Tag: Online Reputation Repair

No business wants a bad online reputation.

Most businesses have a seemingly endless amount of competition online, and when someone is doing research about your business, your online reputation will make the difference between them becoming a new client or them moving on to the next business on the list.

A bad online reputation can hurt a local business quite a bit. People simply have too many options, and they’re not likely to settle for less than the best. And, unfortunately, if you haven’t been actively managing your online reputation, it can easily get out of hand — and not in a good way.

If your business’ online reputation isn’t what you want it to be, you’ll be glad to know that all hope is not lost. There are a number of things you can do to restore your business’ good name online, and in Part 1 of this series, I went over a few of them. Be sure to check it out if you haven’t already, and keep reading to learn about more things you can do to rebuild the kind of reputation you want.

3 More Ways to Repair a Broken Online Reputation

#1. Earn positive reviews.

If you have three reviews and two of them are negative, it’s devastating to your average star rating on any review site. However, if you have 100 reviews and two of them are negative, it’s not a big deal at all. In fact, in cases like these, a couple of negative reviews can even be a positive thing for your business’ online reputation.

It’s never a bad thing to have positive reviews, but if all of your reviews are positive, it can make you seem inauthentic to some people. If your reputation appears to some people as “too good to be true,” even if it is true, it might lead them to believe that you’ve bought fake reviews. When you have a couple of negative reviews in a sea of positive reviews, though, it shows that you’re human and make mistakes, but that you learn from them and provide your clients with a five-star experience the majority of the time.

In my last blog, I talked about the importance of responding to negative reviews, and that is one great way to help minimize the damage they can cause. But, in addition to ensuring that you respond promptly, you should also make it a point to start earning positive reviews for your business.

A few ways to start earning more positive reviews:

• Focus on customer service – Not every review you get will be fair, but for the most part, your online reputation is reflective of the kind of service you offer your clients every day. Providing great customer service may not be enough to prompt people to write reviews, but it will ensure that, when they do, the reviews will be positive.
• Follow up by email – Following up with your clients after a service has been delivered is an important piece of providing great customer service anyway, but it’s also a great opportunity to remind your clients to give you feedback online. You can even provide them links directly to the listings that are most important to you.
• Ask for reviews – Only a small percentage of people will leave a review on their own, even if you wow them with the kind of service you provide; however, the vast majority of people will write one if you ask.

#2. Publish lots of content.

Just as you can push negative reviews about your business down and drown them out with positive reviews, you can do the same with any kind of bad press about your business through search engine optimization (SEO).

SEO is all about exercising more control over what ranks when someone searches Google for your business name, as well as helping your business to rank in organic search results for relevant keywords. Luckily, with the right SEO strategy, you can help to reduce the visibility of any negative articles or pages about your business and increase the visibility of your business online.

A lot of business owners are intimidated by the concept of SEO, and that’s because a lot of marketers tend to make it much more complicated than it has to be. You can easily get lost in the woods when trying to master the technical side of SEO, but the basics of SEO are simply keyword research, links, and content – the emphasis being on content.

In the world of SEO, content is king, and if your reputation isn’t what you want it to be online, publishing more content is a great place to start. There are lots of ways to go about this, including how-to blogs, tips and tricks blogs, guides, case studies, press releases, and so many more.

#3. Monitor your online reputation closely.

The longer you leave negative reviews or press about your business online unaddressed, the more damaging it can be to your online reputation. Not only that, but when people write a review for your business, they expect a response, and they expect one promptly.

Whether you’re repairing a broken online reputation, building an online reputation from the ground up, or working to maintain an already-glowing online reputation, it’s not a one-and-done thing. It’s an ongoing process that requires regular monitoring.

Monitoring your online reputation could mean logging into 10 different review sites every day to check for new reviews, but it doesn’t have to. There are a lot of different tools out there that help you monitor your online reputation, including Google Alerts and Top Rated Local®.

When you claim your Top Rated Local listings, you’ll enjoy a lot of benefits that will help you keep a close eye on your online reputation, including real-time notifications of new reviews on a variety of review sites, a Rating Score™ that’s updated regularly and reflects your online reputation as a whole, and a monthly overview of your overall online reputation.

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Is your online reputation in need of repair? A great place to start is by claiming your Top Rated Local listing. Get started today!

If your business’ online reputation isn’t what you want it to be, all hope isn’t lost.

A business’ online reputation says a lot about it, and it could mean the difference in earning new customers and hearing crickets instead of the phone ringing. However, even for businesses with less-than-stellar online reputations, there’s still hope.

Just as there are a lot of things you can do to build your business’ online reputation from the ground up when you’re just getting started, there are also many things you can do to rebuild an online reputation that you’re not thrilled about.

Having a poor online reputation can feel pretty hopeless, and in this situation, many desperate business owners turn to professional reputation repair companies to help them dig their way out. However, with a little know-how and a willingness to put in some time and effort, there are a lot of things you can do on your own to repair a broken online reputation.

I won’t lie, repairing your online reputation probably won’t be easy, nor will it be quick, but that doesn’t mean that it can’t be done! All it takes from you is a little know-how, a lot of patience, and a willingness to put in the work.

3 Ways to Repair a Broken Online Reputation

#1. Claim your business listings.

Some review sites and directories require you to sign up to get your business listed, but not all of them are designed this way. Some sites, including Top Rated Local®, pull in listings using an algorithm. So, there’s a chance that, even if you haven’t specifically signed up for a certain directory or review site, your business is listed there anyway. And, if the information that’s listed isn’t accurate or up to date, it does no favors to your online reputation.

When someone tries to call your business using outdated information they’ve found on a listing, it doesn’t exactly create a positive user experience. When they can’t get ahold of you because the phone number listed is no longer active, they’re going to think one of two things — 1) that you’ve gone out of business, or 2) that you’re not even reliable enough to ensure that your phone number is correct. Neither one of these options is a positive thing for your business.

Another problem that can arise from having inconsistent contact information across listings is the damage it can do to your organic rankings. Even small discrepancies in how your address or phone number is listed can hurt your organic rankings, so it’s important to get it right.

Claiming your business listings give you the power to manage them properly, which includes keeping all of your contact information up to date. This goes a long way toward establishing trust with anyone who finds your business online.

#2. If applicable, ask Google to remove a page or website.

Oftentimes, when someone publishes something that’s not exactly complimentary about your business online, there’s not much you can do to counteract it besides flooding the organic rankings with positive sites and pages about your business. But, on occasion, Google will remove pages or websites that violate its policies.

Google certainly won’t remove just any site or page if you ask them to. In general, the only time Google will remove something is if the content is demonstratively false or defames your business, is inappropriate, or violates a copyright.

If you think that something negative about your business online fits these criteria, then you can always contact Google to request that the page or site be removed. However, before you do, it’s always a good idea to contact the owner or editor of the site directly to ask that the offending content be removed. This will be much, much faster than going through Google, and, in many cases, much more successful.

#3. Respond to negative reviews.

One of the most common things that can hurt a local business’ online reputation more than anything else is negative reviews. Research has found that just one negative review could drive away as much as 22 percent of your prospects. I don’t know many local businesses that can afford to lose that many prospects, and if the same is true for your business, your only recourse is to learn how to respond to them.

You have zero control over what a customer or client might say about your business in a review. And, unfortunately, getting a negative review taken down is not always easy or possible; even if you can prove that the review is fake or defamatory, it’s still not a walk in the park to get a review removed. So, that leaves you with only one option: to respond.

Your response is the one thing you can control when you get a negative review, so it’s important to get it right. Here are a few quick tips to help you do just that:

• Apologize – Apologizing doesn’t have to mean taking responsibility for a situation that’s not your fault, but at the end of the day, you want every customer you work with to have a positive experience. If you believe wholeheartedly that you’re in the right and the review is in the wrong, you should still apologize that they had a negative experience with your business.
• Demonstrate that you’re listening – Sometimes, unhappy customers just want to vent and be heard. And, it’s important to show them that you are indeed listening and that you care about the feedback you’re being given.
• Cool off – Sometimes, negative reviews can feel personal and upsetting. Don’t respond in the heat of the moment if you’re upset. Give yourself a few minutes to cool off so that you can respond professionally.
• Take the conversation offline – Getting into a public argument with a reviewer is not going to be a good thing for your online reputation no matter how you spin it. That’s why it’s always a good idea to invite them to discuss the matter with you directly by giving them your phone number or email address.

Want to learn about more steps you can take to repair a broken online reputation? If so, stay tuned for Part 2 of this series!