by What is Search Engine Reputation Management?
SERM, short for Search Engine Reputation Management, is an online marketing strategy that encompasses a range of activities. These activities include Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Paid Search Marketing, Press Optimization, Blogging and Social Media. Through SERM, businesses can increase their visibility in search engine results, while managing their online presence to ensure they are portrayed in a positive light.
Search engine reputation management (SERM) provides businesses and websites with the tools to track activities that could potentially affect their reputations, as well as techniques to promote a positive image. To achieve these objectives, SERM encompasses Search Engine Optimization, Paid Search Marketing, Press Optimization, Blogging and Social Media.
Why is SERM important?
94% of customers won’t do business with an organization that has a bad online reputation, which is why it’s so important to monitor and protect your company’s image. Here are three key reasons why that matters:
– Your company’s value can be drastically improved or negatively impacted by the quality of its online reputation.
– Consumers often make decisions about whether to engage with an individual or a business based solely on what comes up when they search for it online.
– Online review sites are increasingly popular, and people read customer reviews when deciding whether to contact a company.
Search Engine Reputation Management in Irvine (California)
Our experts are dedicated to making sure your online reputation looks its best to potential customers. It’s essential to be aware of your online presence – not having knowledge of what’s being said on the web isn’t just irresponsible, it can be detrimental to your business. Monitor and take action to protect your reputation and ensure success.
How does SERM Work?
Once a brand loses reputation, steps must be taken to restore its standing. People ask if they can alter their Google reputation and the answer is “yes”. Our firm helps brands rebuild their image through online reputation management strategies. Through search engine reputation management, we aim to influence a positive perception of the brand. SERM is multi-faceted and involves SEO, social media, content marketing, and PR. Here are some of the steps we take to achieve this:
- Optimizing website content
- Creating positive content about the brand
- Spreading the content through influencers
- Using SEO tools to reach the right audience
- Building relationships with customers
- Disputing negative feedback with facts
1.- Proactive Monitoring
Proactive Monitoring is key to protecting and improving your reputation online. Search across a range of online channels, such as search engines, blogs and review platforms, to stay up to date with how you’re seen by your customers. Being active in these online conversations means you can address queries, answer complaints and handle feedback before it has a chance to turn negative. This will help build your company’s reputation on the Web.
2.- SERP Cleansing
SERP Cleansing is the practice of removing negative search engine results from the top pages. To optimize the top ten search results for your business, create new, impactful content such as customer reviews, media coverage, guest posts and other positive content about your company. Aggressively publishing this type of content can have a huge impact on your search engine results.
3.- Improve SEO
To improve SEO, you need to:
- Assess your website content, identifying weak points and opportunities to improve;
- Monitor your competition, track what strategies they are using and figure out how to beat them;
- Research the most relevant keywords for your industry, including long-tail phrases;
- Optimize content so that it’s seen as relevant to the search engine algorithms;
- Utilize backlinks, making sure they come from reliable sources;
- Periodically review and analyze your website performance to see if your efforts are paying off.
To enhance SEO, you should assess the content of your website, monitor your competition, research keywords relevant to your industry, optimize your content to appear more relevant to search engine algorithms, build up backlinks from credible sources, and analyze & review website performance regularly. Doing so will allow you to identify weak points, explore opportunities to improve, gain insights into competitors’ strategies, and track the efficacy of your efforts.
4.- Respond to Negative Content
Make sure your organization stays on top of customer feedback and is prepared to respond to negative content as quickly as possible. When doing so:
- Reach out and contact the customer. Let them know you heard their feedback and are taking steps to address it.
- Apologize for any negative experience they may have encountered.
- Ask specific questions about their experience, allowing them to explain the issue in detail.
To effectively respond to negative content, be sure your organization is proactively monitoring customer feedback. Reach out to unsatisfied customers and apologize for their negative experience. Ask specific questions so they can fully explain the issue at hand, and then take action to remedy the situation. Doing this will ensure the customer feels heard and their needs are being addressed, improving brand loyalty and future interactions.
5.- Social Media Presence
Social media is an effective tool to foster audience growth, trust and influence. By connecting with customers, increased engagement can help build SEO rankings and online presence. Positive feedback from customers boosts reliability in the eyes of the search engines, positively impacting search engine results page positions. Fostering trust and brand awareness enhances search engine performance.
6.- Push Positive Content
Social media can significantly expand your audience, build your leadership profile and increase trust. It provides a direct line to customers and a great opportunity to showcase your business. Through positive user feedback and interactions, you can significantly boost your presence in search engine rankings. Generating interest and engaging with followers on social media allows search engines to put more trust in your brand. All of this adds up to make your business more visible, reach more people and be sure of the authority of your message.
Conclusions for SERM
Getting started with SERM is easy when you take cognisance of a few key things. First, it’s important that you monitor your online and offline presence – this helps you protect your reputation. Additionally, it’s essential that you foster a good online presence through active social media, helping you build and maintain relationships with your customers. Finally, don’t forget to pay attention to customer feedback – responding to both positive and negative comments can win you trust and respect. If you need extra support, the Search Engine Reputation Management experts at our networks of agencies have worked on projects in more than 30 countries and counting.
