Reputation is the beliefs or opinions that are generally held about someone or something. Online reputation is the reputation of a person, company, brand, product or service on the Internet. Essentially, it is the result of what people think or perceive about the person, company, brand, product or service once they see what is being said about it online.
Online reputation management (ORM) is about improving or restoring your personal or company or brand’s reputation. That is, how it is perceived by people who search for you online from existing and potential customers or employees to members of the public, investors and stakeholders.
Online reputation management works to counter, weaken or eliminate negative material found online and promote positive material to improve credibility, trust and help improve your business performance.
Taking control of your online presence enables you to put the best possible image of yourself before the online community. You will control what people see when they search for you, your brand or your business, and help potential customers see you before your competitors. It also protects you, should any unwanted negative content be published online, as it will be much harder for this to rank on the first few pages of Google. Even if you don’t sell online people will Google your company or brand to ‘check it out’.
People Google people. Your image online is now your CV.
Why is it important to control Page 1 and Page 2 Google search terms?
When people search for something online – from brands to businesses and individuals – they Google them and click around looking for validation on a company or person. Only half of the clicks searched go to the main website, the others go to the rest of the search results on Pages 1 and 2. So, it’s important to control these valuable clicks by ‘owning’ as many of the search results on Page 1 and 2 as you can.