Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a powerful tool that helps online reputation management campaigns promote positive content and demote negative. This article delves into the symbiotic relationship between SEO and ORM.
SEO is a Tool Used in ORM
Online reputation management encompasses many disciplines, such as:
- Search Engine Optimization (SEO): Optimizing website content and structure to rank higher in search engine results.
- Content Development: Creating high-quality, relevant content to engage audiences and project a positive brand image.
- Public Relations (PR): Managing the spread of information between an organization and the public to foster a favorable image.
- Social Media Management: Curating and managing a brand’s presence on social media platforms to engage with the audience and manage public perception.
- Review Management: Monitoring and responding to customer reviews on various platforms to maintain a positive brand reputation.
- Crisis Management: Preparing for and responding to negative events or publicity to mitigate damage to reputation.
- Customer Relationship Management (CRM): Building and maintaining positive relationships with customers to encourage loyalty and positive testimonials.
- Brand Monitoring: Keeping track of brand mentions across the web to stay informed about public sentiment and respond when necessary.
- Legal Considerations: Addressing defamatory or harmful content through legal channels when necessary.
- Reputation Analysis: Using tools and metrics to analyze reputation standing and the effectiveness of ORM strategies.
- Digital Marketing: Utilizing online advertising and promotional strategies to improve brand visibility and reputation.
In this article, we will focus mainly on search engine optimization (SEO) and how it assists with reputation management campaigns.
How SEO is Used in ORM
SEO is a process of optimizing web pages to rank higher in search engine results pages (SERPs). But with ORM campaigns, SEO is used in a different way. In ORM campaigns, SEO is used to enhance the visibility of not only brand-owned content but third-party content about the brand as well.
Through SEO, ORM companies influence and shape public perception of their client’s brand by promoting all types of positive content, as well as causing negative online content to become less visible.
Most people only look at the first page of search results, which is a testament to how well Google and Bing have done their jobs. ORM leverages this fact to engineer how people perceive brands online.
SEO focuses on three main factors:
- On-page SEO
- Technical SEO
- Off-page SEO
On-page factors include the strategic placement of keywords and the quality of content on the website, ensuring relevance and value to the user.
Technical factors delve into the website’s backend, optimizing aspects such as site speed, mobile-friendliness, and structured data to meet the search engines’ benchmarks for a quality user experience.
Off-page factors involve the website’s external links and social signals, elements that indicate the site’s reputation and credibility to search engines.
By optimizing these factors, businesses can secure a higher ranking for their websites for relevant branded keywords. In the realm of ORM, the keywords are often related to the following:
- Brand keywords
- Product keywords
- Service
- Financial information
- Executives names
In an interconnected world where search results can be more influencial than word-of-mouth, SEO supercharges ORM campaigns.
Examples of How SEO is Used in ORM Campaigns
Enhancing Google Knowledge Panels
The Google Knowledge Panel offers a snapshot of a company’s information directly within search results, and SEO helps ensure this information is accurate and favorable. By optimizing a company’s own website and its content across authoritative third-party sites, ORM campaigns can influence what information appears within these panels. Consistent NAP (Name, Address, Phone Number) information, proper categorization, and the strategic use of keywords can all contribute to a more impactful Knowledge Panel that reflects positively on the brand.
Promoting Positive Content
SEO is pivotal in amplifying positive content about a brand. By optimizing this content for relevant search terms, ORM campaigns can increase its visibility in search results, making it more likely that this is the content users will encounter. Techniques such as building backlinks to positive articles, using social media to increase engagement, and ensuring the content is engaging and well-received by the audience, can all push positive content up in search rankings. Pushing positive content up in rankings increases its visibility, while simultaneously reducing the visibility of negative online content.
Mitigating Negative Content
SEO can also be employed to diminish the visibility of negative content in search results. While it’s difficult to remove content from search engines without legal action, content creator relationships, or specific removal requests (which are only granted under certain circumstances), ORM campaigns can work to outrank such content with more positive or neutral material.
This involves creating and optimizing high-quality content that is more relevant to search queries than negative content, thereby relegating the latter to the lower depths of search engine result pages where they are less likely to be seen.
How SEO Helps Shape Online Brand
High search engine rankings of positive brand-related content broadcast a message of authority and trustworthiness. This perceived expertise garnered through ORM SERP curation, elevates a brand’s profile, amplifies its voice in the crowded online marketplace, and significantly boosts brand awareness.
SEO Helps Control the Brand Narrative
SEO’s role in ORM extends beyond rankings; it is a proactive tool for narrative control. As the ORM team monitors the brand’s online mentions, SEO becomes the lever to balance the scales when faced with negative sentiment online.
By enhancing the ranking of positive content, SEO can subtly shift focus from unfavorable narratives, thereby safeguarding the brand’s public image.
In essence, SEO is the strategic undercurrent in the ORM toolkit that not only fortifies a brand’s reputation but also ensures its expertise and positive attributes are the focal points.
SEO Means Perpetual Refinement
SEO is an unceasing endeavor, demanding monitoring and perpetual refinement. In the ORM ecosystem, SEO entails a regimen of constant analysis, where search engine rankings are scrutinized, and both content and technical website facets are fine-tuned for optimal performance. This continuous process is absolutely necessary for staying ahead as search engine algorithms evolve
In the grand scheme of ORM, SEO is akin to a relentless gardener, constantly nurturing and adapting the landscape to ensure that the most favorable fruits—enhanced rankings and a sterling reputation—flourish. It’s an ongoing battle of wits against the ever-evolving search engine criteria, where the prize is a brand’s standing in the court of public opinion.
An online reputation management campaign should involve most components, such as review management, negotiation, PR, and content development. However, SEO promotion takes it to the next level.
Conclusion
As the online domain increasingly influences consumer behavior and brand reputation, a well-orchestrated SEO strategy within ORM campaigns, and as a standalone effort, helps brands to dominate their industry space.
