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) gives businesses and websites the opportunity to monitor activities that can affect their public image, both positively and negatively. This includes optimizing Search Engine Results, Paid Search Advertising, Press Release Optimization, Blogging, and Social Media Marketing. By taking advantage of all of these methods, companies can manage and maintain their reputation.
Why is SERM important?
The ReviewTrackers data shows that 94% of buyers are influenced by negative reviews and won’t do business with the related company. It is therefore essential to manage your online reputation, due to these three factors:
– Your company value is tightly bound up with public opinion.
– Many customers chose whether to engage with someone or an organization depending on what they learn when searching online.
– An increasing number of review sites on the web demonstrates that consumers check out what other people have said before communicating with a brand.
Search Engine Reputation Management in Tacoma (Washington)
Our experts are dedicated to making sure your online reputation looks its best to potential customers. It’s essential to be aware of your online presence – not having knowledge of what’s being said on the web isn’t just irresponsible, it can be detrimental to your business. Monitor and take action to protect your reputation and ensure success.
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
Proactive Monitoring is key to protecting and improving your reputation online. Search across a range of online channels, such as search engines, blogs and review platforms, to stay up to date with how you’re seen by your customers. Being active in these online conversations means you can address queries, answer complaints and handle feedback before it has a chance to turn negative. This will help build your company’s reputation on the Web.
2.- SERP Cleansing
SERP Cleansing is the practice of removing negative search engine results from the top pages. To optimize the top ten search results for your business, create new, impactful content such as customer reviews, media coverage, guest posts and other positive content about your company. Aggressively publishing this type of content can have a huge impact on your search engine results.
3.- Improve SEO
Enhance SEO by making sure to:
- Increase relevancy and authority with content that is related to your target audience.
- Improve visibility by promoting the content on social media platforms.
- Boost ranking by creating backlinks from other sites.
- Reduce the impact of negative content by creating and optimizing press releases where you control the message.
To optimize your SEO efforts, aim to:
- Increase relevancy and authority of your website by creating content tailored for your target audience.
- Improve visibility by promoting the content across a variety of social media platforms.
- Boost ranking with backlinks from trusted sites.
- Minimize the impact of negative news by creating and optimizing press releases that share your viewpoint.
4.- Respond to Negative Content
Monitor consumer forums and review platforms in order to stay informed of public opinion. It’s essential to take action to reply to and try to diffuse negative content as soon as it’s found. Reach out to the customer to apologize for poor experience and rectify the situation. This will show that your company is willing to work to meet customers’ satisfaction and that their opinion has been heard. Moreover, demonstrating that your brand is true to its promise may endear potential customers and build positive relationships.
5.- Social Media Presence
Social media is an effective tool to foster audience growth, trust and influence. By connecting with customers, increased engagement can help build SEO rankings and online presence. Positive feedback from customers boosts reliability in the eyes of the search engines, positively impacting search engine results page positions. Fostering trust and brand awareness enhances search engine performance.
6.- Push Positive Content
Social media is a great way to expand your customer base, enhance your reputation as a leader, and foster trust. It gives you a platform to reach out to customers, helping you to improve your visibility in SERPs. Growing positive recognition and feedback of your company on social media will have a major influence on search engine rankings. The more engagement you can generate through social media, the greater the level of trustworthiness search engines give your brand.
Conclusions for SERM
In order to get started with Search Engine Reputation Management (SERM), there are three important steps to consider:
- Monitor your online reputation. This is especially important in order to protect your brand online and offline. Monitoring activities on social media and building a loyal following is key.
- Pay attention to customer feedback. Transparency is important in order to build trust, so attend to all comments, both positive and negative.
- Leverage SERM experts. Our team of reps can guide you through the process and has worked on more than 500 projects across 30+ countries.