SEO & Reputation Management: Why They Are Crucial To The Modern Business Model

Ritesh Warke

Having a bad online reputation is damaging not just to your business' profit, but also to your growth as a company. One bad review can cost your company any customer with access to the bad review. Once something is online, it is very hard to remove it. Using search engine optimization to up your company outreach is great, but online marketing is more complicated than just SEO statistics.

We All Research Before Acting

According to an article written on njsmarketingjax.com, about 82% of consumers do research online about businesses and products before actually making a purchase.  If your company has any negative ratings, this means that about 82% of your customers will be able to read them. Obviously, this can cause your company to lose sales.
The best way to make sure that these negative reviews don't dampen your sales is to offset any negative comments with more positive ones. Most people will probably not make a purchase if you have a 50/50 split with positive and negative comments, but that hesitance is easily lost if your company has many more positive comments than the negative.

SEO Helps Potential Customers Find You

With search engine optimization, you allow your website to talk to search engines in a more efficient way. You allow information on your website to be indexed in a way that helps potential customers find you more easily, helping you to expand your business.
The trick, however, is making sure that you have designed a website that is easy for both human readers and robot (search engine indexing) readers. With good SEO, you help search engines figure out what your page is about and what kind of customer base you have.

Tips and Tricks to Getting Positive Reviews

In order to get those positive reviews, here are a few tips to try out for your business.

• Read the reviews you have now. You won't be able to make your customers happy if you aren't listening to them.
• Consider using your social media sites to ask for reviews from the people who already follow your page.
• Make your web presence known by creating social media accounts, or you could even hire a services company.  These companies manage your online presence and help you figure out what steps to take in order to give you a positive presence.
• In the event that you do get a bad review, make sure to respond as soon as possible. Don't respond with emotion -- instead, respond with an offer to make the entire situation better for the customer. Potential customers will love that your business cares about how they feel.

When thinking about your business' online presence, don't forget about how important it is to please your customers and reach as many people as possible. With positive reviews and good SEO, not only will your reach be wide, but your customers will be happy and more likely to buy from your company.