Just about any budding entrepreneur should be able to understand the importance of building a highly positive online reputation. This holds especially true if we vector in the fact that proper reputation management can have a remarkably positive effect, in terms of overall search engine placement, for instance.
As a matter of fact, such reputation management is the basic key towards the improvement of an online reputation. And make no mistakes here, such a well-managed reputation can easily help attract many potential clients to the website.
The key reason why it is so critically important, stems from the fact that it can easily take a great amount of both time as well as effort (not to mention hard earned funds) to establish and subsequently grow a business effectively. But nonetheless, the long-term reward of reaching many new customers simply outweighs all the challenges that one may have to consider when trying to establish a highly positive reputation in the online world.
Since common search engines can easily make or break any new business enterprise, it is absolutely imperative that the website in question should strive to be amongst the most talked about, and by extension, highly recommended e-commerce site on the internet. In fact, the more people are enthusiastically talking about ‘your’ website, the more the chances are that the site will be able to clinch that highly coveted page one placement. That is, a position that is considered as the ‘holy grail’ of SEO or search engine optimization.
Apart from that, understanding the myriad of different concepts relating to reputation and review management will also give the marketer a more precise insight on how their website’s reputation can also potentially affect its overall placement. Especially in the ranking structure of the most popular search engine of them all; i.e., Google.
o Cleaning up all that negative content
If there have been multiple negative reviews, then effectively reviving Google’s placement of the site is certainly a tall order and it will require a lot of time and effort. On quite a few platforms (such as Yelp for instance) the system allows a website owner to send a certain message to the end user or reviewer along with an offer for a coupon or even a freebie long before the users are asked to revise their negative reviews. There is a lot of truth in the age-old adage, “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure” because repairing ones reputation can take a such a long time. On the other hand, it takes just a few seconds to try to prevent an issue. This is why it is very important that the web marketers should effectively ensure that customer service is of such stellar quality, that the customer does not need to write a negative review in the first place.
But should the unthinkable happen, there is no need to panic or fret, since there do exist various ways to prevent negative content, (such as bad reviews for instance), from reaching the website in question. Many, if not most commerce portal owners these days, tend to protect their online reputation with a fairly simple, yet really powerful plugin dedicated for this purpose (Reputation Saver is a prime example here). The reputation of just about any online business is a whole lot safer with a well-made reputation management plugin because it can easily filter the negative review, long before it can do any lasting damage to the reputation of the site. This, in turn, will free up the management of the site to do what it should really be doing, which is focusing on the feedback that can actually have a positive effect on the overall business.
o A review is the catalyst that drives an online business backward or forward
Reviews (both negative and positive ones) have the undisputed potential to sway the customer’s decision regarding entering the marketing funnel. This is why, should there be any negative reviews about a really bad customer experience, leading to new potential customers taking their business elsewhere. This is because the last thing the prospective customer would want is a ‘full-on repeat’ of the really bad experience that he has already read about in the review. In fact, this is the primary reason behind going through extensive customer feedback before making a purchase decision. Conversely, if a site is cited consistently with positive feedback and is liberally peppered with five-star reviews, then the odds are that the website in question will be able to do a whole lot better than other competing sites.
o The raw power of purely negative reviews
Many experts in this field believe that even a single negative article about any particular business has the potential to cause the business a massive loss, especially when it comes to its potential customer base. And keep in mind; we are just talking about one negative review right now. Should there be a whole lot of them, then it is an almost axiomatic assumption that the prospective customers will shirk from giving the site any business.
o How extremely positive reviews can help a business?
On the other hand, if the site’s overall management were to successfully engineer a more positive reputation with some well-earned constructive feedback along with a requisite solid SEO (search engine optimization) campaign. Then it would be logical to assume that the site will become a magnet for many different customers, who will not only purchase from the site in question, but also write glowing reviews and share the same on their social media platform as well. They will do this to make sure that they go viral and attract even more customers. Once that happens, the site will be able to boast of a rock solid reputation, that will be able to shrug off the odd negative review with ease.
by Bobby J Davidson
We love our company and we love what we do. Check out the ‘Why Percento‘ page to learn more: Love of Technology and Business! As the President of Percento Technologies International, I provide day-to-day leadership to the company’s senior management and I am personally involved in the strategy, business development and sales activities of the firm.
The company was founded in 1999 with the purpose of providing a one call source for organizations in need of Enterprise IT Consulting and Management. We also provide a line of products in the boutique Cloud Server space with a touch of high-end website strategy consulting and design services. We personalizes the IT Service experience with a team approach, working with clients from diverse sectors of industry, including energy services, financial, legal, entertainment, healthcare, hospitality, retail and general and/or corporate business. percentotech.com/contact
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