Expert strategies, industry research, and actionable guides from 410+ published articles.
Google is your new home page. When a brand dominates their own search engine results, it sends trust signals to prospective customers. Control of the many aspects of search results such as Knowledge Panel, carousel images, location information, Google posts, social media posts, and more not only provides brands with the ability to showcase why they’re […]
Ex-President Trump thinks Google is rigged against him. It’s probably not, but that doesn’t stop the scrutiny. Google’s portrayal of Trump is a reflection of people’s desires – all the people, not a group or an individual. A pandemic, economic disaster, insurrection at the Capital, and Black Lives Matter marches don’t help. While Donald Trump […]
There’s a reason why the National Enquirer, The Sun, Daily Star, and US Weekly publish content that is all about scandalous behavior. We all love a good fall from grace story (unless it’s happening to us), a red hot gossip drop, or a celebrity rumor. And when personal reputations start blowing up like Philadelphia on the 4th of […]
Reputation matters, whether you’re an ordinary individual, an extraordinary individual, a crook, a saint, a political figure, or an entertainer. But reputation matters for more than just individuals. In the world of business, reputation has an ever broader impact than ever.
It’s hard to change someone’s mind. However, it’s easy to confirm one’s biases. And nowhere is this more true than in the world of political reputation management. Political reputation is an untamed beast, whether you’re running for the vice president of your neighborhood HOA or vying for election to the president of the United States. […]
Corporate sentiment, or business sentiment, is how people feel about your brand. In more technical terms, it’s the level of confidence that shareholders have in a corporation or business—the prevailing mood or attitude about that company’s success (or lack thereof). Reputation management cares a great deal about corporate sentiment and the practice of sentiment analysis. […]
A person or company’s reputation is based on information (of some kind or another). And every reputation is perceived by people (of some kind or another). Put information and perception together, and you have a reputation.
Your company has fallen from grace. Maybe your CEO was arrested for fraud. Maybe E. coli was found in your food, making your restaurant customers sick. Or maybe you’ve just made some ill-advised business decisions over time, and it’s finally caught up with you. A reputation crisis can happen unexpectedly and be difficult to overcome, […]
Today, it’s easier than ever before to spark misinformation, watch it spread, and then witness it take down corporations, crush reputations, and topple political figures. A brief glance at the news tells you all you need to know. Fake news is powerful enough to shake technology juggernauts, crush world-famous personalities, and wipe entire businesses right […]
Learn the six most common reputation catastrophes and actionable steps to prevent them from destroying your brand.
Here’s the deal. The media thinks your CEO screwed up. According to rumors, she siphoned the company’s quarterly earnings into a private yacht spending spree. The truth? Your CEO is innocent. But what does the media care about truth? They’re hanging onto the rumors like a toddler clutching a Snickers bar. The Internet’s news minions […]
We are often asked to remove Google reviews. Here is the advice we give our clients about removing Google reviews that might be problematic. We’ll also discuss options you can take when a review on Google cannot be removed. Negative Google reviews are the plight of modern business. 91% of consumers between the ages of […]
Can you imagine how it felt to be the Chief Marketing Officer at Oxfam after their deputy CEO, Penny Lawrence, resigned because of a sex crimes scandal? If the first word that enters your mind is “stressed,” that’d be an understatement. A serious CEO scandal can ruin the reputation of an entire company, not just […]
Many businesses focus on SEO, social media and content to build their online presence. One way to accelerate your online growth is to focus on growing your brand through citations and mentions. Both Google and Bing have indicated that they can track brand mentions and that they matter for search engine rankings. Duane Forrester, a former […]
Remember when former President Donald Trump said, “America should never have given Canada its independence”? Well, that was fake. Fake news has a long and storied history that continues right up to this day with the Russian war on Ukraine. Hundreds of years ago in the United States, Benjamin Franklin spread propaganda stories by creating […]
Every year, take time to take stock of your online reputation and make adjustments to your reputation management campaign. Implementing an effective online reputation management strategy takes consistency and vigilance, but it can help strengthen customer trust, improve sales, and even save your company from public relations crises. Since your brand’s online presence can make […]
With 91% of people trusting online reviews as much as personal recommendations but 20% of reviews being fake, learn how to spot manipulation and protect your business reputation.
Have you ever bought anything online without looking for customer reviews first? If you’re like most adults in the U.S., your answer should be a straight “No!”. Studies suggest that 72% of online consumers read between two and 10 customer reviews and testimonials before actually making a purchase. Having no online reviews about your company is not […]
One of the first questions we get from most of our reputation management clients is, “How long will reputation management take?” (The next question is of course “How much does ORM cost?”) Their anxiety is understandable, considering that more than 80% of consumers now search Google before doing business with a company. What Google’s first […]
You can remove content from the internet through direct takedown requests, Google policy removals, DMCA notices, and suppression — but permanent deletion across every server is rarely guaranteed. Here is what each method actually achieves.
Why did the organic for your branded search traffic just drop off? Was it a Google search algorithm change, or did your results’ content change? It’s a nightmare situation when suddenly you find that you’re ranking for negative search phrases appended to your brand name, like “fraud” or “scam.” Prospects are fleeing. The sales staff […]
Create these five types of content at the same time, and in a specific order to give your inbound / SEO campaign consistency and make it easier to execute. Inbound marketing is one of the most effective online marketing methodologies today – it was pretty much invented by Hubspot. Done right, it can double as […]
The ‘Siri Challenge’: Try It Right Now Pick up your phone. Ask Siri, Alexa, or Google Assistant: “Who is the best [your industry] company?” Notice something? You didn’t get a list. You got one answer. Welcome to the Single Answer Economy—where the old rules of SEO are being rewritten in real time. For two decades, […]
If you make or edit online content, you are a content creator. As a content creator, you’ll need to strike that balance between SEO (search engine optimization) and a positive user experience. Remember that you’re creating content for both the humans reading your page and the robots ranking it for Google. 93% of global traffic […]
You Google your company and BAM! Everything changes. How is this affecting prospects? Are sales down? Will this ever go away? Of all the categories involved in managing online reputation, reputation repair is the one most fraught with confusion and a lot of stress. It happened suddenly, but it can take a long time to […]
Building a positive online reputation should be every business owner’s top priority – right from the beginning. With over 90% of consumers consulting reviews and online commentary before engaging with a new business, your online presence will make or break your ability to attract customers. Every month, approximately 543,000 new businesses open up. 70% of new […]
Websites that are “authoritative” in their space rank much better. Google pays more attention to authoritative sites and pages. But how does a website become “authoritative”? Leverage different kinds of media to accomplish your goals.
Why do some web pages show up “above” the first search result, and just below any paid (PPC) results? This is called a Featured Snippet, or “position zero” in the SEO field, and it’s one of the ways Google positions for SEO are counted. It’s important because as voice search becomes more common, Google uses […]
A curated list of the best free and paid resources to learn SEO, from Google’s own tools to industry-leading blogs and courses. Whether you’re a beginner or looking to sharpen your skills, these 10 resources will help you master search engine optimization.
ORM, PR, and SEO — what are all of these acronyms for? Let’s break them down, and then delve deeper into how they all fit together. PR, SEO, and ORM are all specialized disciplines of online marketing.
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