How to Use Link Building for Reputation Management

Reputation Management, while time consuming, is well worth the effort in order to keep the good name you’ve worked hard for.

 

We all know what it’s like to have people talk about us behind our backs. Oftentimes, things are said that are untrue and downright outlandish. The same can be said about businesses. It could be a competitor trying to soil your name, an employee looking to bring your business down, or even a client who is dissatisfied at the service you gave them.

 

The INTERNET has made it easier for your competitor, past employees or clients to publish negative data through not only review sites but through blogs and RSS feeds. Tens of thousands of blogs are published daily; imagine how many of your clients are reviewing this data.  What do you do when these start to appear in the first page or two of the search results?

 

Reputation Management is essential if you wish to maintain your clientele and brand yourself positively. Fortunately, link building will allow you to manage your online reputation and keep you informed on how you are portrayed in the online community.

 

Press Releases

Press releases are usually written when a new product is being announced, a new service is offered by your company, you have received an award, or anything you feel should be shared with the general public about your business. It is important that press releases are newsworthy, contain links back to your company, and contain keyword phrases important to your business. There are several online press release services that cater to small businesses or big businesses. The more press the better, because the overall goal is to increase positive feedback about your website.

           

Social Networking Sites

A great way to manage your online reputation is through the use of social media sites. The concept is to get more positive sites into cyberspace without the deployment of multiple company sites that can be time consuming to maintain and can add too much extra expense. The great thing about social media sites such as LinkedIn, MerchantCircle, Twitter, Naymz, etc….is that they are free! These sites offer the assurance for your company, no matter the size, to be represented in the first few pages of organic search results with your distinctive key words or brand. These sites integrate your keywords or phrases while also allowing you the ability to connect with a new clientele base, thereby increasing the flow of traffic to your site and most importantly managing your positive reputation.

 

Video

Sites such as YouTube, Break, and Revver allow internet users to search for video pertaining to subject matters they are interested in. Mostly, these sites are used for entertainment purposes. These sites, however, can be beneficial in reputation management. Video is oftentimes given more display importance in search results provided you build links to the videos and get them distributed on other sites. 

While reputation management is not an easy undertaking, you can see how to effectively and thoroughly maintain your positive reputation with the assistance link building.  What other methods would you recommend?

Technorati Tags: link building, reputation management, press releases, twitter, merchantcircle, social media

Tags: Link Building, merchantcircle, press releases, reputation management, Social Media, twitter

11 Comment(s)

1. Jack | Oct 14, 2008 | Reply

   How much time are you finding this work takes for you? It’s mostly hard enough to find time for normal link building in most organizations.

2. Joel Drapper | Oct 14, 2008 | Reply

   Google alerts and google blog alerts are very useful tools. You can stop them alerting you of your own website by typing -site:example.com

3. PMB | Oct 14, 2008 | Reply

   Reputation management is very important to the success of your business.The web can be a anonymous place where negative information can pass.

4. Andy Gershwin | Oct 14, 2008 | Reply

   Great post - thanks for the tips.
   I also use http://www.lookuppage.com as a tool to manage my online reputation. It gives me great online presence and it’s FREE!

   Regards,
   Andy Gershwin
   http://www.lookuppage.com/users/andygershwin/

5. Vertical Measures | Oct 14, 2008 | Reply

   @Jack - it all takes time. No short cuts on the web! (Topic of an upcoming post!)

   @Andy - thanks for the tip.

6. Roger Hamilton | Oct 15, 2008 | Reply

   Thanks for the tips and links! Will take a look at your upcoming post too!

7. LotusJump | Oct 15, 2008 | Reply

   Another method I use for rep management is to build links to *any* web property or blog post that sheds positive light on the person/company in question. It can be tough to fill up that first page of the search engine results sometimes, so make use of anything you can find out there that is already positive.

8. Joseph Murray | Oct 15, 2008 | Reply

   Very interesting strategy. I’ll have to try some of this out myself.

   Thanks
   Joseph

9. Patricia | Oct 17, 2008 | Reply

   Nice tips indeed. Reputation of any kind is always welcome, especially in link building. It could be time consuming but i think it is worth of doing on it.

10. Kari Rippetoe | Oct 18, 2008 | Reply

    How about online forums and Q&A sites? While you certainly don’t want to link spam these places in the name of reputation management, you can certainly improve your reputation while building links by responding to relevant issues and questions.

11. Stephan Miller | Nov 3, 2008 | Reply

    And as a few companies and internet users have learned, it is better to claim your name early especially if you may be a target for imposters.

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