If you are a local business, it is essential to take steps to ensure you have a positive online presence. You’ve probably heard the common expression, “If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all.” In light of this advice, businesses spend a great deal of time and energy trying to build a strong online reputation. Once you’ve achieved this goal, how do you maintain it? How do you remain relevant in the minds of your customers? What should you do if something bad happens?
There are several factors that can impact an online reputation, such as articles written about you, online reviews about your business or products, and social media actions taken by you. The key is to keep up with these factors so that users will see your business in an accurate context since you are providing information from your perspective. Here we provide some tips on managing your online reputation as a local business.
Download Branding Resources Guide
Building a brand starts by having the right tools and advice. Download our top 10 essential tools and resources to kick-start your branding.
Ensure a Consistent Online Presence
The first thing you should do to manage your online reputation is to ensure a consistent presence. You have to make sure that your business has a website (or a blog) and social media accounts that are active and updated frequently. You must also ensure that your website is up and running. Moreover, your website should be responsive and compatible with mobile devices so that it can be viewed by all kinds of audiences.
Register the Domain Name As Your Brand Name
If you don’t already have a business website, it’s time to get on the ball and register the domain name for your website. It would be advisable to consider your brand name when coming up with the domain name. This will make sure that when people search for your business, they’ll be able to find your website easily.
Your business name is unique, and so will your website/blog name. A distinctive domain name will make your website stand out. It will pop up at the top of the Search Engine Results Page (SERP). In this way, it can save you from strenuous SEO efforts. It even helps you stay out of legal problems and allows your customers to reach you successfully.
Rank Your Business Profiles in Google
There is an enormous amount of competition among local businesses. This competition can make you lag behind your competitors in Google’s search results. Therefore, your reputation is not just about having an online business profile. Optimizing your profile for better search visibility is important too. Here’s where your SEO strategy enters the scene.
Studies have shown that some of the most searched keywords originate within local business pages. So, using the right local keywords will help you get found more easily when people search for relevant information. Ensure that the keywords you use match the content of the website itself. In addition to keywords, other SEO elements like meta tags, backlinks, page speed, etc. matter too.
Watch Over Individuals Associated With Your Business
Make sure all of your employees have their own social profiles on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. This will allow them to share positive information about your business with their network of friends and family members.
But always ensure that they don’t post anything negative about your company. They must not make such a mistake on their personal social media accounts or while dealing with customers. Whether intentional or unintentional, any bad word from your employees side can lead to lost customers. The customers may also decide to leave after reading negative reviews about previous customers’ experiences with someone from your own company.
Listen to Your Audience
Cheerful business people applauding in a meeting
As a business owner, your customer service matters the most. You need to listen to what your audience has to say. Reply to their comments and respond to any bad reviews or online complaints. You can excuse them by apologizing for the bad experience they had. You may later compensate them for this experience. Answer all the questions from your customer’s side on a regular basis. For example, if your customers are having trouble finding some information on any of your platforms, give them tips on how to do so. As an illustration, you may reply with something like: “Try searching for…on our main page.” This will help them find what they’re looking for more easily.
Invest in Maintaining Your Online Reputation
For the reputation management of your local business, hiring some professionals is something that you’re bound to pay attention to. For example, you may need someone who can handle negative reviews and remove them from the Internet as soon as possible. However, there’s more to reputation management than just removing negative reviews.
You have to hire an online marketing agency to handle your marketing campaigns. Then, you’ll need an SEO specialist to optimize your web pages. A social media manager is also needed to handle all of your social media accounts. But if you want all these things to be handled by a single agency, do hire ECentres. This agency has a team of professionals to handle your reputation management in Ireland.
Final Thoughts
Online reputation management is something that local businesses should take seriously. When having a good online presence, can help your business in a variety of ways. You’ll be able to expand your reach by getting more customers, finding new partners, and making more money. But, reputation management in Ireland can be a bit tricky for a small business.
Fortunately, with the right strategies and help from some of the best experts in the industry, it’s been easier than before to manage your online reputation as a local business. With the tips we gave you earlier, you’ll be able to spread positive word-of-mouth like wildfire among potential customers. These will keep your customers coming back to your business for more.
