One of the biggest mistakes people make when performing online reputation management is to build a bunch of different web profiles and fill them with sloppy content. Worse, all these properties often can't be effectively maintained over time, and so lose relevance. The best way to manage reputation is to understand prospective customers, similar companies, and what search engines are looking for.

One of the first steps is to perform a form of competitive research called the search result audit. Here's why. 

Why do some web pages show up "above" the first search result? This is called a Featured Snippet, or "position zero" in the SEO field. It's important because as voice search becomes more and more common, Google uses the featured snippet or "position zero" result for its "one true answers" response to voice searches. For instance, we searched "featured snippet" in Google and here's what happened:

What's the difference between branded and non-branded content? Branded content is clearly about you or your company. Non-branded content is not necessarily about you or your company at all, but it contains references to either. Both types of content include your search phrase and assist in your online reputation strategy, but are structured differently. Both types of content require freshness updates.

A search result audit is part of any reputation management plan, and can make your business better by revealing the strengths and weaknesses of your online brand as seen by your prospective customers. Warning: sometimes it can be a little scary. Search results can be an excellent tool for marketing, research, and development. But their utility goes far beyond into the realm of human intent, understanding, decisions and actions. Every page of search results tells you a story about your customer and what they’re really looking for. The trick is in seeing the intent behind the search results. 

This relatively simple step-by-step inbound content plan will work for most small and medium-sized companies. While the schedule is weekly, it could very well be monthly. It's flexible to fit most time and budget constraints. 

If you've ever wanted to learn search engine optimization (SEO) but don't know where to start - here is a list of the best resources we've found to learn SEO. Most of the steps below are free, some cost money, most just cost a lot of time. You'll also need a website to practice on and a good degree of patience.

ORM, PR, and SEO -- what are all of these acronyms for? Let's break them down, and then delve deeper into how they all fit together.

1. ORM: (Online reputation management) is the repair and maintenance of a person, company, or other entity's online image.
2. PR: (Public relations) is the how organizations, businesses and people communicate with the public and media.
3. SEO: (Search Engine Optimization) is the effort made by online content creators (of words, images, videos, or other media) to help a website rank higher in search engine results.

PR, SEO and ORM are all specialized disciplines of online marketing.

If you’re musing about improving your online reputation, it might help to have an idea of the direction you’re going in. This brief guide can help you formulate a plan and take action.

Brand touch points are like digital fingerprints; they tell a story. What are brand touch points and how do they affect business? Whether you realize it or not, your brand's customer touch points are working to help, or hurt, your organization's reputation with consumers. If a potential customer sees brand-related content and it piques their interest, what will they do next? They may perform a branded search (using your company name), in which case it's up to Google what your customer sees. How dost Google love thee?

PR vs. advertising. What's the difference? Advertising and public relations share a common goal, which is to improve their clients’ visibility, usually with a goal of increasing sales or other tangible benefit. In a corporate setting, you’ll often find advertisers and PR professionals working alongside each other in the marketing department along with people from related areas.