Online Reputation Management (ORM)

Some Hard Facts About Online Reputation

I am continually frustrated by how much misinformation there is out there regarding SEO. In many cases, the information is blatantly wrong and in other cases it is just being misapplied.

Most business owners and executives are not savy SEO experts. They all know that this “SEO thing” is important to their business so most are open to learning more.

In an effort to improve our knowledge I thought I would review some common misconceptions.

1. You must have Meta Keywords to boost your organic rankings. This is not true, Meta Keywords no longer have any real value in boosting your rankings. Google doesn’t even consider them in their ranking algorithm that includes well over 100 different factors.  Take Away: If someone is speaking to you about the value of meta keywords, this a red flag that they really do not know what they are talking about.
2. Google Page Rank directly impacts your site’s keyword rankings. There is evidence that Page Rank is positively correlated with rankings on Google.com. However, the degree of correlation is not overwhelming. Page Rank should simply be viewed as a benchmark indicator of Google’s view of the importance of your site.  I regularly see sites with lower Page Rank that rank higher than competing sites with a higher PR.  Take Away: Don’t get hung up on PR. It’s a nice number to look at occasionally but focus your efforts on converting your site visitors to customers.
3. “Our SEO is endorsed / approved by Google.“ Google clearly states that they do not endorse any SEO companies. Companies can be Google Certified in certain Google products, such as Adwords or Analytics. However, these certifications are NOT for SEO.  Take Away: In Google’s words “Beware of SEO’s that claim to guarantee rankings, allege a “special relationship” with Google, or advertise a “priority submit” to Google. Read more from Google on SEO.
4. Guaranteed Rankings. There really is no such thing as guaranteed search engine rankings when you’re dealing with natural search results.  Google states on their on site that “No one can guarantee a #1 ranking on Google.” Read more from Google. Take Away: Any company or individual that promises ‘Guaranteed Rankings’ should treated with extreme caution.
5. SEO is a one-time activity you complete and are then done with. How many times have you heard someone say “We actually just finished SEO’ing our site”?  SEO is not a one-time event. It is an ongoing process that must be actively managed.  Do you think your competitors are going to do a little work and then stop?  As competition online becomes more heated, it is essential that companies engage in an ongoing SEO program.  Take Away: If you’re serious about promoting your business online, then SEO should be a standard component of your marketing plan.
6. Spending money on Google Adwords boosts your natural results. It is understandable to believe that spending money on paid ads with Google will somehow affect your organic / natural rankings. However, it is not true. Google has stated repeatedly that paid ads have no bearing on organic search result, yet this myth continues to live on. Running paid ads in conjunction with an SEO program can certainly be a good thing. It can give you increased visibility which can lead to higher click through rates, more natural inbound links. etc. Take Away: Incorporate a PPC campaign as part your overall online marketing strategy but don’t expect it to have any impact on your SEO efforts.

SEO can be a very confusing subject to the average business person. However, that doesn’t mean that you should ignore it. My advice is to do some research and find a reputable SEO company to partner with…get a basic understanding of their approach to SEO, talk with their clients, and verify results they have achieved.

Here are my top 6 reasons I may hate your website:

1. Slow Load Times – If your site takes more than 4 seconds to load, then chances are I’m not waiting around. Google hates slow page load times too and is starting to incorporate it into their ranking algorithm.
2. Splash / Intro pages – These pages were cool in 2000 but now they just waste my time. I do not care to see the same intro every time I visit your site. An exception would an intro where you’re really telling me something new or making an offer.
3. Poor Web Design / Confusing Layout -  I use the 4 second rule on this one too. I should be able to quickly determine the following: Am I on the right site? Do you have what I need?  What do I need to do next?  Don’t make me think about it.  Your web design needs to lead traffic down a path that leads to conversions.
4. Too Little Information – Give me as much information as I need to move to the next step. If I cannot find the information on your website, then it is likely that I will move on to the next site. A good rule of thumb is to give your visitors as much information  as you can in a manageable format. Give me a quick overview and then give me a link to more detailed information if I want it.
5. Lack of Contact Info – Seriously?  Are you a real business? I’m very skeptical about doing business with a company that doesn’t give me easy access to contact them, if needed.
6. Too Many Google Ads – I really hate sites that are littered with Google Ads. I understand their value but a home page with Google Ads throughout it screams spammer to me. Google hates spam in their search results, yet many of the spammy sites I run across are littered with Google Ads…go figure.

Most of my reasons are common sense, yet I still see websites everyday that I hate. How does your site stack-up?

Another change to Place pages is an increased emphasis on the call to action for users to leave a review. A big red button at the top of the page now urges users to “Write a review.” In fact, this is one of the core features of the new page design. This change means that now more than ever, it’s important to claim and optimize your business Google Place page, ensure consistency across local listings, and request happy customers to leave reviews specifically on your Google Place page.

So What?

Overall, these changes emphasize the importance of including Google in your reputation and reviews strategy. However, it’s still important to have a comprehensive reputation management strategy that focuses on search engines, social media channels, and third-party directory and review sites. For local search engine optimization and reputation management, the overall strategy for reviews doesn’t change based on these updates. It’s still critical to monitor your reputation across the web, acquire lots of reviews on various sites, and engage in reputation management.

With the advent of social technology, it has become increasingly difficult for small business owners to get their hands around all of the information online. Not only do you now have to manage your website, but you probably also have a blog, Facebook Places page, numerous local directory profiles, and more.

So who has time to monitor and manage it all?

There is also the subject of your online reputation – did you know you should be monitoring that too?

The task is simply overwhelming for many business owners. However, it is critically important that you get your hands around it if you want to survive and thrive online. Fortunately, there are a number of tools becoming available online that let businesses manage their web properties and reputation online through a single portal. Want more info?  Give us a call at 864-288-6162.

Its now more important than ever for businesses to claim their Google Place, complete their company profile and ensure they have a well-optimized site with relevant, localized content to ensure strong visibility. Here are 10 things you can do to optimize your Google Place listing.

Step 1 – Make sure you select relevant Place categories
Step 2 – Use long and short tail keywords and avoid duplication
Step 3 – Create customized fields and complete business descriptions using relevant keywords
Step 4 – Integrate photos and videos into your listing
Step 5 – Fill out every applicable field possible, including hours of operation, payment methods and your service area
Step 6 – Use Google Places Posts to keep information current
Step 7 – Encourage online customer reviews
Step 8 – Respond to reviews through Google Places
Step 9 -  Make sure your Google Places flag is in the correct spot on the map
Step 10 – Add coupons and experiment with Google Tags

On February 23rd, Google released a search algorithm update dubbed “Farmer” (aka Panda) that affected some 11.8 percent of Google search queries in the United States.  This latest update was tagged “Farmer” because it impacted sites that specialize in junk content.  These ‘content farms’ flood the Internet with a never ending stream of low quality content. I’m sure you’ve stumbled across a few of these sites laden with useless content and tons of ads.

Specifically, Google identified and penalized the rankings of sites that copy or “scrape” the content of other sites; sites that have low-quality content; sites that have a high ratio of ads to content; and sites that lack brand trust. To put it simply, Google is penalizing sites that don’t provide much value to the user.

So what does this mean to you and your site?

Certainly anyone who employed an SEO who relied on dubious shortcuts took a hit. Unfortunately that includes legitimate well intentioned business people who were simply trying to market their services on the Internet like everyone else. They trusted search engine optimization companies that relied on dubious tactics, or off-shore optimizers with a poor command of the English language who simple scraped and assembled content for other websites.

However, if you have been following good SEO practices, then it is highly unlikely that you were negatively affected.  In fact, you may notice slight improvements in your search engine rankings due to the drop in rankings for sites that were penalized.

Google Counters Bad SEO Tactics

Google actually makes hundreds of changes to its search results ranking algorithm each year in an effort to stay a step ahead of black-hat optimizers who use dubious tactics in an effort to “game” the system rather than produce useful content. We knew this change was coming… we just didn’t know when.  The same thing happened a few years ago with ‘link farms’.

There are no short cuts. There never have been…

Gaming the system has never worked for any length of time. Trying to circumvent Google’s algorithm is short-sighted and ultimately builds your web presence on a house of cards that collapses the moment Google makes a change.

There are certain things that work, and will always work. A professional SEO company knows that Google is happy to reward optimizers that play by the rules and consider that the end game is to serve up the most accurate, meaningful and varied results to the person searching for information.

What’s the upside?

Well if you are just a person searching for something on Google, your chances of finding good quality results just increased. If you are a business who employed a skilled “white hat” Search Engine Optimization company then a lot of the noise on the Internet just cleared out of your way to the top of the results.

I am continually frustrated by how much misinformation there is out there regarding SEO. It seems like every week I have a client ask me about the latest tidbit they were told or read about. In many cases, the information is blatantly wrong and in other cases it is just being misapplied.

Most business owners and executives are not savy SEO experts. They all know that this “SEO thing” is important to their business so most are open to learning more.

In an effort to improve our knowledge I thought I would review some common misconceptions.

1. You must have Meta Keywords to boost your organic rankings. This is not true, Meta Keywords no longer have any real value in boosting your rankings. Three years ago, they had some relevance but not any more.  Take Away: If someone is speaking to you about the value of meta keywords, this a red flag that they really do not know what they are talking about.
2. Google Page Rank directly impacts your site’s keyword rankings. There is evidence that Page Rank is positively correlated with rankings on Google.com. However, the degree of correlation is not overwhelming. Page Rank should simply be viewed as a benchmark indicator of Google’s view of the importance of your site.  I regularly see sites with lower Page Rank that rank higher than competing sites with a higher PR.  Take Away: Don’t get hung up on PR. It’s a nice number to look at occasionally but focus your efforts on converting your site visitors to customers.
3. “Our SEO is endorsed / approved by Google.” Google clearly states that they do not endorse any SEO companies. Companies can be Google Certified in certain Google products, such as Adwords or Analytics. However, these certifications are NOT for SEO.  Take Away: In Google’s words “Beware of SEO’s that claim to guarantee rankings, allege a “special relationship” with Google, or advertise a “priority submit” to Google.  Read more from Google on SEO.
4. Linking out to other sites helps your rank better. I suspect there may be some small, positive effects of linking out to relevant, quality sites for SEO. Google probably considers outbound links in some form or fashion, but I have seen no real evidence that it’s a significant ranking factor. Providing links to other useful sites is good for your visitors and you should do it where it makes sense. However, getting quality,  inbound links to your site is very important in determining how your site ranks.  Take Away: Focus on getting other high quality, related sites to link to your site.
5. SEO is a one-time activity you complete and are then done with. How many times have you heard someone say “We actually just finished SEOing our site”? It drives me nuts. SEO is ongoing process that must be actively managed.  Do you think your competitors are going to do a little work and then stop?  As competition online becomes more heated, it is essential that companies engage in an ongoing SEO program.  Take Away: If you’re serious about promoting your business online, then SEO should be a standard component of your marketing plan.

SEO can be a very confusing subject to the average business person. However, that doesn’t mean that you should ignore it. My advice is to do some research and find a reputable SEO company to partner with…get a basic understanding of their approach to SEO, talk with their clients, and verify results they have achieved.