Managing your reputation

isn’t always easy. There are tools and resources that can be helpful but it can take work to make sure your clients and prospects see the best of what the web says about you when they put on their sleuth hats to check you out. More consumers than ever do a bit of a background check before dealing with any new supplier online. The web has taught us that good news may spread but that bad news spreads like wildfire. A potential customer is more likely to see 1 bad review than the 100+ good  google Suggest reviews that are out there if you’re not carefully managing your online reputation.

Google Suggest – Friend or Foe?

Google Suggest aims to enhance the experience for the user by suggesting what it thinks they’re looking for. As they begin to type, Google tries to anticipate what they want. This info is gathered based on several factors such as high ranking and user browsing history. If you’re not carefully managing your brand and your reputation, terms that could be potentially harmful could be suggested.

Is Your Brand Suffering?

If your brand is taking what feels like a pounding, chances are that it may be time to look deeper than simply optimizing your brand name alone. Your brand could be suffering from abuse. Freedom of speech, be it warranted or not, could hurt your brand. One unhappy customer out of hundreds could launch online warfare on your business and harm you in a big way.

For example, your brand might be named xyz & while the Google Suggest dropdown box might display your brand name first, it could also be followed by search suggestions like xyz+scam or in common terms in Australia, xyz+accc.

Even though people searching for your brand aren’t necessarily hunting for the bad listings, they could be more attracted to look at these listings first. It could create a suggestion of suspicion. Do you know what they’ll find when they get there? It’s prudent to check. It’s even more prudent to work to encourage Google Suggest to list other terms by trying to rank for and be associated with more than just a few phrases.

Damage Control

You can’t always stop Google Suggest so instead of fretting, you can also rank for xyz+scam by answering the question “Is xyz a scam?” If you rank better for that phrase  google Suggest than the person ranking there today, there could still be a favourable outcome because you have an opportunity to show your prospect that you’re a reputable company.

SEO Companies Can Help

When you employ an expert company which specialises in cutting edge strategies for reputation management and SEO they can quickly turn around a potential date with online disaster into relief by pushing unwanted publicity out of the limelight and replacing it with organic content that helps your business and your brand.