5 Reasons Why Your Business Needs Reputation Management

As an Australian business, consider that a whopping 98% of Australian consumers read online reviews before making a purchase decision.

This means the online reviews and comments people post about your business do matter.

So what are the implications if your business gets negative reviews? Or if a disgruntled customer leaves a glaringly nasty comment? The truth is that this type of user-generated content will have real, detrimental effects on your reputation.

But don’t worry, there is a solution – Online Reputation Management (ORM). Read on to learn more about how this invaluable online service can benefit your business.

Online Reputation Management – A Simple Definition

Simply put, Online Reputation Management serves as a digital public relations team that works around the clock to boost the reputation of your business.

Consumers will quickly get an idea of the quality of your business from a simple Google search. And since 87% of online consumers comparison shop when making purchase decisions, your online reputation can make or break your success.

By implementing proven ORM strategies upfront, you can save yourself a lot of trouble and headaches by having fast-acting damage control in place should things get dodgy online.

That’s why we’ve outlined these five reasons why you need a solid Online Reputation Management campaign for your business.

1. Secure Your Business Domain Authority

Of the 98% of Australians that read online reviews, 94% deem them trustworthy. This gives highly-rated businesses the advantage of consumer trust from the get-go. If the reviews are positive, of course.

Having great reviews means that your business is significantly more likely to appear at the top of search engine results pages and achieve a higher domain authority.

However, if the reviews are negative, this will cause serious adverse effects for your site’s domain authority and visibility overall. To make sure that your business achieves an outstanding online presence, Online Reputation Management offers a range of key strategies.

ORM campaigns work by minimising negative search results that exist online about your business, while concurrently indexing as many positive URLs as possible. This is accomplished by configuring accounts across the most popular Q&A and crowd-sourced online review forums, bringing positive feedback to the top of the search.

2. Monitor Online Activity With Real-Time Tracking

Once you have an Online Reputation Management campaign in place, you’ll receive automatic notifications the moment your business is mentioned online. You’ll also have 24/7 access to digital reports about all online activity.

Depending on the type of business you have, monitoring these alerts can be a full-time job. But regardless of the number of online mentions you receive, keeping track of every review, criticism, praise, or simple comment can distract you from other important things – like growing your business.

That’s why using a digital agency for ORM services is such an advantage – having them handle the critics helps you stay focused on your business, your customers and your bottom line. 

ORM also allows for complete campaign tracking – including online traffic growth, market share against competitors, referral sites, and important keyword ranking across search engine results pages (SERPS). 

With on-hand access to all of this information, you can easily assess areas for improvement and take steps to adjust and implement a more effective digital marketing strategy.

3. Boost Your Brand With SEO

Search Engine Optimisation is an invaluable part of Online Reputation Management because it’s used to improve a brand’s reputation. 

One of ORM’s core strategies is building numerous links to external and social media profiles. As an example, ORM classifies LinkedIn pages as external profiles, which are also known as “parasite” URLs. Typically, parasite URLs are subdomains or subpages that affect the “root” (or primary) domain.

Through SEO link building, you not only increase your domain authority – but also boost page results and build stronger online connections which all mean more positive results for your business.

4. Create a Positive Brand Image

When a potential customer looking for a product or service performs an online search, Google automatically lists a set of businesses. The businesses with the strongest web authority are the ones that get listed first – a feature in which high ratings play an integral part. 

As shown in the Google search results image above, the top three businesses for a local nail salon in Burleigh Heads are those with at least a four-star rating. This is key because statistics show that 49% of online visitors require a 4-star rating or higher before making a purchase or choosing a service.

How can you achieve these results as a business? The answer is microsites. A proven ORM strategy is to create microsites as a separate domain – or often a subdomain – which serves as an extension of your brand. Among other things, this will help boost your primary site’s positive ranking.

5. Optimise Your Brand’s Image

At First Page, we offer an unrivalled selection of Online Reputation Management services, tailored to Australian businesses.

We evaluate proven strategies on a case-by-case basis, ensuring they’re the ideal tools to optimise your specific brand. These strategies can include utilising your business social media channels as buffer sites, developing a content strategy to alleviate existing concerns, click-through reputation management, and much more.

Why not contact our digital marketing experts to receive a FREE reputation management quote. 

Once you’ve refined your brand’s reputation with ORM, then you’re ready to become a social media superstar! Why not explore how to Take Your Social Media to the Next Level with These 7 Content Apps and How to Increase Engagement on Instagram.