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.

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. 

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.

Today there are least 18 different ways for a business to be seen in search results, and that doesn’t even count social channels. Different types of search results include Adwords at the top or bottom of the page, the Knowledge Panel, images, reviews, news, shopping, videos and of course normal blue link search results.

Negative content can damage a company or person worse than the author often realizes. Sometimes it can be taken down, other times it must be pushed down or suppressed. An online reputation suppression strategy is based on moving newly created, and existing positive search results, higher up in search engine results in order to move down or 'suppress' negative search results.

Sometimes online reputation projects don't work. There are a number of reasons for a project not working out but a few that stand out. The number one reason is a lack of SEO, but there are other reasons like a disconnect between reality and expectations too. 

Sometimes you need to invoke one law or another to support or attack a particular position. If we had a dollar for every time a politician claimed that “the law states this” or “the courts agree that,” well, we wouldn’t be in the web reputation management business. We’d be sitting on a beach somewhere.

The dirty little secret, though, is that the law—both written statute and decisions handed down by the courts, which are charged with interpreting statute—is often open to interpretation, especially when it’s relatively new and untested. Some of the body of online reputation law fits the “new and untested” bill. And while other elements are more settled, they don’t universally benefit those looking to burnish their online image. So while these five areas of the law may help your web reputation campaign, they may also work against it. In any event, this article will help you weigh the pros and cons, and consider the resources that might be involved.

What is branded content?

Branded content is usually clearly about a brand and appears to either represent it or makes it the subject of the content. In reputation management, it is often more visible and typically contains clear, reputation-enhancing information about you or your company. Whereas Non-branded content, on the other hand, is not about the brand but still supports the industry or other areas of interest relative to the brand.