Billions of people in the world today find their information using online search engines and the multitude of sites that appear in results. Online reputation management has become as much a part of PR as offline PR. If you operate a business, you need people online to view you positively. This takes a lot of hard work and plenty of restraint. The open environment of the net, where you can type anything and have it instantly read, makes it a dangerous place for businesses to communicate. Say the wrong thing and business can be irreparably damaged. Say the right thing, and you’ve got a flock of new customers.
If you haven’t read the 8 can’t-miss off-page SEO strategies to build your online reputation article, that one is highly recommended. It contains a healthy amount of information about how one technique – of-page SEO – can positively impact your reputation online. Off-page SEO is most commonly associated with the links to your site that reside on other websites, but it’s not limited to this very small category of strategies. Consider for a moment the number of places that are off your website that can affect your search engine rankings.
Social media marketing is an incredible important “off-page” SEO technique that every website should utilize. When you have things posted to your social media pages, you’re controlling your reputation in a much less formal environment than on your business website. If your business actively engages in conversations on other social media pages, too, then you have another area where your online reputation must be carefully protected.
How your website is perceived off your page tells search engines a lot about the value of your website. If you’re highly discussed in a positive light on social media pages, forums, and directly on other websites, then search engines often perceive your site as more valuable than other websites. It’s important to control your online reputation by monitoring backlinks to ensure that you’re being mentioned positively on other websites. When you’re not, you can develop a strategy for removing those backlinks and replace them with something much more positive to your reputation.
Monitoring is a big keyword in reputation management. You can’t know what’s being said about your content unless you can locate the links through an online scan. Once you’ve found the many websites that have linked back to your content, you get an overall idea of what your reputation is online. It’s important to KNOW what your reputation is in any business endeavor. Once you know the verdict, you can work to change it if it’s not positive.
While on-page SEO, where you work with keyword density, meta tags, and quality content, will always be the first thing people think of when they think of SEO, it’s vital that websites realize just how important Off-page SEO is to their reputation online. These links to your site DO count and matter to search engines. Always monitor them and make sure they’re positive to your image.
