7 tactics for monitoring your online reputation
If your business’s reputation was taking a hit online, how would you know?
For all the trust and hard work you’ve poured into your organization, it’s worth monitoring. While a random negative review, broken link or incomplete profile won’t impact your overall success, there are some concerns – and even benefits – to consider in managing your online reputation. For many, one of these roadblocks might be standing in the way:
- You’re too busy.
- There’s too much to track.
- You don’t know what to track.
- You’re not worried about looking into it.
If any of those are holding you back, here are some tips on what to track, what to look for, and how to act so that everything your customers see reflects well on your business.
1. Stay on top of your reviews
Reviews are a valuable part of your online reputation. When you get more customer reviews and put them to work promoting your business, they serve as social proof that gives customers the confidence to purchase your products or services.
Arriving at that outcome only happens if you’re tuning into what people are saying about your business. When you listen to the conversation happening around your brand, you’re better positioned to respond to feedback and learn from customers’ experiences.
Your BBB review dashboard lets you stay on top of BBB reviews, but don’t forget about some of the other popular review sites:
- Yellow Pages (yp online)
- Yelp
Each of these platforms will let you register your account, so you’re alerted when a review comes in. Where they differ is the quality of the reviews they allow. BBB is the only platform that verifies the legitimacy of reviews before posting, which is something to consider when recruiting customers to review your business.
2. Audit your website
Your website might seem like an online platform you’ve got under control, but a regular audit of the content could reveal inconsistencies like broken links, outdated information, or a less-than-ideal user experience.
These are small issues – and easy fixes – but if unaddressed, they could lead to a drop in trust. You can easily confirm your website is reliable by looking into the following:
- Your web content/navigation: As a first step, put yourself in the customer’s shoes and see how easy it is to use. Give yourself a few goals in this exercise like locating contact information, getting a quote, or finding basic company information. If this trial run isn’t smooth, make necessary changes to improve the experience.
- Broken links: If your website links to any external sites, (perhaps a supplier page or news outlet), make sure the links still work. They could be outdated or non-functional, leading to a non-existent webpage.
- SSL/TSL certificates: This is how websites keep data secure. These certificates verify ownership of the site domain, assuring visitors of their safety on your site.
- Website outages: If your website experiences outages, this could be a roadblock for customers trying to reference information about your brand. Having an alert system in place for these occurrences is recommended.
- Web analytics: Use web analytics for browsers like Google or Bing to monitor web traffic, engagement and bounce rates. These numbers are clues on how your website performance could improve.
A smooth online experience leads to customer confidence, which leads to customer trust – the ultimate goal as you work to maintain a strong online reputation.
Smooth online experience → Customer confidence → Trust →
Strong online reputation
3. Investigate search engine results
Another exercise to try when researching your online reputation is to search for your business online. For starters, perform a search on Google for your industry (HVAC, electrician, general contractors, etc.) and explore where your brand comes up in the search results.
As you might know, these search results relate to your brand’s online relevance, and SEO (search engine optimization) is the practice of increasing your visibility online. Consistency is key as you infuse your online content with the right keywords, contact information and links to boost your brand on search engines.
As for your online reputation, SEO tactics can ensure your business is showing up in the right place when people are seeking your products or services. Here are some SEO factors to monitor:
- Search results position: Where does your brand show up in search results?
- Search result relevance: Does your brand show up in search results for a keyword that isn’t related to your offerings?
- Keyword overview: What are all the keywords connected to your brand?
- Broken links: As mentioned above, it’s critical to confirm these links are in working order.
- Backlinks: This is part of many SEO strategies as it relates to external sites linking to your website. The key is to make sure these sites linking to you are legitimate and trustworthy.
4. Check hiring sites
Have you ever visited LinkedIn or Glassdoor to read up on what past employees are saying about your company? It’s worth checking. This kind of feedback is a snapshot of what it’s like to work at your company and may help inform an applicant’s first impression.
Your reputation is on display here, so when responding to feedback, stay pointed toward fostering a culture of respect and trust in your organization. And don’t be afraid to show off any signs that tell prospective employees you run a trustworthy company. The BBB Seal is a great example of one of those signs. Keep working to make your job opening attractive options for candidates by always cultivating a culture that empowers and keeps its employees.
5. Look at your competitors
Where is the bar set for your industry? As you work to meet a certain standard, analyzing your competitors can help identify the strengths and weaknesses of your own brand.
Maybe you’ve already done this work but look at it through the lens of online reputation, especially if there’s a top brand that immediately comes to mind. Compare how you match up with them in terms of engagement, web traffic, and overall audience perception to inform your own benchmarks for success.
As a starting point, here are some places to analyze your competitors’ online reputations:
- Websites: Accuracy of information, accessibility, usability
- Social media channels: Posting frequency, content, responsiveness, audience perception
- Ads: Messaging, trust indicators, trends, promotions
- Reviews: Patterns, frequency, how up to date they are, how they handle feedback
Take this information to form your own reputation goals, then map out the steps and strategies you’ll use to get there.
6. Track social media mentions
Social media platforms are great tools to post content for your audience, but they’re also great for listening to them. This is easily accomplished by prioritizing the following (if you’re operating multiple social channels, social media management tools can help track these as well):
- Brand mentions
- Comments
- Messages
- Branded hashtags or campaign-specific hashtags
Bottom line: Monitoring your online reputation on social media is a great way to both interact with customers and be responsive to their needs.
*WebFX
7. Track media mentions
Lastly, keep your ear to the ground when it comes to online mentions in the media. These outlets offer a large platform for potential customers, so stay tuned to your online news mentions – especially good news, which could be repurposed as website or social content.
Free tools like Google Alerts can be set up with specific local or industry keywords to notify you if any news is published. Any articles and press mentions of your brand are valuable data. Your team is better informed about your overall reputation in your community when you’re aware of it.
How BBB can help you monitor your online reputation
There’s a lot to track, and for those tasks that seem digitally complicated, out of your depth, or just time-consuming, BBB’s reputation management tools can help. This exclusive tool keeps your brand on top of your online reputation, maintaining the trust you’ve built for anyone who discovers your business online.
Wherever customers interact with your business online, there’s an opportunity to enhance your online trust. But knowing where to look starts with the tips presented in this article. After that?
Reach out to your BBB representative to learn more about how we can help you manage it all.
BBB Great West + Pacific contributed this article.