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As most of those who use the internet for business purposes are most likely aware, a company’s online reputation can drastically affect the success of that business. Reputation marketing and management are common terms these days, as it has become more important than ever to know what others are saying about a company and how those comments are being relayed. Methods of managing reputation have changed along with other marketing techniques as well, so it is no longer good enough to just Google a name to see what a search reveals and then try to get it removed. The best reputation management now comes simultaneously with good optimization and content marketing - and with good reason. Content Removal Cannot Always Be Done Besides the fact that having something removed from the internet in the first place has always been difficult, the idea has a lot more problems than benefits. Even when dealing with a known source and requesting that the information be taken down, such an effort does little to actually keep others from seeing it in other ways, such as cached pages, web archives, and more. Add to that the fact that with the advent and popularity of social media, a negative comment or review can go viral in hours, meaning that most of the time it is simply impossible to track down every location where a derogatory comment or review has been sent, linked and posted. In today's global world, once something makes it to the web, it is there for eternity. Options for Dealing with A Bad Online Reputation While there are companies who claim being able to repair bad reputations by thoroughly searching for and clearing away negative references, there is still no magic wand. There are some workable methods and ways to decrease the exposure of negative reviews on browsers and websites; however, as long as things such as the Way-back Machine still exist on the internet, it will be virtually impossible for even reputation management companies to make every negative comment or review disappear. So if the bad reference or review cannot be eliminated, what should be done? The next best option is to make such negative comments difficult to find. Again, it may be impossible to remove certain references completely; however, the deeper such references are buried, the less chance there is of anyone actually seeing them. This is where reputation management, content management, and optimization can be called on to help in the effort. Content Optimization and Reputation Management The idea itself is fairly simple - keep creating great content that optimizes well in order to push negative posts further and further back in terms of relevance and their ability to be called up by search engines. When thought about in this way, the definitions of reputation management and content optimization are basically the same. It is completing such an effort that poses the greatest challenge. Hopefully, the importance of producing high quality content for websites is widely recognized as being an even more valuable part of building brand and trust. Search engines greatly prefer good content to substandard versions; reputation management and marketing likewise prefers the same thing. To please both, it is essential to create outstanding content and enhance it with good design and optimization, consistent use of social media, and requested reviews and testimonials from happy customers that can be used to help promote the website. Creating good content that is properly optimized will take time and effort; however, in order to win the search engine game, it is time and effort that is essential. The more valuable content that a website can offer, the better a business name looks in general and the greater the chances are that it will have a stronger ability to withstand the occasional negative comment within a hopeful landscape of many, many positive ones. Just keep that content coming and keep those customers happy! Chris Hunter is an expert in Web Design, Search Engine Marketing, and Reputation Management. To find out more about Reputation Marketing, go to the main website at: http://www.webunlimited.com.
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