Our new YouTube video, introducing the key principles of online reputation management, is up.
It is a companion piece to our Tumblr FAQ site, which provides a more comprehensive overview. Both are public service resources to help broaden understanding of this aspect of reputation management.
I hope you will find it useful.
Linking is on my mind a lot these days. So is the importance of having quality content to work with when creating and expanding an online presence.
Linking is the most important aspect of SEO (search engine optimization). SEO is the process of improving the visibility of a website or a web page in search engines via “natural” search results. (“Natural” search results are unpaid results, also called “organic,” “algorithmic” or “White Hat.” They are the ones favored by Google.) SEO is why one website appears at the top of a Google search when another hovers far below.
Linking is everything in online reputation management. Well, almost everything. Content is the other part of the equation. (more…)
O
nline reputation management (ORM) is often mistakenly referred to as SEO (search engine optimization). SEO plays an important supporting role in ORM. But it is not the chief tool. Content is.
ORM consists of four pillars:
Content. Content is information-rich text that is not duplicated elsewhere online. It is helpful, relevant and well written. “Content” can also be video, photographs, podcasts and any other form of information placed online.
Platforms. Platforms are the online sites where content is placed: websites, blogs, micro blogs, forums, directories, news sites, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube and hundreds of other outlets.
Search engine optimization. SEO is the process of improving the visibility of a website or a web page in search engines using frequently-searched for words throughout, inbound links (links to the site from other sites) and other strategies.
There are two types of SEO. White hat methods conform to search engine guidelines and do not involve deception. Black hat techniques attempt to improve rankings in ways that are disapproved of by search engines. If search engines discover sites using black hat methods, they penalize them by making them disappear online (by dropping them a thousand pages or so down in Google). Or, they eliminate their listings altogether.
Strategy. Every online reputation is different. Managing them requires a goal, strategic plan and timetable. Whether or not sites may benefit from structural changes – say, by the addition of blogs or sub domains – is an important aspect of strategic planning.
It can take weeks to see a difference once a plan is enacted. That’s because search engines may not notice new content for some time. Depending on the level of information about the topic online, months may be needed to affect the desired change.
Strategy, SEO and platforms can only take you so far without content: continuous, informative, accurate and rich content. That is why the best online reputation management plans begin, build and end with it.
We have been working on a complex case. It is a good example of the challenge an online reputation problem can pose.
The client has 80% positive information online and 20% negative. As is often the case, the negative content dominates. It fills over a page in search engines. Some of it is about five years old. It is not factual information, but anonymous commentary on forums and other platforms. This is one of our most common assignments. It can take us three months or more to improve it and six to show a dramatic difference. (Search engines are slow to index new content, and old content that disappears can sometimes pop back up – and stay there until more practive steps are taken.) (more…)
If search engine optimization (SEO) interests, concerns or confounds you, David Segal’s in-depth NYTimes article will fascinate you. Someone in the land of SEO marketing – or, more likely, retail — tipped him off to J.C. Penny’s lavish domination of Google searches in zillions of categories. That helps explain why the behemoth made $17.8 billion in sales last year. (Doesn’t Warren Buffett buy his suits there, too?)
Segal dove deep into the “sprawling, subterranean world of ‘black hat’ optimization, the dark art of raising the profile of a Web site with methods that Google considers tantamount to cheating.” It’s pretty engrossing reading. Especially if you are a retailer. (If you are, you might want to use some of J.C. Penney’s SEO techniques. But not ALL OF THEM.)
Google frowns on black hat techniques. Creating links to a site from “link farms” – fake sites- are one. There are lots of others. (Like these tricks and link schemes, found at Google’s Webmaster Central.) As Segal points out, none are illegal. But employing them may make Google drop a Web site from a top ranking to a lower one.
If you wonder what Google’s stock is going for – after reading David Segal’s article and spending six hours memorizing Google’s Webmaster Central tools – check it out.
Here is JC Penney’s.
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