Do you know what people are saying about your business? If you’re just assuming (or hoping) people are singing your company’s praises, you’re making a mistake. What if you’re wrong? What if a few unhappy customers shared reviews of your business online? What kind of impact might that have?

To be frank, any ding against your reputation can end up having dramatic effects on your organization’s success. How? Take a look at the following statistics to gain a better understanding of how negative reviews or comments can influence your success and the importance of managing your online reputation:

  • 90 percent of consumers look through online reviews prior to visiting a business
  • Online reviews influence 67.7 percent of purchasing decisions
  • 84 percent of consumers trust the reviews they read online as much as they trust a personal recommendation
  • 74 percent of people claim positive reviews increase their trust in local businesses
  • For every star increase in a Yelp review, businesses increase their revenue an average of five to nine percent
  • 93 percent of consumers don’t go past the first page in search engine results pages
  • Companies are susceptible to losing 22 percent of potential business when prospects see just one negative thing on the first page of SERPs, 44 percent when there are two negatives, 59.2 percent when there are three negatives and 70 percent when there are four negatives

The Keys to Successful Reputation Management

In today’s connected society, it’s crucial for you to actively manage your company’s reputation using every tool at your disposal, including search engine optimization, local SEO and digital marketing. You need to engage in social monitoring to find out what people are saying about your business. Monitoring isn’t enough, however. You need to respond to the comments people make and the reviews they write. This is particularly important if someone makes a negative comment or scripts a derogatory review.

You also need to be completely transparent and resist the temptation to remove negative comments or reviews. You need to respond to negative mentions quickly, politely and in a manner that reflects well upon your business. It’s easier to do this if you look at negative comments and reviews as opportunities to show everyone how well you handle controversial comments because that’s exactly what they are – opportunities to flex your public relations muscles.

You need to consider your page one in Google SERPs as your business card, a card by which your organization will be judged favorably or harshly. If you currently see negatives on your Google page one results, you need to create an SEO strategy to aggressively improve how the positive things that are said about your business rank in SERPs about your business.

Learn more: Places you should be managing your brand reputation.

Get the Help You Need at LP Creative Co.

If you need help with your reputation management because what you’re currently doing, or not doing, isn’t enough to protect or restore your organization’s brand image, we can help. Our digital marketing agency provides SEO services, website design services and much more to small and midsize businesses in many industries. One of our most sought-after services is reputation management. Start protecting or restoring your company’s reputation with just one phone call or message. Contact LP Creative Co. now.

Tags: ,