless they’ve had a bad experience. For all of the whining and complaining about how customer service is dead, most people have a baseline expectation of customer service that’s fairly high. When you’re used to a certain level of service, you come to expect it, but you also come to take it for granted. But when you’re used to and expect a certain level of service, and you the service falls short of your expectations, it’s easy to see why it can be upsetting and prompt someone to write a negative review.

Focusing on providing good service to your clients is certainly a step in the right direction as far as generating reviews is concerned, but it’s, by no means, the only thing you should do to get reviews. Here are a few ideas to help you start generating more reviews for your business:

  • Ask! While most people won’t write reviews unprompted, the vast majority of people will write a review for you if you only ask. When people realize how important reviews are for businesses like yours, they’re often more than happy to write them.
  • Send email follow-ups with review requests. The best part of requesting reviews this way is that you can automate this process so that you don’t even have to think about it. It also allows you to send people specifically to your review sites that need the most love.
  • Offer discounts or other incentives to clients who write reviews for you. Be careful, though, that you don’t only incentivize five-star reviews or that you don’t try to steer your clients to say certain things.
  • Enter clients who write reviews into a giveaway or raffle. Again, you’ll want to ensure that you give the same incentives for every review, not just for positive ones. Many review sites see bribing customers in exchange for five-star reviews as unethical, and if you’re caught, there could be consequences.

Make 2020 your year with Top Rated Local!

If your business’ online reputation wasn’t what you wanted it to be in 2019, you’ll be glad to know that 2020 is a whole new year with all new possibilities. And while 2019 may or may not have been a stand-out year for your business, it has taught us a lot about reputation management and how to do it more effectively in 2020. Don’t repeat the same mistakes; learn from them, and use those lessons to help you grow and build the kind of online reputation you’ve always wanted. Don’t leave your business’ online reputation up to chance in 2020. Take control over your online reputation by becoming a Top Rated Local business today!

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