Use online reputation management to put your brand in the spotlight and increase your brand visibility online and in search results.
Am I the only one sick of articles that use SEO exploitation? Don’t get me wrong, SEO is an important part of any marketing strategy.
Obviously I’m well versed in it, and I use it a lot.
But I feel as though it’s treated like a magic pill for online marketing, rather than what it really is: one great tactic among many.
So what’s the real essence of improving your overall reputation and ranking.
Content and authority building through reputation management.
There’s more than one way to “own” a page of search results. SEO is great for getting your own site content in the spotlight. But if you want to build a really powerful brand and drive awareness and word-of-mouth, you need a few other brand building strategies as well.
In this post, we’ll talk about different ways to build your brand’s online reputation and take over SERP pages.
Watch this free webinar with Neil Patel for more ways to grow your brand online.
The changing playing field
I can vividly remember about seven years ago, when you could take advantage of keywords with next to no rules in place.
Google’s algorithm was still relatively infantile, and there was no shortage of SEO violations to be found.
This would lead to whole pages of results that took you to content that literally made no sense. It would be gibberish, with badly written copy that had stuffed the keywords to exactly 12% – 15% density. With each click from an unsuspecting visitor, their ranking only got higher and higher.
Luckily, those dark days are behind us now. Google has a more sophisticated algorithm.
Having high quality work is a big part of gaining authority online now. It’s so much harder to just fake it.
That’s why you should diversify, using different forms of recognition and building trust to improve your brand’s visibility.
The most effective way to build your authority is to be in the spotlight and luckily, the web gives us plenty of opportunities. We can be featured in interviews, podcasts, etc.
Here are some tips on how to use these methods to get more visibility on the internet, in search results, and in your niche.
3 ways to create content for online reputation managementGet interviewed as an expert
I’ve always used interviews as a way to produce high quality content. But I was the one who did the interviewing. My interview posts with experts, especially the ones done at conferences, have been my most popular offerings to date.
But being the one to be interviewed was a new thing for me. At first I was nervous, worried it wouldn’t get a lot of traction. I was wrong, and the results have been stunning. By being interviewed on other blogs, I’ve gained a lot of new traffic, and some dedicated readers/viewers on my content as a result.
Of course, each interview also includes my name and a link back to my website. My name is becoming a valuable keyword.
Featured tool: MyBlogU was the first place I discovered that actually was a revelation: I couldn’t believe being featured in solo expert interviews was even possible for me. I didn’t think I was “famous” enough for anyone to be interested in turning my story into an article. MyBlogU made it easy for me to find blogs that might be a match, and easily apply.
Examples of blogs you can be featured on:
- First Site Guide regularly features interviews with bloggers in various niches. You can be a good fit regardless your blog topic!
- SmallBizLady features weekly interviews on productivity, work-life balance, marketing, etc.
Become a podcast guest
Podcasts have become huge, haven’t they? They’ve been around for so long, and yet it took years to gain the proper respect that they deserve. Hit series like the true crime show Serial, or the creepy and funny Welcome to Nightvale have done a lot to change the industry into something more legit in the media world than ever before.
It’s no longer a niche market being catered to. If you end up on a podcast as a guest, or help produce one, you have a very good chance of hooking a huge audience. Plus podcasts are distributed widely – some hosts put the audio on their website or blog in addition to several different podcasting platforms, letting you reach an even wider audience.
Featured tool: Blab is an incredibly effective place to find podcast hosts and connect to them. Find some of the active Blab show hosts in your industry and join a few to get a better feel for how they’re run. Then you can reach out those hosts, offering your own story and applying to be a guest (check out this outreach advice to make sure they say yes!)
Examples of blogs to apply to be featured:
- ShePodcasts is home to the largest community of women podcasters looking for people to interview on their show. Browse, choose a few hosts, and start building connections with them!
- 5by5 features a variety of shows on the variety of topics. Choose a few to apply to be a speaker at!
I use Cyfe to subscribe to multiple RSS feeds of blogs that regularly feature podcasts and interviews. This way I can regularly interact with the hosts (by sharing and commenting) to ultimately approach them offering myself (or my client) as a possible guest too.
Get featured in testimonials
Which tools would you be unable to live without? Here’s your personal brand growth idea: Connect to the companies you love to offer a testimonial!
Most of the companies will be delighted: Some of them will feature you on their testimonials page, some will write a separate blog post sharing your experience, and some will even feature your testimonial on the home page. This results in links, your brand visibility and mentions too!
Featured tool: One of the words I am monitoring on Mention is “testimonials” to better keep track of companies that actively promote their customer testimonials.
Examples:
- Here’s a good example of a testimonial turned into a separate post
- And here are a few great testimonials placed on the About page
- Twitter testimonials (which you can generate using Mention) are also very popular. You can see them in action here (click to “Twitter” tab)
Start early…
There’s one thing about online reputation building and management many people seem to be missing: Once a reputation crisis breaks out, it’s extremely hard to fix.
It’s better to start working on your reputation earlier (before anything happens) to secure some Google spots with pages you can control.
Building up high-quality pages centered around your (personal) brand is beneficial on so many levels:
- Customers are more inclined to trust you when they see you being featured in the spotlight
- People are more willing to connect to you on social media and interact (following the links in interviews)
- Businesses start approaching you with more collaborations, seeing you’re already doing them
Bring your brand into the spotlight to really start seeing the difference!
If you have any tips for using these (or other forms of content) for improving your online reputation? Let us know in the comments!
Sourced through Scoop.it from: mention.com
Reputation Services Co 