Online Reputation Management for Businesses: What You Need to Know

Online reputation management for businesses (ORM) is the art and science of changing how a company appears online.

Like it or not, you have a reputation on the web. And that reputation is the sum total of every mention of your name or brand online.

The first and most important impression your brand makes happens on Google’s first page—mentions that occur primarily within the first ten results. These items are what so often make the biggest difference to your online image and reputation.

Why ORM for Business is Important

Consumers today are careful about where they spend their time and money. They research companies and judge them according to what they see and experience online.

When a potential customer comes across negative links or a reputation that diminishes your brand’s credibility, they look elsewhere. Every time this happens, your business loses an opportunity to convert that prospect into a paying client.

Lack of ORM costs your business money in more ways than one. It can also cost your business at least 10% more per hire.

Online Reputation Management for Businesses: What You Need to Know

Businesses of all sizes benefit from online reputation management. It isn’t just for large organizations–or brands facing a PR nightmare.

In the online age, ORM is a requirement for any business that hopes to succeed.

Most successful companies outsource their reputation management to skilled professionals who eliminate negative links. These professionals can also create trustworthy content, build strong backlinks, improve on-page SEO, and otherwise make a business more visible.

Increased visibility means more traffic and additional opportunities to convert visitors into customers.

How to Get Started

One of the first steps for fixing your name online is a reputation audit.

The Reputation Sciences™ audit process includes:

• A big-picture view of your company’s online reputation.
• A road-map to create a more positive and profitable name online.
• A strategy to strengthen your brand’s narrative and connect with your audience.
• Actionable data and a compelling online strategy.

Reputation Repair

After a full audit of your current digital reputation, you can begin to not only repair your image, but also build your positive, engaging online presence. This process puts your plan into action based on your current status.

If you have negative links visible to audiences, suppression and removal can help to mitigate their impact. Those with poor reviews can also use review management to improve their ranking on popular platforms.

Eliminating negative links has the potential to improve your bottom line. A 2015 study found that just one negative article can cost you up to 22% of customers!

Reputation Monitoring

For those who don’t have anything to repair—or who are working to rebuild a damaged digital image—reputation monitoring technology can provide a useful tool for staying on top of your online footprint.

With reputation monitoring technology, you’ll receive instant alerts any time someone mentions your brand online. This includes notifications about social media comments and posts, reviews, blog posts, potential privacy threats, and any other positive or negative mentions.

When you know about a threat right away, you can react faster and mitigate the damage. Reputation monitoring provides the ongoing support you need to maintain a positive and profitable online reputation.

You Need ORM

For business owners, time is money. In many cases, the most cost-effective way to design an online reputation management plan is outsourcing.

To learn more about online reputation management—and to schedule a free ORM consultation—contact Reputation Sciences™ today.