Why would you want online reputation repair services? Entrepreneurs understand that the opinion of internet users can influence customer purchasing decisions. Knowing how online reviews work is crucial for any firm seeking to uphold a positive online presence. Read along for more details about online reputation management.
Can I Remove Negative Reviews?
In today’s world where customer demands vary, your business is likely to get some negative reviews. One of the main worries among business owners is how to remove or have bad reviews removed from Google. Is this even possible? Yes, it is. However, only the reviewer can remove them.
Some illegitimate reputation management companies may claim to help you remove bad reviews from leading review sites. However, it’s worth mentioning that some of the popular review sites such as Yelp and Google strive to deliver genuine and untarnished reviews.
Google will even blacklist businesses that attempt to either pay someone to conduct unfair promotion of reviews or write false reviews. What this means is that you cannot remove negative reviews from Yelp, Google, and other leading review sites. However, this is not the end of the road because you can still manage bad reviews. Let’s find out how to go about the management process.
Be Responsive Instead of Reactive
As an entrepreneur, you should check and respond to both good and bad reviews online. Doing so allows you to engage with your customers and display your recognition for their comments. Sometimes you will encounter harsh reviews about your business. The best action to take in such conditions is to control how you respond.
Never try to defend yourself. Instead, adopt the ‘customer is always right’ approach, and give them a genuine apology. Let the customer understand that you care about their experience, and give them the option of reconciling. For example, you can offer a coupon or even refund their money. Even after handling the customer’s complaint, you should look at the root cause and fix it internally.
Be Proactive about Bad Reviews
Being reactive when responding is better than being reactive. Every business owner knows that a bad review is one of the prices you have to pay for owning a business. As a result, you should always have a plan to counter them.
To prevent customers from encountering bad reviews, encourage your consumers to leave a review online after every interaction or transaction. This action will boost the number of consumers who take part in the review process, and this is likely to give you more positive reviews.
As we have mentioned, bad reviews are part of a business. However, having more positive reviews than negative ones is better than having more negative reviews. Adopt proper processes to provide excellent customer experiences, and the rest will fall in place with ease.
Engage Bad Reviewers
Respond to bad reviews with a question to show reviewers that you have seen their complaints and would appreciate more information to solve the problem. Demonstrate empathy by tendering your apology. Once you have come to an agreement with the reviewer and offered a solution, you may request them to reconsider their review. Only tender your request once you are sure that the reviewer is contented.
How to Choose an Online Reputation Management Service that Meets Your Needs
Choose an online content reputation management service provider whose strategies comply with Google’s best practices. Also known as white hat tactics, these strategies are not only transparent but are also based on excellent SEO practices and quality content to enhance your reputation.
A reputation management drive that is based on white hat tactics may take long to generate results, but when it does, the results will last longer. Black hat strategies, on the other hand, may produce fast results by they are risky and aggressive. Search engines can even prohibit you from utilizing them. Here are tips to help you choose a reputable online reputation repair service provider.
· Define Your Goals and Needs
Understand your goals before embarking on your search for an online reputation repair service provider. Do you want to monitor and enhance your online presence? Perhaps you want to de-clutter your social media channels. Are you focused on boosting your SEO ranking? Do you require help in the management of your online reviews? Remember, like different entrepreneurs have different goals, online reputation management companies offer varying services.
· Research
Your research should go beyond establishing whether the service provider uses black hat techniques. Google search the company to determine what other people are saying about it. Request a list of their clients and contact them to get first-hand information about their experience with the provider.
Go to their website and establish whether or not it looks professional. Is there any information about the firm’s top executives? If they are, research them to figure out the status of their online image.
· Is Online Reputation Repair Possible?
An Online Reputation Management (ORM) service provider can help you salvage your damaged reputation. If you are struggling with constant negative or authoritative results engaging an effective online reputation repair service provider would be ideal. Still, you ought to understand that the details in each situation differ. The appropriate route to achieving authentic online reputation repair would be through:
- Developing an optimized foundation
- Initiating credibility and audience
- Clearing negative content that you have control over
- Focusing on growth opportunities
Adopting this strategy is better than attempting to clear negative reviews because it focuses on your online reputation wholly.
How to Execute the Internet Reputation Repair Process
Image damaging crises can affect both your business and personal reputation. They tarnish your Google search results with bad quality content that does not reflect your personal or brand traditions. Here are tips to help you repair your reputation.
· Determine the Source of the Reputation Problem
Often, a bad reputation could result from a content gap that business owners fill with any positive or negative content that Google can detect in its index. Entrepreneurs should understand that a viral news cycle generates negative content inequality around one event. It’s crucial to be thorough during your search. Here are some questions you can ask yourself:
- Did a competitor create an unbiased comparison website regarding your business?
- Is it a negative bing review from your CEO or a viral complaint about a recall?
- Are unhappy former employees leaving negative reviews on review sites?
You will need to outline your whole search landscape. Some reputation management firms analyze up to the inaugural 500 results. By determining the root cause of the problem, you will not only handle it clearly, but you will also start developing a positive reputation.
· Execute Online Reputation Repair at the Source
The fact that Google will not remove negative content from search results does not limit you from trying to solve the problem at the source. If a blogger or media firm published a damaging story about you or your business, you could try to reach out to them. Talk to them politely and request them to delete or update the content. If you choose to contact the publishers, remember to:
- Be polite
- Should the publishers remove the content, make sure it does not appear on Google’s index
- Present your request in writing and ensure it is as detailed as possible
- Avoid threatening legal action. Doing so could escalate the matter.
· Clear-away Negative Results from Google
If you manage to correct the problem or clear the content, present a content removal requisition to Google. Remember, this strategy will only be effective if the content is no longer available. If you cannot clear online search content from the internet or origin, you may want to push negative results to the base of the search engine results pages.
· Create Positive Content to Boost Your Online Presence
One of the most effective methods of restoring a bad reputation while protecting it is to enhance the internet properties you control and own. Improve your current content and publish more suitable and timely content that customers are interested in. you can achieve this by:
- Managing solid social media profiles and a social media presence on various platforms
- Creating timely and interactive press releases that clearly and accurately illustrate your company’s mission and voice
- Publishing positive review pages and blog posts that display your positive brand concept and customer loyalty
- Developing backlinks that advocate for clarity and positive brand sentiment
It is worth mentioning that developing positive content can be a difficult task. You will need the skill to produce high-quality content that generates excellent results in the search engine results pages. To maintain a constant social media presence, you need one or two dedicated individuals to run your social media platforms and handle customer engagement.
· Can you Conduct the Online Reputation Repair Process by Yourself?
Yes. You can manage a few reputation problems by yourself. For instance, you can request the webmaster to clear your mugshot from their website. However, it is worth mentioning that the required expertise and workload far exceeds the abilities and capacity of many businesses struggling with online reputation challenges.
To create positive content, you need skilled writers, SEO analysts, and PR experts. To develop a lifelong online reputation, you will need to engage a reliable reputation repair service provider. However, if you are working on a budget, then you can use reputation repair tools instead. Google Alerts, for instance, is an essential tool that transforms brand monitoring. You will receive notifications every time the search engine identifies a keyword that you are pursuing.
What to Expect from an Online Reputation Repair Service?
While some entrepreneurs may want to achieve negative search results, this may not be an indication of success. Zero negative search results do not include what people searching your business consider a success. Lack of negative search results disregards the demand for positive search results.
What do public relations agencies do when a big company encounters a reputation-damaging challenge in real life? They release a press statement to talk about their side of the story. Online reputation repair service providers do the same when your search results generate negative information about your brand.
Reputation repair promotes positive relationships with your target audience and consumers, especially following a reputation-damaging activity. Online reputation repair businesses strive to counter poor search results in Google to carve your narrative.
While many people opine that online reputation management service providers delete unfavorable reviews, this is not the case. These firms leverage SEO (search engine optimization) to offer brand-confirming positive content. The content then drives the negative reviews out of the first page on Google.
Online Reputation repair FAQs
· How long does the Online Reputation Repair Process Take?
There is no fixed timeframe when it comes to online review management. However, Google acknowledges adjustments in indexed profiles and sites after two to six weeks. However, this does not mean that all your profiles and sites will shoot to the first page of search engine results automatically.
Changes occur depending on your specific situation, and you could start noticing a few changes in rankings a few months after developing and optimizing your profiles and websites. Sometimes these changes could take up to a year or even more, but case studies show that each situation is unique.
· How do I Determine the Reputation Repair Strategies You Require?
Different online reputation management strategies can improve your brand image online. To understand what works, it is crucial to evaluate your current reputation. Conduct an online search for your business name to see what appears. If there are numerous negative comments, then you will need to work on improving the search engine optimization of your existing content.
· How much does Online Reputation Repair Cost?
Online reputation repair pricing ranges between $2,500 and $80,000 monthly. Costs have a direct connection to the resources you need to solve reputation problems. For example, if you run a big company, then you will need to hire a reputable firm. While there may be cost implications, you would not want to deal with low budget PR firms that probably offer substandard services.
· How do I Pick the Ultimate Online Reputation Repair Service?
Picking the ideal online reputation repair service is based on strategy, people, and execution. Choose a firm with a well-trained, skilled, and an experienced in-house team capable of fixing large-scale problems.
Consult WaveReview for all Your Online Reputation Repair Problems
Are you struggling to run your business while monitoring your online reputation? Contact us today, and we shall handle all your reputation needs. By working with us, you will have enough time to focus on the crucial parts of running your business.
