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) offers businesses and websites the chance to be mindful of processes that could potentially damage their reputations – and those which could boost them. These processes include SEO, Paid Search Marketing, Press Optimization, Blogging and Social Media. With SERM, companies have a powerful tool to protect and enhance their online reputation.
Why is SERM important?
Data from ReviewTrackers reveals that 94% of consumers have changed their minds about a business after reading a bad review. It’s important to be aware of this and monitor online reviews, as the reputation of your company has a direct impact on its market value. Plus, people increasingly turn to reviews from fellow users when searching for someone to work with. These sites have become extremely popular in the online community, as potential buyers examine reviews before even connecting with a brand.
Search Engine Reputation Management in Fayetteville (North Carolina)
Our reputation team specializes in monitoring and repairing your online presence. You owe it to both yourself and your business to be aware of how you’re perceived online. Ignorance can potentially cost you quite a bit – something you don’t want to risk. So stay informed and take action where necessary.
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
To maintain and improve your online reputation, you need to keep an eye on it. Utilize search engines, blogs, and reviews platforms among sources to monitor the landscape. Additionally, your company should have a presence on online platforms such as social media or forums where your customers are engaging. You should be able to answer queries and concerns before they lead to negative feedback.
2.- SERP Cleansing
Cleansing SERPs is a process of removing negative results from the first page of the search engine results page (SERP), for the name of your business. It’s essential to optimize the top 10 search results. To do this, you should publish new content related to your organization, such as reviews, testimonials, media coverage, guest posts and other content.
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
Responding to negative content is critical in order to improve customer relationships, and there are several avenues to do so. Communities, forums, and review platforms offer a great opportunity to connect with an unsatisfied customer. By showing your concern and apologizing for their negative experience, you can go a long way towards appeasing and potentially influencing their opinion. However, if you are not actively monitoring the sentiment of customers, you may have to take drastic measures or risk your brand reputation.
5.- Social Media Presence
Social media is an invaluable tool for cultivating an audience, authority and trustworthiness. It provides a great platform for interacting with current and potential customers, while also boosting your SERP rankings. The more engagement that occurs on social media, the higher esteem you are held in by search engines. The positive views and comments about your business or brand directly affect SERPs and improve your online profile.
6.- Push Positive Content
Social media can be an incredibly powerful tool for achieving your business goals. It is effective at connecting you to potential customers, improving your visibility on search engine result pages, and boosting your standing in terms of trust and leadership. With increased engagement on social networks, your credibility with search engines is boosted, making it more likely that you will be seen at the top of the list when someone runs a search on the topic. Posting positive reviews and feedback of your product or service will also have a big effect on SERPs, helping to create a search engine-friendly environment for your brand.
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.
