The Reputation X Blog Deep thoughts on reputation management and SEO

What is Reputation? Reputation is the subjective qualitative belief a person has regarding a brand, person, company, product, or service.

Ever had your reputation damaged? Hopefully not. But if you have, you can probably understand its sheer importance and strong effect on the way you operate, or whether you operate at all.

In today’s digital environment, reputation is more important, more pervasive, more unforgettable, and more meaningful than ever before. It's really difficult to build, enhance, sustain, and protect a reputation that'll last, and it’s easy to neglect, abuse, reject, or shred a reputation in just a short amount of time. A disaster can happen in minutes, and circle the globe within hours. Let's unpack what reputation really is.

A person or company’s reputation is based on information (of some kind or another). And every reputation is perceived by people (of some kind or another). Put information and perception together, and you have reputation. 

Have you ever bought anything online without looking for customer reviews first? If you’re like most adults in the U.S, your answer should be a straight “No!”. Studies suggest that 72% of online consumers read between two and 10 customer reviews and testimonials before actually making a purchase.Having no online reviews about your company is not a choice either. Because, according to research, even if you get one negative review from a dissatisfied client (or a shrewd competitor who hires fake reviewers to defame you), you’ll need about 12 positive reviews to counter its effects.

Why does it take six months for a website to rank? We get asked this quite a bit. For the most part, it's because there is a lag time of between 10 and 20 weeks before listings start to improve in search results. The exception to the rule is viral content—if users signal content is of superior value, and they do so quickly, search listings can improve in hours. Unfortunately, not every piece of content is going to go viral.

One of the first questions we get from most of our reputation management clients is “How long will reputation management take?”. (The next question is of course "how much does ORM cost".) Their anxiety is understandable considering that more than 80% of consumers now search Google before doing business with a company. What Google’s first page says about your business practically determines how potential clients and partners see you. And this is why determining just how long it will take to conquer that first page and secure your brands online reputation is not as simple as you might think.

Search engines, bloggers and video sites remove thousands of posts every day. Why? Knowing what can be removed, and why, can help clean up and improve how a brand is seen very quickly.

Why did the organic for your branded search traffic just drop off? Was it a search algorithm change or was it the content of your results that changed? It's a nightmare situation when suddenly you find that you're ranking for negative search phrases appended to your brand name, like "fraud" or "scam." Prospects are fleeing.

Online reputation statistics change regularly. This guide was last updated April 2018.

Websites that are "authoritative" in their space rank much better. Google pays more attention to authoritative sites and pages. But how does a website become "authoritative"? Leverage different kinds of media to accomplish your goals. 

Which search phrases are killing your business?

Imagine your customer gets your business’s address from a friend, comes to your storefront, and every single negative review from the last ten years is taped to the windows. At the same time, someone on the sidewalk yells through a megaphone, “don’t shop here even if it’s the last store on earth!” while a video showcases old footage of an employee stealing from a customer. Ouch.