This one is simple.
Google yourself.
Basically you should Google your business name,
business address and keywords on Google.
You need to see every scrap of information that your potential customers
are seeing.
If you are selling semi permeable membrane to science
labs, then it does not matter what they are saying about you on the chicken
fancier’s website. If you have an online
strategy, then one can only assume that you are targeting a certain group of people. That means that your online reputation or
Google reputation only extends to that target area. So what THEY see is your reputation, and not
what everyone else sees.
For example, a company may produce a website that has
a Flash intro. These are pretty much
condemned as sacrilegious by most website designers and programmers, even
despite the fact that in 2005 they were the bee’s knees. In this hypothetical
situation your website may be “talked down about”, “slated”, “dissed”, “ripped on”, etc, by every programmer in the business, but if
your website is selling “Uncle Chucks
Burgers”, then it will not matter. At the
very worst, you will lose custom from burger eating website programmers, but
since your website does not affect the quality and taste of your sumptuous
burgers, then it will make little difference.
On that note:
Your web strategy should be to target a certain group
of consumers. You should have analyzed
your market and your website should have picked keywords, based on what your
target consumer (customer base, etc) would be searching for. For example, if you are selling silicone
implants, then I am hoping your website keywords do not include feminist and chili
fries.
If you Google every keyword that is in your website,
then you will be able to see what your customers are seeing. If you are getting Google results that
include poor reviews and negative comments about your website then they need to
be addressed. If you are seeing your
website come up, then your SEO efforts are working. If you are seeing positive reviews of your
website and adverts for your website coming up, then you have a positive/good
reputation on Google.
The worst case scenario would be if you have no
presence at all. If you are
Googling your keywords and are not appearing on the 1st
page of the Google search results, then you are in trouble. At least if there is a negative
mention/comment about you, then you have an internet presence and people are
aware of you.
If it does turn out that you have negative comments
come up about you online, then reply to them (if you can) and use them as
jumping off points for selling to your customer base and gaining positive
publicity.
The author of this post is a top marketing expert who can be found here - Circle Brandon in Google Plus Now
Go here to read more reputation management articles.
