Online Reputation Management is the process of maintaining a good reputation on the internet.

Good online reputation is critical to expanding your business online today. It can make or break a small business. Good online reputation management offers significant benefits to your business and can improve your business substantially.

Today, consumers want to be able to trust the brand before availing of their services. It is common for customers to research a business online before making a purchase. This is where online reputation management can help. A good online reputation management strategy creates positive content about your business which in-turn plays a significant part in decision-making of consumers.

It is thus essential for every businesses, however large or small, to manage its online reputation effectively.

Here are 7 effective reputation management tips your businesses can take advantage of.

1. Visually Appealing & Consistent Branding

Your company’s website will play a major role in determining how your brand is perceived by customers. It is often one of the first places customers will look. In order to come across as reputable, it is essential for your website to be visually appealing and reflect your intended branding.

The same applies to your social networking profiles and other external services your business utilises. It is important for all your web properties and profiles to reflect a consistent branding. This includes your website, blog, and social media profiles.

2. Choose Company Name As Your Domain Name

There are two main strategies for choosing a domain name.  Some businesses prefer to include keywords e.g. “affordablewebsites.com” while others prefer to include their business name e.g. “nobleinfosys.co.uk” or “kronikmedia.co.uk”.

Choosing your business name as your domain name is important for your online reputation and better for branding.

Keyword based domain names can work for some businesses, but in general you should try to avoid this practice as far as possible. Furthermore, Google has announced that it has stopped giving any ranking preference to exact match domain names so there is no real benefit of including keywords.

3. Use Your Company Name in Profile Username

We have already discussed the importance of including your company name in your website’s domain name. The same also applies to other social media profiles and web properties. On most external sites that allow you to create a public profile, your username becomes your public profile URL e.g. on Twitter if your username is “microsoft” then your public profile is accessible on twitter.com/microsoft.

Choose your company name as your username and profile URL consistently across all web properties you use. This makes it easy for your business to get noticed and facilitates brand recognition which are crucial for managing your online reputation.

4. Encourage Positive Customer Reviews

Customer reviews are an excellent way to promote your business and enhance your online reputation. It can be particularly beneficial if you do not have a sufficient advertising budget. Reviews are critical to your online reputation and play a significant part in influencing the purchase decision of consumers.

For best results, don’t limit yourself to publishing reviews on your website. Spread your reviews throughout the Internet. Publish positive customer reviews on your website, blog, landing pages as well as get them published on the top top review sites such as Yelp.

5. Create Multiple Blogs

Blogs are one of the most effective ways to promote a business and drive leads. It is also critical for managing your online reputation. Blogs help to build trust and confidence in your business and establishes your expertise in your niche. The professional approach to blogging involves hosting your own WordPress blog as part of your company’s domain name. But you don’t have to stop at that.

In addition to your primary blog, you can also leverage other popular free blogging platforms like Blogger.com and WordPress.Com. The more web properties you run, better it is for your online reputation. Running multiple blogs will also provide a wider coverage on search engine results and make it easy to dominate results for your brand name as well as for relevant search terms.

6. Dominate Top 10 Google Results For Your Brand Name

Most people, even when people know your website URL, have a tendency to type in the company name on Google rather than typing the URL in the address bar. It is hence important to own as many of the top 10 positions on Google as possible.

One of the easiest ways to achieve this is to utilize several web properties for your business. Any profiles you create on social media, document sharing sites like Slideshare, free blogging platforms you use – all have the potential to rank on the first page of Google when users search for your brand. Give it a try to see for yourselves. Just type in “kronikmedia” on Google and you will see what I mean.

This also helps to keeping negative content about your company out of the first page of search engine results.

As your online visibility and influence grows, you can take this one step further and focus on doing the same for other search terms relevant to your business.

7. Be Active on Your Social Channels

If used correctly, social media can have a huge impact on your online reputation.

Most small businesses already have a presence on at least Facebook and Twitter. But this is not enough. In fact creating an account and not updating it regularly can actually harm your reputation and have a negative impact on your branding. Participating actively on social media is a very effective way to manage your online reputation.

Here are some tips:

• Post at least five times per week
• Use several social networks
• Take advantage of third-party social media dashboards
• Post at times that get the best result
• Share content from several sources, not just your own website
• Connect with other influential users as well as consumers

For more advice read 60 Social Media Marketing Tips for Business.

Conclusion: