And if your reputation on the Internet is damaged?
In this case, such a concept as business reputation management comes to the rescue. Using a range of different tools, including measures to optimize the image and services of various services and companies, you can correct the situation from 48% negative to 0%. How? Further in the article.
Introductory
Whether it is online reputation management or other services, BDCenter Digital always works on the basis of a non-disclosure agreement - NDA. In this material, all data has been changed, and neither the brand nor the customer has been mentioned under their real name. But even changing the data does not affect the essence of the fact that the competent use of tools for managing a company's reputation leads to a significant improvement in its performance.
How to manage your online reputation
The objective of this case was to remove all negative material about the customer from the first 2 pages of Google in the US region. At the time of contacting the client, the search engine had 48% of negative materials in the TOP-20 search results.
Negative internet reputation in Google search engine
Command
A team of 7 people worked on the project:
- 2 SEO / SERM specialists . Their task is to establish a process for managing the company's online reputation and constantly monitor search results. They were also involved in developing a SERM strategy and removing negative customer reviews.
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The process of working on building a business reputation on the network and correcting the situation.
It took a seven-person team four work months with the equivalent of 560 work hours to root out negativity from Google's TOP 20. How this was achieved - we will tell further
SEO / SERM (Search Engine Reputation Management)
1. Identification of resources with negative information and regular monitoring of changes in reputation on the Internet
The primary task was to identify the sources of negative information in the Google system and determine the keywords that give such results. The specialists needed to analyze the level of negative for key queries in Google, identify the main sites for its placement and draw up an appropriate plan. Having collected the data, the specialists got an idea of the materials and resources to be removed from the TOP-20 searches.
The problem was compounded by the fact that Google regularly changes the algorithms by which it ranks search results. This is due to many factors: for example, the frequency of posting the material, user requests and the content of the resource. Therefore, specialists regularly monitored all changes in the search engine at each stage of the work, and entered all the data into the table:
The tonality of the resource in relation to our person is highlighted in color. All site names are classified.
Insight
Among the factors that influence Google search rankings is the freshness of the content. New material often automatically appears in the first lines of search results. Over time, the material falls in the ranking and can take the second, third and further pages.
2. Placement of materials about a person on sites of different types
Complicating the work is that negative information about the client was on large resources: one of them had traffic of 15 million per month. The most optimal solution was to neutralize the negative by posting a positive material about the client in specialized media with a greater readability and a large number of visitors per month. However, this approach is fraught with two difficulties:
1. The high cost of accommodation. Material in specialized media can be very expensive - $ 4-5 thousand per publication. This was not possible given the budget allocated for the task.
2. Banality. This approach does not take into account the tendency of the search engine Google to produce varied results when sampling for the user. Considering the search engine algorithm that generates results from various platforms, the team decided to focus on the following resources:
- news resources;
- blogs;
- profiles;
- directories;
- video hosting;
- podcast platforms;
- social networks;
- questionnaires;
- interview sites;
- corporate client sites;
- drops;
- platforms for placing presentations.
Platforms for managing reputation on the Internet
3. Making improvements to the client's corporate website
Google algorithms are designed in such a way that they are always the first to show the resources that best meet the user's needs. Usually, Wikipedia, the corporate website and the person's social networks are ranked first in the search engine.
In this case, the corporate site was already on the first lines in the search engine. The agency staff decided to consolidate the position of the resources by optimizing the “Team” section of the website and creating an additional page with the client's biography.
The new two pages hit the top 3 Google results in the US. This helped to reduce the percentage of negativity about the client.
4. Creation of drops
In conditions of limited time to complete a task, you can use a tool called "drop" to achieve a quick result.
By definition, a drop is an Internet resource, the owner of which no longer extends its validity and puts it up for sale. Some of these domains do not fall out of the Google index and have a good link profile.
On the basis of such a domain, a site was created for posting publications about the client. The result was positive: the site got into the TOP-5 of search results within a month.
5. Eliminate Negativeness in Google Images Search
Images in Google also contained negative information about the client. With the help of SERMs, it was necessary to displace not only resources, but also images.
Considering that Google loves uniqueness in visual content, the team relied on placing only new pictures in all published materials.
Example of Google Images Search Results
Recommendations It is
not necessary to always have new photos to manage your online reputation. It is enough to process the existing ones by changing their size, color, tone, background images, etc. Google algorithms will perceive such images as unique and display them in the first search results. However, resizing the image alone will not be enough, since the algorithms for similar images will rank as the same.
Public relations
1. Formation of positive
news feeds The client did not have any special news during the work period, so the agency employees created news feeds on their own. As a good news feed, you can use the news agenda: constantly monitor the latest market events in which the client works, and create expert materials based on his comments.
2. Publications in mass media
The previously described method allowed placing the client's materials on news sites that like “loud” news feeds. And it makes sense to publish expert articles and interviews in specialized publications: they are happy to take such materials.
How to choose the right media for publication? Pay attention to the following criteria:
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Recommendation
One of the press release distribution services can be a good assistant in quickly correcting your reputation on the Internet. In this case, PR Newswire was used for this . It makes it possible to place a large number of publications at once.
Insights
The content of the client's name in the title of the material is a must for better ranking.
If the media in its editorial policy did not allow mentioning the client's name in the headline, then it was pointless to cooperate with such a resource and post material on it.
Sometimes even such large resources as YaHoo Finance give out the ranking results worse than less popular sites, if in the latter the client's name is in the title of the material.
SMM tools
1. Creation and filling of the client's social networks with content.
Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and others are a must for a positive ranking. On the other hand, some networks, like Pinterest, have decided not to use it, as it does not correspond to the industry in which the client works.
LinkedIn gave the best results: it still remains in the first position when asking for a customer name. But, for example, Instagram and tumblr showed themselves worse and were not included in the TOP-20 search results.
Expert content was also posted on social media pages. As a rule, these were excerpts from published articles. Posts were optimized for social media format. networks and added to them photographs specially captured at professional photo sessions.
2. Podcasts and videos
Google loves diverse content. Therefore, in addition to publishing text materials, it makes sense to try out new formats: publish videos and podcasts.
On YouTube and the Vimeo site, client profiles were created and supplemented with several videos, some of which were specially filmed in the studio.
It is not enough to have material only on your own profiles, it is advisable to post it in the profiles of other users. To do this, third-party users shared a video, one of which got to the first search page, thereby improving the SERM indicators.
Podcasts are a very effective tool when published regularly on popular platforms. These sites include iTunes or audioboom.com, which have over 2 million monthly visitors.
Project Manager opinion
The very essence of SERM is the use of a combination of various tools, including SEO, PR, SMM and others. But there are a few principles to follow for best results:
- Constantly review the strategy and adjust it to the changing circumstances of the network.
- Conduct a consistent analysis of work and adjust the strategy based on the results.
- Communicate regularly with the client , agree on cost and strategic steps in content creation.
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Result: the reputation of a person on the Internet was improved with the help of SERM The
tools that were applied helped to radically change the situation with Google search results for the better and replace negative with positive. As a result, we achieved 90% positive results on the first two pages of Google, 10% neutral content and zero negativity towards the customer.
SERM management and effective application of its tools has already allowed the agency to work with large clients, including heads of international organizations, Nobel laureates and many others. For such people, the image is equal to success in the business sphere and career. Experience proves that it is often easier to maintain a positive image than spending money on expensive SERM campaigns.
It is enough to regularly monitor the information background around your own image or brand on the network and carry out operations to improve the results in search engines.