Reputation Management: Taking Control of Your Brand

95% of consumers research a company’s products or services before making purchases.  Your company’s web presence and Search Engine Optimization (SEO) go a long way toward getting you those coveted top slots in search results pages, and that attracts new customers.  What if, though, there were unfavorable reviews of your company, or someone in your firm made an unfortunate mistake and got into the press for all the wrong reasons?  Guess what – search engines display the bad information along with the good.

What can a company do to repair their status as a trustworthy organization?  Smart companies take advantage of a strategy called Reputation Management.  This method, used by Swell Marketing, Inc., helps to suppress the bad information and get fresh, positive content to appear at the top of search results.  While it is next-to-impossible to actually remove bad reviews or unflattering news about your company, it is possible to push those bad elements further down in search engine’s results pages.

The SEO experts at Swell approach reputation management in a multi-step process.  First, it is important to assess the damage being caused by the bad information.  This is done by researching the crucial keywords that are triggering display of the negative press or reviews.  Researching those keywords gives the SEO professionals a strong idea of what keywords to use in place of the bad triggers.

Next, it is important to formulate the strategy required to suppress the bad information.   Depending on where bad press is located, the strategy may only require some casual assistance, but if negative reviews appear on trusted news sites or popular consumer review directories, more firepower is needed to overcome the bad information.

Finally, it is time to take action.  Swell’s SEO professionals may do a number of things to get the good information out there, including:

•  Creating or updating business directory listings
•  Creating or refreshing social media platform presences on sites like Facebook, Google Plus, and Twitter
• Create custom websites optimized for search using appropriate keywords and content
• Write, publish, and distribute press releases to the major PR sites
•  Create customized video and image content to host on blogs or social media sites

The timing of this new content is crucial for the success of a reputation management campaign. Content must appear at regular intervals rather than all at once, ensuring that the search engines will see it is organic traffic.  Swell’s network of trusted media outlets and site owners gives them the leverage to start building links to the new content, which is very important for the purposes of getting the new “clean” content to appear at the top of search engine results pages. In short order, consumers will no longer stumble across those unflattering bits of information.

Reputation management can be a daunting task, and sometimes takes a while before it starts showing its benefits.  Swell Marketing is one of the industry leaders in this method, and their track record with some very high-profile clients proves they have the skills to take care of any bad press your company may have had.