What is Search Engine Reputation Management?
SERM, short for Search Engine Reputation Management, is an online marketing strategy that encompasses a range of activities. These activities include Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Paid Search Marketing, Press Optimization, Blogging and Social Media. Through SERM, businesses can increase their visibility in search engine results, while managing their online presence to ensure they are portrayed in a positive light.
Search engine reputation management (SERM) provides businesses and websites with the tools to track activities that could potentially affect their reputations, as well as techniques to promote a positive image. To achieve these objectives, SERM encompasses Search Engine Optimization, Paid Search Marketing, Press Optimization, Blogging and Social Media.
Why is SERM important?
94% of people are swayed by a negative review they find about your business, so it’s imperative to monitor and manage your online reputation. Your market value is directly connected to your reputation, and people are increasingly relying on reviews when choosing with whom to do business. Online reviews can have a profound influence on modern consumers, which is why it’s necessary to stay on top of your online presence.
Search Engine Reputation Management in New Orleans (Louisiana)
Our team of professionals possess the expertise to analyze and maintain your digital reputation. It is essential for your business to be mindful of your online presence, as neglecting it could prove detrimental. Therefore, create a strategy to ensure that you are always in command.
How does SERM Work?
Once a brand has faced reputation issues, the next step is restoring their online profile. At our company, we help brands influence a positive view of their brand through online reputation strategies. We use search engine reputation management (SERM) to manipulate the public reputation in a positive direction. SERM combines SEO, social media, and content marketing plus PR to enhance the overall online reputation of the brand. We take the following steps:
- Implement strategic content marketing and promotion on the website and various social media platforms.
- Enhance SEO tactics to encourage visibility of positive content.
- Eliminate any negative posts or content with negative sentiment.
1.- Proactive Monitoring
To maintain and improve your online reputation, you need to keep an eye on it. Utilize search engines, blogs, and reviews platforms among sources to monitor the landscape. Additionally, your company should have a presence on online platforms such as social media or forums where your customers are engaging. You should be able to answer queries and concerns before they lead to negative feedback.
2.- SERP Cleansing
Cleansing SERPs is a process of removing negative results from the first page of the search engine results page (SERP), for the name of your business. It’s essential to optimize the top 10 search results. To do this, you should publish new content related to your organization, such as reviews, testimonials, media coverage, guest posts and other content.
3.- Improve SEO
To improve SEO, it is important to:
- Analyse the existing website backlinks and work on improving their quality
- Detect and fix any broken links within the website
- Develop a content strategy and generate high-quality content
- Use relevant keywords which better target the target audience
- Optimize page and images for mobile and desktop search
- Improve page loading and response speed
In order to improve your website’s SEO, it is essential to analyze the current backlinks and work on improving their quality. Additionally, detecting and addressing any broken links within the website is important to ensure that users have an optimal experience. Furthermore, a content strategy should be developed to create and publish high-quality content on a regular basis and using relevant keywords to better target the desired audience. Moreover, pages and images should be optimized for both mobile and desktop users while improving page loading and response speed.
4.- Respond to Negative Content
It is essential for businesses to keep an eye on all consumer forums and review platforms. That way you can address any negative feedback, apologize for the unpleasant experience, and work to solve the problem. If handled in a timely and polite fashion, this type of active response can turn a dissatisfied customer into a brand advocate. Additionally, it is worth noting that responding quickly and appropriately to customer service complaints can prevent larger-scale PR disasters from occurring. Doing so demonstrates respect towards the customer, shows that you care about their opinion, and helps protect your reputation as a reliable and credible business.
5.- Social Media Presence
Social media is a powerful tool to help build credibility, authority, and trust with your customers. By consistently engaging and connecting with your audience, you can significantly enhance your SERP positions. All of the positive comments and feedback that occur on your social media channels provide Search Engines with an indication of your trustworthiness and authority, resulting in improved rankings.
It’s an excellent way to continually connect with your customers and promote your brand. By actively participating on social channels, you’ll create more opportunities to engage with your target audience and gain a more positive online presence. Ultimately, this will lead to improved SERP positions.
6.- Push Positive Content
Social media can be an incredibly powerful tool for achieving your business goals. It is effective at connecting you to potential customers, improving your visibility on search engine result pages, and boosting your standing in terms of trust and leadership. With increased engagement on social networks, your credibility with search engines is boosted, making it more likely that you will be seen at the top of the list when someone runs a search on the topic. Posting positive reviews and feedback of your product or service will also have a big effect on SERPs, helping to create a search engine-friendly environment for your brand.
Conclusions for SERM
Getting started with SERM is easy when you take cognisance of a few key things. First, it’s important that you monitor your online and offline presence – this helps you protect your reputation. Additionally, it’s essential that you foster a good online presence through active social media, helping you build and maintain relationships with your customers. Finally, don’t forget to pay attention to customer feedback – responding to both positive and negative comments can win you trust and respect. If you need extra support, the Search Engine Reputation Management experts at our networks of agencies have worked on projects in more than 30 countries and counting.